Temptation No.2 It is written

First of all, friends, I consider it a great privilege to be able to address you from here. First of all, I want to read from Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely He will save you from the foulest snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge.

His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you make the Most High your dwelling, even the Lord who is my refuge, then no harm will befall you. No disaster will come near your tent, for He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra. You will trample the great lion and the serpent.

Because He loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue Him. I will protect Him, for He acknowledges my name. He will call upon me and I will answer Him.

I will be with Him in trouble. I will deliver Him and honour Him. With long life will I satisfy Him and show Him my salvation.

I want to mention too that today is a great day for me. It's very special indeed. We must never forget the sacrifices made during the two wars.

In both instances, we were totally unprepared for the evil that was leashed upon us. From 1940 to 1945, the Royal Armoured Corps, of which I was a member, had over 10,000 men killed or died of wounds and disease, and over 18,000 wounded. Please God, that we will always be strong enough to defend our country in the future.

And then the sacrifice of the past shall not be in vain. And also we must remember the sacrifice our Lord Jesus made for us. We haven't time, I don't think, Tony, to carry on.

I would like to refer afterwards to Corinthians 10-19, where it dwells with the armour that we all need against the evils which are about in this world. And we must be prepared to stand up against the devil. Amen.

I must apologise for saying Corinthians, Ephesians actually, from 10-19. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm, then with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, in which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all saints.

War is not glamorous, believe me. When wives and the family lose their husbands for one, two, three, four years, it becomes very traumatic on both sides. Some of my mail reached me after being a year travelling around different countries before it reached me, and it was barely decipherable because of the perspiration and various things which the different people had in transmitting it to me.

The time comes when you could lose faith if you didn't believe in the Lord. I can assure you that is the only faith one can cling to. God Almighty, you pray.

Before you go into action, you're fearful, you're tense, and it's only when you go into action the adrenaline rises and you forget that you are trusting in the Lord. Some don't come back. But then bear in mind the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus made.

It's just a small sacrifice. But we must be prepared for any evil that might come from any other nation in this world. Young people probably have a different opinion about Remembrance Day and probably feel they should be done away with.

But it's most essential to bear in mind that the Bible tells you we'll always get these wars at different times, although we hope we never see them again. God bless you all. And the passage that we looked at last week, which is one of the three records, one of the two full records of the story of our Lord and the temptations through which he passed.

Matthew 4. Just a few of those verses I repeat. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

The tempter came to him and said, If 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. Earlier on today, I was reading in my own private study, the book of Psalms.

I came across an interesting verse which really sets in perspective our context for this morning's address. Psalm 11 verse 2 says, For look, the wicked bend their bows or bend their bows. They set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.

The wicked shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. We're looking at what one person, you recall from last week's study, called the most sacred of all stories. Our Lord in the valley of Jesh Hinnom.

Wild wilderness out there in Judea. The sort of place that you would never opt to go to, not just in terms of choice. So unpleasant.

So God forsaken. There you recall Jesus finds himself, because he's been propelled by the Spirit. He's gone there after a very amazing experience when he was baptized by John in the river Jordan.

Now there's an interesting verse of Scripture puzzling to some. In Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 8, which speaking of our Lord Jesus has this to say, Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. And once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obeyed him.

Have you ever thought of Jesus learning? Learning obedience. Who was the teacher as far as our Lord was concerned? Now in many ways his comprehension is completely different from yours and mine. He's omniscient.

He has all knowledge. And yet even having all knowledge, there was a period of maturity through which he passed in his life. He learned obedience.

He matured as the years passed. And here it seems to me out in the wilderness of Judea, you come across one of those times when our Lord matured in a most remarkable way. Our Lord Jesus handled temptation well, didn't he? And that's what I want to locate and to speak on in terms of this particular incident because here is something that will help you and me who also want to mature.

I'm dealing with the mechanics, if you like, of resisting temptation. But I'm using the context of this story. We're going to consider the ground afresh that we went through last week.

I'm not going on to the second or the third temptation. That can keep. I'm concerned about the way that our Lord managed the temptation that came his way.

And I want us to understand from that as to how you and I are to manage temptation. Now, you recall my comment about the first word in the opening verse, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. And I kept putting up in juxtaposition the question, when did this happen? When? Well, then.

When he'd been baptized by John. When he'd had this remarkable experience. Then, he's led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted.

When there has been submission to the will of God, there will be aggression by the will of the devil. It was the case for Jesus. It will be the case for you.

Spiritual blessings always have, as their aftermath, a testing period. Now, let me demonstrate that more clearly to you because nothing I'm arguing brings about the interest of the devil in our life than when we have had periods of being close to God. Look at James in chapter 4. There in the seventh verse, the brother of our Lord says this, Submit yourselves then to God.

And verse 8, come near to God and he will come near to you. Now, that's what happened to Jesus, didn't it? He came near to the Father. Now, James says that when that happens, then this you can also envisage.

The devil will come alongside and he'll tackle you. Come near to God, he will come near to you. And James puts in front this warning, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

See, the one and the other are cause and effect. You want to be near to God, that's good. But take this from the pulpit this morning.

The nearer you come, the more difficult will your experience be later on as the devil tests you. Now, James, as I say, was the brother of our Lord Jesus. He knew this teaching well.

The Savior must have taught him. But Peter also is a close companion of Jesus, isn't he? The leading disciple. See what he has to say and it's exactly the same thing.

1 Peter 5 and verse 8. I read from the seventh as you're finding it. Cast all your anxiety on him, the Lord Jesus, because he cares for you. You see, you're to come before the Heavenly Father, casting your cares on him.

You're to be self-controlled and alert. Why? Because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

Because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. You see the point? Come near, humble yourself, draw close to God, and you discover this. The teaching follows that you have to resist the devil.

Why? Because proximity to God brings the activity of the devil. The second thing you have to bear in mind when you're handling temptation is not just that nearness of God creates the activity of the devil or arouses the activity of the devil. You've got to be aware of the weakness of man.

Your Achilles heel. The part in your personality which is the weakest. I'm talking about your spiritual life.

You see, when the devil lost his innocence, he didn't lose his intelligence. Did you hear that? When the devil lost his innocence, he fell from being the Lucifer, the shining one, the one who was at the right hand of God. When he lost his innocence, when he is expelled from heaven, he does not lose his intelligence.

Jesus draws near to God. You're my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Now, what's the weakness of Jesus? Well, the weakness of Jesus here is, of course, a physical weakness.

He didn't have a spiritual weakness. But the weakness is he's gone 40 days and 40 nights. Has he not? Without food.

He's miraculously, marvelously sustained. But it might be his Achilles heel. It might be the weakest spot.

Now, I don't know what your weakest spot is, but I'll tell you this. You do. And I'll tell you something else.

The devil does. So in hunting temptation, remember that nearness to God will activate the devil. And remember that the devil will come.

And he'll try and get you at your weakest spot. So we see this fleshed out more, illustrated further in the experience of our Lord Jesus, don't we? The father has publicly approved him. The son whom I love.

Now the devil comes along. If you are the son who he loves, then either you misheard him or his love has the most curious way of expressing itself. You're hungry.

I can't prove this to you. But I wonder in Luke's Gospel chapter 11, when Jesus is talking about the receipt of the Holy Spirit, I wonder when he used his three illustrations about the way a father handles the requests of his son, whether he had at the back of his mind this temptation. You remember about the scorpion? No father will give a scorpion, will he? But you remember before that, the illustration the Savior uses when he says, if a son asks his father for bread, he wouldn't give him a stone.

Now here is a stone that needs to be turned into a bread. Because the son is famished. And father has said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased.

If he's your father, why does he allow this? The possible Achilles heel, the weak spot of our Lord Jesus. Well, we must stop and analyze further the strategy of the devil as he comes alongside the Lord Jesus. Because as I tried to show you last time, the strategy of the devil always remains the same.

You see, there are infinite permutations, but in principle it boils down to the same thing. And there are three things that occur to me that are part of the devil's strategy towards Christ and towards you and me. And the first is exploitation.

John Blanchard says this, he attacks you as you are and because you are as you are. Did you hear that? He attacks you as you are and because you are as you are. He attacks Jesus as he is, allegedly the son of God.

He attacks Jesus because he is hungry as he is at this moment. He attacks you as you are, 70 years of age, because you are 70 years of age, and because of all the problems that crowd in when you've gone into your seventh decade. He attacks you as you are, because you are, when you're a young fellow of 17 years of age.

You see, the problems are different. The 17 year old and the 70 year old maybe don't always relate together so well. Because the common denominators are hard to find, but the devil can discover them.

He attacks you as you are, because you are. I haven't yet reached 70, but I predict that the problems that will face me then will be completely different than the ones that face me now. It might be the loss of a loved one.

I don't know how I'd go through life without my partner, quite frankly. I'm not born into a soul of sort of tour de force through the world. I'm just not made that way.

It's not my chemistry. But I might have to cope. You, when you're 17, may have a bundle of difficulties that are opening up on your plate.

If I can mix in a metaphor there. The devil will come along, and he'll meet you at that point. Exploitation, you see.

It's part of his strategy. You'll never get over that sin as a young fellow. You'll never get over that as a young woman.

He attacks you as you are, because you are. Exploitation leads on to insinuation. Here's Adam.

The Garden of Eden, which I think actually this incident of our Lord has very much as a backdrop. I think you'll understand Eden more from the Temptations, and the Temptations more from Eden, if you'll relate the two together. What does the devil say to the first Adam? Hath God said? You know, there's opium in that question.

I really mean it. There's a drug to the mind. Why? Because Adam is being given by the devil the right, or so he might conclude, to pass judgment on what God has said.

Hath he said? Insinuation. Insinuating that what God has said is wrong. It's always the strategy of the devil.

Here you are, as you are. Forty days. Forty nights.

And you're in a state that no normal father would allow his son to be in. Hath God said? That you are his beloved son? And in you he is well pleased? Now be logical, Jesus from Nazareth. Listen to what I'm saying.

Because my intelligence is greater than the revelation you have just had. Receive my intelligence. As Adam received my intelligence.

And draw in on my conclusion. As Adam drew in on my conclusion. It's always the same strategy, you see.

He'll slip the devil will alongside your life, and he'll use exactly the same principle. Pass judgment on God. And take the option that I offer.

Exploitation followed by insinuation. Followed by perversion. That means the complete contradiction to what has been said by the father in the first instance.

Hath God said? That if you take from this fruit that is forbidden, you will die. You will not surely die. Perversion, you see.

A complete inversion, if you like. As to what has been released by Almighty God, the Heavenly Father, in the first instance. And you get, as I say, the same thing here.

Look, there's a stone. And you're hungry. Now bypass this Father God business.

You of your own initiative command this stone to be turned into bread. Turn your back on father. After all, father would not be a good father to allow you in this sort of situation.

You see, it really is diabolical, isn't it? But then that's what you expect. I mean, this is the currency. These are the wares of the devil.

He's diabolical. He's devious. He knows you.

Remember what I said? He's lost his innocence. But he hasn't lost his intelligence. If ever the devil appeared as an angel of light, he did so when he tempted the Lord Jesus.

And pretended to be a good genius. A guardian angel. That's a quote from Matthew Henry.

Well, how does our Lord manage this temptation? Now notice this. Our Lord is different, of course, from us. And I must always be emphasizing this distinctiveness.

Let me illustrate this further. Our Lord is never tempted from inside. I am.

You see, our Lord did not have to cope with that evil nature within me that causes my thought life often to demand that I struggle with it and harness it and tame it and reduce it. The temptations that our Lord has are external temptations. The devil comes along and he slips from outside.

But nonetheless, they're real. But there's also this about Jesus. He's strong.

He starts off from a position of strength that you don't have. Jeshinim, you remember, I said was the name that the Jews gave to that wilderness. That hot oven.

The place where these temptations took place. Now, Jesus goes there. He's driven by the Spirit.

There's a constraint of the Spirit and the consent of the Son. Because the Son and the Spirit are always in harmony. The constraint of the Spirit, the consent of the Son.

He goes off into the wilderness. Now, you're not to do that. Not of your own initiative.

You see, He moves in from a position of strength. You move always from a position of weakness. You never volunteer to go to Jeshinim.

But when circumstances beyond your control are manipulated, are maneuvered, to cause you to be in the tempting situation, then you must manage it as our Lord Jesus has managed it. Now, He's not unfair, is He? In the way that He deals with Satan. You see, what's put in front of Him is something quite within His capability to perform.

To turn stone into bread for His own convenience. He can do it, but He will not do it. To turn water into wine for the convenience of others.

That He will do. Because these others need their faith confirmed. Jesus never engages in a miracle that does not confirm the faith of the onlooker.

But here there is no one to look on who has any faith to confirm. Only the devil. He has no faith that needs to be confirmed whatsoever.

So, Jesus will not manage the temptation by dipping in, if you like, to His miraculous resources. Neither does Jesus manage the temptation by allowing, in any sense, the possibility that the Father's care has in some way been blinded or reduced in degree. Jesus, in effect, says, My Father has publicly declared that I am His Son and He is well pleased with me.

And on that basis, I will not submit to the tempting voice of the devil. When Nehemiah, you remember, in the Old Testament, is in difficulty, He says, And here is Nehemiah Jesus, if you like. As I quoted Job, Jesus, so to speak, last Sunday before you.

Here is Nehemiah Jesus in this God-forsaken wilderness saying, Should such a man as I fall, fall to your temptation? Should I who have heard fall from the lips of my Father that He is well pleased in me? Should I receive the opium that you dangle in front of me that suggests Father is not pleased and Father will leave me in trouble? Should I do that? Perish the thought! Jesus manages, you see, His temptation in this respect. He doesn't take the easy way out with the miraculous, so He could have done. Neither will He accept for a moment that in any sense His Father has diminished in terms of the interest that He has for Him.

So then, the question needs to be put. It's important. And the answer is even more important than the question.

What does Jesus do? Well, will you look at verse 4. Three words in the English, but as I reminded you last week, one word in the Greek original. It is written. Now, will you notice this from the Gospel of Luke? We discover in the parallel account of the temptations of our Lord Jesus, at least just before the temptations, that our Lord is now commencing His ministry.

Luke chapter 3, verse 23. Following the baptism, this comment is made. Luke 3, 23.

Now, Jesus Himself was about 30 years old when He began His ministry. The public ordination of Jesus Christ to the ministry, so to speak, is at the hands of the Baptist and He's attested by the voice that comes from heaven. And then He goes into the wilderness.

And not one word is recorded that Jesus spoke until the devil dangles that first temptation in front of Him. If you're the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. What does Jesus do? He quotes Scripture.

It is written. Isn't it interesting? The beginning of the public ministry of Jesus Christ and He quotes the Old Testament. He quotes it because He's a fundamentalist.

He believes in the Old Testament. The devil is a fundamentalist. The only area where the authority of the Word of God is in any way brought into question is on earth.

Not in heaven, not in hell. Only here on earth. Jesus delves into the Old Testament.

And He quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, the eighth chapter. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is a most interesting book. The word Deuteronomy comes from two words, actually.

The second law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The fifth book of the Old Testament.

The second law. It deals with the ethical provisions that God makes for the children of Israel yesteryear. Now, Moses actually preached the sermon that is the book of Deuteronomy.

You think I preach a long time. Believe you me, I'm the briefest preacher that ever there was compared with Moses. Now, Moses is at the end of his life.

And those of you who are in on the story know this. That all the contemporaries of Moses, bar a couple of exceptions, have died. As most people who went through the First World War.

Well, let me just hedge that one. I'm being a little bit too extravagant with my use of illustration. There is a diminishing number of people who remember the First World War.

The majority of folks here don't. So you have to know about it by reading. Someone telling you.

Or you get someone who's pretty old who can still remember and informs you. Well, you see, that was the situation. Moses is at the end of his life.

And there's a new generation that's come up. So what does Moses do? He reminds the children of Israel as to what God did for them during those earlier years in the wilderness wanderings. Now, when they set out from Egypt, they had natural bread.

But the time came when the bread supplies from Egypt had run out. And they had no food. And what did God do? Well, he sent manna from heaven.

And he indicated visually to the Hebrews that man does not live by bread alone. Just natural bread. The staff of life is very important.

But there is one who is the staff of the staff of life. One who causes the bread by causing the change of climate and so on and so forth. Moses takes the children of Israel back from the actual bread to the source of every blessing.

And he lays down this principle. Man does not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So Jesus comes back to the devil with this tremendous quotation from the Old Testament. And in effect, he's saying this. Tempted? You are proceeding on the false assumption that in order for a man to appease hunger and keep alive, bread is absolutely necessary.

Over against this erroneous idea, I now declare that not bread but the creative energizing power of my Father is the only dispenser, the only source of blessing and supply in my life and of man's life and well-being. Later on, Jesus will say, John 4 verse 34, My meat is to do the will of him who sent me. Again, in my readings, my personal readings earlier on today from scripture, from the Old Testament, I came across this lovely verse in the book of Psalms, Psalm 17 and the latter part of verse 14.

You still the hunger of those you cherish. You still the hunger of those you cherish. You see what the Lord is doing? He's saying to the devil, you see, your problem is you're coming at me as materialists.

You think that it's only physical bread that will keep me going. But I know my Father. He can feed me through physical bread.

He can feed me through spiritual bread. He has infinite resources to meet my need. I'm not going to sidestep and fall to your temptation and deny this principle that I know to be true.

Now some of you are going to say, that's very unreal. And yet if you were present last Sunday evening, how can you deny that my principle is unreal? What sustained Richard Wormtham? I had dinner with that man on Sunday, on Monday evening. As I was saying to the friends on Wednesday here at our prayer meeting, I felt very much like Martin Luther's disciples who wrote the book Table Talk.

They gathered together, not just the physical crumbs, but the crumbs that fell from the lips of Luther because there was so much inspiration, so much lovely teaching, even in the ad hoc comment that Luther made. And Wormtham was telling me about the days, the weeks and the months when he was in prison. And he had no sustenance at all.

And yet he's the only man I've come across in life, or doubtless there are others, who've had a similar experience to that of our Lord Jesus. Forty days, forty nights in the wilderness, not needing bread. Because in a remarkable way he's sustained by the fact that God is there.

And our Lord has learned that lesson. He's not now going to jettison the whole thing because he's on day 41. You see, Father has a myriad of ways of meeting needs.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by what comes from Father. His love in times past forbids me to think. He'd leave me at last in trouble to sink.

Each bold Ebenezer I hold in review confirms his good pleasure to see me right through. Remember that old hymn? Some of you older friends? That's the principle, you see, behind all this. Or if you don't remember that hymn, remember Luther's hymn.

And were this world of devils o'er, and watching to devour us, we lay it not to hearts so sore, nor can they overpower us. And let the prince of ill look grim as e'er he will. He harms us not a whit.

For why? His doom is writ. A word shall quickly slay him. It is written.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. Oh, my dear, dear friends. Do you read the Bible? Do you absorb the Bible? Do you realize the potential that there is in this book to enable you to resist the devil? One old Puritan says, I'll put my sword down when I put my life down.

I'll continue studying this book and quoting this book until the moment when I take my leave of this world and enter into the immediate presence of God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Why? All Scripture is given by God and is authoritative, is instructive, is corrective in the area of Christian discipleship and becomes as food for those who prepare to listen and read and masticate and digest it.

How did Jesus resist the devil? Well, I've tried to explain it to you. He recognizes the authority of the devil in terms of his intelligence, but he also recognizes the fidelity of his father. He appreciates the power of Scripture.

He quotes Scripture at the devil. Listen. Unless there is written in us, unless there is written in us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us.

Unless this word written above of God is within us, then we shall yield to the circumstances around us. The circumstances around our Lord Jesus were pressurized once. The Achilles heel seemingly was exposed.

How did Jesus resist? By the word of God. He slayed the devil with a word. As it was for Jesus of Nazareth, so it is for you and for me.

This is the way to manage temptation and to put the devil to flight. May God help you to do it. Amen.

Let's sing a hymn which speaks of the authority of the word of God. 262. A word of God incarnate, or wisdom from on high, or truth unchanged, unchanging, or light of our dark skies.

262. 263. 264.

265. 266. 267.

268. 269. Now just before our final prayer, can I make reference, remind you if you've not read Notes and News that this evening, I want to try and deal with the subject of why some of us sometimes feel distant from the Lord and how we can right that experience and come to a greater appreciation of His presence in our lives.

I think it's the most constant counseling situation that I have to deal with when people come to me and say, but I don't feel God. I don't feel near God at all. I want to analyze why that might be the case, and I want from Scripture to show the provisions that God makes to correct this condition.

We're going to do it all within the context of a praise service, of a praise communion service, and let me remind you of my little request down here, though I don't want to imprison you in this if some of you desperately need to sit upstairs, then do so because we'll have those back galleries open, but I'd like as many as possible to sit towards the front and fill these beautifully cushioned pews right on the front. I mean, we've spent pounds and pounds. They're the best seats in the house here, the best seats in the church, and I'll be preaching from down below.

That will help to facilitate the distribution of the emblems. Now don't let that bind you if you're not going to feel comfortable downstairs and sit up, but those of you who like me, now that's risking something. Come and sit near me.