Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, as recorded in Matthew 4, demonstrates how to resist Satan's attacks by relying on God's word and will. When tempted to turn stones into bread, Jesus countered that man does not live by bread alone but by every word from God, referencing Deuteronomy 8 to show that God provides sustenance through His spoken word. When tempted to jump from the temple, Jesus refused to test God, citing Deuteronomy 6 that one should not tempt the Lord. Finally, when offered all the kingdoms of the world, Jesus rejected Satan's offer, commanding worship only for God, as stated in Deuteronomy 6. The sermon concludes that by resisting Satan with God's word and submitting to God's will, believers can overcome temptation and oppression, ultimately ministered to by angels as Christ was.
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Please turn to Matthew the fourth chapter. Matthew chapter four, please. In that which is called the Lord's Prayer, commonly called the Lord's Prayer, he says to the disciples that they should pray that they should not be led into temptation. Now, as we read this particular passage, notice the very first verse. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered.
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and seteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. And set unto him, If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down for it is risen, he shall give his angels charged concerning thee. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dashed thy foot against this stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Nathan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. and him only shalt thou stare. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Let us pray. Father, we would say amen to the prayers that have gone before, and we would seek the brooding of thy spirit over us as we continue in thy word this afternoon.
And his teaching, we ask thee that each one of us will be not taught by man, but by thy Holy Spirit, from my word, and that thou wilt ignite my lips to the end, that thy Holy Spirit will be the speaker, and that I might speak as the oracle of God. We ask that this time will be profitably spent for eternity. And we seek this in the Lord Jesus Christ's name, my Son. Amen. Right now, I made the remark that the Lord has said in that prayer that we should pray, lead us not into temptation, And yet in the very first verse of this particular passage, Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.
Now we can pray to God, lead us not into temptation, but I always end my prayer with thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because I want the love of God. I don't know God's mind always. We don't know God's mind. Perhaps his mind is that we might be tempted. He doesn't do the tempting, but we see who does the tempting here. The devil never makes us do anything. We choose to do what we do. Now, he may tempt us to do something, but it's always self that is the culprit. And we have to realize that and not say the devil made me do it. But rather it is that the devil suggests it that I do something, perhaps, or led me into something.
But it is self who responds, always itself. And we have to lay the blame where it belongs. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ was led into the wilderness, he was led there to the tempted of the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, as we have in this passage. And then in verse two it says, when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward, was afterward, and hungered. And this would be quite natural. Now, he was the God man, and he permitted himself to suffer those things that we feel, hunger and weariness and so forth. sorrow and so forth. So that as man he hungered.
And Satan, who has been dealing with men for some six thousand years now, five thousand men, a little more, understood men. He understands men and so he moves into the area of the lust of flesh and he says this man is hungry. And so he proceeds to attack in that area of the flesh, hoping to make, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ fall. Verse three. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command these stones, be made bread. Now, first of all, he wasn't questioning whether Christ was the Son of God or not. This was his ulterior motive.
This was his while. He wanted the Lord to do something apart from the Father's will. So what he does is camouflage it by an attack in another realm. He says, if thou be the Son of God. Now that's the big question, he says to the Lord. Now he knew he was the Son of God. You see, he knew because even the demons knew that. They said, we know who thou art. Thou art the Son of the Blessed One. They knew. Satan certainly knew. So that wasn't the question at all. But if he could get his eyes on, if thou be the Son of God, and then get him to make bread, that the Father hadn't commanded him to do, then he would get him to act upon his suggestion and Satan's will rather than God the Father's will.
This is his wife. And so he suggests that to the Lord, and then notice the Lord's answer. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now, I do not think that the usual interpretation of this is the primary interpretation. And I have, for a long time, thought this to be true. But if you'll turn back to Deuteronomy eight, observe something very, very interesting. At least it was to me when I first referred to it in relationship to this passage. Deuteronomy the eighth chapter. Look at verse two, Moses is speaking, reminding the children of Israel of God's dealings.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee. Now notice what? To humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger. Now what they lacked then was bread. He permitted them to hunger. They did not have any bread. They did not have any bread that they could make. They didn't have apparently any meal or wheat or whatever they used to make bread. They had no bread. And said thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread alone only.
But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, does man live? And he's saying, now, you didn't have any meal. You didn't have any bread. You had no means of preparing bread for yourself. How was bread to be performed? God had to speak. Then you had bread. Now, you see what it's saying? He's not saying that we have the word of God the Bible or something like this. Primarily, I say. Now, there's a secondary application. But he said, God had to speak before you could have bread. You could have manna. Now, when you go back to Matthew, if you'll look at it once again, and notice the first verse, the fourth verse, he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
He was saying, If I'm going to have bread, it is not going to be of my making. It's going to be the Father who speaks, and I will have bread. Not you, Satan. Do you see what he was saying? Now, this, of course, has tremendous importance to us. Because we want to conform this way too. You see, it's very, very important to us that we do the Father's will. It's not a question of what we can provide for ourselves, and we can provide things for ourselves. If we want to, we can go out into the business world and so devote ourselves to that sort of thing that we might multiply riches. I mean, it's quite possible. I suppose that a man could be almost anything he wanted to if he would thoroughly apply himself.
But God says, that's not the way it's done. We're not to provide bread for ourselves in this sense. We're to say to the Father, Father, what is your plan for me? What do you have for me? What should my life be? What am I to do? And this in every instance. So that we do not provide for ourselves, but we say to them, what is the spoken word that you would have that provides for me? Now, if we can do that, then think of the tremendous temptations that are taken from us as Satan would of course give them to us. Now we have to remember that when he attacks, he attacks in the legitimate area.
He always holds up before something that is important to us and perfectly legitimate. If he would do something that was illegitimate, then we would immediately see that and we would avoid it. The Lord didn't say to the, Satan didn't say to the Lord, now I want you to commit an overt sin. But he gives them something that seems to be perfectly logical, perfectly normal, and something that was required too. And the Lord will approach us on that basis. He will say, look at, you can do this. There's nothing wrong with you looking at a TV program of football. And there's nothing wrong with looking at a TV program of football, as far as I know.
But if it's at the wrong time or it's the wrong place, then it's wrong. There's nothing wrong with going hunting or fishing. But if one should be in the assembly worshipping the Lord and we're taking time that he doesn't permit us in this area, then it's wrong. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with hunting and fishing. I don't think there is. But I can see where there would be such a situation that it could be wrong. And Satan will approach it with a perfectly logical thing, and he says, this is alright, isn't it? I say, yes, it's alright. He says, alright, do it. And I say, I can't do it. Why not? Because God hasn't spoken that I should do it. And what we have to do is conform to the will of God continuously, and if we don't, then we sin.
Now, we either quench the Spirit of God, or we grieve the Spirit of God. To grieve the Spirit of God, I think, simply means to go against the direct commands. To quench the Spirit of God is when God would move me in a certain area or into a certain thing, and I quench him down. I say, well, not right now, or it's not convenient, or some other thing that squelches, as it were, his control and his will for me. Then it becomes sin. And God wants to avoid that by saying, choose Satan. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Now notice the second thing that Satan does. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and seteth him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the son of the God, cast thyself down. For it is written. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. All right, now notice what Satan does. He takes them into the holy city.
He sets them on a pinnacle of the temple, and he tells him a word that is from God. He attacks here as the angel of light. He makes a religious attack now. He says, all right, I'll bring you to a holy place. And he takes them to the temple, to the holy city, to Jerusalem. He brings them to the very pinnacle of the temple, the place where people worship God. Then he uses the word of God, and he says, now I suggest that you do this. And once again, of course, the Lord being the Lord, being unable to sin, having no sin in him, as we heard, he did no sin.
He did not sin, and he sees through this satanic attack. Now, when Satan brought him here, Satan being a spirit would be invisible, unless he took a form, and it doesn't say he took a form. The only one that would be obviously standing upon the pinnacle of the temple, as far as men were concerned, as they looked up, would be the Lord Jesus Christ standing there. He would be seen. Satan would not be seen. Now Satan says, you cast yourself down. And the object of being, of course, the being glory of life as far as I can see, that here people will see you throw yourself down. And God, in view of the fact that he's promised that you won't even dash your foot against the stone without the angels taking care of you, he'll catch you up before you hit the ground.
And think of what a sight that would be to these people. This is all I can think that Satan's trying to do, except one other thing. He's trying to kill us. If God would not respond, then Christ would die. And you say, why do you think he would want to do that? Well, I'll tell you why I think he wanted to do it. Because Satan is a murderer from the beginning. I've had people come to me and say, I want to commit suicide. And I say, so that's not of yourself. That's Satan talking to you. Because man will give all that he has for his life. Satan recognizes this. He says, skin for skin, a man will give all that he has for his life. And so this has kind of come from outside the man. And Satan's object is that men die, that they kill himself because he's a murder from the beginning.
And if he could have killed Christ, that would have been the thing that he'd want. I'm sure that he desired this. So anyhow, that's part of his object. But then again, it was to move him apart from the will of God. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, answers them. And he says, thou shalt not tempt. the Lord thy God. We have to be very, very careful not to try God. Trying God is moving once again outside of His will, which would be sin. This is the error of gambling. You see, when I gamble, if I gamble, I say I put down three dollars on that horse's nose, I'll say. And what I'm saying is perhaps I'll get a return on my money more than the three dollars.
I might multiply it by a certain percentage. Now, as I do this as a Christian, and I say, my whole life is controlled by God, nothing happens to be by chance, then I have to say, maybe God will do it for me. I have to reason this way if I reason it to the end. Maybe God will do this for me. And what I'm doing is tempting or trying God to see what He will do, and we're not to tempt the Lord our God. We're never to place ourselves in a position like this. I remember Dr. Tidmore saying, and I was I've never forgotten that. So it was many years ago that he said it. He said that they would often come across both constrictors that were twenty-five or thirty feet long.
Now imagine it's like that long. I'd like to see one like that, wouldn't you? And he said, if I came across it in my cure of duty, I never feared. But he said, if a native said to me, come out and see this serpent, I would never go. And he said, the reason that I will not do it is because I will not count them. the Lord my God. Now this is the principle, and this is what is involved. We should never place ourselves in a position in anything to tempt Him. Satan will suggest, well, why don't you try now and see how strong you are? You will honor God in placing yourself in a position of temptation, and then denying it.
And think of what an honor that would be. God says, don't tempt the Lord your God. Don't try God. That's not the thing to do. Avoid it. avoid anything like that. We shall not tempt the Lord our God. And no matter what the end result might seem, it may seem, well, that would bring glory to God. We are not to do it. We're not to try the Lord our God. Verse eight. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. and says unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou will fall down and worship me.
Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. For it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Now the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain. He has tremendous ability. At one time I was studying witchcraft. I was asked to speak on witchcraft and Satanism, and I studied it, I guess, for about six months. And in reading, I came across various individuals who had dealt in this and had sold themselves out to Satan. One of the young men who was what they would call a wizard, a male witch, said that Satan had taken him and showed him all the glories of this world and the kingdoms of this world and had made him a promise that when he gets into the next world, that he would be a warlock.
who would have jurisdiction over many demons. He said, Satan has shown me the deep things of himself. He has taken me back into history, and I've seen history enacted before my eyes. And he was sold out to Satan. Now Satan has this ability, as we have exemplified right here. He took him to this high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of it. And it must have been a very wonderful thing. He didn't show them the slums. You may be sure. But he showed them the glory of the kingdoms of this world. And then he said to the Lord, and I'll give you all this. And the Lord didn't deny his ability to do this.
Because in Luke it says that he had this. It's committed into my hands, he says. And Satan has a perfect right to do this, to give the glory of this world to any individual he wants. And he does it. This is why when people make a covenant with Satan that he gives them what they want. He has the ability. This is why I believe that our rock stars have such following. That Satan moves upon the people to follow them. The same spirit that is leading those rock stars are reading Satan. The same spirit is leading those who listen. And he urges them to worship such beings. This is why we have stars.
This is why we have such man worship. And this is why we have idols. And we, of course, as Christians, are key to keep ourselves from these things. When we do during this sort of thing, we're to avoid it. Totally. But look at how, for what people will sell themselves. You know, he offered the Lord the whole world, the glory of the kingdoms of the world. And the Lord said to him, no. Satan comes to individuals and he says, look at, I'll give you talks. And then sell themselves. That's all he gets. If you would like fame, I'll give you fame.
And what is fame? How limited it is, how few people know one is famous. He says, I'll give you fortune. He says, I'll give you the things of the world. Do you want riches? Do you want to be great in the art or music or science? I'll give it to you. Not only that, I'll give you the glory of it. I'll make you famous. I'll give you position. And men fell out for almost nothing. But the Lord who saw the whole of it said, I don't want it. May we catch such a vision. When we're moved into areas where we're tempted to act on sin, to grasp for a moment some pleasure of some charge, may we remember that the Lord had the whole world offered to him.
And he said no. And may we say the same. It's important for us not to enter into this, the lust of the eye. And I think this is what he is. What he showed him, he says, now you can have this, if you will but fall down and worship me. Now Satan wants worship. He desires it. In First Corinthians the tenth chapter we're told that the idols, that behind every idol is a demon. And the Gentiles don't worship the idol. They worship the demon standing behind the idol. Now, those in foreign countries realize this to be true. When I was taking it apart, appreciation, there was the Mononian culture that is very, very ancient.
They had a huge stone, and it was not carved into the shape of a being of any type. It simply looked like a slab. But the professor, who was a Greek, the director of the Greek Museum at Athens, said, you Christians, no, he wasn't a Christian himself, but he said, you Christians will be interested in this. He said, the God that inhabits this stone came down to this stone and landed on it in the form of a dove. And now that spirit indwells this stone. This is what the heathens knew to be true to them. Now, what they see, we don't think that way.
I don't think that those who have statues in their churches realize that behind every one of those is standing a demon. And when they bow down and pray to that statue, the demon behind there grins and takes that worship. I remember going into one, and there was a young couple got married, and then they took the bow, became the bride, and they walked over to a statue. They knelt before that statue and made an offering to that statue. And I thought, the demon appreciates it. And it is true. And whatever God we set up that is not our God is some other God. Now, it doesn't matter what it is.
The Greeks had muses for music and art. They knew more than we did. We serve gods if we don't serve the living God. And our God demands worship. Now, if we saw a person say, well, I worship this God, and there was a statue up there. And every time they'd walk past, they'd sit at it. Or they'd turn their back on it. Or that God was a God that demanded certain offerings. There's nothing the person never offered to him. We'd say they don't think much of their God. And we would be right. Yet we claim the God of the universe as being our God. How do we treat him?
This comes to me. How do I treat him? Do I treat him with respect? Do I treat him with honor? Do I worship him? Is my devotion to him? Do I kiss him? toward him, which worship me. And these who worship other gods kiss toward them. Do I kiss toward my God in adoration and worship? And the Lord says here, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. May we have no other God before him as his people. May this be our conclusion. And then lastly, Then the devil leave with him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Now notice what the Lord Jesus did in respect to Satan. When he told them, quoted the last verse, he said, Yes, he's against Satan, and Satan left. When we speak about the flesh, it says, flee, useful lust. When lust is stirred up in it by some object that is before us. God says, flee it, get away from it, run from it, fly from it. When Satan tempts us, he says, resist the devil. Now we submit ourselves to God first of all, then we resist the devil according to James. You see, when we receive Christ as our Lord and our Savior, he placed us in the same position that he is.
Now he is placed far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in that which is to come, so that his position in the heavenly is above Satan and all his hosts, no matter what their divisions are, principalities, powers, and so forth. And he's above them all. All things are under his feet. When we receive him as our Savior, we are placed in that same position, seated with Christ in the heavenly. So we're above Satan. Therefore, in Christ, we can resist him. and say, I want none of you. I don't want your suggestion. Get the hint, Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, it demands this sometimes. There is such thing for the Christian as the satanic oppression, and we feel depressed, and we don't know why. We say, Lord, I don't know anything that I've done. There's no sin that I'm conscious of that I haven't confessed to you. As far as I know, I'm doing what you want me to do. And yet oppression remains. And there's a depression about it and a heaviness about it. You can be conscious that this may be Satan. And he will attack. And just as when the Lord would be weak after forty days and forty nights physically, he attacks. When he's hungry, he takes advantage of it. Satan attacks us and takes advantage of anything he can.
But we resist him. And we give no place to the devil. Why? because we are above him in Christ and we take our stand and we can say to him, get thee hence Satan. Now one other word, say it out loud. Satan does not read our thoughts. The only one who knows the heart of man said Solomon in his prayer is God. We have to speak for Satan's understanding and we have to say it out loud. But if we say it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that depression will lift. I knew a missionary who was depressed for three years. She was not in the assembly. She went down to Peru.
I think it was Peru. Brazil. It was Brazil. When she was going to a ladies' mission meeting here in the state, she was going to speak about her devotion to the Lord and the calling God had given her. And on the way, this depression settled on her. She could not be relieved of it. She tried everything. She went to doctors. She went to psychologists. Nothing lifted it. She was down in Peru for three years, and one day her husband melted in his office, and he said, Lord, I can do nothing else except appeal to you now. We've done everything we could. And at that very same moment, she was in her house saying, Lord, we've done everything we could. If there's something that you can do that we can't do, do it.
And the oppression was gone. And their confidence that it was satanic oppression, they'd tried everything but that. And it's real. But we can say... in his name. Yes, he hints. Now, the devil loves him. And in one of the other Gospels, it says, for a little season, he comes back, but we're victors in Christ. And may we be like our Lord to say, not your will, Satan, my father's will, not your worship, Satan, God's worship. Amen.