May it please God to bless our
souls this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
Gospel of Matthew, chapter four, and we'll read verse one. The
Gospel of Matthew, chapter four, and reading verse one. Then was
Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. The last few verses of the previous
chapter tell us what had occurred just prior to this situation. And from verse 13 we read, Then
cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized
of him. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now. For thus it becometh to us to
fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
And lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo,
a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. in whom I
am well pleased. And then we read, then was Jesus
led out of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. We may be surprised at such a
situation developing. We might well think, well surely
after that amazing scene when The voice from heaven came down
and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That the situation would continue
and the Savior would be wonderfully blessed as he journeyed on without
having to endure all the opposition. Here he had been obedient to
his father's will and Perhaps we would think, well now, surely
everything would be plain sailing, but clearly it was not. And we
have this example before us, and surely it should be a warning
to us all. We can, I suppose, become complacent
in the things of God, but the Lord will not allow us to become
complacent. And we should be thankful for
that. And in order to deliver us from
complacency, he brings us therefore into times of temptation. And sometimes these times of
temptation can be very severe. And we may have to prove, indeed
like Peter had to prove, that we are only kept by the power
of God. we're not able to keep ourselves. Indeed, the Word of God tells
us, no man can keep alive his own soul. But surely it is a
warning to us to, as it were, not relax in our religion. It's very easy to relax and to
take it easy. I remember that in my own life
there was a period when I was, as it were, resting on the experience
I'd had the testimony I'd had. And then I remember very clearly,
my father was preaching and he preached and he said, you know,
you will not only want Christ now, you'll want Christ when
you come to die. And you won't know how soon you're
going to die. Well, that was a real word to
me because I'd really, as it were, come into a lukewarm condition,
not realising it. And yet, you see, we need to
be healthy in the things of God. We need to be lively in the things
of God. And therefore, it may be the Lord does bring us into
times of temptation. Well, the Lord Jesus, we're told
here, was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. And I believe, as we see the
glorious answers the Savior gave to those temptations that we
may be encouraged in our lives when we do face temptation, which
we will. There's no doubt about it. All
of us, if we are the children of God, we'll find we face temptations. And those temptations are such
as will not turn us to God, they will turn us away from God. And
the devil is a very cunning character. Never underestimate the skill
of the devil. Never think you will be strong
enough to resist the devil. We're only strong in the Lord.
We can only resist the devil in the Lord. We cannot resist
him ourselves. If we think we can, we should
be just like Peter. Peter thought he was able and strong, didn't
he? Where he said he would never
deny the Lord. And he would even die for him. valiant words weren't
they and yet in a few hours he was denying his lord with oaths
and curses not once not twice three times well it's a wonderful
word and it's an important warning for all of us to recognize how
we need the power of god to keep us continually and you know that's
not necessary only in an outward way bless god if you and i kept
outwardly but my friends the devil attacks our minds. He attacks
our thoughts and he's very insistent and he keeps on and he keeps
on trying to distract us from the things of God by coming into
our minds and producing those things which are attractive to
the flesh. They don't do our souls any good.
How easy it is to be turned away. That's why we have those glorious
words that the Saviour gave to his disciples when they asked
how they should pray and the Lord said, amongst other things,
lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. How good
that is to pray that every day that we may be not led into temptation
but to be delivered from evil. The sad thing is our old nature
likes temptation. It's quite an amazing thought,
isn't it? You see, we like the things that the devil tempts
us with. That's why we need to be on our
watch, to be very aware and to be very concerned that we may
not be found falling into temptation. We will be tempted, without any
doubt, but may we not fall into those temptations. So we have
this situation here where Jesus was led up of the Spirit into
the wilderness. Well, it is a wilderness journey
which you and I are walking through. We read of Jacob, the Lord called
him. Where did he find him? In the waste howling wilderness. And I've heard some people say,
well, I think the Bible really exaggerates the situation. It's not really as bad as that. Well, it depends how spiritually
minded you are. If you're not very spiritually
minded, you won't think the world's a waste town in wilderness. You'll
think it's not a bad place, really, and you're getting on quite well. But look at your soul. Is your soul healthy? And if
your soul is healthy, and if you're seeking after Christ,
if you're seeking to know that blessed union with the Saviour,
you won't want to then be found enjoying the world. And then
the world will not be attractive. And you'll find it is, as Jacob
tells us, a waste, howling wilderness. No place to settle down in, is
it? A waste town in wilderness isn't
a happy place to be, is it? With the wind howling around
and all the weeds and things growing up, and perhaps a desert
place, not a happy place to abide in. And that will be the position. The Lord is graciously dealing
with us and enabling us to seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, They're familiar words, aren't they? They should
be, I hope they are. But nonetheless, it's a different situation by
just declaring them and walking them out. Well, here we have
then, the statement here about the Saviour himself, led of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And the situation which had been
produced prior to this temptation, or this severe temptation, was
that he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. And he was afterward
in hunger. We don't have a lot of detail
about what that actually and really meant, because in another
account we're told that he was tempted for 40 days. Well, he
wasn't tempted, perhaps, for the 40 days in the same way that
he was in the account we have here before us. But nonetheless,
I'm sure there was that continual temptation. We may say, well,
why was it that Lord Jesus Christ was tempted? Why was the Lord
Jesus Christ tempted? Well, we have the answer in the
Word of God. We have all the answers in the
Word of God. There's no lack of answers. We don't know the
answers because we don't study the Word of God to find the answers. We read two verses in the Hebrews
which give us the good reason why the Saviour was tempted. In the second chapter, in the
18th verse, we read, For in that he himself hath suffered being
tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. That means
he understands very clearly the situation that you and I are
passing through. We have a wonderful friend, what
a friend we have in Jesus, who understands the temptations that
we are facing. And then in the fourth chapter
and the fifteenth verse we read a similar statement, for we have
not a high priest, which cannot be touched with a feeling of
our infirmities. And remember, of course, we need
a high priest to be able to approach unto a holy God in heaven. A
high priest was always necessary in Old Testament times to go
into the holy place. Well, Jesus is in the holy place. The holy place now, not on the
earth as it was in the temple or the tabernacle, but now in
glory. And we have this high priest there. And so the word
tells us, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like us. We are yet without sin. And then we just read on. Let
us, you and me, therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Now we have times of need when
the devil comes and tempts us but we should be thankful tonight
that we have a great and glorious high priest in heaven who knows
all about us and knows every temptation that you and I are
facing or having to walk in. He knows all about us and the
truth is that he has been tempted in the same things. Because the
word of God tells us, and it's true, tempted in all points like
as we are. So we won't be able to say, well,
of course Jesus doesn't understand. He does understand. He understands
us very, very well. And therefore we can come to
him and we can pour our heart to him and we can tell him our
fears, our difficulties, the problems we're facing. The temptations
we're in and we can pray that he will indeed deliver us, lead
us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. God is faithful. Our problem is we so often fail
to pray to God. So often we find our prayers
become a traditional string of requests and phrases. But what
a blessing it is when the Holy Spirit indicts us with prayer
from on high, indicted by His Spirit to seek for those things
which will be for our souls good and indeed for the honour and
glory of our God. So here we have the picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ then, led into the wilderness and now tempted
of the devil. And the tempter came to him.
He said, if there'll be the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. Now, I want to notice this, that
how did the Lord Jesus Christ respond to the temptations of
the devil? It's important for us to realize
because there will be those times when the devil comes and says,
well, you can go and do that. Why don't you go and do that?
Why don't you enjoy that situation? Why don't you get involved in
that? And how are we going to respond? Are we going to try
and weigh up the picture and think, well, I probably can be
involved in that and I don't think it will bring me into any
harm or any difficulty? Well, that's very dangerous ground.
You know, you and I must not rely on our own ability to be
able to calculate whether such a temptation is real or not and
whether we are allowed to walk in that way. So how did the Lord
Jesus respond? He responded by quoting the Word
of God. And therefore if you and I are
addressed by the devil in our minds, perhaps in a situation
to be involved in something, And we need to check it out. Don't lean to our own understanding.
That'll fail. But lean to the Word of God. Now the problem is that we may
not know the Word of God well enough to be able to give an
immediate answer. And it may mean that you and
I will have to pray over the Word of God to come to a right
decision as to how to react. Well, we have the wonderful example
of the Lord Jesus Christ here, because he answers. How does
he answer? He said, it is written, man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. And you may say, well, where
does that come? Well, I'll tell you where it
comes. It comes in the eighth of Deuteronomy, and the third
chapter. And we read this, this is remember
Moses addressing Israel just shortly before he was to lose
his life, his life be taken. And he was so concerned that
Israel might have a real record of God's instruction to them.
And therefore he writes the book of Deuteronomy, and he humbled
thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which
thou knewest not. neither did thy fathers know
that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread
alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of
the Lord doth man live." Well that was a wonderful complete
answer wasn't it? You see the devil couldn't respond
to it because he knew the word was true and if you and I are
able to speak to the devil as he tempts us and tries to invite
us into some sinful situation to be able to come and answer
him from the Word of God. And perhaps I should say this,
do not agree to anything unless the Word of God allows it. Perhaps
I ought to say this, unless the Word of God encourages it. Because
you know the Apostle Paul said, all things are lawful for me,
But all things are not expedient, and how good it is if you and
I seek for those things which are expedient." What does that
mean? It means that which will profit our souls, that which
will keep us healthy in the things of God. And so here was this
answer that the Lord gave the devil. Now, don't expect the
devil to give up. The devil's very persistent.
And he will be very persistent. He'll be persistent, I believe,
right down until we breathe our last breath on this earth. Because
he will want to capture us, possess us, if he can. And he will not
give up. He may go away for a while, but
he will not give up. And so we see the Lord Jesus
was able to answer the devil in this way. And then it would
seem immediately The devil then produces another temptation and
the first temptation really spoke direct to his need. He'd been
fasting for 40 days and he was hungry. So what do you think he therefore
produced the devil? He immediately said, didn't he,
well how about changing these stones into bread? Well you might think, Yes, well
surely the Lord needed bread and surely he could, he wanted
bread and he could have changed the stones into bread. But you
see he answered in this gracious way, man not lived by bread alone
but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And
sorry just to go back to this point but the important thing
is here that the Lord speaks then very clearly and very directly
to differentiate between natural food and spiritual food. We read
this morning and we made some comments on the sixth chapter
of John and in that chapter how very, very clearly the Lord Jesus
speaks about the necessity of spiritual food. Spiritual food
which will be good for the soul and not to be satisfied with
the bread of this life. And he illustrates it by telling
them that the children of Israel had manna all those years, but
they were dead. It had only done them good for
the day. But if the Lord blesses us with
spiritual food, you see, it is an eternal blessing. And therefore,
the Savior speaks and reminds the devil these glorious words,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Well,
if God has spoken to our souls, then my friends, it is important
that you and I have some knowledge of Christ speaking to us in one
way or another. It may be in very simple terms. It may be perhaps in a verse
of scripture. It may be a line of a hymn. But whatever it will be, I believe
it will have come with power to our souls. And as it's come
to power to our souls, we will know that it's proceeded out
of the mouth of God. And it remains. It remains. You see why? It's eternal food. It doesn't perish. It doesn't disappear. God feeds
us with words from his mouth. what a blessing it is, and how
good it is, and how we rely upon God's word. God never gives a
word that you and I won't need. God gives you and me a word that
we shall need, and we shall have to rely upon it. We'll have to
come perhaps many times and say, Lord, thou hast said. That's
the word that I'm relying upon. Thou hast said. Well, it's good,
isn't it, then, to know that the gracious God has spoken to
our hearts and that that's what's keeping our souls alive. But
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and
how humbling it is to realize that almighty God, the ruler
of the universe, condescends to speak to sinners of the earth. It's amazing, isn't it? When
you think of the billions of people in this world, the billions
of people that have passed out of this world, and yet the Lord
knows everyone. He knows where they are. He knows
the situation. And He knows those who are His.
And He knows those whom He has spoken to. And they know they're
amongst those whom He has spoken to. And it's a glorious and blessed
privilege and wonderful favour to know that God has called us,
spoken to us, as the Apostle says, called me by his grace. It's an expression which is often
used, isn't it? And it is a scripture expression,
called by his grace. That means the Lord's called
us. That means the Lord's spoken to us. That means the words proceeded
out of the mouth of God and has come to us and has done us eternal
good. Well then, the devil takes him
up into the holy city. That, of course, is Jerusalem,
and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. Well, the highest
place, as it were, available. And what does he say? If thou
be the son of God. The devil is a past master at
questioning the truth of God. That's precisely what he did
back in the Garden of Eden when he came to Eve and he tempted
her with that subtle question, hath God said? What does it do? What did it do? It sowed a seed
of doubt in her mind. What may it do to us today? It
may sow a seed of doubt into our mind. Well, here we have
this statement. Then the devil taketh him up
into a holy city, setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
and saith, If thou be the Son of 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 shalt dash thy foot against the stone. Well, we have
the temptation there, and how does the Lord respond again?
Again, it's good to read the response. Jesus said unto him,
didn't waste any words, very direct. He says again, it is
written, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, and here again,
This is a direct reference to the words that Moses wrote or
spoke to Israel in the book of Deuteronomy and the sixth chapter. And the 16th verse tells us,
you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in
Massa. You shall not tempt the Lord
your God. And there's the exact statement
you see the Lord uses. To speak to the devil, thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God. Well, it was a very adequate
answer, wasn't it? When you and I, by the grace
of God, are able to quote scripture, the truth of God's word, it is
very adequate. And the devil will not be able
to argue against it. It's only when you and I are
left to ourselves and try and argue in our own way, using perhaps
natural things, turn to the Word of God. God's given us the Bible. Blessed God, isn't he? Given
us the Bible. And what a favour it is that
here we have this before us. And we see, do we not then, the
reason why Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil, because he gives us a great and glorious
testimony and an example how you and I should answer because
there are these three points really that the devil brings
to the Lord and in essence it's very easy to be tempted in a
similar way with all these three things. And the first one really
is to concentrate on natural food rather than spiritual food. It's very easy for us today to
concentrate on natural food rather than spiritual food. We seem
to lack the realization of the great need there is for spiritual
food. And that, of course, is to feed
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to feed upon his death. Why is it
that the Lord Jesus, on that Passover night, he instituted
the Lord's Supper and he said this, this do in remembrance
of me. Because whenever we are directed
to the sufferings of Christ, his broken body and his shed
blood, if we are amongst those whom the Lord has chosen, it
should move our hearts, touch our hearts, as we recognise the
great cost of our salvation. and how it should indeed be food
for our souls. And we should never weary of
coming to the cross. We should never weary of hearing
about the cross, because it should be food for our souls. You know,
we can often wow up our religion, can we not, by, well, what do
we think of Christ? And what do we think of his death?
And is the name of Jesus a sweet sound to us? How sweet the name
of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. The sound of the suffering
saviour. Is it tonight a sweet name in
your ear? Or is it just another name? What a difference there is. What
a blessing it is when the Word of God comes and when it speaks
to the Saviour. It's as though our heart lights
up. We love to hear about the Saviour. Well, food for our souls. Then you see here, then the devil
indicates that we can preserve ourself. He says, no, throw thyself
down. No, safety is of the Lord. We have no safety in and of ourselves.
We have no strength in and of ourselves. Safety is of the Lord. And that safety is indeed from
perhaps falling into all manner of sin. What a blessing it is
then to have a testimony like this. Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God. And then the Lord, the devil
goes on again, not giving up you see. Again, remember that
he may tempt you and you may think, well, I've been able to
resist the devil and you can thank God for it. My friends,
be on your guard still. The devil's there. He's very
active. And so now, what is he saying? He takes 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 would fall down and worship me. The inference there is, of course,
is to encourage our pride. I think, well, how wonderful
it would be if I had all these things. How good it would be,
how encouraging I would be. I'd love to have this and I'd
love to have that. Well, the devil says, well, you
can have them all. If you worship me, remember of
course the devil's a liar and it wouldn't happen anyway. But
there's the temptation. Don't listen to the devil. And
what does the Lord say? Well, Jesus said unto him, get
thee hence, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And again, turning to the sixth
chapter of Deuteronomy, we have the answer there in an earlier
verse, which tells us that we should not serve anyone other
than the Lord himself. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy
God and serve him. That's the truth, my friends.
You and I should fear the Lord, our God, and to serve him. And
what that means is we are not to serve the devil. We're not
to serve the devil. And we do serve the devil when
we turn away from our God, when we turn away from the precious
truths of the gospel, when we turn away from meditating on
the suffering savior, We're not serving God, we're then serving
the devil. Now then, the devil had therefore
spoken these three temptations to the Saviour and the Saviour
had wonderfully answered them from the Old Testament. Well,
we have the Bible today, we have the Old Testament and the New
Testament. My friends, what a volume of truth it is and how many words
there are. especially in the letters that
the Apostle wrote to the various churches to encourage us today,
as we may find times of temptation, that we may be given that grace
to resist the devil. And of course we're encouraged,
aren't we, in the Ephesians when Paul tells us to take unto us
the whole armour of God, the whole armour of God, so that
you and I may be equipped to fight the devil. The devil won't
easily give up, he won't go away. What a blessing it is when you
and I favoured to possess this whole armour of God, to be strong
in the Lord, not strong in ourselves. That's a lesson we have to learn,
that we're weak in ourselves. Never rely on your ability, but
rely on the strength of Almighty God. And therefore he tells us,
finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. And he says, put on the whole
armor of God. God has given an armor. And we're
thankful that in our Bible studies we're going through this. James
is going through this for us. And it's very encouraging and
very strengthening to realize what a favor it is. Put on the
whole armor of God. that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in higher places. We don't wrestle against something
which is naturally tangible to our own understanding. And therefore
he tells us, wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of
God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, the
day of temptation, the day in the wilderness, the day when
you may perhaps not be in a comfortable situation, you won't be sitting
in chapel, you may be in the world, you may be in a difficult
situation, you may find worldly people all around you, and then
you see it is that you'll need this whole armour. then it is
your need, the Word of God, to be able to resist the devil.
Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, the Word
of God. Oh, my friends, never weary in
studying and reading the Word of God. The whole truth stand
therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on
the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith
wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked see our journey through this world is one where we're
attacked continually by the devil and he throws fiery darts which
are painful and our faith is tested to see whether we are
amongst those who truly depend upon the grace of God or whether
we are relying on our own ability and take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there
unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."
Well, that's a very wonderful few verses which describes to
us the whole armour of God. And what a favour it is that
God gives us this armour to put on. And may we put it on so that
when the devil comes and tempts us, we may be able to answer
him from the Word of God. And if so, he will not be able
to answer. And as we see here, the great
and glorious Picture the Saviour, a conqueror. He conquered. He
conquered sin, hell and the grave. And I love those words, and we
are more than conquerors through Him. Oh, what a blessing it is
that we have such a great Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has
set before us such a wonderful example, who has paid the price
for our sin, endured the curse, endured all that suffering so
that you and I might be set free and by His grace one day be found
with Him, with our blessed Saviour in glory around that throne of
God in heaven praising Him throughout eternity. Well this evening may
we bless God for the Word of God once again which gives us
such encouraging truth and to see how the Lord was able to
resist the devil in those gracious words in this wonderful example
and may we be concerned and continually and prayerfully concerned that
you and I may also be equipped with the truth of God in our
hearts and be able to answer the devil when he tempts us,
when he leads us into temptation. Remember the Great words of the
Saviour, the great prayer, may it be a constant prayer with
us, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.