Acing the Devil's Tests, Part 3

Temptation is something different for everyone. For some, it's an obsession with tolerance and accommodating false doctrines like pluralism.

For others, it's much more personal and includes things like envy, lust, or greed. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll recreates the face-off between the devil and Jesus, as recorded in Matthew chapter 4. Through this dramatic encounter, we're taught invaluable lessons on how to say no when we're tempted to say yes.

This is message number 8 in a brand new series through the book of Matthew. Chuck titled his message, Acing the Devil's Tests. I made an interesting discovery over the years that when God gives you a test, it's impossible for you to cheat on it. First off, he doesn't write his tests down.

He never once gave the disciples a written exam. They never had a reason to ask, will this be on the test? It certainly would be, but it wouldn't be written.

It would be experienced. That's why you can't cheat on the test the Lord sends your way. Second, there are really only two results when we take the Lord's tests.

We either pass the test or we fail it. Third, in every test, God's desire is always the same. He wants us to pass. He wants us to do well. He wants us to grow when he gives us the test. He doesn't want us to falter and fail. The devil is altogether different. Nothing delights him like our failures. His tests are always designed to lead us into failure. His great hope is to see us yield to his subtle temptation and sin. As we come to this fourth chapter in Matthew's Gospel, we will read about tests that were designed by the devil for Jesus, specifically with the hope in mind that he would fail. All the way through, he's like the main thread in the fabric. He appears and reappears. He's engaged in one simple plan, and that's to bring Jesus down. Practically speaking, Jesus is all alone in a wilderness.

All alone in the wilderness area. On top of that, he has fasted 40 days followed by 40 nights. He has maximum privacy, silence, and solitude.

In many ways, it's a perfect setting for him to grow deeper in his relationship with the Father. But the danger signals are there by just being alone, and how alone is Jesus. Notice the devil came and said, Hey, Jay, what's going on? Look at you. How much weight have you lost? You're not sleeping much either, are you?

Man, you look emaciated. We've got to talk about this. I mean, I just heard in your baptism, I heard your father, he's your father, right? I heard him call you son. Is this any way to treat a son?

Would you treat your son like this? Come on, man. Hey, here's a stone. Man, turn it into a warm loaf and think how nourishing that would be. But Jesus, it's been 40 days.

40 days, man. Stumbling across locusts and scorpions and snakes and the barrenness, the howling winds of the wilderness. I thought you were his son. I love Jesus' response.

He doesn't play with the enemy. So Jesus told him, No, the scriptures say, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Deuteronomy 8.3, check it out. He hadn't planned for the test, but he knew the word of God.

It had been streaming into his mind for 30 years growing up in the home cooking of his mother Mary in the village of Nazareth. Day after day, year after year, he knew Deuteronomy backwards and forwards. He could quote it at the moment, and Satan has no answer for the scriptures.

But it doesn't stop. By the way, remember Peter's words, the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may what? Devour, we would say, to swallow up.

Like a roaring lion seeking anyone to swallow up. He's not playing games with Jesus. It's not only about bread, it's about doing what he tells him to do. It's about meeting his own needs, not trusting in the Father to nourish him in his own providential way. It's a test designed to get him to mistrust the provident provisions of God. You will face them regularly married or single. You will constantly be tempted to do it your way, your way, and the devil will be there applauding it, saying, there's lots of stones we can turn into bread together.

No. Verse five is the second test. Takes him into Jerusalem, takes him up to what is called in the Greek text the wing of the temple.

It's apparently at that time a precipice that hung high over the street, 450 feet below, over 40 stories. They're standing there together and he said, you're the Son of God, jump! Jump off this thing! You think people won't follow you? They've been looking for signs for all this time and they think when Messiah comes he's going to be this miracle working Savior, this miracle working jump, while they'll follow you by the thousands.

You won't have to begin with a little small deal. They'll get in line to watch you jump. And if that isn't enough, Satan quotes from Psalm 91. Look at that. You think you're the only one who knows the scriptures, your enemy knows them better than you and I ever will know them. But he will order his angels to protect you, Jesus.

They'll hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone. Check it out for yourself. Psalm 91. The problem is he twists it out of context.

He misquotes a part of it and he leaves out a section that ought to be mentioned. This has nothing to do with sensationalism, which is the temptation. Do something sensational, man.

Long enough for this wilderness nonsense. Why, your angels whom you could name one after another, you created all of us. Well, they'll become your parachute.

Jump! Jesus responds, the scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God. Well, what's wrong with this test? It's presumption. It's the sin of presumption.

It happens all the time. People do it in the name of faith. They play with snakes and they call it faith. They play with illness and they call it faith. They promise miracles of this and miracles of that as if miracles were every day. And they call it faith.

And if you don't have it happen, you don't have the faith. Sensationalism. One man puts it this way. He who seeks to attract others to him by providing them with sensations has adopted a way in which there is literally no future. Why?

Because they'll always want more. If you jump from there, how about jumping from here? If you'll jump from here, why not go up there? And if you'll jump, why not?

Then they start in. Remember this as you lead ministries and as you're involved in ministries, many of you are, remember that there's always a tendency on the part of the flesh to rely on the flesh to do the Spirit's work. Don't go there. Don't go there. Scripture says you must not test the Lord your God. Presumption is a sin. We won't go there.

I'm not jumping. Next. Oh, he doesn't quit. He's the most creative creature that ever lived aside from Christ himself. He's brilliant beyond words. So next he took him to the peak of a very high mountain, probably Herman.

North, snowcapped year-round, up there in Herman. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. Look, look, look, Jesus.

That's Rome and Athens, the Areopagus, the Parthenon, magnificent structures, Corinth, Ephesus, Jerusalem. It's all yours. All you got to do, man, is just bow down and worship me. There's nobody else here. Nobody will even see it.

Just you and me, man. I'll give it all to you if you'll kneel down and worship. Get out of here, Satan.

I like the way Eugene Peterson renders it in the message. Beat it. Scram. When was the last time you said that to the enemy? You must.

It's called resisting him. Don't play with him. Don't play the little Ouija board thing.

It's going to be fun to see where this little thing winds up. Don't get a hold of these electronic games that lead you into dragons and the world of the ethereal that you can't explain. Don't go there. You're stupid if you go there. You're playing into his hands.

He loves it, loves it when you play his games. You may have forgotten, Satan, I made all these places. They don't turn my head.

Get out. Scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Deuteronomy 6 13. He had Deuteronomy down.

One fine expositor writes, Satan is a counterfeiter. He offers what seems to be the same as God offers and his price is much cheaper. God wants you to prosper, doesn't he?

Well, I'll give you prosperity a lot sooner and for a lot less. Just turn your head a little at questionable practices. Give in to what's advantageous. Don't be a prude.

Follow the crowd. That's the way to success. The basic argument is always a form of the idea the end justifies the means. And then he says, what Satan gives is always immeasurably less than he promises. For Jesus to have given in to this third temptation would have brought the same ultimate result as his having succumbed to either the other two. He would have disqualified himself not only as king but as Savior. Instead of redeeming the world, he would have joined the world. Instead of inheriting the world, he would have lost the world.

The Christ would have played the Antichrist and the lamb would have become the beast. This is serious stuff but he doesn't want you to realize how serious. It's just your marriage. You get another one of those.

It's just private business dealings. Who's to know? Take the crown, Jesus.

Forget that cross stuff. Get out, Satan. I am to serve only the Lord my God. And the next time you are tempted toward pluralism, will you remember there is only one Lord and God? There is only one.

We do not share him with any other. There is one God, one Savior between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. One way, one truth, one life.

Don't fall into the trap of multiple gods because all people are sincere and they sincerely worship in their religion. They are wrong. They are unbiblical. It is not what God teaches.

Don't be afraid of being that narrow. Satan gets the message. I'm to worship only the Lord God. Get out. The devil went away. I love it. Now the angels sweep down and cover him with their wings.

Isn't that a beautiful scene? They take care of him. Several reminders and warnings and I'll say them quickly.

They're not complicated. Then there's something I want you to learn. I want you to memorize because we're going to repeat it till you've got it down. You'll thank me for the rest of your life.

You'll need it. Let me say a word about Satan, then a word about the Scriptures, then a word about the Savior, and finally the word about sin. First, Satan. He is a defeated enemy. Don't live afraid of him. Don't be intimidated by him. Quit running scared of the devil.

Greater is he who is in you, Christian, than he who is in the world. He's a defeated foe. Every move on that chessboard of time moves him closer to the lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and his demons. He knows that. He just doesn't want you to think about that. You're dealing with a defeated enemy.

He will not win. Second, as it relates to Scripture, alive and powerful. Alive and powerful. Don't hesitate to stand on the Word of God. Study it.

Read it. Commit it to memory. Use it.

Rely on it. Put it in verse form under the glass at your desk. Put it at the mirror where you prepare your face in the morning. Put it at your kitchen sink where you do the dishes. Put it on your car dashboard so you can read it every time you're in there.

Put it in front of you. The Scriptures are alive and active. They'll save you from defeat and discouragement. Don't hesitate to stand on the Scriptures.

When it comes to the Savior, he is your shield and your sustainer. He will never leave you in the lurch. He's touched with the feeling of your infirmities having been tested in all ways as we are.

Here's proof of it. And he passed the test. He will liberate you again and again. Just call on him. Just tell him, Lord Jesus, right now without you I can't make it. I'm in a jam.

I need your help. Please step into the scene. Show me what I'm to do and I'll do it. No argument.

I'll do it. Now as it relates to sin, as it relates to sin, you have a choice. Every moment of every day of your life you have a choice. You can yield or you can resist every day. Your choice is no different from the most powerful person in the country, whoever that may be.

It is the same as anyone else sitting near you. You have a choice. If you choose to yield to sin and you do that enough, it will capture you. You will be held, according to the words of Proverbs, by the cords of your own sin. Every victim of an addiction could tell you his or her own story.

A number of them are in this room today. The more you imbibe, the more you participate in it, the deeper will be the sin until you will be caught. Now the peace I want you to remember.

I'll say it again and again and you'll get it. Sin will take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay.

It will cost you more than you want to pay. Sin. The goal of the enemy is to get you in the realm of sin and hold you there. He'll teach you to be a liar. You'll live your life full of lies.

He'll teach you to be a phony and you'll be able to do that with incredible ability. That's all part of sinful lifestyle. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.

Say it with me. First, take you. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Again, sin will take you farther than you want to go.

The next is keep you. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. Again, sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Third, cost you. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay. Again, sin will cost you more than you want to pay. We'll go over that next time when we're together.

Once again now together. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Sin will cost you more than you want to pay. Please bow your head with me. Just sit quietly right there. Let's not move about. I realize the encounter that Jesus had with Satan is not your encounter.

Remember I said each test is unique. You will not have a visit like this one, but you will certainly encounter the enemy and his ways, and perhaps you have. Perhaps you've made a habit of yielding.

Quite likely, some of you have become addicted in some realm that has now captured you, and you're held in the cords of that sin. I can promise you through the power of the Word of God and the authority of the Scriptures, the Lord is able to deliver you and give you a victory you've never known before through his Son Jesus Christ as you turn your life over to him. Turn it over to him.

Turn it over to him. You're a sinner, and because of that, it has created a gap between you and your holy God. But that wonderful cross of Christ where he paid the complete payment for your sin has bridged the gap. Because of what he has done on your behalf, you can know God personally.

Through putting your faith in Christ, yes, you can. You're surrounded by those who have done that. The one speaking to you right now has done that. My family has done that.

Many around you in this room have done that. It's your turn. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be delivered. It starts with believing. Let us help you get there. Sweetly, Lord, have we heard you calling, come follow me. So today I pray that the sweet call of Christ will melt the hearts of all who have heard this message. Deliver us from cynical excuses, from the habit of turning all of this off once we've left this place of worship. May these words follow us and, if necessary, haunt us. Through the day and night, through the labyrinthine journey of our dreams, may we be drawn to Christ, who alone can give us life abundantly.

In His matchless name, we pray these things, every one said. Amen. Few things are more helpful than learning how to resist temptations. Chuck Swindoll titled this three-day message, Acing the Devil's Tests. You're listening to Insight for Living, and to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Today's program features the eighth sermon in a brand new study of Matthew.

This comprehensive series will capture our imaginations over the next several months. In fact, the better part of this year, as Chuck guides us through a verse-by-verse study of Matthew's New Testament book. We started with the birth of our king, and now we're tracing his footsteps through all 28 chapters, moving toward his great commission to go and make disciples. Now, in conjunction with this brand new broadcast series, Chuck has recently completed a commentary on Matthew as well. And because of the enormity of this study, Chuck's commentary comes in two hardbound volumes. The set is called Swindoll's Listening, and it's a wonderful book. The set is called Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew. Whether you're new to the Bible, or you're teaching the Bible as a pastor, you'll find Chuck's approach to Matthew both scholarly and accessible.

And it's written in the engaging style that's become a hallmark of Chuck's teaching. To purchase Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew, go to insight.org slash offer. Or if you prefer, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. Insight for Living Ministries is supported not by the purchase of books and resources, but through the contributions of people like you. And we invite you to join our mission to introduce King Jesus to all 195 countries of the world. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. And then many are choosing to automate their giving by becoming a monthly companion.

This growing family of supporters is allowing Insight for Living to advance its mission with boldness. To become a monthly companion today, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., call 1-800-772-8888. Or you can easily sign up online at insight.org slash monthly companion. Join us again Friday when Chuck Swindoll continues his series called The King's Arrival, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Acing the Devil's Tests, was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.