Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He knows how vulnerable we are. He understands what tempts us. And by the way, the kind of things that tempt you are not necessarily the kind of things that tempt me, but I know one thing, we're all tempted.
And he's good at it. And the only way that you can possibly deal with it is with the Word of God. Welcome to 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.
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 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. You 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. Look, you 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 prophecy 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 Barkley and his candidate 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 was 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 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, Barkley 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 feet 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 sincher, 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 six, by the way.
Same book. He quotes Deuteronomy six. 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. That's the idea.
I'm not going to put them to the test. I think sometimes Christians kind of think that. They say it differently, but I get this kind of thing. You have some medical need or financial need or relationship need.
You know, you have an incurable disease, you have no money in the bank or you never find anyone, but they've got to be someone out there for you. This is the way they usually say what they say to me. Pastor, isn't it true that God can do anything? What do you mean? He can do anything, right?
Right. Well, then why won't he do this? You see, if God can do anything, why won't he give me the sensational solution?
I mean, if he can do anything, why won't he do this? By the way, the sad part is we even have pastors around the country that encourage people to think that way. When I was over in Florida a couple of weeks ago, I just turned a channel and I was one of the religious channels over there. And the words that came right out of the guy's mouth and the whole place erupted into applause was he just turned to his people and said, Today, claim your miracle today. And everyone's clapping like, let's claim our miracle today. Every day, let's all claim our miracle today. One of the reasons it's called a miracle is it's rare.
It's rare, even in scripture, it's extremely rare. But the whole idea is, look, there's a sensible and sensational solution to everything. You see, that is just God do it. Just throw yourself off there. They'll catch you. And everyone will say, look at you.
You're just wonderful. You must be the Messiah. Jesus Christ says, no, that's nothing more than testing the Lord. I've actually had people say to me, if God knows the exact moment in which you are going to die and all your days were written already before there were any of them out of the Book of Psalms. Then that would mean I'm immortal to that moment. And the thinking goes along, that would mean I could walk in front of a bus.
Jump off a bridge. You see, I could do that. Well, my thinking on that is, if you do that, it'll be your day.
You know, that's going to be your day, because it's not like God. By the way, could God miraculously deliver you from such a thing? Yes.
Has he? Yes. But it wasn't as a result of someone testing God. It was a matter of God's will for that situation.
It's a very different thing. And so the first temptation is the temptation of self-satisfaction. The second is the temptation of the sensational solution.
And the third one is a temptation on self-glorification. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world and their glory. It's astounding. He's called the prince of this world. This world is called in Scripture, cosmos diabolicus. In other words, it's called the organized system of the devil, cosmos diabolicus. It's his world. He's the prince of this world. And so he says to Jesus, look, I don't know what's going to be ahead for you, but I got a pretty good idea.
There's a lot of stuff, but we can make this all kind of short. Instead of you waiting to go through all this and then inheriting the earth, how about this? How about if I give it to you right now? You see, I can shortcut this whole thing. You're not going to have to worry about all the abuse and all the suffering.
You're not going to have to do anything. I'll give it to you right now. Show them the kingdoms.
One of the commentators said, just imagine that. He probably showed them Greece and Egypt and Rome. Show them the kingdoms. They're all mine. You see, they're all mine. So all you have to do is worship me.
Seems like a ludicrous thing to say. Isn't that interesting? The first temptation was what you can do for yourself, Jesus. The second one is what God the Father will do for you. And now this one, what I can do for you. This is making a deal with the devil in a sense.
This is what I can do for you. Notice what Jesus said. First he says, go, Satan.
Just go. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Again, Deuteronomy chapter 6. The great chapter on the covenant relationship between Israel and God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
It's just a great chapter. He says you only worship God. By the way, understand something else here. From the point of view of this discussion, if you don't worship God, you worship Lucifer. It doesn't matter what else you worship. If you don't worship God, you're worshipping him.
So most people in the world will worship him anyway. But the point of it is here, he says to Jesus, you can do that. Now I want you to think about that whole process. He's giving him in a sense the idea that you can get something in a quicker way with me if you just simply compromise with me and do what I ask. Now I want you to think about that as, say, a Christian business person.
Think of this great counterfeit and this temptation that would befall them. You start out with this premise. Look, God loves you and God wants you to prosper and he wants you to do well.
He really does. And what I can do is I can make sure you can do well and I can make sure you can do well in the short run. All I'm asking you to do is kind of look the other way when it comes to some of the questionable business practices that it will take.
You see, there's just a few that are really questionable. You just look the other way and you'll get your prosperity sooner rather than later. You see, it sort of comes in our world more like pragmatism than a great direct temptation from the devil.
The idea is you can get it sooner. You see, I mean, God wants you to have it anyway. Aren't you a joint heir with Christ? And since you are a joint heir with Christ, what are you going to inherit? Everything, right?
Okay, why don't we speed this up a little bit so you can get more stuff now? By the way, if you don't think that's a temptation to you, then you really haven't done your own income taxes. Temptation, right? I mean, it's going to be the theirs or mine.
I vote for me. They'll never catch that. No, they won't. They probably won't.
I'm pretty sure he will, though. You see, this kind of temptation happens all the time to us. He's offering Christ something that's going to be Christ.
He's just going to speed up the process. So Jesus Christ says, go. It is written. The devil then left them. And behold, angels came and began to minister to them. The whole time the Father of Testimony is just watching.
What did they do? Well, I'm sure they fed them, and I'm pretty sure they worshipped them. They began to minister to them immediately. When you look at these three temptations, one commentator said this. Jesus essentially says, I will trust the Father. I will not presume on his word. And I will not circumvent his will.
And I will take the Father's good gifts from the Father's own hand in the Father's own way and in the Father's own time. He says, thus the Messiah was accredited by the severest test. You see, that was really what was going on there. The temptation of self-satisfaction, the temptation of a sensational solution, and the temptation of self-glorification. He tempts us that way. He tries to get us to distrust God's providential care, to try to solve our own problem. There's a temptation to do that. Over the years, I can remember sitting in meetings and trying to think of the solutions that church leaders are trying to come up with for a problem.
And I can remember saying sometimes and always thinking, well, that would be great if Jesus were dead, but I think Jesus is alive. I don't think we should solve this on our own wit. I think there's more like a biblical principle at stake here. And if you don't think that's a temptation to solve it on your own, think of the story of Abraham and Ishmael.
How'd that work out? You see, I'll solve it. I'll solve the problem. He didn't solve the problem. He created even more.
And then in the second temptation, the whole idea is that he will tempt us to expect that God will supernaturally intervene and give us some sensational solution. Oh, he'll do it. God will always do it. He can do anything.
He's going to do this for me. The answer is always maybe. That really depends on God's will. The last one is the appeal to our selfish ambition to try to get us to achieve God's will in another way. This comes under the heading, the end justifies the means.
Boy, you have to be really careful with those kind of temptations. There's something else that happened here. Each and every time, he said three words that he never has to say ever, but he says them. It is written. He doesn't have to say that. He is the word of God. He never has to say that. He has authority to speak any way he wants. But I think as an example to us, each and every time, he says it is written.
What does that mean to us? Let the word of God dictate your choices when you're tempted. By the way, that presupposes that you know the word of God.
If you don't know the word of God, how are you going to react to something like that? It is written. Let me illustrate that. Last year at the fall festival across the street in the parking lot, they brought in on the far end of the parking lot a maze, sort of like a corn maze, but this is done with canvas and all that. Watching kids go in and out and stuff, I thought, I'm going to do that. I'm going to go in there. I'm going in there.
I went in and through a whole series of poor decisions and bad choices, I was in there for quite some time. And I admit I was really getting irritated. And then something else happened, though. We had a man in our church that volunteered, and he was on a ladder on the far side of the maze standing up looking down on the maze. Now, he was there to help small children. But he did say, do you want some help? First temptation, for a moment, no. See, for a moment, it was sort of like, I'll get out of here.
If I have to crawl underneath this thing, I'm coming. No, I said yes. Yes, I want some help. He said, okay, back up. Now, go left. Now, go forward, go right. Now, go left, go straight, now go right. I came right out of the parking lot.
How did that work so well? He had a different perspective than I did. You see, when you're in the maze, you don't really see it from that perspective.
When you're above the maze, you see it in a completely different perspective. That's what the Word of God is. The Word of God is God's perspective of your life. The Word of God is God's perspective of the choices and decisions you're going to make. You see, that's what the Word of God brings.
And when you're in the maze, you don't really think about it from those point of view. And that's why we succumb to temptations all the time. I mean, if you think about this, when you think of your enemies, and I don't mean in the sense of foreign terrorists.
I mean like personal enemies. What's your thought? I mean, your honest thought, your temptation thought. What does God say? Love your enemies and pray for them. Wow, that's a different perspective, isn't it?
That's not your perspective, your perspective is how do we, you hear bad news about them all, that's really good. You see, that's temptation. God's perspective is different.
What if you're in a context of a really bad relationship? And they sin against you. And then they sin against you again. And they sin against you again. And then you reconcile and they sin against you again. You see, is there a temptation to fight back, to be angry? Is there a temptation here?
In the context of marriage, is there a temptation to end this? What's God say? See, what's the word say?
It is written what? I forgive, how often? 70 times seven. You see, 70 times seven. What?
70 times seven. And oh, by the way, vengeance is mine, he says, I'll do the repaying. Oh, by the way, I hate divorce. That's the word of God. You see, that's a different perspective.
He's above the maze. Hmm. In almost any kind of difficult relationship, one that often comes to my mind is this, let no unkind word come from your mouth. Even though your ears are hearing a lot of unkind words coming your way, what's the temptation? You see, what's the temptation in that thing? Here they come, look out.
What's the word say? Let no unkind word come from your mouth. You see how different this is for us and why it's so easy for us to succumb to temptation. Trouble, stress, loss of job, money. Wow, is there a temptation to worry? Is there a temptation for anxiety? Your future. Your future relationships or your future finances.
Is there a temptation in any of that? What's the word say? Don't worry. You see, don't worry. Be anxious for nothing. You see, why? How does that work? Seek first the kingdom of God.
I'll add this. Cast all your anxiety upon me because I care for you. That's what the word says. No, no, I want to be anxious. You see, I want to worry about this.
You see, this is a lot easier to see than it is to do. Satan has made a career out of understanding us. He knows how vulnerable we are. He understands what tempts us. And by the way, the kind of things that tempt you are not necessarily the kind of things that tempt me, but I know one thing. We're all tempted.
And he's good at it. And the only way that you can possibly deal with it is with the word of God. The word of God is above the maze. There's one other thing. Your time in the wilderness went.
That's one of the great things about it. You resist the temptation and you get out of the wilderness and God comes and ministers to you. And so the next time, from the cartoon point of view, there's a little guy standing on your shoulder and he's whispering in your ear, it might be good to think and say and then do the phrase that is written. If you do, you can resist the temptation just like our Lord. Let's pray. Father, we have one thing in common. We're all tempted. We've probably been tempted this morning.
We'll certainly be tempted this afternoon. Father, I think so often what we do is to simply react to the temptation and we don't think about it. And Father, what we need to do is stop and pause to say, does your word address this? And if it does, we can do all things through him who strengthens us. We can resist.
James said to submit ourselves to you and then resist the devil and he will flee from us as he did from Christ. Father, I pray for each person here and the battles of their life with temptation that they follow our Lord's example. In his name we pray.
Amen. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives and 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. .
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