Talking To The Devil, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. The same temptations. It's astounding how many times we'll say things like this. I have needs. I have rights. You see, and then we end up spending too much, drinking too much. Infidelity, pornography, whatever.

Anger, outburst. I have my rights. I have my needs.

That's a temptation. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. There is a fallacy that many of us believe.

It sort of goes like this. If I live a good life and I obey God, I pray every day, I make wise decisions, and my faith doesn't waver, then God will protect me and everything in my life will go well. There is a principle in Scripture, no doubt, of sowing and reaping and living your life the right way and sowing in a sense the right actions will reap better results. But I think we see it as an absolute promise in Scripture. Much like Job's friends who said to Job things like, you know, you're a product of your choices and apparently you have made some really bad choices. And in those bad choices you've made, now God is angry with you and now this is what's happening in your life.

But it's not true. You see, in Matthew chapter 3, there is a fellow there who throughout all human history lived a life like no one else. He not only lived a good life or a wise life, he lived the perfect life. And in fact, he merited and heard the love of God.

In fact, God the Father said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then the word then came to play. And then what happened after that? Temptation. Rejection. Poverty.

Attempts on his life. Betrayal. Grief. Loss. Torture.

Finally death. What does that tell us? I think what that tells us is this. There's evil in the world. You see, that didn't come from Jesus Christ.

That came from the world in which he lived. But the secularists of our day really hate that word, evil. When's the last time you heard on the news someone referring to an event as evil? You see, the modern sort of secular view of evil is that it's just simply an out-of-date concept. That if you educate the ignorant, if you change the social systems, if you provide the right kind of psychological or pharmacological help, you can deal away with evil.

But not all people feel that way, even in the secular realm. Columbia professor Andrew Delbanco wrote a book called The Death of Satan, How Americans Have Lost Their Sense of Evil. One sentence in that book, he writes this, A gulf has opened up in our culture between the visibility of evil, which we all see, and the intellectual resources available for coping with it. He then goes on in his book and he quotes another book, Thomas Harris' novel called, and you've probably seen them or even heard of the movie, The Silence of the Lambs. And in that movie, of course, the monstrous killer Hannibal Lecter is talking to Officer Starling, who represents, from the point of view of the author, our culture's view of evil. And Hannibal Lecter says this, Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling.

I happened. You can't reduce me to a set of influences. You've given up on good and evil for behavioralism. Officer Starling, you've got everybody in moral dignity pants. Nothing is ever anybody's fault anymore.

Look at me, Officer Starling. Can you stand there and say to me that I'm evil? That's the dilemma of the cultural perspective. The biblical view of evil is quite different than our culture. The Bible says that evil exists, that it is. The Bible says that evil is both natural and supernatural. The Bible says that evil is inside of us and outside of us. The Bible says that evil is both individual and is socially systemic.

And the Bible says something else even more difficult for our culture to accept. The Bible says there's an actual devil. And if there is a devil and demonic forces, then evil cannot be reduced to simply bad human choices.

I think that if you try to explain the world that you see around us now and the atrocities that are always, always being perpetrated on us, and you try to explain it without the existence of evil, I think that you are spiritually and intellectually naive. The better question is, if we know who the enemy is and that he is real, how do we deal with him? And once again, I believe the best way to deal with him is the way the Lord dealt with him. And so we're going to continue our conversations with Jesus, this time his conversation with the devil. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew chapter 4. These conversations that Jesus has had, he's had one with a skeptic named Nathaniel. He had another with Nicodemus, who was a religious insider. And then he had one with an immoral outsider, the woman at the well. And last time he had a conversation with a group of Pharisees who were extreme legalists. And now he has a conversation with the devil.

Of all them by far, this is the shortest conversation. The context begins in chapter 3 and verse 16. Matthew writes, And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened. And he said he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him, and behold, a voice out of heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

We know that scene. He goes into the water in a sense a carpenter. He comes out the Messiah of Israel. What a great statement. What an affirmation.

This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. And then there it is in chapter 4, verse 1. And remember, in the original text there are no chapters and no verses. This is just the next word, then.

Then. Mark writes immediately, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Diabolos, the accuser. The first thing you see, by the way, in that verse, by easy observation is this. Satan didn't go into the wilderness looking for Jesus. Jesus went into the wilderness looking for him. He was led in the wilderness by the Spirit of God.

Isn't that amazing? The Spirit of God is as apt to lead you into the wilderness as it is to lead you to green pastures. Sometimes the Spirit of God leads you into the wilderness. And it says here to be tempted.

Wow, what a place. It's in the wilderness to be tempted. The wilderness, by the way, is the land from the Dead Sea all the way up to almost Jerusalem.

It's right around, I think, 35 miles long, 15 miles wide. It's desolate. And that's where Jesus Christ is. And it says in the text to be tempted. Now, what's interesting about that, you mean the Spirit of God led him in the wilderness to be tempted.

Yes, and maybe even more than that. The word tempted is the word pyrozo. It's a very unusual word in this sense in the Greek. The word pyrozo means to be tempted, and the word pyrozo means to be tested.

They're actually two sides of the exact same coin. So whenever you see God is testing someone, the word pyrozo is used. When Satan or Lucifer or the devil is tempting someone, the word pyrozo is used. Satan uses the incident to tempt. God uses the incident to test.

What is he testing? Maybe the best way to put it would be sort of like an illustration. Maybe I found a story. When the Union Pacific Railroad was being built across the United States, way out west they came across a large ravine, and they had to build a bridge across the ravine. They brought an engineer in from the east, and he built the bridge. When the bridge was complete, he said, I want a train brought in that'll go from one end of the bridge to the other, and I want it loaded with twice as much weight in it as any train is allowed to carry. And so he did that, and he brought it in, and he set it there.

And he set it there for one full day. One of the workers who worked on the bridge said, Why are you doing that? Why are you putting this double-weight train on this bridge? He said, Don't you think it would fall? He said, No, what I brought it on the bridge for is to show you that it won't fall. In other words, I'm testing it.

You're testing the positive attributes of the bridge, not the negative attribute of the bridge. That's what happens with Jesus. Notice from Satan's point of view, he's being tempted. By the way, how does the Bible start out? Is there any temptations going on there? It's interesting.

Max Lucado writes this. Does the word rematch mean anything to you? For the second time in the history, an unfallen mind will be challenged by the fallen angel. The second Adam has come to succeed where the first Adam has failed.

Jesus, however, faces a test far more severe. Adam was tested in a garden, Christ in a wasteland or a wilderness. Adam faced Satan on a full stomach.

Christ is in the midst of a fast. Adam had a companion, Eve. Christ had no one. Adam was challenged to remain sinless in a sinless world.

Christ, on the other hand, was challenged to remain sinless in a sin-ridden world. The second Adam is tempted in the wilderness. By the way, you don't have to go to Israel to be in the wilderness in order to be tempted. You can be in a cemetery and be tempted. You can be in a hospital and be tempted. You can be in a terrible marriage and be tempted. You can be in bankruptcy court and be tempted. You see, there are a lot of places to be tempted.

There's a wilderness experience for virtually all of us. And it's always got the same ideas for the child of God. One is tempting us and our Lord is testing us to see if we really are authentic and true. And so now we go to the temptation, the very first temptation and the conversation.

This is called the temptation of self-satisfaction. And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones will become bread. Now you say, well, what's the context? Well, the context is in verse two, the most understated thing I think I've ever read. And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and here's the statement, he then became hungry. He didn't have 40 days and 40 nights, and then he became hungry.

Wow. And so the tempter comes to him and says, if you are the Son of God, in English that's not good because it says if. It does say if, but in Greek that means if and it's a first-class conditional clause, if and it's true, or if and I can assume it.

You could translate that the word since. By the way, you think the devil knows that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Yes. You say it this way. Since you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. In other words, all he is telling him here to do is look, meet your needs. You're the Son of God.

You're hungry. Take the stones, turn them to bread. By the way, can Jesus do anything with food? I mean, can he take a few fish and a few loaves and feed 5,000 with them?

I mean, he can do this. By the way, is that necessarily even sinful? No. Not necessarily. What he is saying though is look, you need to meet your needs with your means. That's what you need to do.

You need to meet your needs with your means. It's kind of interesting. We face the same temptations.

It's astounding how many times we'll say things like this. I have needs. I have rights. You see. And then we end up spending too much, drinking too much, infidelity, pornography, whatever.

Anger, outburst. I have my rights. I have my needs. That's a temptation. Remember the response of Jesus Christ here.

But he answered and he said to him, written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. What a response. By the way, this whole encounter is kind of strange. I mean, this is not the way Hollywood would do this. This is like a superhero movie for Hollywood. This is when the Son of God meets the Prince of Darkness. I mean, don't you expect like lightning, thunder, earthquakes, smoke, fire, head spinning. I mean, this is the good and the evil meet.

And when you see it, it's just like, wow. This is a really short, quiet conversation. There's not much going on here. But there's a lot going on here. You see, it's interesting. You're not going to beat the devil down with verbosity.

You're not going to talk him to death. It's just a matter of what your perspective is. And Jesus Christ just simply here quotes a scripture. And he quotes Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Now it would be worth our cause to go back and take a peek here. Let's go back to Deuteronomy and hold your place in Matthew to Deuteronomy chapter 8. Moses writing in the book of Deuteronomy.

And now I think you're going to see the parallel. Verse 2 of Deuteronomy 8. Moses writes, God speaking, you shall remember all, he says, the way which the Lord your God has led you into the wilderness these 40 years. Jesus was in there 40 days.

There in the wilderness 40 years. Time of testing. That he might humble you. Now notice the next words. Testing you.

This is a test for them. He says to know what is in your heart, whether you will keep his commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know.

That he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone. He says, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. By the way, he tests Israel in the wilderness for 40 years and they fail. He tests the Son of God in the wilderness for 40 days and he succeeds. And notice what Jesus Christ's response is back here. Man will not live by bread alone but every word that comes in the mouth of God.

In other words, his answer clarifies something. Your spiritual needs are greater than your physical needs. Always. That's what Jesus Christ is saying. My spiritual needs are greater than my physical needs. Remember when he talked to the woman at the well. They came back from the city if you remember from Sychar and they said, here Lord eat.

He goes, I have food you guys don't know about. In other words, yes I'm hungry but no. My spiritual need is much greater than my physical need. And here's another example of it. It's interesting. It's better to obey and depend on God and wait for his provision than to grab satisfaction for ourselves.

That's what he is saying. By the way, that's a temptation we always face. We face exactly that type of temptation.

Think about that. How often that happens. My needs, my rights. By the way, someone just cuts you off in line in a grocery store in traffic. What are you doing?

What's the first thing you think? My rights. My rights. That's my rights. Beep, beep, beep. What are you doing? You're saying my rights are more important.

The most important thing is my rights. It's not. You see, it's not. That's why this is such hyperbole. I mean, my goodness, who would blame them after 40 days of not eating to turn the stones to bread. Who would blame them for that? Not us. You see, not us. It's astounding how many times we try to substantiate a sin by saying things like, I have needs.

Really. All we're doing is listening to the tempter. So the temptation there is self-satisfaction.

The second temptation is the temptation of what I call the sensational solution. Satan or the devil changes his strategy. He says, then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. Now, there's something spiritual going on in here because they're moving from the wilderness to Jerusalem to a mountain, and I don't think they're walking slowly.

I think they just move there. And he puts them at probably the eastern side of the temple, a portico of Herod's temple, and probably on the highest point of that portico on the eastern side of the temple. It actually overlooks the Kidron Valley. Josephus says that from that portico to the bottom of the valley is 450 feet. So that's substantial. That's really substantial.

That's 45 stories. Notice what he does then, and he's very good at this, by the way. He uses scripture. The devil says to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands, he says, they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. That's what the Bible says. In fact, hold your place and go to Psalm 91 with me. Psalm 91, and you see these words in the Old Testament, and you've got to give Lucifer a little credit here. He kind of knows it. That tells me he knows the Word of God. Verses 11 and 12 of Psalm 91 read this way as the psalmist wrote it. For he will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways, and they will bear you up in their hands, that you will not strike your foot against the stone. Wow.

Pretty good. By the way, it already tells you something. Just because someone's quoting scripture actually doesn't necessarily mean they're telling you the truth. See, the devil is using scripture. What is he doing here?

Why does that change? This is the temptation of a sensational solution. What I mean by that is that in the first temptation, he asked Jesus to do something for himself. He said, look, you've got the power, you're the son of God.

Just turn those stones into bread. Now he says, hey, let God do something for you. You see, let's see what God can do for you. You're the son of God, right? Well, the prophecies say that they'll not let harm come to you, so just throw yourself off of here, and the angels will catch you. Now, why would that even be a temptation?

I mean, in a truest sense, like why would something like that even be a temptation? Well, think about it. They're on the pinnacle of the temple, right there at the pinnacle. Now, there are people all over Jerusalem, and especially in the temple. What if Jesus Christ threw himself 450 feet down, and he's falling, and everyone's watching, and then at the end, all of a sudden, some angelic beings catch him and stand him up? Do you think there might be a little riot going on there? Do you think they might want to make him king and Messiah right then, right now?

Of course. And by the way, that was the kind of thing that false messiahs tried to do all the time. William Barclay, in his commentary on Matthew, talks about some of these. He says there was a man named Theudas, who led a group of people from the temple to the Jordan River, and he told the people that I will split now the river in half. He didn't do it. He failed, and then everyone walked away and didn't listen to him anymore.

But it's not done. There was an Egyptian messiah, a pretender, who claimed that he could flatten the walls of Jerusalem simply by saying to be flat. He walked to the walls. He gave his shot, and nothing happened, and no one followed him anymore. Tradition holds, Barclay writes, that Simon the magician out of the book of Acts, chapter 8 and verse 9 in the book of Acts, Simon the magician tried the very feat which Satan tempted Jesus with. He jumped off the top of the temple from the pinnacle into the Kidron Valley and died. By the way, if you want a sense of irony, though, another thing about tradition, James, the Lord's brother, who was the elder of the Jerusalem church, that's how he was martyred. They took him up to the pinnacle of the temple and threw him into the Kidron Valley to kill him. So he says, look, just throw yourself off. If you're the censure of the Son of God, the scriptures even back me up, nothing's going to happen to you.

I call that the temptation of the sensational solution. If you think about that just for a moment, Jesus Christ says to him, on the other hand, it is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Deuteronomy 6, by the way, same book. He quotes Deuteronomy 6. You see, if you're going to test God, that means something, that means you doubt God. And if you doubt God, that means you don't trust God. And if you don't trust God, you have no faith and you're in sin.

See, Jesus says, I'm not going to do that. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ... ...