Dear you all, turn with me please.
Tonight we've come to consider the second of
our trilogies, of which there are, I think,
probably far more than most of us realize
that exists in the New Testament Scriptures.
We started off with the first three last
evening, didn't we?
Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem.
Didn't say all we had to say about
Bethlehem, did we?
Oh, you're happy about that, very well.
You don't need the solution then.
And we didn't get to say anything at
all about Jerusalem.
So I don't know if you're happy about
that or not, but I want to go
on to the second one this evening because
this way we at least will cover a
few of them, if not completely in part.
So tonight I want you to read with
me, if you will please, from Luke's Gospel,
chapter 4.
See, two or three people reminded me that
I left something out of the study on
Bethlehem and I thought that you would have
told me about it tonight, but now that
you've forgotten it then I shan't feel obligated
to tell you what the solution was.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, and we read from
verse 1.
And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost,
returned from Jordan and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted
of the devil.
And in those days he did eat nothing.
When they were ended, he afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto him, If thou
be the Son of God, command this stone
that it be made bread.
Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that
man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into a
high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms
of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this
power will I give thee, and the glory
of them.
For that is delivered unto me, to whomsoever
I will I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall
be thine.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee
behind me, Satan.
For it is written, Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve.
And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set
him on a pinnacle of the temple, and
said unto him, If thou be the Son
of God, cast thyself down from hence, 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
the stone.
Jesus answered and said unto him, It is
said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God.
And when the devil had ended all the
temptation, he departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a
fame of him through all the region round
about.
And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified
of all.
Now it's very evident what the trilogy is
here tonight.
The first one really that jumps out at
us regarding the person of our Lord and
his ministry, his life here on earth, that
is the three temptations, the three what are
called cardinal temptations.
You can see from the passage we have
read, and if you read in Matthew chapter
4 and Mark's Gospel chapter 1, you will
see that these were not the only temptations
that our Lord was exposed to when he
went out into the wilderness for those 40
days and 40 nights.
We have a very interesting study in this,
and I hope that we may be helped
in order to glean some profitable things from
it as we consider it tonight.
Everyone knows, of course, that our Lord was
here in the fulfillment of the promise that
God had made in the Garden of Eden.
We shall see this very clearly brought out
in the temptations which were thrown at him
by the adversary in the wilderness.
He was led by the Spirit.
You recall that he came from Jordan, where
he was baptized of John, and where there
was a trilogy mentioned at that time of
the baptism.
There was a declaration from heaven, This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.
Hear ye him.
And then there was the visible presence of
the Spirit of God descending on him in
the form of a dove, and significantly saying,
Remain upon him.
And then finally there was John's declaration concerning
him.
He said, I saw on bare record that
this was the Son of God.
So there's a very interesting trilogy, if you
wish to consider it, regarding our Lord's baptism
at Jordan.
Subsequent to the baptism, then, the Spirit of
God led him, and some passages say he
drove him, into the wilderness.
The first thing that strikes you is that
the Spirit of God would drive or lead
him into the wilderness.
There should never have been a wilderness in
Judea, because when God promised the land to
his people and brought them into the land
under Joshua, you remember he told them in
Deuteronomy 8 that he was leading them into
a good land, a large land, a land
that flowed with milk and honey, a land
of springs of brook, a land of green
grass for herds, a land where there were
iron and brass to be mined in the
mountains.
The very fact that there was a wilderness
in Judea is a testimony to the fact
that Israel had departed from God.
The only reason why it was a wilderness,
and still is, I understand, by those of
you who have seen it, is because God
was bearing witness that Israel had departed from
the Lord, and the inheritance that he had
given to them now was wasted, it was
devastated.
It had become a wilderness.
That's the area of the temptation.
That's the area of the trial to which
our Lord was subjected by the adversary on
this occasion.
And you remember, he's the father of desolation,
he's the father of trials, he's the father
of the wilderness experience, and that's where our
Lord is found in the passage we have
read here.
So he was led by the Spirit of
God into the wilderness.
I commented to you, I believe, the other
night that it took a real shepherd to
lead the flocks of Jethro to the backside
of the desert.
It was the same Spirit in our Lord
that carried him out into the wilderness, took
him out into the wilderness, driven, as it
says, or led to be tempted of the
devil.
Now, this is a very significant experience.
A lot depends upon this.
You see, our Lord is not only the
son of Mary, which he very definitely was,
he was the son of man, but he
was also the seed of the woman in
a very particular, peculiar sense, a very important
sense.
And it's going to be tested.
It's going to be tested alongside of the
testing of the first man in the Garden
of Eden.
The circumstances are different.
The adversary is the same.
The manner in which he was tested, in
part, is the same.
And yet there is a vast difference here,
because the wilderness that was brought on, as
I said, by spiritual dearth in the land
of Israel, as well as the physical dearth,
is that which indicated the circumstances under which
our Lord came as the promised Messiah to
Israel.
But he came as the woman's son.
We were speaking of that, weren't we, already?
Especially with all its mystery, with its wonder,
with its enchanting story, with its challenging problems.
And here he is, the son of man,
he's gone out into the wilderness.
He's to be tempted of the devil.
Then he goes on to say he was
with the wild beasts.
And that's such a sharp contrast to the
story of the first man and the temptation
that we know so well.
If Judea never should have been a wilderness,
then there should never have been wild beasts
either in the land of God's covenant promise
to his people.
If we go back again to the first
man, you remember God brought the animals to
Adam and asked him what he would call
them.
And whatsoever he called them in accordance with
his understanding of not only the character and
capabilities of the creature, but the purpose for
which God had created them.
And that's what their name was to be.
They were not wild beasts then.
They were subjected beasts.
They were submissive beasts to the man.
On this occasion, to the contrary, our Lord
was in the wilderness with the wild beasts
that were wild beasts indeed.
And during that time he was tempted of
the devil.
He was tested.
He was tried.
And he had to be proven capable and
worthy of the great calling and the task
for which he had been sent.
That's the crux of the matter.
Here is the seed of the woman.
Here is the adversary.
Here are these wild beasts.
And here is the wilderness.
Circumstances that were totally adverse to being contributory
to the success of the temptation.
Our Lord under very adverse circumstances was tried
as Adam was not tried.
And so he's out in the wilderness.
Another thing it says about him that he
fasted.
He neither ate nor drank for forty days
and forty nights.
And because he was really here as a
son of man, and not the son of
God, though he was the son of God,
his body physically had to react to the
trials of forty days and forty nights of
the continual fast.
It had to react to the oppression which
the presence of wild beasts exerted upon it.
It had to react to the lack of
that which it normally needed.
These are the circumstances under which our Lord,
being truly man, was tried.
And he was tried representatively and as an
example for you and for me.
He is our great example.
Now, the adversary comes to him under those
conditions.
You say, well, I don't like the thought
that our Lord was in an initiated state.
But you must remember, and we must remember,
that he was not in a supernatural body.
He was in a very natural body.
He was the woman's son.
He was the seed of the woman.
And he was the promised one that was
to come.
And you'll see what happens when he reacts
to the way the devil addresses him.
So he has fasted forty days and forty
nights.
The devil comes to him and he says,
the first thing he says, If thou be
the son of God.
Oh, who said he was the son of
God?
Well, the devil was at Jordan, I expect.
And he heard John make his declaration, I
saw for a record that this is the
son of God.
But our Lord did not react to that.
It was a temptation to assume the position
of being the sovereign son of God.
Immediately he replies to the temptation, because the
devil says, If thou be the son of
God, command that these stones be made bread.
Well, John the Baptist told him that the
Lord could raise up children of Abraham to
the stones.
Do you remember?
And if so, the Lord himself easily could
have turned stones to bread, couldn't he?
Where is the temptation?
The temptation lies, my friends, that he would
react to what the adversary threw at him
as being the son of God.
Competent, able, all-powerful, all-knowing, omniscient.
But what did he say?
The Lord responded and said, It is written
that man shall not live by bread alone.
He refuses to react to the temptation of
exerting himself in the capabilities which were his
and were going to be displayed subsequent to
the temptation as the son of God.
For he came in the fullness of his
power and his deity, didn't he?
He lost nothing by becoming what he wasn't
when he became what he had not been.
He was the son of God.
He was all-powerful.
We saw him last night exerting some of
that power as he walked upon the tempestuous
waves of Galilee.
But he's not going to take the bait.
He's not going to say, Yes, I am
the son of God, and I will make
these stones bread.
For if he had done so, we would
not have acquired and received anything of benefit
from this temptation.
And in any way, he's not there in
the capacity of being the son of God.
So he takes the place as being man,
the son of man.
So he says to the devil, It is
written that man shall not live by bread
alone.
Son of God, he dismisses the title.
This is not the place where he's going
to act as the son of God.
This is the place where he stands as
the son of man for all mankind.
A marvelous thing that I learned to appreciate
more and more as I got a little
farther on the pilgrim journey, that our Lord,
in everything that he did and said and
was, he was representative of his people.
And I caught this one day when I
was looking through some of the details of
the Lord's Supper and saw what Matthew and
Mark said about the bread.
Jesus said, Take it, this is my body.
That's all.
That's all they said.
And I said, Why didn't they say it
was broken?
Because that's the whole point in question.
That loaf signifies the representation that our Lord
made when he was here on our behalf
as the son of man and the body
that was prepared for him.
So he says, It is written man shall
not live by bread alone.
Man is not only physical.
He is not only material.
He is not only to be sustained by
that which is temporal.
And he, the son of man, taking his
place on behalf of all the sons of
men that were to follow in his way,
he says, I accept the place that man
shall not live by bread only or by
bread alone.
Now, God has ordained that we live by
bread, if you will, physically, hasn't he?
I never said a thing about cream puffs,
but that's all right.
That's a little extra thrown in there, you
see.
And very, very ably done.
No, but he has ordained that we physically
be sustained by that which is material around
us.
You remember the various stages in which God
opened up the subject of the dietary problems
as well as the commands of his people.
So, our Lord is saying this.
Man is more than physical.
Man is spiritual.
And while it is accepted, of course, that
man does live by bread, or any ramifications
of it, that's not how man altogether lives.
That's not the full life of man.
This is not only what we are.
And because we are more than this, we
require more than bread.
So the accent falls upon the alone.
Man shall not live by bread only.
He will have bread, he must have bread.
And his physical person must be sustained by
that which is physical.
But he is not only physical.
He is more than physical.
Why, when our Lord was here in John
chapter 4, you recall, and he's speaking with
the woman of Samaria, the disciples had gone
away to buy bread and food, and they
said, Master, eat.
And the Lord had already had that wonderful
conversation with the woman, and she'd gone away,
and the disciples came along and said, Master,
eat.
We have brought you food.
He said, My need is to do the
will of him that sent me and to
finish his work.
He's talking with a Samaritan woman.
He's talking with one to whom he unfolds
some of the mysteries.
He never told Nicodemus in the previous chapter.
You ever wonder about that?
Nicodemus was the teacher of Israel.
And his name means Nicodemus.
It means the conqueror of the people he
was going to do.
I don't know how his parents gave him
that kind of a name.
If they saw something in him like Noah's
parents saw in him.
Sometimes I wonder what mothers see in some
of their kids, the names they label them
with.
I sometimes go into a restaurant where we
do, and my wife and I would sit
down, and along comes a little girl to
look after them.
She has a name placed here that I
can't even pronounce, in English, Spanish, or German.
And I say to her, Is that your
name?
Where in the world did you get?
Oh, my mother was reading a book when
she was expecting me, and of course when
I came along she just tagged this thing
on me.
She'd like to get rid of it, but
she can't.
She's saddled with it.
Parents are very cruel, aren't they?
Saddle their kids with names that they themselves
can't properly pronounce.
And they would never care if they had
a chance.
But anyway, I don't know where the parents
of Nicodemus found this name, and I don't
know why they gave it to him, but
I know what the name means, and I
know it's in keeping with his office.
Nico, conqueror.
Demus, the people.
And here's a man who's going to control
the people.
He's going to conquer the people.
How's he going to do it?
By learning.
Intellectually.
By being THE teacher of Israel.
And the Lord never revealed to him the
mysteries that He revealed to the woman of
Samaria.
And that's significant.
So, he says those wonderful things to the
woman of Samaria, but when they said, Master,
eat, he said, no.
I have food to eat that you don't
know anything about.
Forty days and forty nights in the wilderness
under fast, and here now is the temptation
to turn stones to bread.
Very easily it could have been done, but
not as the Son of Man.
As the Son of God, yes, but He's
not here as the Son of God.
He's here to be tried as the Son
of Man, representing all the sons of man
who as well walked by faith as He
did when He was here.
So, he said, no.
Man shall not live by bread only.
He has something else to be sustained.
And woe to him who eats only that
which is bread.
Remember what Prophet Isaiah said, woe to him
that spends his money for that which is
not bread.
That would take us in a lot of
time, wouldn't it?
You know those mall trips we were just
hearing about?
Woe to him that spends his money for
that which is not bread.
But the bread must be bought, and the
money must be spent, and the outward shell
must be maintained.
It's marvelous how long they can keep it
around nowadays, isn't it?
Imagine a man having a mother-in-law
who lives to be 104.
Well, anyway, the Lord said, there's something more
than that you understand, much more than that.
And there's just as great a need for
the man to be sustained by that which
is not bread as for the shell to
be maintained by bread.
Therein lies the secret, perhaps, of spiritual poverty.
We can get into an emaciated state spiritually,
can't we?
As well as physically.
But he said, by every word, every spoken
word, or as the Septuagint says, every appointing
by the word of God.
And here he is in the wilderness, led
by the Spirit, and he refuses to turn
stones to bread because he knows, and we
know, that in this wilderness scene in which
we're living, we need more than bread.
We need every spoken word of God.
That word, as our Lord told us in
John chapter 6, is Spirit, and it is
life.
So then, what happens after that?
I wish to cover this whole subject tonight,
if I can.
Verse 5 says, The devil taking him up
into a high mountain.
Now, I'm impressed by the words that are
used in some of these sayings here regarding
the temptation.
The devil takes him up into a high
mountain.
The devil took him and set him on
the wing of the temple, in the third
temptation.
Immediately there comes to my mind the question,
how did the devil take him up into
a high mountain?
How did he transport him from the wilderness
to the wing of the temple?
Is this the power that lies in this
great enemy of ours?
Our Lord is here physically.
He takes him up into a high mountain.
He carries him and sets him on the
wing of the temple.
Physically.
I wonder if we understand clearly just exactly
how we live and how we are in
these affairs.
Did you ever think when you go to
a funeral and you're standing at the casket
and people come along and say to you,
well, she passed away.
She passed away where?
Oh, she's gone to heaven.
How did she get there?
Is the soul or spirit self-transporting?
We just kind of never stop to think
of it, do we?
She's gone.
How's she gone?
She went to heaven.
How did she get to heaven?
Well, absent from the body and present with
the Lord.
How did that change of location take place?
Do souls self-transport?
Here the adversary shows some of his power.
He takes the Lord up into a high
mountain and he shows him all the kingdoms
of the world.
That was a marvelous piece of television, wasn't
it?
Showed him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time.
Fantastic are the capabilities of this adversary with
whom we must meet.
And he says to the Lord, all this
will I give you if falling down you
worship before me.
And I will give them to you because
this authority is given to me.
It has been delivered, this expression he used,
unto me.
Now, I have heard it said quite glibly,
you know.
Well, the devil is a liar and he's
telling a lie here.
No, I don't think so, my brethren.
I don't think so.
He says, this is all mine because it
has been turned over to, it has been
delivered to me and to whomsoever I will,
I give it.
It is mine.
Well, immediately you ask the question then, if
the devil owns all the kingdoms of the
world and three times in the gospel by
John chapters 12, 14 and 16, the Lord
Jesus called him the ruler of this world.
Didn't he?
He's the ruler of this world.
The devil carries two titles, two main titles.
One is the prince of the world or
the ruler of the world and the other
is the god of this age.
And the one is a political title and
the other is a religious title.
But he carries them both.
And he exercises and operates within the scope
of them both, the ruler of this world.
Doesn't the scripture say the whole world lies
in the wicked one?
Doesn't Revelation chapter 12 tell us that he
sees the whole world?
Oh, well, how does he do that?
Do you remember when they appeared before God
in the days of Job and the Lord
said, Satan, whence comest thou?
And he says, where else?
Walking to and fro and back and forth
in the earth, surveying his kingdoms, watching how
they're operating, administrating the affairs of the kingdoms
of this world, directing certain men in certain
places for certain reasons, to and fro.
Restless it is true, is contained in the
words, but I've come from walking up and
down in the earth.
Because that is his kingdom that has been
delivered to him.
Well, who delivered it to him?
Somebody who must have had it before him.
And it wasn't God, as you know.
Remember Psalm 8, Hebrews chapter 2?
What is man that thou art mindful of
him, or the son of man that thou
visitest him?
Thou hast made him a little lower than
the angels.
Thou have promised him with glory and honor,
and didst set him over the works of
thine hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under
his feet.
To whom is the psalmist referring in Psalm
8?
To Adam.
And to whom is the writer of the
Hebrews referring in Hebrews chapter 2?
He's referring to Adam.
And we don't see, says the writer of
the Hebrews, all things put under his feet.
Under whose feet?
Under man's feet.
But we see Jesus, who for a little
time also was made inferior to angels.
There's the mystery of it, isn't there?
That's whom we have here.
We have here the one who is made
for a little while inferior or lower than
the angels.
And the devil comes to him and says,
look it, here's all the kingdoms of this
world and all the glory of them.
I will give it to you because it's
been turned over, it's been delivered to me.
And to whomsoever I will, I can give
it.
No one can question that.
The Lord never questioned it.
He knew it was true.
But what happened?
This is what happened.
In the Garden of Eden, according to Psalm
8 in Hebrews 2, God had put everything
under the feet of Adam.
He was sovereign in the creation that God
had made.
And he was the last of the creation,
as you know.
God put everything under his feet.
The fish of the sea, the birds of
the air, and the beasts of the field,
and everything that passeth through the paths of
the sea.
He put it all under Adam's feet.
He made him sovereign lord of creation.
And what happened?
Along into the garden comes a spirit.
And this spirit, through the medium of the
woman whom God gave to Adam for companionship.
Don't forget that, brethren.
That's what I'm trying to tell some of
our newly married couples these days.
And the older ones too.
They've had a wedding back there.
I didn't have this one.
And the bridegroom was only 92.
And the bride was only 88 or 9.
I forget now which.
And somebody said to me, what a ridiculous
thing!
Why?
Well, of course.
I mean, they're not going to buy a
house by a school, of course.
No.
No, they won't need that.
Well, then, what are they doing?
92 years of age and 88 years of
age.
What are they doing getting married?
Fulfilling the original, prime purpose of marriage.
Well, what's that?
I don't know if we all realize that.
I don't know if when we get to
be 60 years married, I don't know if
we've ever stopped to think of it.
I don't think some of you folks have.
By the way, wives treat husbands, and husbands
treat wives.
I don't know.
What's the first thing?
What's the first reason for a marriage?
What was the original purpose of marriage?
Why did God bring these two together?
Oh, to extend the human family.
Well, did he?
Yes, yes, yes, he did.
Because he said, to be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth.
That wasn't the first original purpose of marriage.
No, it wasn't.
And it hasn't been since either.
Because, you see, if you're going to say
that, then you're going to conclude that when
the wife refuses or passes the age of
childbearing, then, of course, the marriage falls apart.
No, it doesn't.
Neither does the purpose of marriage fall apart.
But that's not the original purpose of marriage
anyway.
What's the original purpose of marriage?
Companionship.
It is not good that the man should
be alone.
I will make him a companion.
A suitable companion for him.
And that, to my understanding, is the principle
of marriage to this day.
Children may come into it, and they may
not come into it.
It doesn't affect the marriage.
We all may get old and older.
It has nothing to do with the marriage.
Marriage is primarily for companionship.
And when that is gone, that's when the
marriage falls apart.
But this one is here now, and he
does not have a companion.
Adam had his companion.
He had someone on whom to lean, and
who was to lean on him.
And what happens?
The spirit comes into the garden, and the
spirit attacks the man through the woman, and
subjugates his kingdom.
It takes over the authority of the creation
over which God had placed Adam as supreme.
And you can't have two principal authorities in
the kingdom.
It cannot be divided against itself, or it
will fall.
So Adam is king, Adam is sovereign.
God puts everything under his feet, gives everything
into his hands, and the serpent, the spirit,
uses the woman to destroy the man, to
subjugate his kingdom, and he now grasps the
scepter of government as it falls from the
trembling hand of the first Lord of creation,
and he becomes, as the Lord called him,
the ruler of this world.
So it was legal what he said.
It was lawful what he said.
They're all delivered unto me, and to whomsoever
I will, I will give it.
Here is the opportunity for political power.
If the Lord would not accept the bait
for personal gratification, for physical gratification with bread,
now he has the opportunity under which most
men fall to get authority, to get power.
Political power, in this case.
How many have fallen under the bait of
power?
Political power.
And how many millions and millions and millions
of sons of men have suffered because one
man grasps for power?
The Lord had it all offered to him
by the only one that could give him
the whole of the kingdoms of the world.
Universal political power!
And he turned it down.
He said, no.
What's God doing?
Listen to what he's doing.
If the Spirit used the woman to destroy
the man to subjugate his kingdom, God will
take up the vessel in its fragmentary condition,
and he'll use the woman to bring in
the man to destroy the Spirit.
Praise the Lord for that.
You see, it was the Spirit who took
the woman to destroy the man.
God takes the woman to bring in a
man who's going to destroy the Spirit.
That's the marvel of the ways of God's
grace, isn't it?
And that's what we have here.
Here's the man who was the seed of
the woman who would not accept the temptation
of political power for the sake of becoming
the ruler of the world.
At any rate, he knew that the Father
had promised him, Ask me and I'll give
you the heathen for thine inheritance and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt rule them with a rod of
iron.
The Lord shall be king over all the
earth and his name the only name.
The Lord knew the promises of Zechariah.
He knew the promises of Psalm chapter 2.
The Lord knew that God had promised to
him, his Father had promised to him all
the kingdoms of the world, but he would
not take it at the hands of the
Spirit that destroyed the first world ruler by
his subtlety.
And in closing, he comes to temptation number
three.
What's that?
Took him up to the wing of the
temple.
Set him on the wing of the temple.
Set him.
Did you hear that?
He set him on the wing of the
temple.
Amazes us, doesn't it?
Our Lord's a man of flesh and blood.
He weighs whatever he weighs.
After those 40 years of fasting, years of
fasting, days of fasting, I don't know, but
he takes him and he sets him on
the wing of the temple.
Now he says, cast yourself down, because it
is written in Psalm 91, he will give
his angels charge over thee that they shall
keep thee in all thy ways, lest in
any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone.
If thou be the Son of God.
Look at the temptation again.
If thou be the Son of God.
The Lord has put that aside in the
first temptation, and now the devil comes back
with it again.
There's nothing new about the adversary, you see.
And because our Lord had said one time,
he said, when a strong man arm keeps
his palace, his goods are in peace, but
if a stronger than him comes upon him,
he takes away from him all his armor
wherein he trusted, he binds the strong one,
and then he spoils his goods.
That's what he's doing now.
He's binding the strong one.
So he says, cast yourself down, because it's
written, this that was written belongs to the
Messiah.
He'll give his angels charge over thee that
he'll keep thee in all thy ways, lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Cast yourself down and prove that you are
the Messiah.
Thou be the Son of God, do it.
Now what's he offering them?
In the first place he's offering them physical
sustenance.
In the second place he's offering them political
power.
Now what's he offering them?
Spiritual power.
You say, why do you say that?
Are not all these angels ministering spirits?
Have they not been sent forth to serve?
Well then, cast yourself down, and you can
prove that you are the fulfillment of Psalm
91, that you are the Messiah, that the
angels will take charge of you.
In the spirit world now, prove who you
are.
The Lord would not gratify himself with spiritual
power any more than he would gratify himself
with physical food.
He was to be triumphant, he was to
be supreme, he was to be sovereign, he
was to satisfy his God in every detail.
And brethren, this is the one who did
this for you and for me.
He is our representative in the wilderness.
He is the one who meets the tempter
on every course.
You know, self-gratification is something that's true
of us all.
Whether it's food, or whether it's political power
and authority.
Have you noticed how kids like to be
the big shot?
You know, head honch what they call.
The older ones.
You know, everybody likes to be CEO, vice
president, vice.
They call them vices now.
It's all right too.
Anyway, have you noticed that this business of
this ambition for authority seems to be woven
into the fiber of every man?
Oh, that's the full gender, you understand.
Yeah.
Just in case you ladies think that you
don't have any of this in you.
Uh-huh.
Well, I've got news for you.
But anyway, here is our Lord and He,
the things which naturally attract man.
The lust for self-gratification.
Whether physical, or political, or spiritual.
Our Lord refuses them all.
He will not have them.
The tempters spoiled.
The strong man is bound.
The devil is defeated.
And He leaves them for a season.
Not the last temptation He's going to have.
But these three cardinal temptations, as they are
called, are those which demonstrate in the most
complete way how perfect our Lord was as
the Son of Man.
It's marvelous that He is ours, isn't it?
And He's taken our place.
He's stood in our place.
And He has shown to us that with
the same word that He had, we can
defeat the purposes of the enemy as well.
And then what happens?
The devil leaves them, and angels come and
minister to them.
Isn't that marvelous?
What do they bring them?
Something they didn't have.
What was that?
Food.
They did to Elijah, didn't they?
Angels carry food?
Now I can tell you they do.
I can tell you they do.
So I personally believe when the angels came
and served Him, as it said, when they
ministered to Him, they brought Him food, for
that's now what He most needs physically.
You know, there's only one other time when
we read about an angel coming to our
Lord's aid in Luke 22, in the Garden
of Gethsemane.
And I'll leave this with you tonight for
a little bit of homework.
The angels that came and ministered to Him
in the wilderness, I think it's very evident
what they brought Him.
In the state in which He was.
But when the angel came to Him in
the Garden of Gethsemane, did He bring Him
food?
It says He strengthened Him.
There appeared an angel from heaven and He
strengthened Him.
Well, but He'd just eaten the Passover a
few hours before.
He didn't need food that way, did He?
But the angel came and strengthened Him in
the Garden of Gethsemane.
How did the angel strengthen Him?
These are things which when we consider the
glories of our Lord, they enhance, don't they,
in our vision and in the thrill of
our souls.
Shall we pray?
Our Father, we commend Thee tonight to thank
You for our Lord.
How glorious He is.
How wonderful He is.
How worthy of our admiration of our wonder
and our amazement as we consider the superlative
supremacy of His glorious person.
Flawless in every detail.
Nothing in Him at all that pertained of
self-adulation.
We thank Thee for the humble one, the
Son of Man, who in that power of
His own glorious morality and spirituality defeated the
attack of the enemy.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no
confidence in the flesh.
May Thy blessing attend us as we separate
this evening in His name.
Amen.