Luke 4:9-13

The book of Luke, chapter 4, and verses 9 to 13, and he, meaning Satan, brought Him Christ to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from hence, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. In Jesus, answering, said unto him, it is said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, He departed from him for a season. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. Master Greenham, who was a Puritan divine, was once sought by a woman who claimed that she was greatly tempted. Upon making inquiries into her way of life, Greenham found that she had, little to do, and therefore she was idle. And this is what he told her. That is the secret of you being so much tempted. Sister, if you are very busy, Satan may tempt you, but he will not easily prevail and will soon give up the attempt. Someone has said, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. And so we have the idea of idleness can lead to problems. Jesus, in our text, is about his father’s business. He is not idle. He is preparing for the ministry that he’s about to engage in. He’s been alone praying in the wilderness, going without food or drink. And now he finds himself temple. for 40 days by the devil with three great temptations that are laid out for us here in this whole section of Scripture. Now, Christ has resisted Satan, and he’s going to resist all these temptations, and we read in verse 13 that he departs from him for a season. Scripture grants you this promise, resist the devil, and he will. will flee from you in the book of James chapter four and verse seven the second part of the verse. Few people, however, remember the first part of the verse. The first part of the verse says this, submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Somehow or whether we forget about the first part. That’s part of the facing the resistance. You’ll fare much better under temptation if you’re busy serving the Lord. We’ve been considering Satan’s third temptation here of Christ. We said that it was at the temple. It was in the holy city of Jerusalem. And we said there are no safe places. Satan will attempt it. attack you. Even in church, he may make his assault upon. We said also the temptation involved here, this temptation, presuming upon God’s protective care. Cast thyself down from the pinnacle, prove that you are the son of God, because we find that God will protect you. prove it. The temptation we said also was craftily framed. We said that Satan knows scripture. And he knows that Psalm 91 is about Jesus Christ. We said last week some of the Christians don’t seem to get the picture, but he knew that that Psalm was about Christ and not dashing your foot against the stone and so forth. It was about God’s protective care of Christ. It was about God’s protective care of Christ. and so he uses this scripture to provoke him to take a leap off the pinnacle of the temple. But today we want to look at Christ’s response to Satan’s temptation. Now Christ refutes Satan’s temptation by a clear passage by a clear passage of Scripture. verse 12 Jesus answering said unto him it is said we could even say it is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Satan’s abuse of scripture did not deter Christ from using scripture in refuting his statement. Now Jesus didn’t bother here to give a proper explanation of the verse from Psalm 91 that was quoted. But we said last week that Satan craftily left out a particular phrase from the verse. Here’s what he didn’t. He didn’t finish verse 11 of Psalm 91. He quoted, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee, but he left out that phrase in all thy ways. The ways that God had appointed for his son to walk. As long as he walked according to the ways of the Lord, he would have God’s protection. But here is Satan he’s crafty, he leaves that out. But that qualifies the phrase in the verse. Satan did this intentionally. He didn’t do it ignorantly. He knew he had misquoted the verse. And Jesus did not take the time to explain that to him because he already knew it. Jesus instead quotes a very plain passage of scripture elsewhere from Deuteronomy 616, which refutes Satan’s whole argument. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And this is what he uses. Now the meaning of this is not that Satan shouldn’t tempt Christ, but that Christ should not tempt the Lord God, his father. The argument is that Scripture is one. Scripture is a complete unit. So that what it says in one place, Psalm 91, must match up what it says in Deuteronomy Chapter 6. There can’t be a contradiction between the two. So that what you’re asking me to do from Psalm 91 if it is contradicted by Deuteronomy 6, then what you’re asking me to do from Psalm 91 is not right. It’s not correct. It’s not a proper interpretation of the text. That’s basically the argument here. It has to completely coincide. This powerfully refutes Satan’s suggestion about proving his sonship by casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. I am not the temple the Lord God. That’s what is. that’s what the scripture says. So he doesn’t go into, well, you left this phrase out and all that. He just says, look, this is a very plain passage. I’m not to tempt the Lord God. And therefore, I’m not going to do this. So he refutes Satan by use of a clear passage of Scripture. Christ will not tempt God. The general and primary idea of the word tempt here is to test him, to try God. It means one must not put God’s love or power, in this case, his protective care, his faithfulness, to any unnecessary and improper test. You must not require a further confirmation of that which is so well confirmed already. Christ already heard the father publicly confirm his sonship at his baptism. We talked about this before. A voice from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved son, thee, I am well pleased. Does he have to prove his sonship? Does he have to have public proof of it before the people at the temple? Christ doesn’t need any further confirmation by some dramatic act of deliverance. So Christ was abundantly satisfied that his father would take care of him. He must not demand further proof. Remember in the wilderness, we find that Israel tempted God. What did they say? Well, he gave us water out of the rock. Can he give us flesh also? The fact that he provided the water from the rock, wouldn’t that indicate that God’s going to take care of you? But no, you tempted him because you wanted flesh, too. Jesus says, I’m not going to be guilty of that. I’m not going to test God like that. So he won’t tempt. He won’t do it. Satan ends his temptation, verse 13. When the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. Boy, he shot every arrow in his quiver at Christ. He shot him from different angles and tried to harm the Lord. But he failed. He ran out arrows this time, and he said, I’m done. And so we find that he being bested on the field of battle makes a shameful retreat. His efforts were quite daring. His craftiness was certainly fully displayed here. But he failed. He did not prevail against Christ and he gives up for now. Now, he only departs from Christ for a season, which indicates to us he’ll be back. He’ll try again. So there’s no truths here. And we find that Satan will ponder further ways to tempt the Savior. But as we read this, and we see that Satan is retreating from the field of battle, it reminds us of David gaining the victory over Goliath, and then what happened? All the Israelites charged forth and it took on the rest of the Philistines because the battle was already won. The Philistines fleet. Matthew Henry puts it this way. The devil, though he is an enemy to all saints is a conquered enemy. The captain of our salvation has defeated and disarmed him. We have nothing to do but to pursue the victory. Just follow after Christ. He has granted us the victory. So Satan ends the temptation here and departs. Now, what are the practical applications we can learn from this answer of Christ to this third temptation? Well, the first thing is this. You should use clear passages of scripture when dealing with those who might misquote the scripture or twist it. Christ teaches you a better way of dealing with those who would pervert the scripture here. Sometimes adversaries of the truth are quite cunning in how they use scripture, I should say misuse it. Because they can present a very plausible argument using a particular passage of scripture may be taken out of context, as we see in this case. However, a clear scripture should always be used to give the real sense of maybe something that’s more obscure. Jesus just quotes Deuteronomy 616, and he crushes Satan’s a misuse of Psalm 91. takes care of that problem. So it’s best to make your answers to twisters of scripture as plain as you can and as I think quick as you can so they don’t have objections and they can’t look at all the ways that they could try to undermine what you’re saying. It’s pretty hard to defeat this. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. That’s pretty straightforward. So it’s the essential that you believe, however, in dealing with those who would twist scripture, that all scripture is a unit, that one passage of scripture can be used to interpret another, and that one cannot contradict the up. Our confession of faith, along with, I think, the Westminster and the Savoy as well, states it this way. The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture, it’s itself. Therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, which is not manifold but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. Now, if you turn with me the John chapter 1 in verse 1, you probably can quote this verse of scripture, but let’s take a look at it a moment here. We have this statement, very potent, passage of scripture on the deity of Christ, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This is probably the best-known New Testament passage, which the Jehovah witnesses may appeal to in trying to say that Christ is not the true in living God. Of course, they have to quote from their 1961 edition of the New World Translation, And here’s how that verse is read in their Bible. In the beginning, the word was, and the word was with God, and the word was a God. Quite different from what the King James has. The word God is capitalized the first time it occurs in the text, but not the second time. The second time, it is preceded by an indefinitean article, A, God, in the New World Translation. What does this translation tell us? It’s telling us that they don’t believe that Christ is the true God, but only a God, a lesser deity, than God the Father. Some type of subordinate God, if you would. Now, to refute this error, we could delve into the Greek and the Grandville sharp rule and explain how articles are used and what it means and so forth. When a Greek kai, meaning and, connects two nouns of the same case, if the article, the precedes the first down and is not repeated before the second noun, the latter always refers to the same person that is expressed by the first noun. So that the King James is right to say, the God. than the second time. The Word is indeed God. The Jehovah Witnesses, however, if you look at this carefully, if you get your Greek out and you want to check them out, check the rest of Chapter 1 out and see if they do the same thing as they did in verse 1. They don’t. For example, in verse 6, it isn’t translated that John was sent from A God. There’s no article there. Why don’t they say A God there? instead of the God. In chapter 1, verse 12, it isn’t translated that we’re the sons of a God. There’s no article there. Chapter 1, verse 13, it isn’t translated which were born of a God. No article there. John 118, it isn’t translated. No man has seen a God at any time. They put the word, they put the article there. Why didn’t they put it in verse 1? I’ll tell you why, because they don’t want Jesus Christ to be fully recognized as God. Equal. The three persons of the Godhead is being equal. That’s why. So you could go through all that. That’s a quite detailed explanation, but you could go through all that to prove your case. And that would be legitimate to do that. But like Christ, maybe there’s a way you could use a simpler approach and appeals to just another passage of Scripture. Jehovah witnesses believe there’s more than one God. They believe in a plurality of gods, right? Besides Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, exists as a lesser God. So you have at least two gods. This position is in direct conflict with Scripture in Deuteronomy 435 and 1 Corinthians 8.4. Deuteronomy 435, unto thee, it showed that thou, us know that the Lord, he is God, and there is none else beside him. Is there a God beside the Lord? No. 1 Corinthians 8.4. There is none other God but one. There you go. Do we have to explain there? is not more than, you know, do we have to explain to Granville’s sharp rule and go through it? No. You believe in a plurality of God, and that is against Scripture. Interestingly enough, the New World translation actually translates those two verses of scripture. I just quoted to you. in a similar manner as the King James. So the New World translation here is wrong. It is a mistranslation. It is a twisting of the scriptures. How can the Jehovah Witnesses affirm that Jesus Christ is a God? which scripture forbids that. There’s only one God. Now shall have no other gods before me. So you should use clear. The clear passage of Scripture refute those who have twisted Scripture. By the way, the idea, thou shall have no other gods before me doesn’t mean ahead of me. It means in my presence. So, use the clear passage of Scripture, refute those who have twisted the scripture. Secondly, you must not presume upon your Heavenly Father’s protection. In some parts of our country, and maybe you’ve seen this, there are churches which have snake handling services. And I’ve seen these people, they’re dancing around and they’re holding live rattlesnakes, you know, and they’re like crawling all over them and they’re sort of doing his little dance. And they use that passage in Mark 16, 18, they shall take up servants. And they believe that God’s going to protect them from harm, even if they are bitten by these poisonous reptiles, these rattlesnakes, that the venom will have no effect. Many people have died in this manner because to go to the doctor would mean a lack of faith. So what do they do? They wait and then the poison eventually kills. Friends, this is tempting God. This is deliberately placing yourself in harm’s way. Now it’s true that Paul, after after a shipwreck was bitten by a poisoned serpent while he was gathering sticks for a fire, and he was unharmed. But he didn’t purposely put himself in that situation. He was busy doing something useful, gathering the firewood, when he happened to get bit. He wasn’t, you know, handling snakes and dancing around with him. We must not voluntarily and rashly expose ourselves to danger. in hope that somehow providence will protect us. We must not presume that the Lord will be with you when you deviate from the path of duty. In all thy ways, Psalm 91. When Samson deviated from the path of duty, when he went in under Delilah and had sexual relations with her, so forth, he placed himself in harm’s way. He thought that he was going to have God’s protection and he was going to throw off the Philistings, but God withdrew his protective hand. He shouldn’t have presumed upon it. There are those who claim to be Christians and they follow that thought, let us sin that grace may abound. Don’t presume on that. You don’t have a license to sin just because you have come to know the Savior. This would be like casting yourself down from me. the precipice here and hope that you will escape destruction. So you must not presume upon your Heavenly Father’s protection. The third thing is this. You must resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Look at James 4.7 with me. We touched on this in the introduction, but let me take a moment and talk a little bit more about this passage of scripture. James chapter 4 and verse 7. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The first thing here is submission to God. In order to resist the devil, we have to be submissive to the Lord. Now, this might not be popular because we like to be our own boss. We like to call the shots. But Christ is the Lord of your life. And we are to be submissive to him. That means. we obey his commands. We live according to scriptural principles. Why, if we’re not living according to scriptural principles, we open ourselves up to temptation by sake. We have no protection in that situation. It’s like placing yourself in a danger. Do you do the things which the Lord says? Is the law of God the basis of your walk because a disobedient Christian is unprepared to resist Satan. You have exposed yourself to great danger. You’re already compromised. Then he says, resist the devil. The obedient Christian finds himself opposed by Satan. As I was reading Thomas Manton on this passage, he had a quote that I thought was good. He said, a godly life is not known by perfection of grace so much his conflicts with sin. You’re going to be resisting Satan. That’s one of the indications of a godly life. You know, we’ve said in this in the past, a robber seeks out a house where he has valuables that he can steal. And so the person who is serving the Lord God is the person that Satan is out to get. So Satan is the busiest in his efforts against the godly person, the one who fears God and shows God. she was evil like Job. Resist here as a defensive word. To stand against his attack. Like Christ, you’re going to find Satan. He’s going to probe various areas. He’s going to try here. He’s going to try there. He’s going to try from this angle and that angle and so forth. And the idea is to thwart him, to ward him off in all these different areas as he looks for a weakness. Satan, tries out wit you. When you read about the wows of the devil, he’s crafty. So you should put on the whole armor of God and especially carry with you the sword of the spirit. The chief weapon you use and against resisting the devil is the same one that Christ used, the Word of God. This is a good reason for us to diligently study the Word of God and to hide it in her hearts. Because you need to have actually to the word when the temptation comes up, to know what God’s word says so that we are fortified against the attack. It is not sufficient to just have a Bible. We have to prayerfully read it. We have to seek to learn the principles that are found in it. So this requires some regular daily Bible study, I think, to ponder verses as scripture. memorize verses of scripture as well. And that means that we have a disciplined approach. It’s not that we just hurriedly read through the scripture, but we think about how this would apply in different circumstances that we come across. Successful resisting of Satan requires faith. It is a shield against his fiery dots. It requires prayer for spiritual strength and that we might not be led into temptation. It requires a shield. requires watchfulness. We have to be alert because Satan’s going to try to catch us off guard. It requires self-control. We’ve got to keep our affections in check so that they don’t lead us astray. And sincerity. We can’t be double-minded. We can’t be thinking about the things of the world and the things of God and somehow rather try to hit a happy medium. We have to have God in his service as the priority as we go through life. That has to be the key thing. We can’t be double-minded and think about both. Our focus is on serving God. That’s the key focus. So resist the devil. And last, he says, he will flee from you. And that’s what we saw here in our text. When Satan resisted him, or when Christ resisted Satan, he fled. Every rejection of a temptation is really a discourage to Satan, refuse to give place to him. Facing the devastating impact of the Word of God, Satan often retreats for a season. It’s temporary, and we can expect them to come back, but if you thawed him enough, he, you know, if he takes his shots and you thwart him, he’ll flee for a season. The devil can be defeated. You know, the devil is vulnerable. He does not know everything. He’s not omniscient. Remember how he told God. He said, Satan told God, if you take away all Jeub’s possessions, he’ll curse you to your face. He didn’t. Now, if you just let me get at him physically, let me attack his body, he’ll deny you. He’ll curse you. No, he didn’t. And so we see here, Satan does not know. all the answers. He does not know everything is going to happen. So he can be defeated if we follow Christ’s example. So the Puritan divine, Greenham, once told a greatly tempted woman that her idleness was a problem. The busier we are about our father’s business, the harder it is for Satan to take advantage of us. It’s important to carefully study. I think Christ’s response to temptation and learn from it. All three responses are important. But here, you should use clear passages of scripture to deal with those who would twist the scripture. You must not presume upon your Heavenly Father’s protection and resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. That’s the key, I think, to this passage. Let’s close with a word of prayer.