Please turn to Matthew 4:1-11.
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 afterward hungered.
And the tempter came and said unto Him, If Thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.
But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Then the devil taketh Him into the holy city; and he set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
and saith unto Him, If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written,
He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee:
and, On their hands they shall bear Thee up,
lest haply Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, Again it is written, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.
Again, the devil taketh Him unto an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
and he said 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, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
Then the devil leaveth Him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.
We have been sharing together, especially on my part these days, concerning the life of our Lord Jesus.
There are many voices and many visions today. It is very important that we are not distracted from the voice and the vision that God wants us to hear and see.
The Bible says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” So it is our prayer in these last days that our eyes will focus upon only one Person: our Lord Jesus.
Seeing Him is to be transformed and conformed to His image. Seeing Him makes us ready to become the bride.
Now, in the past, we have fellowshiped together concerning His birth and His baptism. Do you notice that His birth is different from ours? His birth is incarnation: God became man.
His boyhood is different from that of all the other Jewish boys, because in His bar mitzvah He not only was made a son of the law, but there He came into a full consciousness of His intimate relationship with His heavenly Father. So He said, “I must be occupied with My Father’s business.”
His baptism is different from our baptism because He did not need to be baptized by John. He had nothing of which to repent. But He was baptized instead; He took the place of sinners, and there He offered Himself as the Lamb of God.
Now, this morning we want to share together concerning His temptation. Again, our Lord’s temptation is very different from ours.
As God, as the Son of God, He cannot be tempted by evil things, and He does not tempt anyone. So our Lord Jesus was tempted as man, as the Son of Man.
Our Lord Jesus has all that is in our human nature. He is a perfect Man. He has all the desires, instincts, and urges with which we as men are created.
But there is a difference: there is no lust in Him. You know, there are instincts that are all created very legitimate. But when these instincts, or natural desires, cross their boundaries, then they become lusts.
As the Bible says, when we are tempted, we are drawn away and enticed by our lust. And when lust is conceived, it ends in sin; and sin ends in death.
But with our Lord Jesus, even though He is Man and has all the human desires in Him, yet His humanity is in such union with His divinity. He is the God-Man. All His human desires are perfectly under the control of His divine nature.
That is the reason why you find that, even though He was tempted in all things, He was without sin. He knew no sin. He did not have any desire for sinning. He was perfectly sinless.
As Man, though He might be tempted, His natural desires would never go out of control or develop into lust. Because of this, you find our Lord Jesus is sinless and perfect.
But why was it that He needed to be tempted? The Bible says He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil.
He needed to be tempted as the Son of Man for two reasons.
First, because at His baptism He offered Himself as the Lamb of God. He offered Himself to be the Deliverer of the world. Before He could begin His ministry, He had to be led into the wilderness to confront that archenemy, the one who holds mankind under the bondage of sin.
So He had to go into the wilderness. Remember, it was not the devil who sought Him out. It was He who sought out the devil, to confront him and to defeat him, so that as a conqueror He might be able to begin His ministry.
You remember our Lord Jesus said, “Unless you bind the strong man, you are not able to spoil his house.” So there in the wilderness, our Lord Jesus defeated the enemy. On that basis, He was able to deliver mankind from the bondage of the enemy.
Second, He was tempted as the Son of Man. We know that, as the Son of Man, He is the federal Head of a new mankind, just as Adam, the first man, is the federal head of the old mankind.
When Adam, as a federal head, was tempted and yielded to temptation, all who are in Adam came under the control of the enemy. So now our Lord Jesus came as the second Man, as the federal Head of the new mankind. He had to face the enemy and defeat him, and His victory became our victory.
So, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus was tempted for our sake, not for His own sake. It was for our sake. All the temptations with which He was tempted were for our sake, and therefore His victory is our victory.
As Hebrews 4 tells us, He was tempted in all things without sin, that He might sympathize with our infirmities and become our faithful High Priest.
So, brothers and sisters, even though as God’s people God has not promised that we will not be tempted—thank God, we are saved and we are His people—He has not promised us that we will not be tempted.
But He does promise us that we will not be tempted above that which we are able to bear. In the time of temptation, He will open up for us a way of escape. That is in 1 Corinthians 10:13.
Brothers and sisters, God allows us to be tempted because, in temptation, two things are revealed.
One is that under temptation, it reveals what is in us—that is, what is in our flesh.
But thank God, at the same time, when the Lord allows us to be tempted, it is also to draw out the grace of God that He has already deposited in us.
So when we are tempted, there is no reason why we must yield to temptation. On the contrary, there is every reason that we should endure temptation.
By enduring, it simply means that we outlast temptation. The enemy will try to tempt us. It is true that there is something within us that can be tempted. Through temptation, we begin to realize our weaknesses—our flesh. There is no good in our flesh.
And yet, we thank God that at the same time we find that God has already deposited enough grace in us to endure our temptation, to outlast our temptation.
So you remember in James 1, it is said, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life.”
So, brothers and sisters, we do thank God that even though in our lifetime we will be tempted, being tempted is simply to prove what God has already deposited in us. Through temptation, He strengthens us, and we receive the crown of life.
Now, in our Lord’s temptation, He was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and then the devil came to Him.
Now, it does not mean that this was the first time the devil came to tempt our Lord. As a matter of fact, during His hidden years, He must have been tempted all the time by the devil. During those forty days and forty nights of fasting, He must have been tempted continuously by the devil.
But at the end of forty days and forty nights, we find these three temptations recorded. Why? Because these three temptations sum up all the temptations that man can ever face.
These three temptations are typical of all the temptations that we will ever face. Or, to put it another way, in these three temptations we find illustrated the basic principles of life.
In the first temptation, He illustrates the principle of living. In the second temptation, He illustrates the principle of believing. In the third temptation, He illustrates the principle of worshiping. We know that these are three fundamental principles of our Christian life.
Our Lord was hungry after forty days and forty nights of fasting. Of course, during the time of fasting He may not have felt hungry because He was concentrating all His being toward God. But after forty days and forty nights of fasting, He became hungry.
It is natural to be hungry, and it is legitimate to take food. We remember that, actually, eating is the first problem of life.
In the Garden of Eden, you remember, that was the first problem. God actually provided all the fruit of the trees in the Garden of Eden, good for food. God gave Adam an appetite, and God created all these trees to fulfill that appetite.
Yet in the center of the garden, God planted the tree of life. In other words, God was trying to tell man that human life is not merely physical. The satisfaction of physical need is not the purpose of life. There is something more for man: a spiritual life.
If Adam should eat of the tree of life, then he would receive God’s life in him, and his spiritual life would begin. That would complete his manhood.
But unfortunately, we find Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Instead of being satisfied, they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We have no time to go into details, but I just mention that instead of taking the life of God and developing a spiritual life to fulfill the purpose of man, they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, forbidden by God, in order to develop their own soulish life, to satisfy themselves, to be independent of God, and thus fell into sin and death.
Now, brothers and sisters, here in the wilderness the enemy came to tempt our Lord Jesus with this matter of eating. “You are hungry, but God has made no provision for You. But You are the Son of God. You can turn these stones into loaves of bread to satisfy Yourself. It is right for You to do that, and You have every power to do that. Why not do it?”
Now, that is the temptation. The answer of our Lord Jesus was to quote from Deuteronomy 8:3:
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
What is the principle of living? Do we live by bread alone, or do we live by every word that comes from the mouth of God?
Do we live just for our physical well-being? Do we live just for ourselves, to develop ourselves, to be so independent that we become god and do not need God anymore, as the tempter says? Or do we live a spiritual life and live for God, for His glory?
The people in this world live by bread alone because they have no spiritual life to talk about. So in this world, you find people asking, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And with what shall we be clothed?”
That is what the nations are seeking for, and that is all that they have. But with us, who are the Lord’s, we who have the life of God in us, brothers and sisters, we have a spiritual life to live.
We are not like the world. We cannot just live like the people of the world. We live not for ourselves; we live for God. If this is the case, then we do not live by bread alone.
Now, it is true that we need bread too, because we have a physical body. But we do not live by bread alone. We live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And you know, the word “word” there is not logos; it is rhema. In other words, we live by every living, personal word of God—the Word of God recorded in the Scriptures and quickened by the Holy Spirit to us. We live by such words.
If we live by such words, then we know that we have a spiritual life and that we live for God. So, brothers and sisters, this is a temptation that we all have to face.
What is the principle of our living today? The Lord Jesus said, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat? What shall we drink? With what shall we be clothed?’ Look at the birds. Observe the lilies. Your heavenly Father will take care of you.”
These are the things that the nations seek after. But for you, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Brothers and sisters, the world does not have the heavenly Father, so they have to try to take care of themselves. But we are not orphans. We have our heavenly Father, a Father who cares.
So let us not live by bread alone. Let us live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Let us listen to Him. Let us commune with Him. Let us hear from Him, and let us obey Him.
If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things—what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and with what we shall be clothed—shall be added unto us.
In Luke 21:34, our Lord Jesus warned us. He said, “Take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly as a snare.”
Brothers and sisters, are we being tempted in this matter of eating? What is the principle of our living today? Let us settle this as early as possible, and that will save us a great deal of trouble.
That is temptation number one. Now, temptation number two: Satan takes our Lord Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple.
Now, most likely, that pinnacle of the temple was the highest point in the temple area. It could have been the temple porch, or some people say most likely it was the southeastern corner of the temple area.
Every morning, a priest would be stationed at the highest point. He would look over the hills and see the sun begin to rise, and he would call. Then the temple gate would be opened, and the morning sacrifice would be offered.
In that area, it was so high that there was a drop of four hundred and fifty feet. It was the highest point there. Satan took our Lord Jesus to that highest point and said, “You leap down.”
Now, why did he tempt Him to do that? Because if our Lord Jesus should leap down from that highest point, all those who came to worship the Lord would see Him coming down as if out of heaven, and they would acclaim Him at once as the Messiah.
In other words, He would not need to go through the cross, and He would have the kingdom.
The tempter even quoted Scripture. Brothers and sisters, you know, the devil knows the Scriptures pretty well, and sometimes we are ashamed that we do not know them as well as he does. If we do not know them as well as he does, then we will be tempted.
Satan quoted Psalm 91. In Psalm 91 it says that God will send His angels to protect your feet, that you will not be hurt. So why not do it?
Well, Satan quoted Scripture, but he always quoted Scripture out of context.
Because if you read Psalm 91, you find that in verse 1:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Now, who will abide under the shadow of the Almighty? Only those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High.
Verse 9 says:
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge,
even the Most High, thy habitation;
there shall no evil befall thee.
To whom will no evil befall? It is for those who make the Lord their dwelling place and their refuge.
Then again in verse 14:
Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him.
So, in other words, you find that the promises of God’s protection in Psalm 91 are conditioned upon one who abides, who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, one who makes the Lord his refuge, and one who loves the Lord with all his heart.
With such a person, the promises apply. Now, if anyone should go out of the will of God and try to claim these promises, it is the sin of presumption. It is presumption. It is unbelief.
The devil tempted the Lord Jesus as if to say, “Now, if You have faith, then You can leap down because the Word says so.”
But the Lord knew that without the command of the Father, the Father had not ordered Him to leap down from that height. Without the Father’s will, if He did it, it would be the sin of presumption. It would be unbelief. It would be tempting God, doubting God, testing God, proving God. It would be unbelief.
So here our Lord Jesus said:
Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.
Brothers and sisters, the children of Israel tempted the Lord. You remember in Numbers 14:22, He said they tempted the Lord ten times in the wilderness. Their hearts were hardened.
They did not believe. They tested, they wondered, and they doubted. “Could the Lord provide a table in the wilderness? Is the Lord able to lead us into the promised land? Is He here with us?”
Brothers and sisters, today we have the same problem. How often we are tempted in this area of faith.
Do we have a daily, intimate life with our Lord? Are we walking in the will of God? Or do we tempt God, test Him, and try to see if He is faithful and whether He will do this?
Remember, the psalmist said, “Deliver me from presumptuous sins.” Oftentimes, we misunderstand and take presumption for faith.
Faith comes from the Word of God. In Romans 10, the word for “Word of God” is rhema. In other words, it is the living Word of God. When we have the living Word of God, then faith rises up and responds, and that is faith.
But without the living Word of God, if we try to do something, it is the sin of presumption. It is unbelief.
Brothers and sisters, the enemy tried to tempt our Lord Jesus to get the kingdom without the cross, bypassing the cross. The will of the Father was that He must go through the cross, but the enemy always tried to get Him off the cross.
Is it not true with us today? How we are tempted to avoid the cross. The enemy always tries to tell us, “You do not need to suffer. You do not need to bear the cross. You can get the kingdom without the cross.”
How often we take up his word, becoming presumptuous and tempting the Lord. But remember, the way to the kingdom is through the cross. This is the will of the Father.
So here again, you find that we are tested all our lives on this matter of believing. Do we believe? If we believe, then we can wait.
We will accept the will of God. We are willing to go the way of the cross. We are not trying to take shortcuts. We trust Him. Our God is worthy of trust.
Number three: the enemy takes our Lord Jesus to the highest mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He says, “Now, if You bow down and worship me, all these are Yours.”
Now, actually, this is the crux of all temptations. Here you find Satan coming out in such a straightforward way, because this is what Satan has been trying to get through the centuries: worship.
Worship is the issue in the universe. Who is to be worshiped? God is the only One who is to be worshiped because He is the only One who is worthy to be worshiped.
You know what worship is? Worship is placing God in His proper place and placing ourselves in our proper place. Now, that is worship.
Satan rebelled against God. He wants to take worship away from God for himself.
It is true that he is called the ruler of this world. It is true that all the kingdoms and their wealth seem to be in his hand. But he got them through subtlety.
God gave dominion to man, but Satan tempted man, and when man fell, he got all the kingdoms and their wealth from the head of man. It is not his. He is a usurper.
He uses this to get worship. Brothers and sisters, Satan says, “Now, I will give You all these if You worship me.” That is what he wants. He wants worship more than anything else.
It seems that he is willing to give up all the kingdoms and all their wealth in order to get worship. But you know how subtle he is. If he gets your worship, he gets you; and with you, all that has been given to you returns to him.
That is the subtlety of the enemy. Our Lord Jesus saw through it. So there you find our Lord Jesus immediately saying, “Get thee hence, Satan.” That was too much. He dismissed the enemy.
He quoted again from Deuteronomy, saying:
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.
Brothers and sisters, our God is the only One who is worthy to be worshiped. We must place Him in the place where He belongs, and we must also place ourselves in the place where we belong. This is worship.
But remember, Satan always uses the world to get worship.
In 1 John 2, we are told, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Because the things of the world are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These things are passing away.
Who do you love? What do you love? If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. You know, worship comes from love.
If you love the world, then you worship Mammon. The Lord Jesus said you cannot worship Mammon and God at the same time. You cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time. It is either one or the other.
Because if your heart is on Mammon, then your worship is directed to Mammon. If your heart is on God, then you worship God.
Do not think that loving the world is not serious. It is serious, because the love of Mammon and the love of the Father are contrary to one another. The result is that you worship Mammon instead of worshiping God.
Here again, we need to settle this question: worship. Who is to be worshiped?
Let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength. Then we will be delivered from the temptation of worshiping the wrong person.
So, brothers and sisters, you find in these three temptations that all three basic principles of life are being challenged, and they need to be settled in each one of us.
The earlier we settle these basic problems, the better. Satan exhausted all his temptations, so he left—but temporarily. He still tried to tempt the Lord, but he never succeeded.
Our Lord was tempted, and He overcame. His victory is ours.
So today, we do not need to be afraid of being tempted. We have assurance that we can endure, only if we look to the Lord and let His victory be ours.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that even though our Lord Jesus was tempted in all things, He was without sin.
We thank Thee because He is not only our High Priest today; His victorious life is within us. So, Lord, we do not trust in ourselves, but we will watch and pray, trusting in the life that Thou hast put in us and trusting Thee as our High Priest.
May we endure all temptations, proving that Thou art victorious, and receive the crown of life with Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.