R890 The Seriousness of Temptation

When God places an idea in our head, it becomes inspiration. But when the devil does it, it's temptation. Let's talk about the seriousness of temptation. This is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton.

And today's message on the seriousness of temptation will take us straight to Matthew chapter 4 so that we gain insight on not only how serious it is, but how we can resist it. As we study the Word together, know that we're here for you. We'd love to pray with you on the phone right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Or we can connect keyboard to keyboard online as well at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. And now let's open God's Word together, Matthew chapter 4 with Dr. Don Wilton, on today's message, The Seriousness of Temptation. I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew's Gospel and the fourth chapter.

Matthew's Gospel and the fourth chapter. Now friends, while you have your Bibles open there, I'm going to tell you that we're going to be studying this morning the seriousness of temptation. And there is a sense in which it would be a redundant issue if I were to ask you to raise your hand if you've ever been tempted, because we all would raise our hands. Most of us understand the meaning of temptation and we have all been tempted. And many people today have been tempted with great serious consequences.

I have no doubt that there are many people today who worship with us who would say, Pastor, my life has never been the same since I succumbed to temptation, the temptation of the eyes. You began that affair with that woman who wasn't your wife. You wanted something that wasn't yours.

You made a business transaction under the table. Perhaps you were tempted to say something. Perhaps you were tempted to enter into an activity that you know would not be pleasing to the Lord. And you succumbed to that temptation.

I want to give you a good word right at the outset today. I just want you to tuck this away in your heart. And then I want you to listen real carefully. The Bible tells us this. Resist the devil. Who can repeat the rest of that? And he will flee from you.

Let's say that together. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now, here in Matthew, Chapter four, we find recorded for us the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an amazing thing to me that this followed hard on the heels of the baptism of our Lord Jesus. Well, immediately after his baptism, this is what we read. And I want you to read along with me in Matthew, Chapter four. Now, remember that Jesus has just heard the words.

This is my son in whom I am well pleased. We've just heard the crowning moment from the voice of God concerning the coronation of the King. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter, that is the devil, came to him and said, If you are the Son of God.

By the way, in the original text, that word if there is not a condition, it literally means since you are. By the way, did you know that the devil believes in God? But he's not a Christian. He's not unlike many of us Americans today. You can travel around America and ask most Americans, do you believe in God?

They'll say, of course I do. G. Campbell Morgan wrote a book entitled Believing Men and an Unbelieving God. That was Nicodemus's problem. Nicodemus could quote scripture.

He was well versed. He believed in God, but he was not saved. Jesus said, You must be born again.

We're going to discover that the tempter who is devil, none other than Satan himself, not only believed in God, but could quote the very scriptures themselves. But he was not a Christian. And so the Bible says that the tempter came to him and said to him, Since you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, Throw yourself down. Because I know what the Bible says, quoting Psalm 91.

Listen to what he said. He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. So go ahead, you, the one who calls himself Jesus, go ahead, jump. Jesus answered him in verse seven. It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

All this I will give you. The devil said, If you will just bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Get thee behind me, Satan.

Get away from me. For it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And I love verse 11. Then the devil left him. Resist the devil. All right, let's all quote this.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Let me read this verse. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him.

Now, friends, this is a marvelous passage here. And I'm asking questions today about why it was that it was so necessary for Jesus to be tempted like this. I'm going to submit to you this is a willing revelation by God to man because Jesus was by himself. Evidently, Jesus must have shared this with the disciples. It was that important. And besides that, God by his Spirit has put it into Holy Scripture. That's how important it is because every word is inspired. This is God's infallible word.

And we need to know about this. And it followed Jesus' baptism. Now, why wouldn't Jesus go and do a whole lot of things and then get tempted? Well, I'm just going to submit to you today that while his baptism was his proclamation as king, his temptation was the test of his kingliness.

You see, friends, you've got to understand what was going on here. While the baptism of Jesus was the declaration of his royalty, his temptation was the demonstration of his royalty. The Bible is very clear. His temptation shows us why Jesus Christ is my beloved Son. In his temptation, here we find Jesus facing, as it were, the full force of Satan's awful deception. And yet Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King of the world, the one who abides in us and who works through us, still remained uncontaminated and untouched by the deceptiveness of the adversary who is the devil. No wonder the Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Both the baptism and the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ accredited him as king. We know that.

We can see that. But his temptation demonstrated Satan's strategy on one hand and God's way to victory on the other hand. So we find two ways presented here in the temptation of Jesus Christ, the way of Satan and the way of God. Now, isn't that just what Jesus taught us? What did Jesus say?

He said, you're either for God or you're against God. Listen to this, my beloved friends. There are two ways. There's a narrow way and there's a broad way. The narrow way leads to life. The broad way leads to destruction. What happens here at the temptation is a pictorial presentation that conjures up the deep theological significance of what it means to be in Christ, indwilt by the Spirit of the living God and have the power residing in you and me to be able to overcome even the hardest temptations that are presented to us.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now, I want you to watch this carefully, folks, because there's something rather dramatic unfolding here as we watch what Jesus went through. I'm going to submit to you that there are four reasons for the presentation of these two ways that we find recorded, the way of Satan, the way of God. There are four reasons for the temptation of Jesus Christ. Number one, to demonstrate Jesus' divine kingship.

This was a demonstration. Who better to demonstrate it with or against as the power of the prince of this world? It was a demonstration of Jesus' divine kingship, but it was not only a demonstration of His divine kingship. It was a display of Jesus' royal power to resist. And who did He resist?

The only other great ruler of this universe. But in the third place, this was a declaration of Jesus' glorious right to rule as supreme ruler over all creation. We're going to come to a drum roll crescendo in just a moment in Matthew's account because Satan is going to take Jesus up to a high point and he's going to say to him, let's just settle this for once and for all.

Are you the Alpha and Omega or am I the Alpha and Omega? And there is a sense in which Jesus looks at Satan and says to him, are you kidding me? Why two ways presented here, the way of Satan and the way of God? To demonstrate Jesus' divine kingship announced at the coronation of the sun following His baptism, to display Jesus' royal power to resist the great adversary, to declare Jesus' glorious right as supreme commander and ruler over all creation. And number four, to defeat Satan's attempt to claim any royal prerogative as his own. Satan was strutting his stuff, folks.

That's what he does in our company, doesn't he? What does Satan do? Satan moves amongst us to and fro trying to attempt to claim royal prerogative as his own and Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God in establishing His divine right as the Son of God, made it abundantly clear, Satan, you have neither any prerogative nor royal prerogative, nor do you own anything because I alone am God and thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Somebody say amen today. Let's give God a hand, folks. So here we find Jesus being tempted.

Well, I want to just do something. I want you to come on a little journey with me quickly. We're going to look at the three temptations that actually took place and I'm going to give to you two main ideas behind each one of Satan's reasons for tempting Jesus. What was he trying to get Jesus to do?

So let's take a look. Jesus was tempted in three ways. Number one, according to the lust of the flesh. In verse two and three, Jesus was tempted by Satan according to the lust of the flesh. Well, Jesus was hungry. You ever been hungry before? That's your flesh speaking.

It's real, isn't it? Folks, do you know how every extramarital affair, sexual affair begins? The lust of the flesh. It's those things that your human body and the frailty of your human body drive you to do. It is the craving of your fleshly nature. And here it is, Jesus is being confronted by Satan himself.

And Satan says to him, listen, since you are the Son of God, as you claim to be, and I observed what happened at your royal coronation, I am going to invite you to do something. I know that you are hungry and so I'm going to try and get you at the moment of your greatest weakness. I know that your Achilles heel in the flesh right now must be the need to eat food. You need to satisfy the lust of the flesh. There is a craving there. You want it. You need it. It sounds logical.

It's even rational. So here's what I'm going to do. Why don't you just turn around and turn these stones into bread and hey, Preston, you've got no problem. Go on. Go ahead.

Make my day. Do this just for me. Come on now. I don't care what anybody else has to say. Just, I mean, isn't this, I mean, is this not reasonable? I mean, it kind of sounds like Satan in the Garden of Eden.

You've got to be kidding me. I mean, come on, man. There's fruit all over this orchard. You can't imagine God would say you can't eat from that one tree there.

That's the most ridiculous thing. What's wrong with eating that fruit? Go ahead, Eve. I mean, God's not unreasonable. I mean, come on, man. Look at it. All the fruit in this Garden of Eden.

It's too magnificent. Go on. Well, what was the issue? The issue wasn't whether it was reasonable or whether she needed to or whether she wanted to. The issue was God said, don't do it.

Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message on the seriousness of temptation in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants us to remind you that as you're studying the Word with us and we hear that concept of don't do it. I pray that you know that you don't have to face those temptations alone. We'd love to pray with you and for you.

Being a part of the body of Christ is a part of community. And we'd love to talk anytime day or night on the phone at 866-899-WORD. That number is 866-899-9673.

Or meet us online at TEWOnline.org. Just know that we're here for you. Now back to today's message, the seriousness of temptation with Dr. Don Wilton. Folks, our human sexuality is neither evil nor unreasonable. In fact, it is completely and entirely pleasurable. That's the way God made us. There's nothing wrong with our sexuality as human beings. But God gave it to us in a specific context for a specific purpose within the confines of marriage. That's what God said. It's not a matter of anything else.

When temptation comes, temptation says, oh man, come on now. God will forgive you. Get over it, man. Get a life. Everybody else is doing it. And you're going to be, you'll never reach this world because you don't want to do what the world's doing. You've got to become like the world. And so here's Satan, according to the lust of the flesh, his deception had two ideas in mind.

Watch this. Number one, to tempt Jesus to violate God's gracious plan. And number two, to tempt Jesus to abuse God's granted privilege. Friends, there was a two-fold frontal attack that was being launched on Jesus Christ and being demonstrated to a sinful world that would be confronted by the adversary, the Satan, who is the devil, who is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, to tempt us to violate God's plan for our lives and to tempt us to abuse God's granted privilege to us.

You say, what do you mean? He tried to tempt Jesus to abuse God's granted privilege. Well, if you go back, you're going to understand this is the doctrine of self-emptying. It had to do with the self-renunciation of the Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation. When Jesus emptied himself, according to Philippians, and became of no reputation, that did not mean that he was emptying himself of his deity. Neither was he exchanging his deity for humanity.

Folks, listen to me. When he made himself of no reputation, Jesus didn't give away his deity, nor did he exchange his deity for humanity. Rather, he set aside his rightful privileges. You might say to me, pastor, what were these rightful privileges of the Lord Jesus Christ who became flesh for us and who dwelt among men?

And we behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten, full of grace and full of truth. These rightful privileges included the privilege of his heavenly glory. It included the privilege of his independent authority as God Jesus Christ could have turned those stones into bread. But he made himself of no reputation. He laid aside his heavenly glory. He laid aside his independent authority. He laid aside his divine prerogative. He laid aside his eternal riches. He laid aside his favour with God, because God, my friends, had granted to him his gracious plan, to which he was obediently submitting himself even to the death upon the cross.

And he had laid aside his granted privilege. What did Jesus say to him? Jesus looked at him, quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 8, and said to him, Satan, let me remind you about what God did to the children of Israel. God allowed them to become hungry with a twofold purpose in mind. First of all, to demonstrate God's provision, and second of all, to cultivate God's people.

Jesus pointed Satan way back then to the God of the fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of the beginnings who has no end. And he said to him, I want you to know, as it is written, man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. I want you to know that God has a divine plan and God grants to us his gracious privilege. And it is because he is God alone. And it is not up to me. And it's not up to you to defy or to lay aside in temptation.

My friend is Satan's effort to get us to violate and abuse the very things that God has determined for his children. Jesus looked at him and said, look at those children of Israel. They were starving out there in the wilderness. God demonstrated his power by sending manna from heaven. And the children of Israel looked up and said, boy, God is so good. And as they understood that God was providor, so they came to a fresh understanding of what it means to be cultivated in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they followed God's plan and they never abused God's privilege. Here's Jesus being tempted according to the lust of the flesh.

But second of all, he was tempted according to the pride of life, the pride of life. Now, when we move into five and six, verses five and six, something happens here. And I want you to take a picture with me. You've all seen pictures of Israel. Many of us have been there. And one of the most prominent pictures of the nation of Israel, that big golden dome. You've seen it in pictures. That's called the Dome of the Rock. That's the place where the temples have been built.

First temple, second temple. And over to the right of it, if you're facing up to the right of it, you'd go through the Kidron Valley and then up through the Garden of Gethsemane and up onto the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Ascension. And we believe according to the Scriptures, when Jesus Christ comes again, he's going to land where he took off, where he ascended to be seated and exalted at the right hand of the Father. He's going to come down through the Kidron Valley.

He's going to go through the Golden Gate, which is still sealed. He's going to reclaim the temple as his own. All of us are going to be with him. Then he's going to march in triumph to the Valley of Armageddon, where the kings of the earth are going to gather under the leadership of Satan himself to try and bring destruction to God in Jesus Christ forever. And by the spoken word of his mouth, Jesus Christ is going to speak defeat.

Blood is going to run as high as the horse's mouths. And then he's going to go back. He's going to put Satan into prison for a little while. He's going to set up his thousand year reign. We're going to rule and reign with him upon this earth. And then we'll follow the great white throne judgment, the time at which all people who have said no to Jesus Christ will be judged for a final time. And if their names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they will be cast into outer darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. And then we will commence the new heaven and the new earth. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Well, let's take a few steps back. Here's Jesus beginning his ministry. Where do you think Satan took him? To the pinnacle of the temple.

You can look at it today. Josephus tells us from ground floor to the top was about 450 feet high. The Jewish people today are building an excavation all the way along the wall, the Western Wall it's called, the Wailing Wall.

You and I see it on television often and we've been there. You see the Orthodox Jews praying at the Wailing Wall in a very disputed part of the country. And Satan takes Jesus up onto the pinnacle of the temple. And what does he say to him? He says to him, listen, if you are the Son of God, which I believe you are, let me quote scripture to you. I don't care what God your Heavenly Father is. And I'm not interested in whether you've divested yourself of the privilege of being God Himself, or whether you've become God incarnate and taken on the flesh of human man. I want you to know that I want to see you put your faith into practice. I don't want you to just talk, I want you to walk. So go ahead King Jesus, just jump.

And I'll quote you out of the book of Psalms that even the angels will come and if you believe that do it, do it to satisfy me. And what did Jesus do? Jesus looked into his face and he said to him, do not put the Lord your God to test. What was Satan trying to do folks?

He had two ideas in mind. Number one, to tempt Jesus to justify God's testing of him. And number two, he had in mind to tempt Jesus to rationalize God's will concerning him. Now listen to me folks, temptation will always, will always seek to get you to justify God's testing of you. And it will always try to get you to rationalize God's will for you. And God doesn't need any justification or rationalization because He is alone as God.

He is sovereign and He works according to His plan from before the foundation of the world. And what did Jesus say to him? He quoted to him again from the book of Deuteronomy, He took him back into the book of Exodus chapter 17 verse 1 through 7 and He showed him how that God Jehovah from the very beginning has worked in mysterious ways and you neither need to justify nor rationalize God.

After all, the definition of to rationalize is to tell a rational lie. Now watch this, watch this. The bottom line, Jesus looked into the face of Satan and He said, Watch out, don't test me. What a powerful message from Dr. Wilton. And as we think about that truth of how Jesus pushed back against the enemy through Scripture, you can do the same thing, we can do the same thing and we'd be thrilled to do it together.

You are not facing these temptations alone. As a part of the community of the body of Christ, we'd love to pray with you and for you. We can do that online at www.tewonline.org or this phone number 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. It's also the place to talk about your walk with Christ. And it starts with a first, most important decision. As a matter of fact, before we get away, here are these passionate thoughts from our pastor, Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. God has moved in your heart and you're giving your life to Jesus Christ. We have some wonderful resources we'd love to put in your hands. Maybe questions have now been drawn to mind and you'd like to have someone pray with you about those questions. Let's do that at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Or meet us online at TEWOnline.org.

That's TEWOnline.org, a great place to find resources like this as well. We are living in a rapidly changing world. What is this new normal today? How do we as believers hold firm? How do we press on? We press on by resting in the safeguards of our faith. When you have a history of God's faithfulness in your heart and spirit, you can walk boldly and unflinchingly through the midst of trouble.

Why? Because God has proven himself to you. With your gift of support to the Encouraging Word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's faith-building message, The Safeguards of Our Faith. This four-message set will help equip you to stand firm on the foundation of Jesus Christ in these not-so-new normal days. Call us at 866-899-WORD or request The Safeguards of Our Faith, available on CD or DVD today. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for now, but we're always available on the phone at 866-899-9673 or tewonline.org. Let's connect.