Handling Temptations

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made 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 up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, 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 dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth 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 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.

Matthew 4:3-11

How shall we handle temptation? We have considered, for the last two days Satan’s temptation of Christ. We considered when and how he tempted Him. These things are useful for us when we seek to know when and how we may encounter temptation ourselves. We learn from Christ. So also, if we want to learn how to overcome temptation, again, we must learn from Christ. It is notable, when we consider this, that Christ, the Living Word, answered Satan by using the Written Word. On the three occasions when Satan tempted Him, Christ answered by quoting different portions of the book of Deuteronomy. Herein lies wisdom. Our answer to temptation lies in the Scripture. We find that Christ does not equivocate or attempt, in any way, to reason with Satan, aside from putting the Word of God against the wiles of the Evil One. When dealing with temptation, the Scripture is our high ground. Three times Christ declares, ‘It is written.’ We cannot improve upon that methodology for handling temptation. In order to quote the Scripture readily, Christ had to know the Scripture thoroughly. So also we, if we would have the Scripture close at hand in times of temptation, must ourselves be thoroughly acquainted with it. So let us fill our hearts and minds with the Written Word, and by that, learn to imitate the Living Word.

Our Gracious Master and Our God,
we praise You that You are acquainted with all of the temptations that we endure.
Fill our minds with Your Holy Word,
that we may have a ready answer for every onslaught of the Evil One.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Varied Temptations

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made 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 up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, 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 dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth 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 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.

Matthew 4:3-11

How will Satan tempt us? We considered yesterday when Satan will tempt us. Today let us consider how he will. In our passage today, we find Satan appealing to Christ to do three things. He tempts Him to, ‘command that these stones be made bread.’ Does not this correspond to the lust of the flesh; to which John refers in I John 2:16? He then tempts Chirst to, ‘cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple,’ citing Psalm 91, that the angels would bear Him up. Is not this, ‘the pride of life’ to which John again refers in the same verse we cited earlier? He then shows Christ, ‘all the kingdoms of the world,’ and declares that he will give them to Christ, if He will but bow down and worship Satan. Is not this, ‘the lust of the eyes,’ to which John refers in I John 2:16 as well? If Satan thus tempted Christ, we should expect him to tempt us along the same lines. Have we not found it thus far, to be so with us?  To our great sorrow, we find that we often fall to temptation in these areas. The comfort we may gain from this, is that Christ utterly and completely understands what we face.  He ‘was tempted in all points like as we are.’ We are greatly encouraged that we are not isolated and alone in our temptations. Others around us face them, and more importantly, Christ Himself, Who counts more than all the others, has faced them too. We follow the Christ, Who is always going before us.

Our Loving and Sympathetic Savior,
we praise You that You understand all we face,
we rejoice that You ever go before us
and set us in the way of Your steps.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Tempted of the Devil

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Matthew 4:1

Christ is the Great Example of His People. Whatever we may encounter, He has already encountered. What we may yet face, he has already faced. He is the Altogether Sympathetic and Utterly Empathetic Savior. Our text today brings us to consider the temptation of Christ. We plan to dwell here for the next few days. We ought to consider, first, the occasion of the temptation. When did Satan tempt Christ? By considering that, we may come to some knowledge of when he may tempt us. For us, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. This will take us back to the third chapter of Matthew. Notice that Satan tempted Christ at the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. So may we expect Satan to tempt us at the beginnings of any great undertaking for the glory of God. How often do we find ourselves tempted at the outset of some holy project? Also, we find that Satan tempted Christ after He had been recently baptized. So also, we may expect that Satan will tempt us after we have sought to follow the Lord by engaging in some signal act of obedience to His Revealed Word. Another aspect to consider is that our text declares that Christ was, ‘led up of the Spirit.’ It was at this point that Satan brought his temptation. We may expect that when we are most closely following the Lord into some previously unencountered situation, that Satan will seize the opportunity to tempt us. Notice, please, that he was alone for a prolonged period. We may find ourselves, for one reason or another, isolated from human company for a lengthy period. This affords Satan an opportunity to prey upon our minds. We also see that Satan brought his temptation when Christ was hungered and weak of body. How often does Satan take advantage of our physical weakness to drive home his temptation to induce us to sin. These are all circumstances which are worthy of our consideration. ‘We are not ignorant of his devices.’  Today, let us dwell upon these things, that we may be well-informed when Satan comes to call.

Our Most Gracious and Holy God, Our Shield and Our Defender.
We pray fervently, today, that You would,
‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.’
You Alone can keep us as Our Great Shepherd of the Sheep.
We trust in You to be Our Ever-Present Shield.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning