Fish, Jack: Key Events-Person-Work Of Christ ~ Camp Ministry-1998-04

Well, good morning. You might have noticed yesterday, as we were looking at the, uh, temptation of Christ, the third of our Lord's, the third event in our, in our studies that mark these crises events in our Lord's life. You might have noticed that there were three temptations, we only covered one of them. Uh, this morning I would like to, to look at the other, at the other two, if you'll turn to Matthew chapter four, the second and third temptation. We, we saw that, uh, that, that the Lord Jesus, confronted with Satan in his temptation, met him and responded to his temptation to, uh, by by turning to the word of God and trusting in God. The Lord Jesus was saying that, uh, as as Satan was trying to get him to depart from the will of God, make these stones bread, the Lord Jesus said, uh, I am going to live my life in dependence upon God. I am going to trust him at all times, even in adversity, even if it means hunger, even if it means suffering. I am going to, to trust him. He would not depart from the path of following God's will. Now, you'll notice that when Satan here is defeated in one area, he instantly switches to another point of attack. And this is often true in our own spiritual lives. If we have a spiritual victory, that does not mean that we can rest, because very often, right after one spiritual victory, we find that we are most vulnerable, because Satan is going to be attacking us in another direction. And in fact, you find that that there are many times in scriptures that that after spiritual victories, there are spiritual defeats because we relax and we rest, but Satan does not. You remember, uh, what we're all familiar with with Peter's denial of, uh, of Christ. But do you remember what happened just very shortly before that? Judas had brought the soldiers into the, the garden, and, uh, as they came and arrested Peter, or they came and arrested Christ, it says, uh, Simon Peter, this is John eighteen ten— having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. You realize what was happening here? The fisherman was grabbing a sword and going to face soldiers. Uh, Peter was showing here a tremendous display of courage. He was ready to die for Christ, and actually drawing the sword, starting, starting to swing that, he was almost feeling his death. And so this Peter who had displayed such tremendous courage in, in the face of, of, of armed soldiers, we find a couple of hours later, uh, trembling before a little girl who comes up to him and says, aren't you one of his disciples? And Peter says, no, I- I- I'm not, I'm not. I don't, I don't know this man. You see, in one sense, he had a great victory as far as courage was concerned, but Satan came right back at him and attacked him again, and this time he fell. You remember when Elijah was, uh, facing the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal back in First Corinthians eighteen? You know what happened in the next chapter? Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, Elijah alone against, against the whole mob. In the next chapter, a woman speaks, and Elijah trembles, and he runs in fear away from there. We cannot rest just because we have had a spiritual victory, because Satan is not going to rest. But very often, that is the time that we are the most vulnerable. He is always going to be on the, on the attack. He is always looking for a weak link in our armor. Now notice in Matthew chapter four and verses five and six, we have the, the, the second temptation, and you'll notice Satan's point of attack. It says, 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 concerning you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You notice the point of attack. In the first temptation, Christ had responded by saying, I am going to trust God. I will do his will, and I will trust him regardless of the circumstances. What we find here, it is that very trust in God that Christ has shown in the first temptation that Satan is now going to attack in the second temptation. Uh, now how does he do this? Well, it says in verse five that he takes him, first of all, into the holy city, and then he sets him on the pinnacle of the temple, one of the, uh, one of the very high points of the, of the temple, and then he says to him, uh, cast yourself down, throw yourself down. What, uh, what Satan is trying to do is get Christ to act upon the principle of his trust in God. Because he is saying that, uh, if you are trusting God, if you're really trusting God, you can cast yourself down, and, uh, he will protect you, and he will care for you. You notice what Satan is saying. He's really saying that trust in God isn't manifested in the ordinary circumstances of life. Trust in God is only seen in the spectacular. Uh, as when you cast yourself down for the temple and you have this miraculous event as God would, would bear you up. I think we often actually think that way. Trusting God is... What, what is trusting God for the mother who is changing diapers and, and cleaning the house and, and caring for children? Uh, what is trusting God for the person who is working in an office day after day and uh, and, and adding up figures and, and filling out reports? What is trusting God when, you know, for the person who is, who is, who is, who is laboring day by day? Satan is suggesting that trust in God is not manifested in these ordinary circumstances of life. It's only revealed in the spectacular, as when you cast yourself down for the temple. You notice how Satan goes about making his argument, presenting his case. He, he uses the very sword that Christ had used to answer him in the first temptation. Christ responded to the first temptation by quoting scripture. Well, Satan can quote scripture, and he comes back with a, with another verse of scripture, only now he turns scripture against Christ, and he quotes a, a verse in uh, Psalm ninety one, verses eleven and twelve. It is a uh, it is a psalm that promises deliverance for the person who trusts in God. Physical deliverance is promised in the psalm. There's also a positive blessings that are, that are promised for the person who trusts in God. And so what Satan is saying is that, uh, you have the promise of God. You're trusting in God. You just said that you were trusting in God. Well, now demonstrate that by casting yourself off of the pinnacle of the temple. God's given you this promise, and if you're really trusting in God, he will bear you up and protect you. Now, there's one point here that we might notice and consider. Some people have, have noticed that in some, in, in, in Satan's quotation of this psalm, he shall give his angels charge concerning you, in their hands they shall bear you up. If you actually compare what is found in Psalm, in Psalm ninety one, there's a small phrase omitted in the New Testament. Um, he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. To keep you in all your ways. It's that phrase in all your ways that is not found in the, in the New Testament. And some people have suggested that, that Satan is not only quoting scripture, he's actually misquoting scripture, misapplying scripture by omitting this, this little phrase. Now, I'm not really convinced that that is the point. First of all, when Christ responds to Satan, he doesn't say, oh, no, wait a minute, you're misquoting that verse. Uh, there is no criticism that the, or charge that the verse is misquoted. Secondly, if the point is that, uh, he is misquoting it, some have said that to, uh, cast himself down from the temple is not going in God's ways, but out of them. Um, what the Psalm would be saying is that God is going to protect the person who trusts in him when he is obedient. But the Psalm really doesn't say that. It says you're trusting in God, he will keep you in all of your ways. And it doesn't say it's only in, in, in some of those. So I don't think that the point really revolves around the fact that Satan is, is misquoting scripture. What Satan is simply saying is, here, you have a promise of scripture. Now, let's see you act upon that. Let's see if you really believe it. Let's see if you can put it to the test and demonstrate the, uh, the fact that you are trusting in God. Now, there may be, there may be a second aspect of what Satan is, is doing here. Uh, you'll notice that it says he takes him into the holy city and to the pinnacle of the temple. Why does Satan do that? You know, they were out in the wilderness. There were mountains out in the wood- wilderness. There were many high peaks and crags, and, and if it was just a matter of, of jumping off of a high place, they could have done that out in the wilderness. Uh, why does Satan take Christ into Jerusalem and into the, to the temple area, unless that very location is significant. Now there, there was a, a, there's a statement in a, in a Jewish writing, a midrash or a commentary. It was, it actually comes from after the, the New Testament times, but it, it may go back to an earlier period as far as the, the actual teaching itself. But there was a Jewish tradition that the Messiah would manifest himself standing on the roof of the holy place. And, uh, in, in, in taking him to the temple and, uh, telling him to, to jump off, it, it is possible that Satan is telling Christ here that he should manifest himself as the Messiah, that he should take the easy road to success. He were to jump off of the pinnacle of the temple down into the courtyard with the, with the, with many of the Jews standing around, that would be a tremendous sign that he was the Messiah. Paul tells us that the Jews love signs. Well, that would be a pretty pre- a spectacular sign. And, uh, perhaps Satan is saying to him, this way, manifest yourself at the temp- a- a- as the Messiah in the temple area. You will be acclaimed and accepted as the Messiah. Now, the implication to that is that if you would be accepted as the Messiah by the, by the people, then, uh, you wouldn't have to go through the cross. You wouldn't have to go through the suffering. You would become king of the Jews by popular acclaim without the rejection. John one, he came into his own, and his own received him not. They cried out, crucify him, we will not have this man to reign over us. But with a spectacular sign like this, you could be accepted as the Messiah, and you wouldn't have to go through all of that, all of that suffering. So perhaps that really is a second aspect of what Christ is trying to, to, or what Satan is trying to, to tempt Christ with in this, in this, in this attack and in this quotation of scripture. Now, notice the response in verse seven. Our Lord again replies and answers this temptation by quoting scripture. Jesus said to him, it is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. You notice that Christ doesn't deny the promise of Psalm ninety one. He does not say that that Psalm, that that that promise, um, that that promise is is is is misquoted. What he does is give an additional quote. And what he is saying is that the promise of Psalm ninety one is a valid promise, but it must be understood in the light of other scriptures. These other scriptures do not refute it, but they do qualify it, and they do explain it. There's a very important principle of interpretation here. It is never permissible, it is never permissible to take a verse, one verse of scripture in isolation and use it in a way that contradicts other portions of scripture. You cannot use one verse to justify something that is clearly opposed by other scripture. Now we should recognize, we should be fully aware, Satan is a master at using scripture, but his method is the method of pitting one verse of scripture against another verse of scripture. Christ's method is to explain one verse of scripture by another verse of scripture. It's really when we take the whole teaching of scripture in, in it, in its totality, in its harmony, that we will really see how the Bible fits together. But do not overlook the point that Satan is knowledge- knowledgeable in scripture. Almost every heresy in the history of the church has had its verse, its scriptures, its thus says the Lord. Every cult that you encounter has their own verses that they are, that they are very, uh, that they are very adept at, at using to prove their heretical points. Have you ever, have you ever really talked with some of the Jehovah's Witnesses and, and seen the way they use the Bible? They'll, they'll be hitting on this verse of scripture, and then they'll flip it over like that, you know, they, the, it's almost like the pages in between are glued together, but they've got that exact verse over here, and then they'll hit you with that verse, and then they'll look back here, and they've got this other verse. It's, it's right there. They have their verses that they have been drilled with and indoctrinated with, and they will take these verses and i- in isolation from other verses of scripture, they will explain them in their own way, contrary to the rest of the teaching of scripture, to make their point. They always are able to say, it is written, thus says the Lord, the scripture says, the Bible says. Too often in the, in the history of the church, there have not been enough knowledgeable Christians who are able to say, yes, but again, it is written, and point to other verses of scripture that clearly, that clearly show not that the verse that they have been quoting is wrong, but that they have been misunderstanding it or quoting it in a way to teach something that it does not teach. Now the verse that our Lord responds with is a verse from Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter six and verse, uh, and verse 16. Did you notice that the first verse that Christ quoted was from Deuteronomy? And the second one is from Deuteronomy, and the third one is from Deuteronomy. Now, I wonder if, if our defense of biblical truth depended upon our ability to quote verses from Deuteronomy, uh, how well we would do. Uh, but the second verse is, is Deuteronomy six sixteen. He said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. What does it mean to tempt God? When we think of, of tempting someone, we think of, uh, of trying to get that person to sin. That doesn't seem to be what, what the Israelites ever did in the, in the Old Testament. How can a person tempt God to sin? It's interesting, if you look at the verse, there's another little phrase in that verse in Deuteronomy six sixteen. It says, you shall not... Where is it here? You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Massa. There's a particular place in the book of Exodus, Exodus six seventeen, which is referred to, it was the place called Massa. And, uh, if you turn back to Exodus six seventeen, I think that we can understand what it mean- what- what Israel actually was doing when they were trying to- to tempt God, and what it means to tempt God. In Exodus seventeen, remember Israel had, uh, had, had passed through the Red Sea. They had that spectacular deliverance of God in escaping from Egypt, but now they were, they were out in the wilderness, and, uh, they were lacking food, they were lacking water, and when we come to, to Exodus seventeen, it says at the end of verse one that they camped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. And therefore the people contended with Moses and said, give us water that me wait, we may drink. And Moses said to them, why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord? And so here it refers to the fact that they were tempting the Lord, and and Deuteronomy six sixteen says, you shall not tempt the Lord as you did here in Exodus seventeen. Now, what were they doing? Look at verse seven. So he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah because of the contention of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? What were they doing when they were tempting the Lord? They were saying, is the Lord among us or not? They were, they were doubting whether the Lord was really with them as he had brought them into the wilderness. Had he abandoned us? And how did they tempt him then? They were demanding that the Lord demonstrate his presence by providing water for them. They, they, they weren't just requesting this, they were, they were demanding. They were, they were saying, Lord, you must, you must demonstrate that you are with us by acting in this way. You see that, that tempting here really means putting God to the test to see whether he will act in a certain way or not. Uh, putting him to the test, demanding that he act in this way to demonstrate his faithfulness to his promises. Now, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? The thing that's wrong is that when you put a person to the test like that, you are really demonstrating the fact that you are doubting him. Why, why was Israel saying, Lord, you have to act in this way? Because they were doubting that he really was with them. You've brought us here into the wilderness, there isn't any water, we're going to die. And they really doubted whether God was going to be faithful in, in, in protecting them and watching over them and caring for them, as he had, had promised him. If you, if you doubt, if you doubt a person, if you have doubts in your mind about a person, if you have doubts about a person's honesty, and you, uh, what what might you do? You might, you might leave out a little money to see if it disappears. You see, when you when you put a person to the test like that, you are demonstrating that you really doubt their honesty. You're going to see if they, you- you- you're going to see how they, how they act. And, and Christ is saying that for, for me to leap off of the temple this way would be, in effect, putting God to the test. You do that kind of thing, I, I, you got, you, you, you, you do that kind of thing when you're, when you're doubting or when you're not sure if, if God really can be trusted. You're trying to force his hand. And forcing God's hand is not faith. It is presumption. God's promises are valid. We can re- we, we can trust in the things that, that he has promised us. But God's promises are valid at God's time and in God's way. It is, it is, it is wrong, it is presumptuous to try to force God to act the way we want him to act, when we want him to act. And I think that you find Christians doing this in, in, at times in crises. Here, somebody in your family is sick with cancer, or you have, you have lost your job, and you are in a, in a financial crisis, and you cry out to God, God, you said that you are good, you said that you love me, you said that you will be with me and take care of me. Well, now prove it. Prove it by healing my wife, my husband, my child. And if you really love and care for me the way that you said that you, then you will do this. And, and this is not just a request, this is a demand, and that is putting God to the test. And you are doing that because you really are doubting his goodness, and you are not trusting him in the midst of that particular crisis. And Christ is saying here that to, to leap off of the temple would be putting God to the test to see if he really was going to keep his promise. And so by responding in this way, the Lord Jesus again is victorious. He again delights to do God's will, and he chooses to remain in it. Whether the attack comes in the, in the first attack is in the realm of the physical realm, his need for food, or whether the attack is in the spiritual realm, his trust in God. And so again, he is victorious. But that doesn't leave him, uh, uh, give him a chance to relax, because Satan comes again with a third attack, right following on the fourth, on on the first. And the third temptation is found in verses eight to eleven. And again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world in their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, away with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. If you notice again the, the point of attack or the objective of Satan, it all, it all comes back to the, to the words of, uh, of God at the, at the baptism. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This is the messianic king, my son. He is the one who is going to reign in righteousness over the earth. It is that messianic mission that Satan is going, is attempting to, uh, to ruin. And this time he goes about it by taking him to a high mountain, it says, and showing him all of the kingdoms of the world. Now, I don't know how, how you could see all of the kingdoms of the world from a high mountain. You could stand on Mount Everest, and you couldn't see all of the kingdoms of the world from that high spot. Whether this was a vision, whether this was a literal sight, I don't know. It's really not important. But the fact is that Satan was able to, uh, to show Christ all of the kingdoms of the world, and he says in verse nine, I will give you all of these if you fall down and worship me. Now you notice when he says that, that Satan is, is actually claiming that he had some right to the kingdoms of the world. He is claiming some authority over the kingdoms of the world. He is saying that they are under his control, that they are under his authority at this time, and he is saying that he has the, the ability to actually give these kingdoms to Christ if he will fall down and submit to him. Now, the fact is that, that many people have done that very thing. They have submitted to Satan and, uh, received some kind of advantage. And he is, he is saying that Christ should do the same thing, worship him, and he will receive all of the kingdoms of the world. Now, some people have looked at that and say, no, wait, Satan couldn't do that. Some of Satan ha- have suggested that, that Satan was like the man who was trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge, you know, you know, he may, he may collect some, some money, but he has no right to, no right to that bridge, doesn't own it, can't sell it. Uh, and so he has no right to offer the kingdoms of the world because they do not belong to him. I don't see how that, that that would have been a real temptation to Christ. You may be able to fool some, some, some local, some yokel from Iowa who goes to the big city and, uh, and, uh, and, and, and, and, and, and tries to br- to buy the Brooklyn Bridge, but, I mean, it's, it's too naive to think that, that Satan could, could, could fool Christ in that way. It seems that, that, uh, this would not be a real temptation if Satan did not have some right and ability to make this offer. He is a usurper. In his victory over man, man, man was created by God to be the king of the earth, but in his victory over man at the fall, in his victory over Adam at the fall, uh, Satan did become, as scripture calls him, the god of this world, uh, the ruler of this age. Scripture says that the whole world lies in the, in the evil one. And he is able to offer men wealth and power and, and, and riches and fame. You know the legend of Faust. Faust sold his soul to the devil and received so many years of, uh, of, uh, of, of power and riches. Now, what Christ is offered here is not just wealth. He is offered here all of the wealth of the world. He's not offered just power. He is offered supreme power over the whole earth. Absolute sovereignty. Men have lied, they have stolen, they have killed, they have, they have started wars for only a fraction of what Christ is offered here by, by Satan. Satan. Now, I think that... we can only understand the real force of this temptation if we go back to the words of, of, of God at, at the baptism. Thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Uh, you remember that we said that that verse really contains an allusion to two portions of the Old Testament. Psalm 2. Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Psalm two is the psalm of the Messianic king, and it is the psalm that says that if the Messiah will just ask God, he will give him the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your rightful possession. In other words, the kingdoms of the earth that Satan is talking about here had been promised to the Messiah. Uh, they were his inheritance. All he had to do was ask of God, ask of me. Now, of course, he would have to ask God at God's time, and the asking was to be not in, in God's way. But what Satan is offering Christ is that which he had come to receive, the nations as his inheritance. But you remember there was also a second thing at, at in, in, in that voice, second scripture that was alluded to in that voice from heaven, and that was Isaiah forty two and verse, and verse one and two. And Isaiah forty two is the, is the, is one of the servant passages. Remember we were saying that the shadow of the cross hung over Christ during his whole earthly ministry, and that is because the servant passage in Isaiah forty two is one of a series of passages that speaks of the servant of Yahweh who would suffer and bear our sins in his own body on the cross. That this one who was the Messiah who had come to reign and to receive the nations as a- as- as his inheritance was also going to have to suffer, and he was going to have to die. Before he would reign, he would have to suffer. And so he would obtain the kingdoms of the earth, but before that he would have to go through the cross. I think that Satan was trying to offer Christ the kingdoms without the cross, the crown without the suffering. Now, I don't think that, that, that Satan had any idea of what he was really offering Christ, because he had no idea of what really it would, it would, it would cost the Holy Son of God to be made sin on the cross for our sake. We can see how our quickly and easily, but he'll have Satan as an ally instead of an enemy. What a temptation. You notice how our Lord responds here. First of all, he speaks an authoritative word. Away with you, Satan. There is a dismissal. And then again, he quotes scripture. You shall not... You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. The end does not justify the mean. The fact that he was destined to reign does not mean that he should take the kingdom in the wrong way. The homage that Satan is re- is asking for is a homage, is a worship that should be given to God alone. Deuteronomy six thirteen, you shall worship the Lord your God. He alone is worthy of worship. And it is impossible for anyone who is really following the will of God to worship anyone but the Lord himself. What's the result? Verse eleven: then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. The devil left him. Christ was victorious. He is going to oppose Christ for the rest of his earthly ministry, but there is no all-out assault like we have here in this direct way in, in, in the, in the temptation. Christ is victorious. But look at what that victory means. Have you heard of a Puric victory? Puris was a king that opposed the Romans, and he actually defeated the Romans in, in battle, but in that victory, he almost lost his whole army. And so a Puric victory is a victory that you, you win the battle, but the cost is so great that you wonder if you really haven't lost. Doesn't this look like a Puric victory for Christ? You see what I mean? He, he, he, he, he overcomes Satan, but what's the result? He has to go to the cross. He has to suffer and die and be, and be made, and be made sin for us. There's a tremendous price that Christ has to pay in this victory over Satan in the temptation. But when you stop and think of it, what was Satan really offering? He was offering Christ the kingdoms of this earth. To gain the kingdoms of this earth Satan's way would have been worthless. All that Christ would have, would, would have gained were the purely natural earthly kingdoms, the kingdoms of this world that are pervaded by evil. The Lord Jesus, through the cross, was going to purge and cleanse those kingdoms so that they would be of infinite value. You see what Sa- Satan was really offering counterfeit money. Counterfeit money. Kingdoms that were of no value. Only Christ, through his cleansing works and victory over sin at the cross, could make these kingdoms of real value. What we see here is that the Lord Jesus, as he is tempted at the beginning of his ministry by Satan, demonstrates the fact in his victory over Satan, in his refusal to succumb to temptation, he demonstrates the fact that he is morally qualified to be our savior. He is morally qualified to be the Messiah, the Davidic king. He is morally qualified to save us from sin. He is qualified. But he also shows the fact that he is willing. He is willing to be our savior. He is willing to pay the price. He is willing to, to, to follow that path that leads to the cross. Our Lord Jesus, the perfect man, the Messiah, the Son of God, meets the challenge of Satan, meets the challenge of Satan, and he is completely victorious. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you that we have a perfect Savior. Perfect not only in the fact that he was victorious at the cross, but he is perfect in his moral character in every way. He is holy, he is sinless, he is undefiled, and we see here, see him here meeting the, the, the temptation and the attack of Satan and being completely victorious. We do pray that through his example, uh, we would also be able to meet temptation. We pray that we might be holy as he is holy, and that we pray that this one who, who, uh, was so delighting in your will and so trusting in you might be our example, that we would delight in your will and trust in you in the same way. We pray that we would hate sin the way the Lord Jesus did, and that we would delight in pleasing you the way the Lord Jesus did. For we pray in his name. Amen.