Sermon - Matthew 4:5-7 - The Second Temptation - Littleby Baptist Church - February 24, 2019

Last time we saw how the devil was tempting Jesus to take matters into His own hands. The ask itself was fairly simple and seemed reasonable at first. The devil tempts us to do things that seem ok on the surface but when you stop and look at it, you should be avoiding it. Jesus understood that He was not to do it on His own, and we need to remember that God is in control and that we need to trust Him.

Let’s see what happens when the devil takes his second shot at tempting Jesus.

Matthew 4:5-6

“⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

In round one the devil used the fact that Jesus was hungry to tempt Him. Jesus responded with quoting Scripture. The devil being the tricky little bugger that he is, used Scripture this time to try to make Jesus stumble.

The devil was trying to convince Jesus that since the Bible states that ‘you will not even strike your foot against a stone’, that Jesus could push the limits and not worry about it. If the angels were going to protect Jesus from stubbing His toe while wearing sandals on His journeys, they could protect Him from anything.

One way of looking at this, is the devil was telling Jesus that since He had yet to complete His mission, that absolutely nothing bad was going to happen to Him. No matter what He did He would be protected. Base jumping off of the temple without a parachute was not going to be a problem. No matter how foolish Jesus’ actions would be, He would be safe. I know that Jesus is God, but even I do not buy what the devil was saying.

Let’s take a look at the scripture that the devil was quoting.

Psalms 91:9-16

“⁹ Because you have made the Lord—my refuge, the Most High—your dwelling place, ¹⁰ no harm will come to you; no plague will come near your tent. ¹¹ For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways. ¹² They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. ¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the young lion and the serpent. ¹⁴ Because he has his heart set on me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name. ¹⁵ When he calls out to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor. ¹⁶ I will satisfy him with a long life and show him my salvation.”

If you took just these words out of the Bible and based your faith on them and choose to act accordingly, you might think that you would be protected.

If we followed this train of thought we would say that if we have faith in God, we are protected. No harm will come to us, regardless of what we do. A very slippery slope.

I can only speak for myself, but I have faith in God and I know I have had my fair share of issues. Faith in God has not kept me from harm. It has not kept me from getting sick, it has not kept me from getting hurt.

Think of this way… if you drove your car down the road in front of the church at over 90 miles an hour saying to yourself that ‘I have faith that God will protect me’, you are fooling yourself.

Speeding down the road like that is flat out foolish. These verses may let us know that we are protected, but it is not from the consequences of our own foolish actions. Imagine saying, ‘I can do whatever I want, and God has to protect me.’ Talk about being arrogant. The devil was using a small piece of Scripture to convince Jesus that He is entitled to the Father’s protection.

These verses in Psalms are really telling us that protection is available to those who have faith, as a form of encouragement. God will protect us, He will be with us, He will save us, but there is no guarantee it will all happen on this side of Glory.

As expected Jesus saw through the devils trick.

Matthew 4:7

“Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”

Do Not Test the Lord Your God!

Do Not be Arrogant and think you are entitled to God’s protection.
Do Not Expect the Lord to act according to your will.

In His response Jesus is saying you cannot take one piece of Scripture and apply it to your life while ignoring the rest of it. You need to look at everything the Bible has to say about following Jesus. The devil quoted part of Psalms, Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:16

“Do not test the Lord you God as you tested him as Massah.”

If you look at Exodus 17, we will see how the Israelites tested the Lord.

Exodus 17:1-7

“17 The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?” ³ But the people thirsted there for water and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”  ⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!” ⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. ⁶ I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

The wandering tribe of Israel tested God. They had shown that they did not trust God, by questioning if God was really taking care of them or if He was even trying to kill them. They even stated that maybe they should have stayed in Egypt. The Israelites believed that God needed to do this for them. They had witnessed the miraculous plagues, they had witnessed the parting of the Red Sea, and they still thought God owed them.

The devil was trying to convince Jesus that the Father needed to take care of Him regardless of what He did. Jesus saw through it. If you were driving your car down the road at 90 miles per hour and expecting God to keep you safe, you are pushing your luck.

There are people out there that hold on to one verse or section of the Bible and build there faith completely around it. There are others that will tell you that certain pieces of the Bible are not really that important. Both schools of thought are false teachings and will lead you astray.

That is exactly what the devil was trying to do to Jesus. He quoted two verses and tried to convince Jesus to act on those verses alone. Jesus knew the Bible and was able to resist the temptation of testing God.

Last week we saw Jesus quote scripture and it was a great reminder that we need to spend time reading our Bibles. Reading, memorizing, and studying our Bibles will help us to resist the temptations of the devil. With Jesus countering Scripture with Scripture in re-enforces our need to read our Bibles but it really takes it a step further. We need to develop an understanding of God’s Word. We need to know what the Bible teaches, we need to study every part. We cannot ignore the parts we do not like, we cannot skip the parts that are hard to understand or might be boring to read.

To truly resist the great tempter, we need to study All of God’s Word and apply it to our lives.

A single verse can lead us astray. A single verse can be twisted to mean something that it is not meant to. Being able to quote scripture is not enough, we need to understand it. We need to look at each verse understanding how it fits in God’s plan for our lives.

Pastor A.G. Freed once said that you could prove anything by the Bible. A young man did not believe him. “Prove it to me,” he asked, “that its wrong to split wood.” With only a moment’s thought, pastor Freed answered, “Whatsoever God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”

Pastor Freed quoted from Matthew.

Matthew 19:3-6

“³ Some Pharisees approached him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?” ⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Obviously, Jesus was not talking about splitting wood in these verses.

Using a single verse out of context can easily lead us down the wrong path. Using a single verse without looking at the overall message of Love from our Lord is how one can succumb to the great tempter.

Jesus understood Scripture and was able to counter the false message the devil was saying. If we understand God’s message to us we can see if what is being said is in harmony with the rest of the Bible. The Bible does not contradict itself, it portrays God’s Love for us without flaw. If you ever question what a verse means, keep reading, study God’s Word and the truth will be made known.

The devil knows the Word of God better than we do. He can use it, twist it, misinterpret it, and present it in a way that seems correct but is contrary to the will of God. He will do what He can to use God’s Word in a way that tricks us into sinning. To counter his tricks we need to know the Word of God. We need to do more than read it, we need to understand how links together showing us God’s ultimate plan. The more time you spend reading your Bible, the more you come to church and participate in Sunday School, hear God’s Word taught, and truly study it for yourself the more likely you will be able to see through the devil’s attempt to lead your astray.

Jesus resisted the devil’s temptation and God wants us to share in His victory over temptation. Truly learning God’s Word and understanding how everything He has done was out of Love, helps us to know that certain verses are about marriage not splitting wood. In all seriousness though, knowing God’s Word helps us to resist the trickiness of the devil.

We will be tempted and knowing God’s Word will help us. There will be day we fall short, but we are forgiven if we have faith in our Lord Jesus.

May the Lord Bless You!

Robert