And shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory, and says to Him,
“All these things will I give Thee, if, falling down, Thou wilt do me homage,”
or, “If Thou wilt 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.’”
For the past few evenings, we have been sharing together on the temptations of our Lord.
Our Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, was tempted. He was tempted because He was the Son of Man. As the Son of God, He cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone; but because He came into this world to be a man, as the Son of Man He was tempted by the tempter.
But He was tempted not just for Himself. He was tempted as the representative of a new mankind.
You know, just like Adam, when he was tempted in the Garden of Eden, all who were in Adam were tempted. And when Adam failed, all who were in Adam fell with him.
Likewise, our Lord Jesus is the second Man. When He was tempted, all who are in Christ were tempted. And because He has overcome, all who are in Him shall also overcome.
We are not too much interested in the temptations themselves, but we are trying to see that in these three temptations, three basic issues of life are being challenged. From these basic things, we may learn some principles.
Now, in the first temptation, our Lord Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread. It was a matter of food.
And the answer of our Lord Jesus was:
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
So here you find the principle of living. How do we live on this earth?
You know, the people in this world live for bread. They live for their physical being, their own welfare. They live for themselves.
But those who are the Lord’s, certainly we need bread, but we do not live by bread alone. We have a spiritual life. We live by the living Word of God. If God speaks to us, then we are alive; if God does not speak to us, then we are as if dead.
Oh, brothers and sisters, we live by the Word of God. As we come in contact with God, may He speak to us, and we will do His will. This is the way that we live upon this earth.
We do not live for ourselves. We live for the Word of God. We live for Him.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Brothers and sisters, do not seek after the things of this world, but seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Our heavenly Father will add all these things unto you—the food and all that is needed.
This is the principle of living. Our Lord Jesus lived by the Word of God. Even though He was hungry, He would not make a move without God’s Word.
He would rather starve than disobey God. He would not do anything out of Himself; He would do things as His Father says. This is the way that we should live on this earth.
Now, in the second temptation, our Lord Jesus was tempted to jump down from the pinnacle of the temple, to show Himself to the world as the Messiah.
You know, the temptation was that He did not need to go through the cross in order to be the Messiah of the world. Satan even quoted Scripture.
But, as we mentioned last night, whenever Satan quotes Scripture, he always quotes Scripture out of context. A text out of context is a pretext.
But our Lord Jesus said:
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
In other words, here our Lord Jesus shows us the principle of believing. We, as God’s children, should not tempt God. If God has not promised something, we should not do it and expect God to protect us.
We should not be presumptuous, but we should believe in God. We shall commit ourselves to Him, knowing that He is our God and our Father, and whatever He does is the best.
Our life should be a yielded life, a submissive life, a fully committed life, because we believe in Him.
Now this morning, I would like to share on the third temptation. Actually, the third temptation is the very center of all temptations.
Here you find Satan bringing our Lord Jesus to a high mountain. He showed the Lord Jesus all the kingdoms, the glory, and the riches of the world.
And he said, “If You bow before me, if You worship me, I will give all these things to You.”
You know, that is the very heart of temptation. The purpose of the tempter is to get worship for himself.
Brothers and sisters, worship is the issue of the universe. God, being the Creator of the universe, is the only One who is worthy to be worshipped.
In the whole universe, there is only One who is worthy. He is our Creator, our Maker. He is our God, and He alone is worthy to be worshipped.
You know, what is worship? Worship is to give God His right, to place God in His right position, and also to put ourselves in the right position.
We are the created ones. That is our position. If we take our position as the created and place God in His place as the Creator, then you find there is worship.
God is the only One worthy to be worshipped, and He will not share His worship with anybody else.
But here you find the tempter. He wants to rob God of His right. He wants to rob God of His worship and try to transfer that worship to himself.
Now this is the very center of all temptations. When Satan tempted our Lord the third time, he did not say, “If You are the Son of God, then worship me.” Instead, he came out right away and said, “Worship me. That is what I want, and I will give You the whole world.”
You know, Satan is called the ruler of the world. He is the god of this world. We will explain that later. He thought that he had a right to the whole world. Actually, he is a usurper. He is not the owner at all, but he thought that he owned the whole world.
So he said to the Lord Jesus, “If You worship me, I will give You the whole world.”
You know how crafty Satan is. If our Lord Jesus had worshipped him and he had given Him the whole world, the whole world would have gone back to Satan because the Lord would have belonged to him. How crafty is Satan! But our Lord Jesus saw through Satan. He saw through his purpose.
The Lord called him Satan, the adversary. The Lord quoted Deuteronomy again:
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.
Only God is worthy to be worshipped, and He is the only One whom we should serve. So the enemy was defeated.
Now, probably we will go back a little more. You know, the world that we are living in today is actually the second world.
In the first world, the highest of God’s creation were the spirits, the angels. The angels are the highest of God’s creation.
God created some archangels, and one of the archangels was called Lucifer. You can find this in Isaiah. Lucifer means the brilliant star.
It is very possible that Lucifer was the first angel created. When God created Lucifer, He created him with such beauty, endowed him with great ability, and put him into a very high position.
He was called the anointed cherub. He was one of the cherubim that stood at the throne of God, very close to God.
It is very possible that he was to lead the whole creation to serve God. When he was created, he was perfect, and he was able to lead the whole creation in worshipping and serving God.
But gradually, self began to rise up. You can find that in Isaiah 14. He began to think of himself instead of thinking of God and giving all the glory to God.
He began to think, “How beautiful I am. How talented I am. How capable I am. What a position I have. Now I want to rise higher. I want to be equal with God. I want to be God. I want to be worshipped.”
Because of this, he was cast out, and he turned himself into Satan. God did not create Satan. God created a beautiful angel, but out of self he turned himself into the adversary.
Even though he was cast out from heaven, he was still desiring that worship.
So you find that when God repaired this ruined earth, in Genesis 1, on the sixth day, God created man. God created man according to His own image, and God gave man dominion over all the created things.
God created man and gave the whole earth to man to rule, to subdue all things back to God.
Now Satan knew about that, so he slipped into the Garden of Eden when man was not guarding it.
And you know how he came to Eve? He tempted Eve with what he himself was. He was full of self, so he tempted Eve.
“Now, if you eat the forbidden fruit, you will be like God. You do not need to listen to God. You do not need to worship God. You can worship yourself. You do not need God anymore.”
And unfortunately, you find the pride of life rose in the heart of man. They wished that by eating the forbidden fruit they would become like God. They did not need to worship God; they would worship themselves.
But unfortunately, they fell into that trap. Because of this, the world that God had given to man fell into the hand of Satan. Satan is called the ruler of the world.
Brothers and sisters, this is the fall of man. Man did not keep his own position. Man was created above all the other creatures, but he was under one Person, and that is under God.
That is the reason why the Lord gave him that commandment: to keep him in his position. As long as he worshipped God, he would know God’s position.
But here you find man forgot his own position. He tried to be God himself. He wanted to be worshipped, and instead he became a worshipper of the devil.
That is what you see in the world today. All who worship themselves are devil worshippers.
Thank God, He sent His beloved Son into this world to be the second Man. And you find the second Man was also tempted.
Satan said, “I will give You the whole world if You will worship me.” But the Lord said:
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.
Our Lord Jesus kept the position as a man, and He gave God His rightful position. This is worship.
Brothers and sisters, today we are the redeemed of the Lord. You know, we are not only believers. Thank God, we are believers, and being believers, we are to believe; we shall live a life of faith. But we are not only believers; we are worshippers.
You remember, in John 4, our Lord Jesus went out of His way to Samaria. There He met the Samaritan woman.
Our Lord Jesus tried to draw her out until her conscience was convicted. She knew that she was a great sinner, and when her conscience was aroused, she began to think of worship.
Do you know, brothers and sisters? Worship is an instinct that God has put within us. We are born with an instinct of worship.
But when we are overwhelmed by sin, when our hearts and consciences are hardened, we do not think of worship. But whenever our conscience is awakened, immediately we think of worship, because there is an instinct within us.
When the Samaritan woman’s conscience was awakened, she thought of worship. She had never thought of worship before because she was dead in sins and transgressions. But now she was awakened.
So she asked the Lord Jesus a question. She said, “We Samaritans worship on this mountain, but You Jews worship in the temple in Jerusalem. Where should we worship?”
People think worship is a matter of place. People think worship is a matter of time. They think worship is an external thing.
Even today, people think worship is an external thing. “Where do you go to worship?” “We go to a house of worship, and there we worship.” “When do you worship?” “Sunday morning.” Then, after that hour is over, you no longer worship Him.
But our Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman:
The hour is coming, and now is,
when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.
Worship is no longer a matter of place. Worship is no longer a matter of time. Worship is a spiritual thing. You worship God everywhere and at any time, because you are a worshipper.
In other words, it is not merely an act; it is the person. We, as the redeemed of the Lord, God has made us worshippers. He is our heavenly Father, and all He desires of us is that we worship Him in spirit and in truth.
It is not a matter of external acts. It is true that we praise the Lord and pray to the Lord, but you remember our Lord Jesus said, “These people worship Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain.”
It is vain worship. The Lord will not accept such worship. Worship has to come from the heart.
Because our hearts are constrained by the love of Christ, when we think of our God—our Maker—when we think of our God, so holy and so majestic, who lives in light, and yet so loving and so gracious; when we think how Christ died for us, our hearts are touched by Him.
Then we worship Him from our hearts, and not merely with our lips. That is what God desires. We must worship Him in spirit, not merely with our physical posture.
Sometimes you find people prostrate upon the floor as if they are worshipping God. But worship is not a matter of physical posture. Some people compose beautiful prayers. If you read a prayer book, you will find that these prayers are beautiful, and you just read them.
Brothers and sisters, no. Worship has to come from the heart. Oh, when our hearts are touched by God—by His majesty and by His love—as we are touched by Him, we worship Him. We worship in spirit.
Thank God, we who are born again have a new spirit, and our spirit is in communion with God the Spirit. In our communion with Him, we worship Him in truth.
We worship not only according to the Word of God, which is truth, but also according to sincerity. The same must be genuine, from our hearts. That is the way we worship God.
How can we be true worshippers? If you read Romans 12:1, it says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
This is your reasonable service. In another translation, it says, “This is your spiritual worship.”
How do we start to be true worshippers? We present our bodies a living sacrifice.
When we are constrained by the mercies of God, think of the mercies of God. We who were dead in sins and transgressions, Christ shed His blood for us. We who were under the bondage of sin, He set us free. He gave us His own life. He gave us a new spirit.
What mercy God has bestowed upon us! Can we continue to live for ourselves?
We present our bodies a living sacrifice. We offer ourselves to God: “God, this is Yours. It is no longer mine. I do not want to live for myself. I want to live for You.”
When you present your body as a living sacrifice, that is, you will live for God. This is your spiritual worship. This is your worship.
Brothers and sisters, if you keep yourself for your own and only on Sunday, at ten o’clock, you come to a building that is called the house of God, and it is called the hour of worship, what do you do there?
You sing some hymns. Maybe you need a choir to entertain you, and you need a preacher to give a short sermon of twenty minutes. If he speaks too long, you become restless. You are entertained.
Where is worship? Are you worshipping God? This is not worship.
You keep your whole self for yourself, and just at a certain time and in a certain place you go there to so-called worship God. Maybe you give a little money, and you think this is worship. Not at all.
You remember in the Old Testament, the prophets spoke to the children of Israel. If you read Isaiah 1, you find God saying, “Do you worship Me by bringing all these sacrifices to Me? I am tired of these incense.”
If you read Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, God says, “I would that somebody would close the door of the temple. I do not want your offerings.” This is not worship.
Brothers and sisters, God is seeking for true worship. You do not begin to worship God before you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
That is true worship. When you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, your whole life is worship.
It is true that we still need to praise God, and we still need to offer the sacrifice of our lips. But God wants us ourselves. He is seeking for worshippers.
You know, God is seeking for worship. He does not seek for anything else. He has everything; everything comes from Him. He is seeking for worship.
How very few are true worshippers. How we need to ask God to show us how to worship Him: to give Him His rightful place and to take our rightful place.
Worship is not only a personal thing. In the Bible, we find worship is also a corporate thing.
We need to worship God individually in our everyday life, but we need to worship God together too. This is true not only in the Old Testament; it is also true in the New Testament.
If you read Exodus, when the children of Israel heard that God had heard their prayers and seen their affliction, the Bible says they worshipped God.
When God led Israel out of Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea, and the enemy’s army was drowned in the Red Sea, there they sang a song and worshipped God.
When God led them to Mount Sinai and gave them the covenant, they worshipped God. When the temple was erected by Solomon, they worshipped God. When those who had returned from Babylonian captivity rebuilt the temple, they worshipped God.
They worshipped God as a nation.
On the day of Pentecost, they continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Here you find they came together to worship God: to break bread, to remember the Lord, and to pray together. They worshipped God together.
Ephesians 5 tells us how we need to sing to one another, praising God together. Worship has its corporate aspect. God’s people need to come together to worship.
But as we come together, our hearts are opened by the Spirit of God. We pour out our hearts to God, remembering the things of the Lord and worshipping Him.
You know, in Revelation, the apostle John saw worship in heaven. He saw the living creatures and the twenty-four elders worship God:
Holy, holy, holy,
God Almighty.
You find a call for all creation to worship God. Especially we who are bought by the blood of our Lord Jesus—He has not only saved us; He has made us a kingdom of priests unto God.
You know, priests are worshippers. We are all priests through our Lord Jesus, and therefore we ought to worship Him.
Worship and service go together.
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.
You know, service comes out of worship. Service is not just a duty to be fulfilled. Service comes from worship.
Because you worship God, because you love Him, therefore you serve. Now this is true service.
Oh, how God’s people need to learn to be worshippers, and then we will truly be a serving people. We will serve God out of our love for Him.
May the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray?
Our Father, we praise and thank Thee that Thou art seeking today for true worshippers, those who worship Thee in spirit and truth.
We do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast saved us. Thou hast given us a new spirit. Thou hast given us the truth, that we may worship Thee in spirit and truth.
O Lord, we just pray that Thou wilt make us true worshippers. We want to worship Thee out of a pure heart. To Thee alone we will worship, and to Thee alone shall we serve.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.