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14-Your Adversary, the Devil - How Satan Tempts |
14-Your Adversary, the Devil - How Satan Tempts
Matthew 4:1-11
Satan's original rebellion challenged the authority of God. It challenged
God's right to rule over His creation and His creatures, challenged God's
right to be obeyed, challenged God's right to be believed. Through the
unfolding drama of human history Satan has been perpetuating his lie, the
lie that he has the right to rule, to be obeyed, to be believed.
Ultimately the issue as to who has the right must be settled, for two
cannot have authority in the same sphere. Two who hold divergent views
cannot both be true. Two cannot claim the right to be worshiped. Satan
recognized that he was a creature, that he possessed created life. Satan
would have to acknowledge that God is creator and possessed untreated
life, but he sought to delay this direct confrontation. In the economy of
God the time comes when the battle can no longer be postponed, when the
conflict must be settled.
Before our Lord began His actual ministry He went out in the wilderness
to challenge Satan, to compel Satan to do battle with Him to settle the
issue once and for all. We have somehow come to the conclusion that Jesus
Christ went out into the wilderness, that He was pursued there by Satan,
that Christ was looking for some place to hide so that Satan might not
find Him and challenge Him. Actually the converse is true. Satan was the
pursued and Christ the pursuer; Christ, who had been listening for all
the ages since Satan's rebellion to his claims, now compels Satan to meet
Him in battle. Is God worthy to be obeyed? Is His Word worthy to be
trusted? Is God worthy to be worshiped? Satan, knowing the ultimate
outcome of this conflict between himself and Christ, certainly sought to
flee from the place of temptation. Christ was in the wilderness under the
Spirit's control; He was there in the will of God. He was there to pursue
the Accuser and to compel the Accuser to put Him to test. In the record
given to us in Matthew 4 we find the temptation of Jesus Christ by His
adversary.
According to the Word of God there are only three channels, or gates,
through which Satan can gain access to the citadel of a man's life. Satan
can enter through the lust of the flesh, through the lust of the eyes, or
through the pride of life. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Christ
was tested in all points like as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
The writer is not suggesting that Christ was subjected numerically to
every testing with which we have been tested but he is asserting that
Jesus Christ was tested through every channel. Every gate was assaulted
which Satan could possibly attack in order to conform Christ to the will
of Satan. It is therefore significant to note that Christ's testing was
in three specific areas. When tested as to the lust of the flesh, He
hungered. The pride of life tested His faith in God. As to the lust of
the eye, all of the kingdoms of the world were shown to Him in a moment
of time. We are familiar with the record that is given to us of Christ's
temptations. Let us notice these areas as they reveal to us Satan's
method of temptation today. Satan's manner of dealing with Christ and his
method for you are one and the same.
It is recorded in Matthew that Christ went into the wilderness to do
battle with Satan, not according to His own will but according to the
will of God, for He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. He went
not in His own strength or power, but, consciously dependent upon the
sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. He went not to seek His own things,
but to settle the issue that was raised by Satan's original rebellion
against God. The Scripture records that for forty days and forty nights
our Lord went without physical food. It was not until that extended
period of time had terminated that Jesus Christ felt physical hunger.
Matthew makes this very clear when he says He had fasted forty days and
forty nights and "he was afterward an hungered."
There is no natural explanation as to how a man could continue for this
extended period of time without physical food and feel no adverse
effects. Yet this is explained to us in the fourth chapter of John's
gospel. During Christ's visit to Samaria, in order that He might have
time alone with one in deep spiritual need, He sent the disciples into
the village to obtain food. While the disciples were gone our Lord met
the spiritual need of the Samaritan woman. He revealed Himself to her as
the One who had come from God in order to satisfy the needs of men. After
our Lord had concluded His time with her, the disciples returned to Him
bringing the food that they had purchased in the city. They invited Him,
saying, "Master, eat" (John 4:31). But He said unto them, "I have meat to
eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another,
Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is
to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." Our Lord
revealed to the disciples on that occasion that His relationship to the
will of God was that which sustained Him hour by hour and day by day. As
other men depended upon physical food to sustain their bodies, He was
dependent upon the will of God to sustain Him. As He walked in dependence
upon God and in perfect obedience to the will of God, God sustained Him
in that which God had for Him to do. Our Lord went for forty days and
forty nights without physical food and was sustained during that period
because He was in a place of perfect obedience to the will of God. His
dependence upon the Spirit of God while in a place of obedience to God
gave Him the sustenance that His body needed.
It was in the very area of His relationship to the will of God that Satan
came with his first test. Satan assumed the truth of the Person of
Christ. In your English text you read Satan's words, "If thou be the Son
of God." We need not remind you that the Scriptures tell us that the
demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). While modern man does not
hesitate to deny the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ, and does not
hesitate to deny that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the eternal God
come in the flesh through the virgin birth, no angel of hell has ever yet
questioned the Person of Jesus Christ. Satan on this occasion is not
questioning the doctrine of the Person of Christ; he is assuming it. This
might properly be read, "Since thou art the Son of God, command that
these stones be made bread." God had given food to sustain the body. That
was made very clear at the time of creation, for when God placed Adam and
Eve in the garden, He said to His creatures, "Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat" (Genesis 2:16). God's method of sustaining the
body was through the consumption of food. Satan then is not tempting
Christ to do something that the Word of God had forbidden. Christ was
being tested in an area which God had commanded and approved. Thus in a
perfectly reasonable, logical way, Satan came to Christ and said, "Since
you are the Son of God, command these stones that they be made bread."
Satan was recognizing what men today are not willing to recognize. Men
today cast doubt on the authority of the Word of God. For instance, the
Word says that all things that exist were created by Him. The Word of God
teaches that the universe came into existence by the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Word reveals that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Modern man does not hesitate to call the Word of God false and to
pronounce God a liar. But Satan is not as bold as some men are. He
acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the Creator and the Son of God and by
the spoken word He could perform again the miracle that He had performed
at the time of creation. It would be far simpler for Jesus Christ to
transform a stone into bread than to call this universe into existence
out of nothing, and Satan acknowledged that Jesus Christ could do it. So
he challenged Him: Command these stones to be made bread."
Wherein, then, is the temptation? God has given food to sustain the body.
Christ, after a period of forty days fasting was in need of physical
sustenance. Jesus Christ had the power and the authority to command
stones to make them into bread. Where is the temptation? The subtle
temptation which Satan put before Jesus Christ was the temptation to
depart from the will of God. Since Jesus Christ was in the wilderness
under the control of the Spirit and was being sustained by His obedience
to the Spirit of God, the physical hunger that He endured was part of
God's will for Him. The hunger was a part of God's design. For Jesus
Christ to exercise an independent power to meet His own needs was to
disobey the will of God as it was revealed to Him.
The subtlety of Satan's suggestion was this: Since you are a Son of God,
it is unreasonable that you should be asked to deny yourself anything
that you want. His suggestion is that Sonship permits independence of
God. Since you are a Son, why do you have to deny yourself anything? Meet
your own need without continuing in the will of God, without being
dependent upon the Father. The first thing that Satan wanted of Christ
then was for Christ to disobey and to depart from the place of perfect
obedience to the will of God.
Obedience is what God wants of us. God has a plan for us and His plan is
made known in the Word. God has revealed it with remarkable clarity so
that one who turns to the Scriptures can know step-by-step what God has
for him, what God expects of him, what God's will is for him. We have
somehow come to feel that the sonship which we have because we belong to
Jesus Christ gives us the right to sit in judgment upon the will of God -
to decide whether we will submit to the will of God or not, to continue
in our own way if it pleases us, to ignore the commands of Scripture when
it suits us, to do as we please. Satan comes with the subtle suggestion
that, since you are a son because of your faith in Jesus Christ, you
don't have to do what He says. You have rights as a son. You have a mind
of your own; use it. Satan's first temptation to Christ was to depart
from the will of God for Him. That is Satan's first great desire for you;
that you should ignore the will of God and become independent.
The second temptation is recorded in Matthew 4:5, 6. Satan took Christ
"into the holy city [Jerusalem] 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." The city of Jerusalem was built on the top of a
hill, and around the city was a thick, high wall built for protection.
The corner of the city wall of Jerusalem was some 400 feet above the
floor of the valley of the Kidron below. Jesus Christ was placed by Satan
there on the edge of the city wall, known even to the present day as "the
pinnacle of the temple." Satan directed his gaze downward into the valley
some 400 feet below and said to Christ, "You quoted the book of
Deuteronomy by which you turned aside my first temptation, 'Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God.' Your reply shows me that you have confidence in what God has
said. Now I want to see just how much confidence you actually have. Let
me quote a promise to you: The psalmist said 'He shall give his angels
charge concerning thee and they shall bear thee up in their hands lest at
any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.' Now if you believe the Word
of God as you say you do, then jump and demonstrate your faith. Challenge
God, put God to the test and see if God is to be trusted. Demonstrate
your faith in the promise of God."
This, like the first temptation, sounds quite reasonable and logical. If
we have the Word of God and we have discovered a pertinent promise from
the Word of God, we have a right to claim it; we can rest upon it. After
all, what guarantee do we have that God has forgiven us our sins when we
believe in Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour? We have nothing but the
Word of God. What assurance do we have that there is no condemnation, no
judgment, to those that are in Christ Jesus? We have nothing but the
promise of the Word of God. Our whole destiny rests upon the
trustworthiness of the Word of God. We who have received Jesus Christ
have entrusted our eternal destiny to the Word of the Father; is it to be
trusted? So Satan suggested that Jesus Christ put God to the test. Behind
this was the subtle temptation to doubt the Word of God. It had been
written, "God shall give his angels charge over thee," but that promise
was to those who were in obedience to God's will, to those who were
walking according to the Word of God. For Jesus Christ to put God to the
test was to say that He would not accept the fact simply because God said
it, but only if He demonstrated it for Himself.
The scientist who says, "I will believe what I can prove in my
laboratory," is basically a skeptic. He puts himself in the place of a
judge and demands that he be satisfied. When God has made a statement and
we put it to a test, we say in effect that we don't believe God. Satan
came to Christ and tempted Him to demonstrate how great His faith was in
what God said He would do. Christ replied by saying, "Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God (v. 7)." Jesus Christ did not have to put God to a
test to believe Him. Jesus Christ believed God. An individual who puts
God's Word to the test is saying that he won't believe Him until He does
something to prove Himself. That is the test of the devil! If you try to
prove it, you are calling God a liar. That is exactly what Satan wants
you to do. You are succumbing to Satan's second test in which Satan's
desire is to lead you to doubt the Word of God.
When Christ would not succumb to Satan's second temptation, he put a
third before Him. We read in the eighth verse of Matthew 4: "The devil
taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth 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."
Authority over the earth was deposited by the Creator in the hand of
Adam, and he as God's appointed ruler administered God's authority over
the earth. When Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan's temptation and ate of
the forbidden fruit, they surrendered the scepter that God had given them
into the hand of Satan, and Satan became the god of this world. Satan has
existed as a usurping ruler from the time of Adam's fall to the present
time. It was God's purpose as stated in Psalm 8 that He should wrest the
scepter from Satan and restore it to Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, that
He might rule as King of kings and Lord of lords. Satan, knowing that he
had the authority of an usurper, showed Jesus Christ the glory of the
kingdoms of this earth. At that moment he offered to release the scepter
that he held in his hand to turn it over to Jesus Christ so that He might
reign as a King over kings and Lord over lords. There was one condition:
that Jesus Christ should worship him.
The subtlety of this temptation was that the One who has the right to be
worshiped also has the right to be obeyed. If Jesus Christ should give
Satan one act of worship, reasonably and logically He must obey the one
whose right to receive worship he had just acknowledged. Satan's desire
was to divert the worship that belongs to God to himself. This was the
climactic temptation that Satan put before Christ. He invited Him to
disobey the will of God and to doubt the Word of God, but those were all
incidental to this great desire: to divert the worship that belongs to
God to himself.
On the authority of the Word of God, this is what Satan wants from you
more than anything else. When Jesus Christ stood in the upper room a week
after His resurrection, He showed the disciples His hands and His side
and Thomas burst forth with the words, "My Lord and my God." Satan wants
to hear those words from the lips addressed to himself more than anything
in this world. He is willing to surrender any claim that he makes to this
universe if he can get you to worship him and to submit to him, to obey
him and to do his will. If you acknowledge Satan's right to be worshiped,
you have conceded his right to be obeyed. Satan works upon your mind and
upon your heart and upon your will to bring you to the place that you
will listen to him and say, "Yes, my lord." When he has brought you to
that place, he then looks up toward the face of God and says, "Here is
one more who says that I am god, that I have the right to be obeyed, who
recognizes my authority instead of yours."
The world has walked in disobedience. The world, by submitting to Satan's
authority, has echoed Satan's claim that God ought to be deposed and that
Satan ought to be enthroned. It was not until Jesus Christ came into this
world that there was One who obeyed the will of God perfectly. When
Christ in the garden of Gethsemane said to the Father, "Not my will but
thine be done," He was saying in effect to the Father, "Satan claims the
right to be obeyed, to be believed, and to be worshiped. The human race
has echoed his claim, but I submit to You in order that the world and
angels might know that Thou art God; beside Thee there is no other and
Your will is to be obeyed and Your Word believed and Your Person
worshiped."
God's desire for you is that you should obey His will, that you should
believe His Word, and that you should worship His Person just as Jesus
Christ did. You can be an object lesson for God to the angels through
your submission, through your faith, through your worship that He is God
and beside Him there is no other. How easy it is to disobey, to doubt and
to withhold the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that rightly belongs
to God. We challenge you in the light of the Word of God to examine your
walk in relation to the will of God, your heart's attitude toward the
Word of God and to the Person of the Father, lest you fulfill the desire
of Satan.
Pentecost, J. D. (1997). Your adversary, the Devil. Originally published:
Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan, 1969. (122). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.
.
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