Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you,
but an old commandment which ye had from
the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which ye
have heard from the beginning.
Again a new commandment I write unto you,
which thing is true in him and in
you, because the darkness is past, and the
new light now shining.
He that saith he is in the light,
and hateth his brother, is in darkness even
until now.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the
light, and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him.
But he that hateth his brother is in
darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not
whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded
his eyes.
I write unto you, little children, because your
sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
I write unto you, fathers, because ye have
known him that is from the beginning.
I write unto you, young men, because ye
have overcome the wicked one.
I write unto you, little children, because ye
have known the Father.
I have written unto you, fathers, because ye
have known him that is from the beginning.
I have written unto you, young men, because
ye are strong, and the word of God
abideth in you, and ye have overcome the
wicked one.
Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world.
If any man loveth the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
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.
And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever.
May God add his blessing to the reading
of this word.
Many of God's children have been deceived into
believing that Satan is invincible.
That when he comes to tempt a man,
there is nothing the individual can do to
withstand him.
That he has so many devices at his
disposal, when we resist him on one front,
we can always fall back to some other
device, so that whether we desire it or
not, eventually he must triumph over us in
it.
This which is a common view among God's
children is a lie of the devil.
It is a lie designed to blind us
to the steps which Satan uses in temptation.
For if we understand these steps, and are
on guard against them, if we understand the
devices of the evil one, we are prepared
to meet him, and by the Spirit's help,
to defeat him.
We do not question the truth of the
declaration of the Apostle Peter, who in 1
Peter 5, 8 says, Your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom
he may devour.
Satan roars to attract attention to himself, and
to distract us from the true nature of
the devices of the wicked one.
The Apostle John, in his first epistle, chapter
2 and verse 16, writes to us concerning
the avenues through which Satan can assault an
individual.
And it is a comfort to me to
know that Satan cannot attack through a multitude
of channels or courses, but he can attack
the individual through only three.
For these three, and only these three, are
the gates through which Satan can enter into
the life of an individual.
They are well known.
The Apostle John writes that all that is
in the world can be summarized under three
categories, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Many will conclude, after analyzing these three, that
Satan needs no more, that they are sufficient,
and it gives him ample opportunity to attack
the citadel in order to destroy the walk
of the child of God.
Satan has to appeal to the nature that
is within us.
Satan is no innovator.
Satan cannot start anything new.
He can only begin to work with what
man is.
And the nature of man, according to the
Apostle John, can be summarized under three categories,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life.
And all temptation has to fit under one
of these three categories, and all sin of
necessity falls under one of these three heads,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life.
These three divide sin into three general categories.
There is that which is fleshly, or that
which is carnal.
This division recognizes that man, because of Adam's
sin, is possessed of a nature that is
characterized by its fleshliness, by its appetites, its
desires, its cravings, its passions.
And there are sins that are peculiarly sins
of the flesh.
And Satan may appeal to this area.
The second category of sin, which gives a
second characterization of the nature of man, is
the phrase, the lust of the eyes.
This reveals to us the fact that man
is not only carnal by nature, but also
basically selfish.
That what he sees he desires and covets,
and what he desires or covets through his
sight, he will go to any ends to
attain for himself.
This may be in a realm widely separated
from the realm of the flesh, but man
is covetous or selfish by nature, and Satan
may appeal through the eyes to this category
of the human nature to lead man away
in temptation through the basic selfishness of the
individual.
The third category of sins, appealing to the
third basic characteristic of the human nature, is
found in this third phrase, the pride of
life.
There are those sins that appeal to pride,
because the human nature is basically proud.
It loves and seeks and strives for that
which promotes the individual, elevates the individual, pleases
the individual, gives a sense of independence to
the individual as one who is self-sustaining.
Now, when Satan comes to an individual to
tempt him, his temptation must appeal to one
of these three basic characteristics of the human
nature, its carnal capacity, its selfish interest, or
its pride.
Satan may appeal to the mind, he may
appeal to the heart, but those are only
stepping stones to move the will.
For Satan is not concerned only in having
an individual receive a temptation and play around
with that temptation.
Satan is concerned with having the individual succumb
to that temptation.
So that Satan is directing his temptations ultimately
to the will of the individual, to produce
an act or a work that is contrary
to the revealed will of God.
And he may use the mind, or he
may use the heart, or a combination of
these two, but ultimately his desire is to
produce an act that comes from the will
of the individual who submits to the enticements
of Satan and follows him in disobedience against
God.
And any temptation that Satan presents to you
will fall into one of these three categories
and follow this pathway from the mind to
the heart and ultimately on to the will.
For Satan recognizes that what a man knows,
he comes to love, and what a man
loves, he will obey.
So Satan plants a seed in the mind
and then generates that seed so that affection
for that thing is produced, knowing that what
a man loves ultimately he will serve.
This process may be spread over an extensive
period of time.
In which a seed is planted and then
left, so that over a long period a
man comes to love what Satan has proposed
before the individual comes to obey Satan's bidding.
Or it may be a process that is
speeded up so that love for that thing
which Satan has planted in the mind may
be almost instantaneous.
But the one object and the goal is
to produce obedience to that which Satan desires.
And if an individual, in facing any temptation,
can pause a moment to analyze that temptation,
he can discover immediately into which category it
falls, whether it is an appeal to the
lust of the flesh, whether it is an
appeal to the basic selfish nature through the
lust of the eyes, or whether it is
an appeal to pride that works through the
pride of life.
And when he is able to determine the
nature of the attack, then he can use
the Word of God energized by the Spirit
of God to meet that attack because he
recognizes it for what it actually is, a
temptation from the evil one.
Now this principle is well illustrated in Satan's
attack against our Lord in the temptation in
the wilderness.
We remember in Hebrews 4.15 the Apostle
wrote that Christ was tempted or tested in
all points like as we are, yet without
sin.
And what the Apostle is affirming is the
fact that when Satan came to divert Christ
from the path of implicit obedience to his
Father in heaven, he used the same basic
three approaches that he has used from the
time of his temptation of Eve right down
to the present moment.
And he exhausted his capacity to tempt and
the approaches through which he might tempt when
he met Christ in the wilderness.
I'm turning to the fourth chapter of Luke's
gospel to see Luke's record of the temptation.
We read that when Satan and Christ came
into conflict, Christ was hungered after his 40
days in the wilderness without food.
Christ was sustained by his perfect obedience to
the will of God and his dependence upon
God for sustenance in those days.
And we read in verse 2 that in
those days he did eat nothing, and when
they were ended he afterward hungered.
And Luke records for us the fact that
Christ was so sustained by his dependence upon
God for those 40 days that he felt
no hunger whatsoever.
And it was only after that extended period
of time in which God permitted him to
feel hunger pains in order that Satan's temptation
might be very real.
Now, hunger is a perfectly natural, normal appetite.
And in the proper satisfaction of that appetite,
there is no sin.
I am thankful that my salvation has not
taken away my privilege of enjoying a good
meal.
I must safeguard that privilege against the sin
of gluttony, of intemperance or misuse of the
privilege.
But the hunger itself was a perfectly normal
and natural appetite.
But it is associated with this fleshly body.
Therefore, the temptation which Satan presented to Christ
was in the area of the lust of
the flesh.
Nothing wrong in the appetite, and nothing wrong
in the proper satisfaction of that appetite.
But to satisfy it in obedience to Satan
rather than to endure it in obedience to
the will of God is a sin.
And so Satan came to Christ, and assuming
the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, he said, if, or as it
might better be translated, since thou art the
Son of God, command this stone that it
be made bread.
Now, it is not our purpose to try
to study the temptation of Christ in detail,
but only to point out this morning the
avenues through which Satan attacked Christ.
And we observe, first of all, that his
attack was in the area of the lust
of the flesh.
He sought to assault the citadel of Christ's
obedience by diverting Christ from the path of
obedience.
And his appeal was in the area of
the flesh.
And Christ, recognizing that temptation, replied from the
word of God, Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word of God.
And when God the Father said to God
the Son, Be hungry, it was sin for
Christ to satisfy himself as he had the
power to do in response to Satan's testing.
He was tested first, the area of the
flesh.
The second place, the devil took him up
into a high mountain and showed unto him
all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time.
According to the prophetic scriptures, Christ was destined
to rule over those kingdoms as King of
kings and Lord of lords.
And Satan's second method of testing was to
reveal all that which Christ ultimately would have
as his own when given to him by
the Father.
Christ's temptation here was a temptation that came
through the lust of the eyes as Satan
showed him that which eventually would be his,
but to create in him a desire to
have it now, to have it in his
time rather than to wait for God's time.
It was a test in which that which
God promised was used to test Christ's willingness
to wait.
But the appeal came to him through the
lust of the eyes, an appeal to a
selfish nature to demand now what God is
withholding as though God were selfish in being
unwilling to relinquish that which he had promised
to the Son.
And again, determining the nature of this temptation,
Christ used the word of God and said,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve.
And in response to an appeal to selfishness,
Christ said, I am willing to wait God's
time.
The third temptation came in the third area
where Christ has demonstrated perfect submission to God
and perfect dependence upon God.
Now he is tested in the area of
that dependence.
As he is placed on the pinnacle of
the temple, he is invited, Test thyself now,
for it is written, He shall give his
angels charge over thee to keep thee, and
in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot
against a stone.
It was an appeal to pride.
You have demonstrated, it is as though Satan
said, a remarkable faith in God.
Now demonstrate that faith that all men may
commend you for your faith.
Demonstrate before men by casting yourself down into
the valley below just how great your faith
is, that you might be honored for your
faith.
This appeal to pride to demonstrate for selfish
ends, for self-promotion, the faith in God
that he possesses.
And for the third time, recognizing this attack
of the evil one, Satan was turned aside
by Christ's dependence upon the word of God.
Thou shalt not tempt or put to the
test the Lord thy God.
Then we read this significant word in Luke
4.13, when the devil had ended all
the temptation.
I would underline that little word, all.
For when Satan had appealed to the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and to the pride of life, there was
no other channel through which he could seek
to approach the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ was faced with this temptation without a
carnal or fleshly nature, without a selfish nature,
without a nature characterized by pride.
But Satan had no other devices to tempt
Christ than those which he has used so
successfully in the life of every man from
the time of Adam's sin to the present
time.
And Christ's victory came because he recognized the
nature of the appeal and then could use
the appropriate scripture to resist that temptation.
You will notice this was not a blind
adherence to the word of God, but Christ,
analyzing and understanding the temptation, was able to
apply a specific principle and promise of the
word of God to that temptation.
Many of us go down in defeat before
Satan, not because we don't respect the word
of God, for we do, but we are
ignorant of what is in the pages of
the word of God, and we are unable
to apply specifically a word to a situation.
And if we are to resist Satan's temptation,
we must first understand the nature of the
temptation.
We must discern the avenue of attack.
We must be able to analyze what Satan
is doing and what method he is using,
and then go to a specific portion of
the word of God that deals with that
situation and apply the scriptures to the tempter
in order that he might be defeated.
And this Christ did.
May I turn you to 2 Samuel, chapter
11, for the record given to us of
one who was tested by the evil one,
who did not triumph, and sin is written
across the pages of the word of God
to remind us of the peril that faces
the child of God who does not discern
Satan's method of attack and then use the
scriptural principles to resist that attack.
It's King David, who will himself upon his
housetop in the evening of the day.
We read in the second verse, It came
to pass in an evening tide that David
arose from off his bed and walked upon
the roof of the king's house.
From the roof he saw a woman washing
herself.
The woman was very beautiful to look upon.
Verse 4, David sent messengers and took her,
and she came in unto him, and he
lay with her.
We notice in the second verse that Satan's
first attack to David was through the eyes,
the lust of the eyes.
For he saw, he saw.
And because he was basically selfish, as all
men are selfish, he coveted what he saw.
He could rationalize with himself and say, I
am a king, and as a king I
have absolute authority over all my subjects, and
it is a royal prerogative to requisition that
which the king desires.
But the word of God was very specific.
He had on one hand the law that
said, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
He had further instruction.
This instruction was given to us back in
the Old Testament in Deuteronomy, chapter 17.
There is Moses preparing Israel to become a
self-governing nation.
He anticipated that God one day would give
Israel a king.
And these are some of the commands.
In verse 14, Thou shalt say, I will
set a king over me, like as all
the nations that are around about me.
Thou shalt in any wise set him king
over thee whom the Lord thy God hath
chosen.
One from among thy brethren shalt thou set
king over thee.
Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee
which is not thy brother.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself,
nor cause the people to return to Egypt
to the end that he should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said
unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more
that way.
Man will trust in might, in power, in
self-defense, and will not cast themselves in
dependence upon God.
So God said the king shall not build
a great stable of horses.
Verse 17, Neither shall he multiply wives to
himself that his heart turn not away.
Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver
and gold.
That which David was contemplating was forbidden not
only by the law but by the added
specific instructions of the word of God.
What David saw, what he saw he coveted
because he was basically selfish.
That was his nature.
Then what David saw he lusted after and
he sent for her.
And the lust of the eyes promoted lust
of the flesh and he put a plan
into operation to gain that which the flesh
coveted.
And that which he saw and desired he
took.
In the fourth verse the record is given
that David sent messengers and took her.
The mind saw, then the heart lusted,
and then the will disobeyed the word of
God.
The steps of temptation that carried David to
disgrace are the steps that Satan uses in
the experience of every man to bring that
individual out of the will of God, out
of the place of obedience to God, to
bring the individual to obedience to himself.
That which the flesh desires and that which
man sees because he is carnal and selfish
he gives himself to and falls into temptation.
And we find that the word of God
gives some specific instructions because of the three
steps in temptation.
For instance, if you turn to Philippians chapter
four and verse eight, the apostle speaks concerning
the mind.
Philippians chapter four, verse eight.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report, if there be any
virtue, be any praise, think on these things.
Again, in 2 Corinthians chapter ten and verse
five, the apostle says, we are to cast
down imaginations, that is, bring under judgment every
wicked thought and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ.
Satan begins with the mind, and he plants
a desire in that mind, whether through the
flesh or through selfish desire, that thought is
planted.
And the word of God says, uproot that
seed Satan has planted before it germinates, before
it goes a step further.
For if that thought planted by Satan is
allowed to remain in the mind, it will
move on to bear its fruit.
So when Satan attacks through the mind, that
thought is to be judged, it is to
be recognized as a satanic approach, it is
to be recognized as the first step in
temptation, and it is to be uprooted by
the word of God and by the power
of the Spirit, so it is not allowed
to remain to produce sin.
And then in the second place, Satan moves
from the mind to the area of the
heart.
For that thought that he has planted that
appeals to the lust of the flesh or
the lust of the eyes, he gets men
to desire, to love, to work for, to
seek for, to grasp after.
And that is why Solomon, who had great
experience in wrestling with Satan, usually to his
own destruction, wrote in Proverbs 4.23, Keep
or guard thy heart with all diligence, for
out of it are the issues of life.
Guard your heart with all diligence, for out
of it are the issues of life.
You see, if that seed planted in the
mind is allowed to remain, to begin to
germinate, the heart will begin to love what
Satan has put there.
That's why the Apostle has to command us
in I John 2.15, Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the
world.
James has to remind us that to love
the world is to become an adulteress against
God, because the world is no friend of
God.
And a man needs to examine not only
his mind to keep it cleansed, but to
examine his affections.
Lest an affection for things that appeal to
the lust of the flesh or the lust
of the eyes or the pride of life
become the focus of our affections.
For what a man knows and loves, he
ultimately will obey unless that progress is interrupted
by the Word of God and the Spirit
of God.
I Samuel chapter 15 and verse 22.
Samuel reminds Saul that to obey is better
than sacrifice.
To obey is better than sacrifice.
And if a man has received a temptation
to his selfish, proud, carnal nature, and he
begins to love that, if the temptation has
progressed that far, then it is time to
recognize that to obey that thing is disobedience
against God and to move in at that
point to arrest the growth of the temptation
before it comes to its full fulfillment.
To obey is better than sacrifice.
In writing to the Romans at the conclusion
of chapter 13, verse 14, Paul gave us
a summary principle that is of paramount importance.
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and
make not provision for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof.
Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof.
We are prone to put ourselves in situations
to make such preparations for Satan's attack against
us that we simplify his work.
And Paul warns the child of God against
opening his mind so that Satan can pour
thoughts into it.
He warns the child of God against opening
his heart so that Satan can stir emotions
within it to lead an individual to an
act of disobedience through his will.
A lot that we read, a lot that
we see, a lot that we do is
diametrically opposed to Paul's principle of Romans 13,
14.
For we are filling our minds with that
which Satan finds there.
He didn't have to put it there.
We put it there ourselves.
We've made provision for the flesh.
And Satan moves in on that which we
have put there because we did not heed
Paul's admonition.
We have allowed our affections to be diverted
from the Lord Jesus Christ and we have
come to love the things of this world
so that Satan's work is already partly done.
And Satan can move in on the affections
for which he is now responsible, which we
have generated.
And then we wonder why we're under such
attack from the evil one.
And it's not his fault.
He's only taking advantage of what you provided
him to work with.
And it's a short step from disobedience to
this principle to falling into sin.
Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof.
The burden of my message to you this
morning, child of God, is that you might
understand that Satan cannot attack you in an
infinite variety or number of ways.
He must appeal in only three ways.
He must appeal to that which is fleshly,
that which is selfish, that which is the
manifestation of pride.
The Word of God gives us a defense
through the Word in order that we might
understand the nature of the temptation and then
to meet it through the Word, through the
Holy Spirit.
Perhaps more than anything, we need to safeguard
our minds and hearts so that we are
not doing the sowing ourselves.
Satan can use to produce sin in our
experience.
May I remind you who do not know
Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, that Satan
is only concerned in passing with what you
do, whether you follow him in sin or
ignore him, is of little concern to him.
Satan is concerned with just one thing for
you, and that is that you should not
accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Whether you sin or not, you are still
his unless you accept Christ personally.
On the authority of the Word of God,
may I say to you, in order that
he might deliver you from bondage to Satan,
that he might translate you out of his
family and his kingdom to bring you into
the family of God.
The one thing Satan desires above everything else
is that you should not come face to
face with Christ and accept him as a
personal Savior.
This morning as a minister of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, I offer you a Savior
who can break sin's bondage, can remove sin's
guilt, can take away sin's stain, can make
you a child of God.
But in order to become a son of
God, that Jesus Christ, will you do that?
In order that you might be delivered from
your adversary, the devil.
We pray, our Father, that God the Holy
Spirit may instruct us this morning in the
nature of the warfare in which we are
engaged.
Help us to understand the nature that we
have within us to which Satan appeals.
To understand that we
might walk in a path of obedience.