At the Time of Temptation

At the Time of Temptation (Matt. 4.1-10)

Upon the Lord being baptized and coming up out of the water, the heaven was suddenly opened for Him and the Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove. He then was led by the Spirit to the wilderness and was tempted by the devil for forty days and nights. Satan himself appeared to tempt Him, saying: "If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." Eating while hungry is no sin, but the Lord refused to eat here. The tempter aimed at enticing the Lord to do a thing according to His own will. He tried to lure Jesus into using His own way to satisfy His hunger. But the Lord retorted: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He is willing to be hungry, and He is able to bear hunger. May I put it before you all today that if we wish to live as the Lord lived we must daily receive from heaven both butter and honey. The Lord is well able to turn stones into bread, but He has no need for it because He already has the butter and the honey.

Suppose a little pleasure, a little comfort or glory is at your fingertips? You can have it if you say yes, or you can have it without even saying anything. It is already within your sphere of influence. You may obtain it without effort. What will you do? Our Lord is not willing to turn a stone into bread, but how we hope we might be able to do it—and not turning merely one stone into bread but all the stones in the River Jordan as well!

How we long to exert our utmost strength for ourselves. This is because we have not had the butter and the honey of heaven. Had we eaten that way, we would be able to forsake what could likely be ours and let go what is at our fingertips. Only one kind of people in the world knows how to offer to God—they are those who experience the grace of God.

The temptation which Jesus suffered in the desert was not in one area alone. For Satan additionally said to the Lord: "If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down." How marvelous it would be to fly down from heaven! Would not people immediately acknowledge Him as the Messiah? He could gain immense glory by the simplest of means. Yet the Lord would not do that. Again a third time Satan said to Him: "All things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Is it not an easy thing to gain the whole world and all the glory therein by a surreptitious bow? Nevertheless, however good all the kingdoms of the world are, our Lord is able to forsake and deny because He has power in Him. He knows God in a way which is beyond us; He is filled with the Holy Spirit in a way that we are not; and He has tasted the abundance of grace and the sweetness of love to a degree that we do not experience.