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Text: Matthew 4:1-7
Notice a few things about this temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- First of all he’s led into temptation by the Spirit. What happened to when you pray say lead me not into temptation?
- Second, the temptations don’t seem all that unreasonable.
- Turn stone into bread when you’re starving to death? What’s wrong with that? How does that have anything to do with temptation even if Jesus Christ did it? What would be so wrong about it? What sin is being committed? Show me that verse.
- Jump so the angels will catch you; why not? Who are you hurting by doing that? You’re somebody. You’re unique. You’re special. God’s promises.
- Third, the temptation is threefold; like three dimensional. The devil will try to box him in on three sides, but there is with the temptation a way of escape.
- Fourth, the three areas of temptation define the world. 1 John 2:15-17 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. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. These three areas define worldliness set in opposition to the leading of the Spirit of God. And these are the areas of weakness that will keep you from getting saved and keep you from bearing fruit.
- Fifth, notice the order of temptation highlights God’s absence first and God’s presence second, and the last temptation there is no subtilty. It is a last ditch effort by the devil saying I’ll give you this if you bow down to me.
Lust of the flesh (vss 1-4)
- Holy Spirit leads the Lord Jesus Christ to a barren place.
- Just like the Jews in the wilderness were led by the Spirit of God. Exodus 16:2-3 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
- Were the Israelites hungry because they chose not to eat or because they had nothing to eat in the wilderness? The answer is they were led into a place without food. Consequently, they murmured against the leadership and question the wisdom of God’s leadership.
- Now, here is the Lord Jesus Christ led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness where there is no food. Jesus Christ is going wherever his Father wants him to go and he’s eating whenever and whatever his Father wants him to eat. John 8:29 …for I do always those things that please him.
- Consider the only other two men who fasted forty days. Neither of them set out to fast forty days. It simply came as a result of their time with the Lord God.
- The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t eat because his Father had not provided any food for him. We think because the word fasted is in there that it was something Jesus chose to do. Not so.
- Exodus 34:27-28 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
- 1 Kings 19:8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
- Fasting not voluntary, so do you follow the Spirit or satisfy the flesh?
- Jesus is starving. He’s got to consider his health. This is getting out of hand.
- No verse that says you can’t do this, right?!
- No verse against turning stones into bread, but there are plenty of verses against satisfying the flesh against the will of God.
- So subtle is this temptation. It comes under the radar of the word of God or so it seems.
- Jesus is led out into the wilderness. So the temptation is to take care of physical needs, like Esau, in exchange for accepting the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Like Esau thought, what good is your spiritual heritage if you’re about to die? Who needs a father who’s going to starve out his children?
- Timing, notice the devil is mentioned when Jesus Christ is almost starved out.
- Answer to the lust of the flesh is man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So bread is fine to feed man, unless God has forbidden eating it. In that case man can’t only consider the bread, he has to consider the word of God.
- New man/Old man
- Fast for 24 hours and we’ll find out just how sinful we are. Our bodies will scream and holler, produce headaches, we’d get edgy, angry. You deprive your flesh and you find out how sinful you are.
- You know the Spirit never acts that way. If you deprive the new man do you know what doesn’t happen? You won’t get a headache. The new man won’t scream and throw a fit. He won’t produce emotional outbursts. He will continue to act like the new man. Jesus Christ is the new man.
- Adam lost what he lost in a garden, in paradise, in perfect conditions. Jesus Christ would defeat the devil in a wilderness and starving.
- Matthew 6:25-34 – life is more than your health and comfort.
Pride of life (vss 5-7)
- The devil says since you trust God and believe the Bible, how about believing this verse? Why don’t you prove that you live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God?
- You’re somebody
- Jeremiah 29:11 NIV For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
- The devil uses a verse out of context in order to claim a promise that isn’t there.
- He uses a promise to appeal to pride!
- Just like folks claiming Bible promises that have nothing to do with them.
- Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
- God bless this home! (Is He?)
- And saved folks claiming special treatment that they don’t have
- Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
- Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
- Then the devil challenges the pride in human beings
- He says if you’re somebody, prove it. The hope is to draw out the pride in you.
- The devil is so audacious, he quotes a promise in Psalm 91:12. Do you know what the very next verse is? It is the devil’s destruction. The devil is so sure you don’t have a clue what the Bible says he pulls a promise out of context, flips it to Jesus Christ and expects that he doesn’t know the next verse.
- You know why you don’t want to rely on verses put on a screen?
- Do not tempt the Lord thy God as in put God in a position where He has to respond to your pride.
- Tempt God – Exodus 17:6-7 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? So this temptation of God is to accuse Him of being absent.
- Tempt God – Malachi 3:14-15 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. So the course of this world is to tempt God. The proud are happy. The wicked are set up. They that ignore God’s warnings are delivered out of danger over and over again. (Accounts are not settled in this life.)
- Tempt God – Acts 15:8-10 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? So tempting God here is having higher expectations of other people than you have of yourself. Thinking more of yourself than you ought to.
