Greater Christ Temple

Pastor John G. Thompson

Temptation of Christ

Matthew 4:1

The Time

Then; there is an emphasis laid upon that. Immediately after the heavens were opened to him, and the Spirit descended on him, and he was declared to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. The next news we hear of him is he is tempted for, then he is best able to grapple with the temptation.

Great privileges and special tokens of divine favor will not secure us from being tempted.
After great honors are put upon us we must expect something that is humbling.
God prepares his people for temptation before he calls them to it.
The assurance of our sonship is the best preparative for temptation.

Then when he was newly come from a solemn ordinance, his baptism, then he was tempted. Notice that:

After we have been admitted into the communion of God we must expect to be set upon by Satan. The enriched soul must double its guard.
Then when he began to show himself publicly to Israel he was tempted as he never had been while he lived in privacy. Notice the devil has a particular spite at useful persons who are not only good, but given to do good, especially at their first setting out. Let young ministers know what to expect, and arm themselves accordingly.

The Place

The place where it was; in the wilderness; probably in the great wilderness of Sinai, where Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, for no part of the wilderness of Judea was so abandoned to wild beasts as this is said to have been (Mr 1:13).

When Christ was baptized he did not go to Jerusalem to publish the glories that had been put upon him, but retired into a wilderness.

After communion with God it is good to be private awhile lest we lose what we have received from him in the crowd and hurry of worldly business. Christ’s withdrawal into the wilderness shows us:

We must gain advantages to ourselves by retirement with God which gives us opportunity for meditation and communion with him. Even those who are called to the most active life must yet have their “quiet time” to be alone with God.
Ministers are not fit to speak of the things of God in public until they have first conversed with those things in secret with God.
He gave advantage to the tempter that he might have a readier access to him than he could have had in company.
We find that though solitude may be comfortable Satan knows how to improve it against us. Woe to him that is alone. Those who under pretense of sanctity and devotion retire into dens and deserts, find that they are not out of reach of their spiritual enemies, and that there they want the benefit of the communion with saints.
Christ retired (1.) To make his victory the more illustrious, he gave the enemy every advantage on his side, and yet baffled him. (2.) That he might have an opportunity to do his best himself without the aid of others; that he might be exalted in his own spiritual strength and faith.

Preparation

He was directed to the combat and did not willfully thrust himself upon it, but he was led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil.

The Spirit that descended upon him like a dove made him meek and yet made him bold.

Note our care must be to not enter into temptation but if God, by his providence, order us into circumstances of temptation for our trial we must not think it strange but double our guard.

If we presume upon our own strength and tempt the devil to tempt us we provoke God to leave us to ourselves. But wherever God leads us we may hope he will go along with us and bring us off more than conquerors.
Christ was led to be tempted of the devil and of him only. Others are tempted when they are drawn aside of their own lust and enticed (Jas 1:14). But our Lord Jesus had no corrupt nature and therefore he was led securely without any fear or trembling as a champion into the field to be tempted solely by the devil.

We find that Christ’s temptation is:

An instance of his own condescension and humiliation. Temptations are fiery darts and thorns in the flesh which denote hardship and suffering. Therefore, Christ submitted to them because he would humble himself in all things.
An occasion of Satan’s confusion because there is no conquest without a combat. Christ was tempted that he might overcome the tempter. Satan tempted the first Adam (Ge 3:6) and triumphed over him; but he shall not always triumph.
Matter of comfort to all the saints. In the temptation of Christ it appears that our enemy is subtle, spiteful, and very daring in his temptations; but he is not invincible. It is some comfort to us to think that Christ suffered, being tempted; for thus it appears that temptations, if not yielded to are not sins, but afflictions only.

Matthew 4:2

Fasting To Survive Temptation

He was dieted for the combat because he fasted forty days and forty nights in compliance with the type and example of Moses the great lawgiver, and of Elias the great reformer. Christ needed not to fast for mortification (he had no corrupt desires to be subdued), yet he fasted because:

That he might give Satan both occasion and advantage against him; and so make his victory over him the more illustrious.
That he might sanctify and recommend fasting to us, when God in his providence calls to it, or when we are reduced to straits, or when it is requisite for the keeping under of the body, or the quickening of prayer, those excellent preparations for temptation.
When he fasted forty days he was afterwards an hungred, to show that he was really and truly a man; and he took upon him our natural infirmities that he might atone for us. Man fell by eating (Ge 3:6) and that way we often sin.

The Temptations Themselves

That which Satan aimed at in all his temptations was to bring Jesus to sin against God and so to render him forever incapable of being a Sacrifice for the sins of others. The things that Satan attempted to do was:

To get Jesus to despair of his Father’s goodness.
To presume upon his Father’s power.
To alienate his Father’s honor by giving it to Satan. In the two former that which he tempted him to seemed innocent and therein appeared the subtlety of the tempter. In the last that which he tempted him with seemed desirable. The two former are artful temptations, which there was need of great wisdom to discern; the last was a strong temptation, which there was need of great resolution to resist; yet he was baffled in them all.

Matthew 4:3

Challenging Jesus’ Sonship

He tempted him to despair of his Father's goodness, and to distrust his Father's care concerning him.

See how the temptation was managed (Mt 4:3); the tempter came to him. Note, the devil is the tempter and our worst enemies are those that entice us to sin.

He is called simply the tempter because he was so to our first parents, and still is so to us today, and all other tempters are set on work by him.

The tempter came to Christ in a visible appearance, not terrible and affrighting, as afterward in his agony in the garden. If ever the devil transformed himself into an angel of light, he did so now, and pretended to be a good genius, a guardian angel.

Observe the subtlety of the tempter in joining this first temptation with what went before to make it the stronger.

Christ began to be hungry, and therefore the motion seemed very proper, to turn stones into bread for his necessary support. Note it is one of the wiles of Satan to take advantage of our outward physical condition to plant the battery of his temptations. He is an adversary no less watchful than spiteful; and the more ingenious he is to take advantage against us, the more industrious we must be to give him none.

When he began to be hungry, and that in a wilderness, where there was nothing to be had, then the devil assaulted him. Want and poverty are a great temptation to discontent and unbelief and the use of unlawful means for our relief becomes appealing under the pretense that necessity has no law. Those, therefore, who are reduced to straits have need to double their guard; it is better to starve to death than live and thrive by sin.

Christ was lately declared to be the Son of God and here the devil tempts him to doubt of that; If thou be the Son of God. Had the devil not known that the Son of God was to come into the world he would not have said this; and had he not suspected that Christ was him he would not have asked.

We can almost hear Satan saying to Jesus, “Perhaps you should reconsider this God of yours and if you are really his son who is heir of all things. If God were thy Father would he see thee starve and reduced to such straits? It is true there was a voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son, but surely it was delusion caused by your hunger, for either God is not thy Father, or he is a very unkind one.” Note the following:

The great thing Satan aims at, in tempting good people, is to overthrow their relation to God as a Father, and so to cut off their dependence on him, their duty to him, and their communion with him.
Outward afflictions, wants and burdens, are the great arguments Satan uses to make the people of God question their sonship.
The devil aims to shake our faith in the word of God and bring us to question the truth of it. Thus he began with our first parents; “Yea, has God said so and so? Surely he has not (Ge 3:4-5). Has God said that thou art his beloved Son? Surely he did not say so; or if he did it is not true.” We then give place to the devil when we question the truth of any word that God has spoken; for his business, as the father of lies, is to oppose the true sayings of God.
The devil carries on his designs very much by possessing people with hard thoughts of God, as if he were unkind, or unfaithful, and had forsaken or forgotten those who had ventured their all with him. He endeavored to beget in our first parents a notion that God forbade them the tree of knowledge, because he grudged them the benefit of it; and so here he insinuates to our Saviour that his Father had cast him off and left him to fend for himself.
Satan was also saying, “Thou hast now an opportunity to show that thou art the son of God. If thou art the Son of God prove it by this, command these stones (a heap of which, probably, lay now before him) be made bread. If thou has that power exert it now in a time of need for thyself.”
He does not say, “Pray to thy Father that he would turn them into bread for thee”, but command it to be done. “Thy Father hath forsaken thee, set up for thyself, and be not beholden to him”. The devil is for nothing that is humbling but everything that is assuming; and gains his point if he can but bring men off from their dependence upon God and possess them with an opinion of their self-sufficiency.

See How This Temptation Was Resisted And Overcome

Christ refused to comply with it. At first view the thing appears justifiable enough. The truth is the more plausible a temptation is and the greater appearance there is of good in it, the more dangerous it is. Why did he refuse the temptation?

Christ was soon aware of the snake in the grass and would not do any thing that looked like questioning the truth of the voice he heard from heaven, or putting that upon a new trial which was already settled.

He would do nothing that looked like distrusting his Father’s care of him or limiting him to one particular way of providing for him.

Christ did not want to do anything that looked like he felt himself sufficient to care for himself without the help of God.

He would do nothing that looked like gratifying Satan, by doing a thing at his request. Some would have said, he gave no place for the devil and waited upon God, to consult him and stand to see his salvation.

Matthew 4:4

He was ready to reply to it (Mt 4:4) and answered and said, “It is written”. This is observable, that Christ answered and baffled all the temptations of Satan with, “It is written”. He is himself the eternal Word and could have produced the mind of God without having recourse to the writings of Moses; but he put honor upon the scripture and to set us an example, he appealed to what was written in the law.

He says this to Satan, taking it for granted that he knew well enough what was written. It is possible that those who are the devil’s children may yet know very well what is written in God's word; the devils believe and tremble. This method we must take when at any time we are tempted to sin, resist and repel the temptation (Jas 4:7) with It is written. Using the sword of the Spirit to defend ourselves (Eph 6:17).

This is here quoted from De 8:3 where the reason given why God fed the Israelites with manna is because he would teach them that man shall not live by bread alone. This Christ applies to his own case.

Israel was God’s son and spent their time in the wilderness just as Christ is God’s son and is now spending his time in the wilderness. We now find:

The devil would have him question his sonship because he was in straits. “No”, Jesus must have thought, “Israel was God’s son and a son he was very tender of and yet he brought them into straits”. It follows there, “As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee” (De 8:5). Christ being a Son thus learns obedience.
The devil would have him distrust his Father’s love and care. "No," Jesus must have thought, that would be to do as Israel did, who when they were in want said “Is the Lord among us?” (Ex 17:7), and “Can he furnish a table in the wilderness? Can he give bread?” (Ps 78:19).
The devil would have him as soon as he began to be hungry, immediately looking out for supply; whereas God, for wise and holy ends, suffered Israel to hunger before he fed them; to humble them, and prove them. God will have his children when they are in need to not only to wait on him, but to wait for him.
The devil would have him to supply himself with bread. “No,” Jesus must have thought, “what need is there of that? It is a point long since settled, and incontestably proved, that man may live without bread, as Israel in the wilderness lived forty years upon manna.”
It is true God in his providence ordinarily maintains men by bread out of the earth (Job 28:5); but he can, if he please, make use of other means to keep men alive. Any word proceeding out of the mouth of God, anything that God shall order and appoint for that end, will be a good and will maintain him well.

Matthew 4:5

He tempted him to presume upon his Father’s power and protection. See what a restless unwearied adversary the devil is! If he fail in one assault, he tries another. Now in this second attempt we may observe:

In general finding Christ so confident of his Father’s care of him in the point of nourishment, he endeavors to draw him to presume upon that care in the point of safety.
Note that we are in danger of missing our way both on the right hand and on the left. We must therefore take heed lest when we avoid one extreme we be brought down by the tactics of Satan in another.
There aren’t any extremes more dangerous than those of persuasion and presumption, especially in the affairs of our souls. Some who have obtained a persuasion that Christ is able and willing to save them from their sins are then tempted to presume that he will save them in their sins. Thus when people begin to be zealous in religion Satan hurries them into bigotry and intemperate (excessive, ungovernable, inordinate; indulging any appetite) behavior. The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Eze 18:4).

How he made way for it . Now in this temptation we may observe:

He took Christ not by force against his will but moved him to go and went along with him to Jerusalem. Whether Christ went upon the ground, and so went up the stairs to the top of the temple or whether he went in the air is uncertain. But so it was that he was set upon a pinnacle of the temple.

First, observe how submissive Christ was in suffering himself to be hurried, that he might let Satan do his worst and yet conquer him. The patience of Christ here, as afterward in his sufferings and death, is more wonderful than the power of Satan or his instruments. How comfortable it is that Christ, who let loose this power of Satan against himself, does not in like manner let it loose against us, but restrains it.

Secondly, how subtle the devil was in the choice of the place for his temptations. Intending to solicit Christ to a display of his own power and a vain-glorious presumption upon God's providence (foresight and care). He fixes him on a public place in Jerusalem, a populous city, and the joy of the whole earth; in the temple, one of the wonders of the world, continually gazed upon with admiration by someone or the other. There Jesus might make himself remarkable and be taken notice of by everyone and prove himself the Son of God.

In the former temptation Satan questioned Jesus’ sonship in the obscurities of a wilderness, but now in sight of all upon the most eminent stage and in full view he gives him the opportunity to prove it to himself and all those within sight.

Observe that Jerusalem is here called the holy city. Note, there is no city on earth so holy as to exempt and secure us from the devil and his temptations. The first Adam was tempted in the holy garden, the second in the holy city. Let us not, therefore, in any place be off our watch. The holy city is the place where Satan with great advantage and success, tempts men to pride and presumption. But blessed be God, into the Jerusalem above, that holy city, no unclean thing shall enter; there we shall be for ever out of temptation.

Observe also that he set him upon a pinnacle of the temple, which was so very high that it would make a man's head giddy to look down to the bottom. Note: innacles of the temple are places of temptation; that is places so high as to be slippery. Advancement in the world makes a man a fair mark for Satan to shoot his fiery darts at; men must decrease that God may increase; God casts down that he may raise up; the devil raises up, that he may cast down: therefore they who would take heed of falling, must take heed of climbing.

High places in the church are in a special manner dangerous. They who excel in gifts, who are in eminent stations, and have gained great reputation, have need to keep humble; for Satan will be sure to aim at them, to puff them up with pride, that they may fall into the condemnation of the devil. Those that stand high are concerned to stand fast.

Matthew 4:6

How he moved it. “If thou be the Son of God now show thyself to the world, and prove thyself to be so; cast thyself down, and then,”

Thou wilt be admired as under the special protection of heaven. When they see thee receive no hurt by a fall from such a precipice, they will say (as the barbarous people did of Paul in Acts 28:6) “that thou art a God.”

Thou wilt be received, as coming with a special commission from heaven. All Jerusalem will see and acknowledge, not only that thou art more than a man, but that thou art that Messenger, that Angel of the covenant, that should suddenly come to the temple (Mal 3:1), and from thence descend into the streets of the holy city; and thus the work of convincing the Jews will be cut short, and soon done."

Observe the devil said, Cast thyself down for he could not cast Jesus down himself by force. The power of Satan is a limited power. Yet if the devil could have cast him down it would have not gained his point and Christ would have suffered pain but not sin.

Whatever real mischief is done us it is of our own doing; the devil can persuade but he cannot force us. Cast thyself down; he cannot cast us down. Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and not forced but enticed (Jas 1:14).

How he backed this motion with a scripture. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee. Is Satan so well versed in scripture as to be able to quote it so readily? It seems he is but note it is possible for a man to have his head full of scripture-notions and his mouth full of scripture-expressions while his heart is full of reigning enmity to God and all goodness.

The knowledge which the devils have of the scripture increases both their mischievousness and their torment. The devil would persuade Christ to throw himself down hoping that he would be his own murderer and that there would be an end of him and his undertaking. Satan encourages him to do it and he tells Christ that there was no real danger, after all the good angels would protect him as was the promise (Ps 91:11).

First, there was something right. It is true and there is such a promise of the ministration of the angels for the protection of the saints. The devil knows it by experience; for he finds his attempts against them fruitless, and he frets and rages at it, as he did at the hedge about Job (Job 1:10).

Secondly, there was a great deal wrong in it and perhaps the devil had a particular spite against this promise and perverted it because it often stood in his way and baffled his mischievous designs against the saints.

How he misquoted it and that was bad. The promise is they shall keep thee, but how? In all thy ways as the steps of a good man is ordered by the Lord (Ps 37:23). If we go outside our way, out of the way of our duty, we forfeit the promise and put ourselves out of God’s protection. Notice how the tempter selectively left this out. If Christ had cast himself down, he would have been out of his way, for he had no call so to expose himself.

How he misapplied it; and that was worse. Scripture is abused when it is used to encourage sin. This promise is firm and stands good; but the devil made an ill use of it when he used it as an encouragement to presume upon the divine care. Note, it is no new thing for the grace of God to be turned into wantonness; and for men to take encouragement in sin from the discoveries of God’s good will to sinners. But shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? throw ourselves down, that the angels may bear us up? God forbid.

Matthew 4:7

Christ again overcame this temptation as he did the former with, It is written. The devil’s abusing of scripture did not prevent Christ from using it but he presently urges Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Deu 6:16). If Christ should cast himself down it would be the tempting of God:

As it would be requiring a further confirmation of that which was so well confirmed. Christ was abundantly satisfied that God was already his Father, and took care of him, and gave his angels a charge concerning him; and therefore to put it upon a new experiment, would be to tempt him, as the Pharisees tempted Christ; when they had so many signs on earth, they demanded a sign from heaven.

As it would be requiring a special preservation of him in doing that which he had no call to. We move into presumption and tempting God when:

We expect that because God has promised not to forsake us, therefore he should follow us out of the way of our duty.

That because he has promised to supply our needs, therefore he should humor us and please our fancies.

That because he has promised to keep us we may willfully thrust ourselves into danger, and may expect the desired end without using the appointed means.

These are abuses of the privileges we enjoy in having him for our God. He has encouraged us to trust him but we are very ungrateful if therefore we tempt him; it is contrary to our duty to him as our God. This is to affront him whom we ought to honor. Note that we must never promise ourselves any more than God has promised us.