Thursday
Nights
October
27, 2022
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Target 3300 words
Video = 75 wpm
In the first
three chapters of Matthew we’ve seen Matthew lay out
an amazing genealogy.
We’ve peeked
into the amazing birth of Jesus.
We’ve seen the
establishment of Jesus’ authority at His baptism, where God spoke and said,
“This is My beloved Son”.
This week we
will continue with the temptations that Jesus encountered from Satan in the
wilderness.
The first temptation had to do with Jesus’ physical needs as Satan tempted
Jesus to turn stones into bread.
Now for the second temptation.
4:5-7 Second
Temptation
:5 Then the devil took
Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
pinnacle – πτερύγιον
– a wing, a little wing; any
pointed extremity; of the top of the temple at Jerusalem
:5 the pinnacle
of the temple
There are several places in the
Second Temple where this might have taken place. I think the most likely place is in the southwest corner which overlooked the city.
(this is a model of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day)
The top corner is called
“the place of trumpeting” where
priests would stand and blow the trumpet to announce to the city things like
the beginning and ending of the Sabbath.
When the Romans conquered
Jerusalem in AD 70, they tore the Temple apart and threw all the stones off the
edge of the Temple Mount. Below the southwest
corner of the Temple complex, they found a stone that had the phrase “place of
trumpets” chiseled in Hebrew.
Here’s a look up the wall from that southwest
corner. (play video) It is several hundred feet above the
city. Because of its location, the
people of the city would be able to see something happening.
:6 and said to Him, “If You
are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give
His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their
hands they shall bear you up, Lest you
dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
:6 If You are the
Son of God
We mentioned this last week with the first temptation that these first two
temptations seem to particularly challenge Jesus in His deity.
Just like turning stones to bread, Satan wants Jesus to exercise His deity.
Yet Jesus, to
show us that we don’t have to be God in flesh to resist temptation, will resist
this temptation. He will answer in His humanity.
(Hebrews 2:18 NKJV) For in that He Himself has suffered,
being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
:6 For it is
written
Jesus answered the first temptation with a Scripture.
Satan knows
Scripture too, so he quotes from Psalm 91
Here’s Psalm 91:11-12 in the
Septuagint:
ὅτι τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ ἐντελεῖται περὶ σοῦ τοῦ διαφυλάξαι σε ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς σου,† 12 ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἀροῦσίν σε,† μήποτε προσκόψῃς πρὸς λίθον τὸν πόδα σου,[1]
Here’s what the devil quotes:
τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ ἐντελεῖται περὶ σοῦ
καὶ ἐπὶ
χειρῶν
ἀροῦσίν σε,
μήποτε
προσκόψῃς
πρὸς λίθον τὸν
πόδα σου.[2]
It’s exactly like
the Septuagint EXCEPT that he skips a line in verse 11
“to keep you in all your ways”
:6 Lest you
dash your foot against a stone
This certainly does sound like
God would make sure that Jesus wasn’t hurt if He were to throw Himself off the
pinnacle of the Temple, doesn’t it?
Let’s look a little closer to
the passage that the devil is quoting.
The devil will quote Psalm 91:11-12,
though he does skip a phrase. Pay
attention to Psalm 91 while you look at the words in Matthew 4 that Satan
quotes…
(Psalm 91:9–16 NKJV) —9 Because you have made the Lord,
who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, 10 No evil
shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
Now here’s the passage that Satan quotes from. Watch closely…
11 For He shall
give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12 In their
hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Let me read a bit more for context’s sake
13 You shall
tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. 14 “Because he
has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set
him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be
with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, And
show him My salvation.”
If you were watching closely, you noticed that Satan
didn’t quote the little phrase
in verse 11 “To keep you in all your ways”.
Lesson
Accuracy and Context
I’m not completely sure why
Satan skipped that phrase in verse 11, but he did.
I usually take that phrase “To
keep you in all your ways” to mean that God will guard or “keep” us on all the
paths that we travel.
But I wonder if it might
also carry that idea that God wants to “keep us” in all HIS ways.
God wants us to
walk in all His ways.
And yet
Satan does not even let that idea come to light because he simply skips it.
That
lesson is about “accuracy” in handling the text.
The other thing I notice
in Psalm 91 is the connection between God and His people.
The promise of protection comes to the one who
makes Yahweh their refuge. Yahweh is
their dwelling place. (vs. 9)
There is a connection of love
between God and His people. God’s help
comes to the one who has “set his love upon Me” (vs.14).
You are going
to see that if a person is placing their life in God’s hand, trusting God to be
their “refuge”, and putting all their “love” into God, that they will not be a person who would be
in the least tempted to do what Satan suggests and jump from the pinnacle of
the Temple.
It’s a messed up kind of love that would jump and expect God to
rescue them. It’s a bit “passive-aggressive”
This is the lesson of
“Context”, understanding the context of Psalm 91.
This is one of the ways that
Satan gets people off track.
Satan and his followers might
quote Scripture, but they are always skipping a word or two, or taking the
verse out of the context of the passage.
Just because a person quotes the
Bible doesn’t let me off the hook to be careful and examine what they are
quoting.
For example:
Those who are opposed to
the death penalty will quote the Bible.
They will quote
(Exodus 20:13 KJV) Thou shalt
not kill.
But they will
also be careful that they quote the Old King James. The newer translations all translate this
passage “You shall
not murder”.
The Bible is
not opposed to capital punishment when it is applied by the state. The Bible is opposed to someone committing
murder.
It is interesting that
many who oppose capital punishment will also support abortion.
They will even
say something like, “The Bible doesn’t say anything about abortion”.
Really?
How
about “You shall not murder”?
They
will say that the Bible doesn’t say when life begins, so it can’t be murder if
the “fetus” hasn’t been born.
Tell
that to Jesus and John the Baptist who first met while they were in their
mothers’ wombs and John the Baptist did backflips.
They will say
that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her own body.
Please don’t
label me as unsympathetic to a gal with an unwanted pregnancy. I’ve walked with more than a few gals who
have been through this.
But who
is standing up for the right of the child inside her? This is a very very
painful and complicated issue.
:7 Jesus said
to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
:7 It is
written again
Once again Jesus answers a
temptation with a Scripture.
:7 You shall
not tempt
the Lord
Jesus answered the first
temptation to turn stones into bread with a quote from Deuteronomy.
He again quotes Deuteronomy.
The word “tempt” is related
to the word we’ve seen throughout this passage (peiradzo),
except in a stronger form, ekpeiradzo.
It means to “prove, test
thoroughly”
There are times when God
WANTS us to “test” Him.
Isaiah had a message for
King Ahaz to “ask a sign from God” concerning a prophecy that the Syrians would
be defeated. Ahaz sounded all spiritual
when he replied,
(Isaiah 7:12 NKJV) But Ahaz
said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
Yet God was the
one telling him to ask for a sign. God
rebuked Ahaz for not asking for a sign. God
went on to tell him what the sign would be:
(Isaiah 7:14 NKJV) Therefore
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and
bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
You and I know
that this “sign” was pretty significant, yet Ahaz
missed it.
Malachi recorded God
asking for His people to “try” Him on something else:
(Malachi 3:10 NLT) Bring all
the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If
you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing
so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
So where does Jesus quote from this
time?
(Deuteronomy 6:16 NKJV) “You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.
If you notice, Jesus didn’t
quote the entire verse, though the entire verse is indeed helpful.
We talked last week about
“Remez”, the Jewish teaching practice where the teacher expects his students to
know the context of the passage.
While there are times when it is
okay to “test” God, the passage that Jesus quotes gives us a clue as to when it
is NOT okay to “test” or “tempt” God.
What was “Massah”?
The story takes place in Exodus 17, when the
Israelites were wandering in the desert and they ran out of water. The people complained to Moses about the lack
of water and claimed that he had brought them out to the desert
to die. (remember Jesus is in the desert too)
(Exodus 17:5–7 NKJV) —5 And the Lord said to
Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of
Israel. Also take in your hand your rod
with which you struck the river, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall
strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders
of Israel. 7 So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah,
because of the contention
of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord
among us or not?”
These are the
key ideas here – “testing” (Massah) and “contention” (Meribah).
The people had no
faith in God, only complaining and demanding.
Lesson
Victory and Faith
We might think that Satan is
asking Jesus to demonstrate faith by jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple,
but it’s just the opposite.
Jesus recognized this “test” of
Satan to be out of bounds. It was
something that smelled a lot like the attitudes of Massah and Meribah.
The trouble at Massah was one of
the key teaching moments for Israel, a lesson they needed to be reminded of
over and over.
The Psalmist would remind them
of this lesson in Psalm 95.
(Psalm 95:7–11 NKJV) —7 …Today, if you will hear His voice: 8 “Do not
harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in
the day of trial in the wilderness, 9
When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. 10 For forty
years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
The writer to the Hebrews would
quote Psalm 95 and make the lesson clear:
(Hebrews 3:7–13 NKJV) —7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day
of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My
works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said,
‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall
not enter My rest.’ ” 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,”
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Do you get a
feel of what “testing” God like “Massah” was about?
It was about unbelief. It was about
complaining. It was about “pushing God’s
buttons”.
Jesus is not
about to do any of that in His own time of testing.
Jesus had
complete trust in God.
Jesus was at
peace with where He was in life, even after having fasted for forty days.
Though Jesus was alone to face His temptation in
the wilderness, you don’t always have to be alone.
The exhortation
in Hebrews is about us “exhorting
one another daily”, having people around us who will keep encouraging us to
trust God and walk away from evil.
Sometimes our defeat in temptation
is closely entwined with unbelief.
We aren’t willing to trust God in the right
way by doing things His way.
The addict says something like
this, “If God is real, then let Him rescue me as I jump off this cliff of drug
use.”
Or, “If God is
real, then let Him take this temptation away from me”, as I sit in front of my
drug of choice.
Illustration
Phillips Brooks wrote,
I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them
carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more
faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.
Faith says not, “I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it,”
but, “God sent it, and so it must be good for me.”
Faith, walking in the dark with God, only prays Him to clasp its hand more
closely.
--Phillips Brooks, Streams in the Desert – May 1
Do I have the right kind of
“faith” to find victory?
The Israelites in Massah had
lives that were filled with complaining and grumbling.
Complaining is the opposite of faith.
Complaining
says that I don’t trust that God is going to take care of me or the situation
I’m in.
Paul wrote to
the Philippians,
(Philippians 2:14–15 NKJV)
—14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without
fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
Part of our
witness is to put complaining aside. The
world needs to see believers who are trusting God, not complaining.
Illustration
Christian
Neighbor's Bad Testimony
A pastor named
Steve writes…
Not
long after we moved [into our first house in California], my wife, Janie, and I
picked up on the tension between a couple of neighbors. One was a very
outspoken churchgoer, while the other was an unbeliever. I knew I was in the
hot seat when the unchurched man struck up a conversation with me as we were
both working in our yards.
“Say, Steve,
aren’t you a pastor?” It seems implicit in the public’s understanding that
pastors exist to serve as referees in times of conflict, so I reluctantly
listened as this troubled man opened up about the
neighbor he’d never understood. He unfolded a long history of numerous
conflicts over small issues. …
Then he looked
up and sighed, “But the most recent problem takes the cake. We received a letter from
his attorney threatening to sue us if we don’t trim a tree that borders his yard. It seems
strange he didn’t just come over and ask me to take care of the tree before he
went to his attorney.” …
With a little
wink this streetwise unchurched man continued, “You know, I was getting ready
to trim that tree, but now there’s no way I’m going to do anything until he
forces me. I will gladly go to court just so I can have a story to tell about
being sued by Christians over an orange tree.” He summarized his thoughts with
a haunting observation: “I guess sometimes Christians love us—they just don’t
like us.”
Steve
Sjogren, Changing the World Through Kindness (Regal, 2005), pp. 103-104
The right kind of “faith”,
one that doesn’t complain, leads me to victory.
John wrote,
(1
John 5:4 NKJV) For whatever
is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome
the world—our faith.
4:8-11 Third Temptation
:8 Again, the devil took
Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him
all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
:8 an
exceedingly high mountain
Where was this? We don’t know. It could have been Mount Hermon, the tallest mountain on the
northern border of Israel. It may not
have been a literal mountain. Perhaps it
was a trip to space. Who knows?
:8 all the
kingdoms of the world and their glory
Some people are tempted
by physical, fleshly
things – food, substances, sex.
Others are tempted by
money – the desire to get more and more.
Others are tempted by
power.
Billy Graham used to say that
when a man is young he is tempted by sexual sin.
When a man gets older, money
becomes his pursuit.
When he gets older still, it’s
all about power – being boss, becoming President, etc.
This seems to be a
temptation towards power.
Illustration
George
III of England, America’s enemy in the Revolutionary War, felt terrible about
the loss of the colonies. It was said, in fact, that for the rest of his life,
he could not say the word “independence” without tripping over it. He was an
odd duck in many ways, but he had good insights. When the fighting in America
stopped, King George and all his royal cronies in Europe were sure that George
Washington would have himself crowned “Emperor of the New World.” That’s what
they would have done. When he was told, on the contrary, that Washington
planned to surrender his military commission and return to farming at Mt.
Vernon, George III said, “Well, if he does that, he will be the greatest man in
the world.”
I’d have to say that George Washington was indeed pretty special, but Jesus
is far greater.
:9 And he said
to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall
down and worship me.”
:9 All these
things I will give You
Did Satan actually have
the ability or authority to offer the kingdoms of the world and their glory to
Jesus?
It seems he did. Jesus doesn’t correct Satan’s offer.
Paul calls Satan …
(Ephesians 2:2 NKJV) …the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Jesus called Satan …
(John 12:31 NKJV) …the ruler of
this world …
Paul talks about Satan’s
influence on people …
(2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV) whose minds
the god of this age has blinded…
:9 fall down and worship me
Pay attention to the language
that Satan uses:
fall down – pipto – to descend from a higher place to
a lower; to fall; to prostrate one’s self, as when
someone gives honor or worship to another
worship
– proskuneo – to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in
token of reverence; to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the
forehead as an expression of profound reverence
These are words reserved
for the worship of God.
God is the only one we should fall down before.
God is the only one we should be
offering worship to.
Satan wants to be the boss of
Jesus. He wants Jesus to treat him as if
he was God.
Since his fall from heaven,
Satan has desired to take the place of God.
We call this next passage
“Satan’s boast”
(Isaiah 14:13–14 NKJV) —13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the
farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
:10 Then Jesus
said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship
the Lord your God, and Him
only you shall serve.’ ”
:10 Away with
you, Satan!
Jesus rebukes the devil.
You too have authority over the
devil like Jesus.
Yet I find it interesting that
Jesus didn’t start with this. He endures
two previous temptations before using this line, and He still fires one last
Scripture at Satan.
:10 You
shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you
shall serve
The Scripture that Jesus uses slightly different words than what Satan
uses.
worship
– proskuneo – to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in
token of reverence; to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the
forehead as an expression of profound reverence
Satan did use this word.
The idea here is that of bowing, giving “kisses” or love towards God.
serve – latreuo –to render religious service or homage,
to worship; of priests, to officiate or discharge the sacred office
The word here gives the
flavor of what the Levitical priests did before God in the Temple.
They offered sacrifices, burned
incense, and offered prayers to God.
In the Temple,
this was called “worship”.
From Mat. 4:10
κύριον τὸν
θεόν σου
προσκυνήσεις
καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις[3]
LXX from Deut. 6:13
κύριον
τὸν θεόν σου
φοβηθήσῃ καὶ
αὐτῷ
λατρεύσεις[4]
Many commentaries say
that Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:13 here, but I’m not quite sure because the
language does not quite match up.
Even though the Old Testament
was written in Hebrew, around 200BC a group of Jewish scholars translated it
into Greek, the translation is called the Septuagint (LXX), and this was the
version of the Bible the New Testament writers usually quoted from, including
Matthew.
(Deuteronomy 6:13 NKJV) You shall fear (phobeo) the Lord
your God and serve (latreuo) Him…
Yet the
word for fear (phobeo) was not a word that
either Jesus nor Satan used.
I think that Jesus is taking a
verse from Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, and turning a negative command
(“thou shalt not”) into a positive command:
(Exodus 20:4–6 NKJV) —4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow
down (proskuneo) to them nor serve (latreuo) them. For I, the Lord
your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My
commandments.
Satan’s temptation was to “fall down” (pipto)
and “worship” (proskuneo).
The commandment in Exodus uses a different word that’s translated “bow
down” than Satan’s “fall down” (proskuneo, “worship”),
and then uses “serve” (latreuo)
These
were the two words that Jesus brought into His reply to Satan, “worship” and
“serve”
Lesson
Victory and worship
Three words are entangled in this temptation and reply and all fall into
the category of “worship”:
“fall down”, “worship” and “serve”.
“Fall down”
carries the idea of yielding,
of submitting to one who is superior.
Satan would love for you to yield or submit to anything other than God.
Are there
things in your life that have the ability to bark
orders at you and make you walk outside the lines God has for you?
“Worship” is a
word that also carries the idea of falling down, but also the emotional component of
“kissing towards”.
Satan would love for you to get emotionally enslaved to anything other than God. (that picture of a little girl hugging her
grandma is a bit like true worship)
From time to time over the years we’ve
had Disneyland passes, and I have to admit that some
of the people who visit Disneyland are definitely emotionally
attached to all things Disney. The
amount of effort and time involved in some of the costumes people wear to
Disneyland, whether it’s a Star Wars character, or a Disney villain, is quite
amazing.
Is it wrong to enjoy Disneyland? I don’t think so. But I do get concerned when there is a bit
too much “kissing towards” Disney. Did
that make sense?
“Serve” is a
word that connotes the Levitical
priests offering up
their prayers and sacrifices.
Paul used the word to describe us offering to God our bodies as sacrifice
to God:
(Romans 12:1 NKJV) I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
The writer of Hebrews gives us more ideas about the kinds of “Levitical
worship” we might offer to God (Heb. 13:15-16).
(Hebrews 13:15–16 NKJV) —15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer
the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to His name. 16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased.
It might be offering prayers, giving thanks, or even
helping others.
This is worship.
There is a principle we find in the scripture that connects the worship of
God with victory over the enemy.
You can see it
in the life of King Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was one of the good kings. One day he found that his kingdom of Judah
was being threatened by a coalition of the Ammonites, Moabites, and
Edomites. A great multitude of the enemy
began to march on the nation of Judah.
Jehoshaphat called for a time of fasting and prayer and
many people came to Jerusalem to ask God for help and direction. God spoke to one of the prophets and the
nation heard …
(2 Chronicles 20:15 NKJV) …‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed
because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
So Jehoshaphat gathered the people, the army, and
the Levitical priests. They went out to
an overlook to see what God would do with the worship leaders in the lead.
(2 Chronicles 20:21–22
NKJV) —21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who
should sing to the Lord, and who
should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were
saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures
forever.” 22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and
Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.
For some of you, this is a word from the Lord.
Worship.
Learn to bend your knee to Him.
Learn to praise Him.
Learn to trust Him. Learn to give
Him worship even when the enemy is threatening to destroy you.
Worship with a whole heart. Let yourself get a tiny bit emotional when
you connect with God.
When we praise Him, He shows up.
He inhabits the praises of His people.
Serve
God didn’t call us to be super-heroes. He called us to be His servants.
God wants you to serve Him in the priestly things – like
praying for others, listening to them, encouraging them.
God wants you to serve Him in the practical things – helping out a neighbor, coming early to church to help set
up, maybe helping out in the Children’s Ministry.
These are the kinds of things that bring lasting victory
over temptation in our lives.
:11 Then the
devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
:11 the devil
left Him
I appreciate the person who
likes to pray, “Satan get behind me!” or something like that. But sometimes those words don’t always
produce immediate results.
Lesson
Join the Resistance
Illustration
A professor stood before his class of twenty senior
organic biology students, about to hand out the final exam.
“I want to say that it’s been a
pleasure teaching you this semester. I know you’ve all worked extremely hard
and many of you are off to medical school after summer. So that no one gets
their GPA messed up because they might have been celebrating a bit too much
this week, anyone
who would like to opt out of the final exam today will receive a ‘B’ for the
test.”
There was much rejoicing in the
class as students got up, walked to the front of the class, and took the
professor up on his offer. As the last taker left the room, the professor
looked out over the handful of remaining students and asked, “Anyone else? This
is your last chance.”
One final student rose up and
opted out of the final.
The professor closed the door
and took attendance of those students remaining. “I’m glad to see you believe
in yourselves,” he said. “You
all get ‘A’s.”
I think that’s
a picture of temptation. Some of us
think that we’ll settle for the “B” and we just quit the test.
God
wants you to learn to endure and not quit.
Learn to resist
the devil.
Sometimes you just have to keep resisting the devil before he will leave you alone.
Some folks tend to fold at the
first sign of trouble.
They will sign
up for a ministry at church, and then suddenly things get difficult in life …
and they quit the ministry at church or even quit the church.
The same
principle applies in our relationships with people. Don’t quit at the first sign of trouble. Show patience. Show diligence. Keep going.
Let the devil
know that you won’t fold that easy.
James wrote,
(James 4:7 NKJV) Therefore submit to God. Resist the
devil and he will flee from you.
There is a reward for enduring
temptation:
(James 1:12 NLT) God blesses those who patiently
endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life
that God has promised to those who love him.
:11 angels came
and ministered to Him
In
writing about angels, the author of Hebrews says,
(Hebrews 1:14 NLT) Therefore, angels are
only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.
Lesson
Finding Grace
Have you been struggling with
temptation? If not recently, you will.
We all have a sin nature that
loves to rebel against God.
There are things we can do to
find victory over temptation, but here’s one last word for you.
Make sure you find grace.
You may feel like you’ve sinned
too many times for God to forgive you again.
You are wrong.
Did Jesus die on the
cross for your sins?
When He died,
how many of your sins were still in the future from 33AD? All of them.
When Jesus laid down His
infinite life to pay for your sins, how many of your sins did He die for? All of them and much much
more.
Don’t let Satan convince you
that God no longer loves you.
God loves you with an
everlasting love.
When the prodigal son finally
realized he needed to go home…
(Luke 15:20–24 NLT) —20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long
way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to
his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said
to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer
worthy of being called your son.’ 22 “But his father said to the servants,
‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for
his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the
calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was
lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
If you’ve sinned, don’t hide it,
admit it to God.
You will find
forgiveness. You will find grace.