Temptations On The Pinnacle

Temptations On The Pinnacle

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1866, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle
of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, throw
Yourself down, for it is written, 'He shall give His angels charge over
You,' and, 'in their hands they shall bear You up, lest at any time You
dash Your foot against a stone.' Jesus said to him, 'It is written
again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" Matthew 4:5-7.

THE clearest and most important exposition of the Revelation of God in
the inspired Book is the Revelation of God in the renewed man. Every
Christian will discover, in proportion to his advances in Divine
knowledge, that the very things which are written in these hallowed
pages are written in his own experience. We never fully understand
Divine Truth until we have experienced it. The diamond of Divine
promise never glistens so brightly as when it is placed in the setting
of personal trial and experience. And the gold of sacred Truth is not
valued until it has been tried "so as by fire." Holy Scripture is full
of narratives of temptations. Expect, therefore, Christian, that your
life will be as abundantly garnished with them as is a rose with
thorns.

Provision is made in the Word of God for the assaults of Satan from all
quarters and in all fashions–believe, therefore, most confidently that
the wise provisions of forethought are not made in vain–but will be
needed in your own proper person. You will have to do battle with those
spiritual foes which have beset and buffeted other saints in days gone
by, and you will be wise to array yourself in those pieces of heavenly
armor which proved to be so great a safeguard to them in their seasons
of warfare.

This remark, that the Word of God is written out again in the life of
the Christian, is emphatically true in that part of it which concerns
the life of Jesus. Every Christian is the image of Christ in proportion
as he is a Christian–in proportion as the Spirit sanctifies
us–spirit, soul, and body. As the Spirit makes us like the Master we
are conformed to Him. And this not only in the holiness and
spirituality which sanctification produces, but also in our experience
of conflict, sorrow, agony, and triumph. In all points Jesus was made
like unto His brethren, and now it remains that in all things His
brethren should be made like He.

The Savior's public life begins and ends with temptation. It commences
in the wilderness in a close contest with Satanic craft. It ends in
Gethsemane in a dreadful affray with the powers of darkness. There are
a few bright spots between, but the gloom of the desert deepens into
the midnight darkness of the Cross–as if to show us that we, also,
must begin with trial and must reckon upon ending with it. The victory
of our Lord was won upon Golgotha in blood and wounds amid the
blasphemous exultation of His foes–and the victory of the Believer
will not be cheaply bought. Our crown is not to be won without
wrestling and overcoming. We must fight if we would reign, and through
the same conflicts which brought the Savior to His crown, must we
obtain the palm branch of everlasting victory. Be it so, O Master! Only
let us be prepared for it and by Your Grace may we be strengthened so
that we may be more than conquerors through Him who has loved us.

I shall, this morning, first of all take you, dear Friends, to look at
the temptation itself as we have felt it. And then, secondly, I shall
offer a few considerations deduced.

I. First we are to VIEW THE TEMPTATION ITSELF. The landscape is colored
by the glass through which the observer looks–but still the landscape
is really seen. And so in giving you, this morning, much of that which
I have myself been made to endure, I may color our Lord's trial–but
you will see it notwithstanding–and the Holy Spirit will show you what
is really of Jesus, and what is only mine.

Our trials are sent us on purpose to make us comprehend our Lord's
trials and especially is it so with ministers of the Gospel. Martin
Luther was a mighty master in the art of consolation because there was
scarcely a temptation, except that of covetousness, which he had not
experienced. Melancthon bears witness of Luther that he was sometimes
so tempted of the devil that he appeared to be at the point of
death–the sap and strength of his life seemed to be dried up–and his
soul was full of heaviness. After such seasons he would so preach that
each of his hearers thought that he was speaking concerning him alone
and wondered from where his knowledge was derived. He learned the art
of spiritual navigation from having himself done business upon deep
waters of spiritual tribulation. Luther's remark stands true that
prayer, meditation, and temptation are the three best instructors of
the Gospel minister–and since I have been much of late in the last
school–I cannot do other than use what I have learned.

Now it may be while I am describing this temptation of our Lord, or
rather our own temptations as they are conformed to the temptations of
Jesus, that I may meet the peculiar case of some troubled one who has
been long in doubt and darkness and who may, today, find light and
peace. If it is so, the Spirit of God shall be glorified and it shall
be to me a sweet recompense for those gloomy hours through which I have
lately groped my way.

I first call your attention to the place of this temptation. "Then the
devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of
the temple." It was a high place and a holy place, hence a double
danger. It was a high place–the temptation could not have acted upon
the Savior had He been sitting in the desert or kneeling in the
garden–but aloft, above the city, on the towering pinnacle the
foothold was slender, and the fall would have been terrible. Beneath
Him lay a wondrous panorama–the courts of the Lord's House, the
streets of the city, the towns and villages of Judea–and the broad
acres of Immanuel's land.

Little, however, would He care for all these, for His thoughts were
concentrated upon the combat within. Yet the widened prospect must have
added to the sense of elevation and so have aided the temptation.
Brethren, it is very hard to stand in high places. Those of you who are
in humble positions of society may be very grateful for the safety
which usually grows out of lowliness. No doubt you envy those who are
more known and more wealthy, but if you knew all, instead of envying
them you would thank God for the lot which is meted out to you.

I would be afraid to exchange my temptations with any other man and yet
I know my own to be full more than I should be able to sustain were it
not for the Grace of God and the promise, "My grace is sufficient for
you." It is hard to carry a full cup without spilling some of the
contents–when half full you may carry it more carelessly without a
slip– but when the golden chalice is full to the brim, beware, you
cup-bearer of the King! You may walk along the plain, no, you may leap
like the children at their play! You may sport at random where you
will, but up along yon narrow knifelike ridge where awful precipices
descend on either side, take care, O Traveler, for one slip may be
fatal.

Look beneath you through the grim mist which hides the depths below,
and be deeply grateful for the invisible and Omnipotent hand which has
sustained you until now. The remark as to high places does not merely
apply to really high places of wealth, or influence, or fame, but to
places high for us–comparatively high places of enjoyment and
satisfaction. Nor must I exclude holy places from the remark. The
mountain may be Tabor, but it is still a mountain. If you are called to
the elevated position of one who dwells in rapt fellowship with Christ,
there are temptations peculiar even to that happy state of mind.

The pinnacle is none the less a pinnacle because it happens to be the
pinnacle of the temple. No, let me here note that it is even more
dangerous. The place was not only high but holy. Note how that is
marked in the text. He took Him to the holy city and to the pinnacle of
the temple–two words–as if to bring up vividly before the reader's
mind the sanctity of the position. To stand in a high place, my
Brethren, in God's House is very desirable and very honorable, but oh,
it is both responsible and perilous! Let those beware whom God exalts
in Israel! He of whom it is written that it were better for that man
that he had never been born was no less than an Apostle. He who kept
the bag and was the intimate friend of Christ is that man whose
damnation surpasses all others in its flaming terrors.

It is a very delightful thing, no doubt, to minister to a large
congregation, and to be pastor of a numerous flock. It is a very good
degree to earn to be an officer of the Christian Church. It is no small
privilege to be permitted by the pen or by the tongue to edify
multitudes of saints. But alas, the high places, even of God's temple,
are dizzy places! And lofty positions in the Church are sites where
temptations attack us which would be unknown to us if in the humble
obscurity of a retiring piety we were to lie down in green pastures and
feed beside the still waters. After all, if I might be allowed to envy
anybody it would be the position of John Bunyan's Shepherd, singing as
he feeds his flock in the valley–

"He that is down need fear no fall,
He that is low no pride.
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide."

What do you think, Brethren, were the temptations which came upon the
Savior on account of His position on the high and holy place? We
frequently forget, when we are speaking of the Savior, that He was most
truly Man. He was Divine without mitigation of the royalty and splendor
of Deity–but He was Man–altogether such as we are, so that He felt as
you and I would have felt in a similar condition. How, then, did He
feel? Did He not tremble with fear of falling? Standing there and
looking down, I believe the natural fear came over Him that He must
fall, and that falling He would stain the battlements of the
consecrated place and crimson the House of God with His own blood!

You will think me singular in imagining that the Savior could be the
subject of such feelings, but was He not a Man, and what man would feel
otherwise? It is natural that a shivering emotion of dread should creep
over anyone standing in so lofty and unprotected a position! Now this
is a temptation–a temptation to which God's servants who are put upon
the pinnacle of the temple will find themselves frequently subject. But
is it a fault to be afraid of falling? Yes. No. It is no fault to be
afraid of falling, else the Savior would not have felt it–He was holy
and consequently no sinful emotion could cross His breast.

But there is a something growing out of the fear of falling which is
very faulty, namely, the temptation to do something desperate in order
to escape from the position which is so full of peril. It is right for
me to be afraid of falling into sin–it is not right for me either to
mistrust God's Grace, which will sustain me–or to run to foolish means
in order to escape from the particular peril in which I happen to be
involved. Jesus did not doubt His Father's care–He could not, for He
was perfect. But He did tremble because of the danger in which He was
placed. He must have done so because He was a man of like passions like
ourselves.

Now, Brethren, may I picture some of you lifted up to such a position?
Either in wealth, or in honor, or in communion, or in some way you are
lifted up into a sphere of danger and you begin to say to yourself,
"Suppose I should fall! Oh, suppose I should disgrace my profession and
bring dishonor upon the cause of Christ? What if my foot should slip
and I should defile the Church of God with the blood of my eternal ruin
and of my present disgrace?" I can understand that thought crossing
your mind without any sin being involved in it–no, with even a good
resolve springing from it–namely, to walk humbly with your God.

But I can suppose it to be the fulcrum upon which Satan may plant his
lever and begin to work so as to bring you into a very sadly weakened
and wretched state of mind. Oh Brethren, when I see others falling from
their pinnacles! When I feel my own head grow dizzy! When I look down
and see the ruin that must come upon every man who apostatizes from the
faith! When I look up and see the holiness of God and then look down
and feel the attractions of the world enticing and drawing me down to
destruction I can but tremble! I cannot do otherwise, and I cannot
understand the man who would not!

If you are placed in such a position you must feel it–it is not
possible for you to escape from the fear lest, after all, after having
been honored and favored you should become a castaway. This seems to me
to be the reason why the devil put our Lord on the pinnacle of the
temple. The first effort of the devil was to sap the foundations of the
Savior's strength with a doubt. The devil whispers to Him, "If–if You
are the Son of God." Faith is the Christian's strength. He who doubts
not, staggers not. Unbelief is the source of our chief weakness. As
soon as we begin to distrust, our feet begin to slide. Hence, Satan,
knowing this, injects that cruel and wicked suspicion, "If–if you are
the Son of God."

Notice the point of attack–it was our Lord's Son-ship. Satan knows
that if he can make any of us doubt our interest in the Father's
love–doubt our regeneration and adoption–then he will have us very
much in his power. How can I pray, "Our Father which are in Heaven," if
I do not know Him to be my Father? If the dark suspicion crosses my
mind that I am no child of His, I cannot say with the prodigal, "I will
arise and go unto my Father," for I do not know that I have a Father to
go to! Having a Father, I feel sure that He will pity my infirmities,
that He will feel for my needs, redress my wrongs, protect me in the
hour of danger and succor me in the moment of peril.

But if–if I have no Father in Heaven. If I am not His child, then,
miserable orphan! What shall I do–where shall I flee? Standing on a
pinnacle as God's child I shall stand there erect, though every wind
should seek to whirl me from my foothold. But if He is not my Father
and I am upon a pinnacle, then my destruction is inevitable and my ruin
will be swift and total. "If you are the Son of God."

Oh, dear Friends, beware of unbelief! Those who justify unbelief hold a
candle to the devil. I cannot suppose myself doing better service to an
ill cause than by excusing you in your unbelief of God, or excusing
myself in it. God is faithful–why do we doubt Him? God is true–how
can we suppose that He will be false? That we are His children is also
true if we have believed in Jesus. If, having nothing, I have cast
myself at the foot of the Cross. If, all guilty and defiled, I have
seen in Jesus Christ all that my soul can need–then I am one with
Jesus and a joint heir with Him. I must be the child of God because I
am one with Christ Jesus, His only begotten and His well-beloved!

Dear Brethren, let me exhort and stir you all up to seek after the full
assurance of your son-ship with God the Father! Give no sleep to your
eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids unless you know that you are in the
Divine family! Remember that doubts here are perilous to the last
degree and most of all perilous to those of you who stand upon the
pinnacle! Let those doubt who are in the valley and they bring
themselves sorrow–but those on the mountain must not doubt, for it is
by faith alone that they can stand–and where to slip will be so
destructive they must take care that their faith is firm and strong.

Thus, you see, the Savior was first assailed with a malicious and cruel
insinuation of doubt. The cunning Tempter has paved the way for the
Satanic suggestion, "Cast Yourself down." That advice looks like the
most absurd thing that could be suggested. He is afraid of falling, and
is therefore bid to throw Himself down? Ah, but if you do not
understand this it is because you are not acquainted with Satanic
machinery! The human mind oscillates very strangely. Though at first it
may be driven by main force from left to right, it naturally swings to
the left again, returning by sheer necessity to the same point. There
have been persons who have starved themselves to death from the fear of
being poor and destitute– and have brought on disease by fearing
disease!

There have been instances of persons who have sought to destroy
themselves when condemned because they dreaded being hanged! What
escape from death suicide can offer, it is hard to say, but some have
tried it. In a position where I cannot stand, the natural thing is to
throw myself down directly. You are afraid, as you stand on the brink
of the cliff, afraid that you may fall over, and all the while a mad
inclination to fall over may steal over you. It is strange, but then we
are strange creatures. Though it looks to you as if it would be a very
unlikely temptation to a man afraid of falling to say, "Cast yourself
down," it is not unnatural! It is consistent with the well-known laws
of consciousness that we are often tempted to do the very thing which
we are afraid of doing, and to do it in order to escape from it. Cast
yourself down, lest you should fall.

Let me show you the shapes in which this temptation has come to some of
us. The minister of Christ is placed in a position where his labors and
his troubles are incessant. He is afraid, with so much to do and such
delicate things to handle, that he may make a mistake and injure the
Church which he designs to bless. The dark suggestion crosses his mind,
"Give it up! Leave the work," that is to say, do the worst mischief
that you can do to the Church in order to prevent your doing it any
mischief!

The same thing happens in business. You have been toiling hard to pay
every man his own, to provide things honest in the sight of all men.
You have been able to do it until now, but things are, at this moment,
very unpropitious. Satan has whispered to many a tradesman, "Throw it
up! Get out of it! Go somewhere else! Leave it, and flee the country."
Take another case. You are a Christian and you wish to be an honor to
the Christian Church. But you live in a family where there is
everything uncongenial to your piety. You can scarcely get alone to
pray. You certainly never hear a good word from any others of the
circle. You have been fighting for God until now and the enemy is at
this moment saying, "Do not try it any longer! Renounce your
profession! Give it all up–go back to the world again!"

In other words, in order that you may not dishonor Christ you are
tempted to dishonor Him–and for fear lest you should fall, the whisper
is, "Fall at once." It is strange, but strangely true! I thank God for
the story of Jonah! That miserable, morose old Prophet has ever been a
warning to some of us. When God said to Jonah, "Go to Nineveh and
preach!" "No," thought Jonah, "I cannot do it. How can I go and preach
to such a city? It will not be to my honor." So away he goes to
Tarshish. He little knew that in trying to avoid trouble he was running
into it!

So it is also with us. You want to go to Tarshish to get away from
Babylon, that is, you run into the depths of the sea to escape the
rivers! You run into the fire to escape from the frying pan! Should I
happen to be addressing a Christian who is passing through this
terrible, severe, and fiery ordeal, I would point him to the Savior
standing on the pinnacle of the temple, with the suggestion, "Cast
Yourself down," and bid him imitate Him in standing fast and firm
against the desperate foe. "Stand fast in the Lord, and having done
all, still stand."

The suggestion to cast Himself down was next backed up by a text of
Scripture–wicked advice sustained by a foolish argument. "Throw
Yourself down because He has given His angels charge over You, to keep
You." You notice he knocks out the words, "in all your ways," which
limits the protection promised. The Lord never promises to keep us in
ways of our own choosing! If we go into By-Path Meadow, we go there
without a guarantee of Divine protection, for the Word has it, "in all
your ways." Every duty that is required of us, and every path that is
mapped out by Providence shall have Divine protection accorded to its
travelers. But if we go our own road we have no promise that we shall
be cared for.

When the devil takes something away from a text, he generally puts
something of his own in its place. He therefore added these words,
"lest at any time." His object was to make the text more general than
it was–to take away its specialties, to break down its hedges, and to
remove its landmarks. And so he says, "to keep You, lest at any time
You dash Your foot against a stone." Old Master Trapp has well observed
that in his day the king was bound to protect travelers on the king's
highway between certain hours, "but," said he, "he did not promise to
protect them out of the king's highway, nor did he promise to protect
them in it if they traveled at all hours, for instance, at the dead of
night."

So we have a promise that along the King's highway to Heaven no lion
shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up from it, but the
redeemed shall be found there. But if I strike off a path into the
wilderness, or go away into the jungle of my own superstition and my
own folly, I cannot expect protection. And if I begin to travel at any
time, choosing my own times instead of waiting for the pillar of cloud,
then I am not under the Divine protection, nor can I expect it.

Does the text, as you find it in the ninety-first Psalm, give you any
reason to believe that if you throw yourself down from the pinnacle God
would bring you to the bottom safely? Certainly not! A fair reading of
it only shows that God will keep us in the path of duty. And so, dear
Friends, let us, when Satan tells us a Christian is all right and
always safe, go where he may–let us respond to that, that it is true
the Christian is safe in the way of duty, and will be kept in the path
of God's commands–but he that presumptuously runs in the teeth of
God's will, and disobeys the Most High must look to it lest a lion tear
him in pieces!

Brethren, it is a precious doctrine that the saints are safe! But it is
a damnable inference from it that, therefore, they may live as they
like! It is a glorious Truth that God will keep His people, but it is
an abominable falsehood that sin will do them no harm. Remember that
God gives us liberty, not license. And while He gives us protection He
will not allow us presumption. I knew a person once when I was a
child–I remember seeing him go into a country wake in a little village
where I lived, though he was a professed Christian–going to spend the
evening in a dancing booth. And with others he was drinking as other
men did. And when I, in my warm zeal, said to him, "What are you doing
here, Elijah?" his reply was, "I am a child of God and I can go where I
like and yet be safe."

And though for the moment I knew not what text to quote to answer him,
yet my soul revolted from the man ever afterwards–for I felt that no
child of God would ever be so wicked as to take poison in the faith
that his Father would give him the antidote–or thrust himself into the
fire in the hope that he should not be burned. If God sends me trouble
He will yield me deliverance from it–but if I make trouble myself I
must bear it. If Providence permits the devil to set me upon a
pinnacle, even then God will help me. But if I throw myself down and go
in the very teeth of Providence, then woe unto me, for I give proof by
my presumption that the Grace of God is not in me at all!

Yet the temptation is not uncommon. Do such-and-such a thing–your
eternal interests are safe, therefore shun God's service, throw up the
reins–and let the horses go as they will! God will guide them! Do not
touch the tiller, the God of the wind will manage the vessel! Do not
put your shoulder to the wheel at all but cry out to God to help you–
and sit down and be lazy. That is the devil's talk and our poor silly
distracted minds too readily drink it in! But if God gives us Divine
Grace, we shall say, "God helps those who help themselves. God works
for those that work for Him, and in the name of God I set up my banner.
Wherever He will call me I will go, though it be through floods and
flames. And if He sets me upon the pinnacle of the temple, I will do
nothing but stand there till He takes me down. But as to throwing
myself down in order to escape, O my Father, my God, by the love You
bear me, help me to wrestle with this temptation and make me more than
a conqueror through Your dear Son."

Only one thing more remains to be spoken of while upon the text itself,
and that is the answer which the Savior gave. He said, "It is written,
You shall not tempt the Lord your God." I noticed, when I was carefully
reading this verse over and thinking of it, that Jesus met a promise
misused with a precept properly applied. At that moment the precept was
worth more to Christ than the promise. Beloved, there are certain
people who love the promise part of God's Word, but cannot bear the
precept. We have men among us, who, when the minister preaches upon a
sweet text, are greatly delighted! That is savory meat such as their
soul loves! But if the pastor expounds a precept of God's Word, they
turn upon their heel superciliously and say, "He is a legal preacher."

It is not safe to pick and choose in the matters of Divine Truth! All
hail, you fair promises! You meet me as the angels met Jacob at
Mahanaim! But all hail, fair precepts! You meet me as Nathan met David
and rebuke me for my sins! You, also, are my friends and I salute you
and am glad to bear your company. Brethren, we cannot do without a
promise, precept, exhortation, and rebuke. The compound of the
Scripture, like the powders of the merchants for sweetness and
excellence, must not be injured by being robbed of one single
ingredient. Love the precept, I pray you. Be of the mind of David who
wrote the whole of the one hundredth and nineteenth Psalm–not so much
in praise of the promises as in praise of the statutes and the Laws of
God as he found them given in that part of the Old Testament which it
was his privilege to read.

Sometimes a precept is the necessary counteracting principle to guard
us from the perversion of a promise. Promises alone are like candy
given to children, which, when too profusely eaten, bring on sickness.
But the precept comes in as a healthy tonic so that you may feed upon
the promise without injury. Brethren, is there one of you who is so
false and faithless as to desire to shun God's service and God's love?
Hear this–"You shall not tempt the Lord your God." You do so–you
tempt God–you tempt Him to sanction your sin when you use wrong means
in order to escape from danger. A Christian man in business who is
going to stoop to a transaction that is not altogether clean in order
to escape from his present dilemma is tempting God, for he asks God to
help him and then uses evil tools to effect escape!

Will you tempt God to assist you in defrauding your neighbor? Dare you
ask God to aid you in doing what is not strictly upright? Do not dare
to do this! "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." The Christian
worker who dares to run away from work and says, "God will take care of
me"–what is he doing? He is asking God one of two things– either to
destroy him, which God will not do, for He is a faithful God. Or he is
tempting Him to uphold him and comfort him when he is not in the path
of duty–which it would be wrong for God to do since He cannot give the
sweetness of His comfort and the joy of His countenance to a man who
would thereby be countenanced and encouraged in sin.

Beware of provoking God to jealousy! Let your walk be such that the
Lord may be honored by it and may look down with complacency upon you.
Do not run to such shifts as would involve your asking God to assist
you in a wrong thing in order to effect your deliverance. Though there
are great depths beneath you, you cannot fall while He upholds. Though
others are dashed in pieces and you can hear the crash of their fearful
fall, yet he upholds the righteous. Though your own brain turns giddy
and you are ready to slip from your foothold, yet the eternal God is
your refuge and underneath you are the everlasting arms!

Your extremity of weakness shall be the opportunity of His power. And
when you fall back faint and ready to die, then it is that the angelic
wings shall be of service and the cherub-helpers shall bear you up in
their arms, lest you dash your foot against a stone! Only be very
courageous and confident, and say unto the Fiend of Hell, "Get away
from me, for the God who allowed me to be placed here never did forsake
me and never will! And while He is for me I will not fear." What may
occur is no business of mine, it rests with Him. It is mine to stand in
the path of duty, for thus I shall be in the place of safety.

II. I have said much upon the temptation itself, and now in closing I
wish to offer A FEW CONSIDERATIONS DEDUCED FROM THE WHOLE. The first is
this–it is a commonplace thought, but it has tasted like nectar to my
weary heart–Jesus was tempted as I am. You have heard that Truth of
God a thousand times–have you grasped it? He was not exempted from any
of the sinful temptations which occur to us! He was tempted to the very
same sins into which we fall!

Do not dissociate Jesus from yourself. It is a dark room which you are
going through, but Jesus went through it before. It is a sharp fight
which you are waging, but Jesus has stood foot to foot with the same
enemy! It was a great encouragement to the Macedonians in their weary
marches when they saw Alexander toiling always with them. Had Alexander
always been riding on Bucephalus when the rest of them were marching,
they would have grown weary. But Alexander marched like a common
soldier. And when water was scarce Alexander thirsted with them, and
refused to drink of the little water which was reserved as a royal
luxury. "No," he said, "I will suffer with my men."

They won their battles and they drove the Persian rabble before them as
lions drive a herd of sheep, principally through the personal prowess
of Alexander. First to leap into the ditch, first to cross the river or
scale the rampart, always adventuring himself for death or glory–every
man grew into a hero at the sight of the hero! Let it be so with
followers of Jesus! He stays not in the pavilion when His children are
in conflict. He robes not Himself in scarlet apparel like a king at his
ease–but He buckles on His armor and puts on His helmet–and above the
cry of them that contend for mastery may be heard His cry, "I have trod
down strength."

Jesus goes so far into the fight that He advances beyond the front
rank, and can say, "I have trod the winepress alone, and of the people
there was none with Me." Oh Brothers and Sisters! Let us be of good
cheer! Christ has trod the way before us and the bloody footprints of
the King of Glory may be seen along the road which we traverse at this
hour! There is something yet sweeter–Jesus was tempted, but Jesus
never sinned! Then, my Soul, it is not necessary for you to sin, for
Jesus was a Man–and if one Man endured these temptations and sinned
not–then by the same Grace another may do so!

I know it seems to some of you beginners in the Divine life that you
cannot be tempted without sinning, but believe me, this is not only
possible, but I hope attainable by you. A man may be tempted to run
away from the service of God, but he may hate the temptation and then
there is no sin in it to him. If I should meet a thief on the road
today who should ask me to break into a person's house, I should at
once condemn the suggestion–do you think I should sin because I
happened to be tempted in that way? Not at all! The sin would lay with
the tempter, not with the tempted person who instantaneously rejected
the suggestion.

If I were to dally with the thief and say, "How much is to be gained by
it? What are your plans? I will go with you if so-and-so," then I sin.
But if I say at once, "How dare you come to me with such a temptation?
I loath it," then I should commit no sin. Often God's servants, in
their worst and most bitter temptations, are, to a great extent, free
from sin and are to be pitied–not to be blamed. John Bunyan has a
famous picture of Christian going through the Valley of the Shadow of
Death. When the fiends whispered temptations in his ears, "So," said
he, "I did verily think that these were in my own heart," whereas they
were only temptations of the devil, and not his own. And because he
hated them there was no sin in them–to him I mean. Of course there was
sin to the person who made the suggestion, but not to the person
suffering it, inasmuch as he stopped his ears against it and refused to
touch it.

Now, Christian, in this you may be encouraged, that you may go through
the fiercest possible temptation heated seven times hotter, like
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, and yet the fire may not injure you but you
may come out with not so much as the smell of fire upon you though you
have trod in the midst of the glowing coals!

The third thing which comforts us, is this–Jesus not only did not
fall, but He gloriously triumphed! Satan received a desperate fall and
a deep discouragement as the result of this conflict, and as Jesus
overcame, so may we. Jesus is the representative Man for His people.
The Head has triumphed and the members share in the victory. While a
man's head is above the water you cannot drown his body. The head is
above the great floodwaters of temptation, and we, who are the lower
members, are not drowned, nor shall we be! We shall wade through the
swelling current and land safely upon Canaan's side. "They feared as
they entered into the cloud," it is said of the disciples on the Mount,
but their Master was with them there and therefore their fears were
frivolous.

We, too, are fearing because we have entered the cloud or are in the
midst of it. But our fears are needless and vain, for Christ is with
us, armed for our defense! Brothers and Sisters, our place of safety is
the bosom of the Savior! Perhaps we are tempted just now in order to
drive us nearer to Him. Blessed be any wind that blows me into the port
of my Savior's love! Happy, happy, happy wounds which make me seek the
beloved Physician! Yes, blessed Death, which with black wings shall
bear me up to my Savior's Throne! Anything is good that brings us to
Christ–anything is mischievous that parts us from Him. Come, you
Tempted, wherever you wander! Come to your tempted Savior! Come, you
cast-down and troubled ones, however much dismayed, come to Him–

"Though now He reigns exalted high
His love is still as great."

He forgets not the temptations through which He passed, and He is ready
to succor and to help you in the same.

Ah, but there are some here who do not know Him–some who say, "We do
not understand this sermon, for we never feel such temptations." I can
understand why not. You see, you have no spiritual life. The tree
planted by the river feels not the chill which breeds in the marsh and
lurks in the swamp. But put a man there and before long you will see
him shivering from head to foot! And the carnal mind, dead in sin,
knows not the fog of temptation which lurks around him! But oh, if you
were alive unto God your struggle would begin and you would cry to the
strong for help! My advice to you is that which I gave to the Christian
just now–the Believer must go to Christ for help–and so must you.

There is balm in Gilead! There is a Physician there! Sinner, if you
look to Christ you shall live! Though you stand today upon the
pinnacle–for life is such–though death is your dreadful fate and the
fiery lake is your everlasting portion, presume not! Dash not yourself
further into sin! Plunge not into ruin but lift your eyes upwards and
say, "My God, my Father, help me! God the Son who did redeem with
precious blood, wash me from my sin! Spirit of the living God renew me
in heart and life," and it shall be done, for, "he that asks, receives,
he that seeks, finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened."
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."