RTNT Matthew 4

Reading through the New Testament in 2012 M-F   (Link to the Schedule) 

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty 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.'"

There are so many gems in just these few verses.

 

You can be walking God’s will, being led by the Spirit and encounter temptation, in fact in Jesus’ situation God’s will was the temptation.  Sometimes people get antsy about temptations and testings.   I hear things like, “God doesn’t temp us but He does test us,” and then when a situation arises they wonder is this a temptation from the devil or a testing from God?  I’m not too sure there is a big difference.  Every situation we face can be one and the same.  The Devil wanted to temp Jesus away from His mission and God wanted to test (and strengthen) His commitment to the mission.  Same situation, different outcomes. It is the same with us.

Satan’s temptation almost always cast some doubt on what God has said is true.  You can almost hear the sarcasm in the statement, “If you are the Son of God.”  Jesus had just come from the baptism experience where He had heard the heavenly announcement, “And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."  Now Satan was to interject doubt upon what God has said.  All temptations cause us to doubt what God has said it true, whether it is about His supplying our needs, how to find fulfillment in life, or even about God’s love for us.  Reject the lie.

Jesus confronted the lie with the truth from God’s word.  This is the sword of the Spirit by which we conduct spiritual warfare.  A person who has not been prepared by Go’s word is unarmed for spiritual battle.  The power of Jesus was not his ability to pull out His pocket scroll, look in the concordance, and then find the passage He needed, it was in having in his heart so he could respond in the heat of the battle.  He lived the Palmist’s declaration, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”  Psalm 119:11

Years ago, at age 19, I had preached a sermon at my home church during a break from college.  An old veteran preacher (Sam Wilcox) was in attendance.  Sam was one of the founding Pastors of our California Southern Baptist State Convention in the early 1940’s and was well in his 90’s by this time.  He came up to me and with a thin bony knuckle protruding from his closed fist he thumped on my chest like he was knocking at a door.  “Young man,” he said, “just remember when the old devil comes knocking at your heart you just send Jesus to answer the door.”  I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I do know when I filter my response to temptation though the truth of God’s word the power of the temptation diminishes.  

The living Word of God empowers the written word of God.  Immerse yourself in it.