The Lord’s Day 20 March 2005
Reading: Luke 3:21-23, 4:1-21
The Basis and Manner Of temptation
There is a definite pattern and the basis is always the same – Compare Jesus’ temptation with Eve’s (the first temptation) Genesis 3:1-10 – John expounds this in his first epistle, showing us the three points of attack, “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 John 2:14-17). God willing, we will look more fully at this scripture next time.
The devil firstly tempts Eve to disobey the Word of God. This is the very essence of temptation and the essence of sin! This was the first point of attack with Jesus and Jesus was awake to it; He immediately thought of a Scripture that answered the lie. Do we so acquaint ourselves with the Scriptures that we immediately see the temptation for what it is? We must! Otherwise we will fall for the devil’s lies every time. It was said of John Bunyan that if you had cut him he would bleed Scripture. Is it any wonder he was great? If we would be great in the kingdom of God we must make sola scriptura (scripture alone) our first rule and our only foundation and motivation for everything we do and every decision we make. Sola scriptura was one of the five watch-words of the Protestant Reformation, apparently coined by Martin Luther. (Note today’s article by the Protestant Alliance about the five ‘solas’ of the Reformation).
There are far too many today who say they are “Reformed” Christians and “Reformed” Churches, who make a mockery of sola scriptura, who like to think they are something they are not, whose heads are in the clouds rather than in the Scriptures, who simply will not take every question and controversy to the Scriptures alone for the answers!
The devil then uses humanistic reasonings to do so (If it just makes sense to Eve then the plain and simple Word of God can’t really be all that important! Remember some of the applications we noted last week – Christmass , Easter, Youth Groups, Entertaining worship, Professionalism in the Church rather than the simple family pattern ordained by God etc. These things make sense to people, so why should they let the Word of God interfere with their plans?!
The Scribes and Pharisees continually prove to us that it is dangerously possible to think we are pleasing God and yet be in total rebellion against Him! What did Jesus say? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy!” (Luke 12:1). The Lord reserved His most vehement attacks for the Scribes and Pharisees, not because they sinned more than others, but because of their hypocrisy. We can confidently say that the Lord hates hypocrites. And here is the solemn warning – that only the religious people, only those who profess to be following Christ and to be morally sound can be hypocrites. What is a hypocrite but someone who is not what he professes to be? Hypocrisy is to add lying and deception to sin. We see it illustrated so often in politics: In recent news, a senior government Minister was shown in Parliament shouting angrily at the opposition after they put a simple, unemotional question to him. Why was he so uncharacteristically angry? Because the simple question exposed his hypocrisy. He had claimed he never had a certain conversation with another member over a certain situation and the other member had just admitted they did have the discussion. He was presenting himself as an honest man and apparently lying to prove it and his hypocrisy had just been exposed! We see the same in world politics: The USA goes all over the world laying down the law to all nations saying that certain regimes must submit to the “rule of law.” They might well ask, Which law? Because the US has one law for itself and another law for others. They forbid others to have weapons of mass destruction while maintaining the right to have and use them themselves as a means of forcing others to give them up! And we see the hypocrisy closer to home, in the Christian Churches of today: Churches, who claim to be at the moral forefront of society, have been found to have been abusing children. You can hardly find a more gross case of hypocrisy! So, let’s not gloat over the sins of others. Let’s learn from them and be sober. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)
When a person is first born of God, first converted as a Christian, the Bible tells us God puts His Spirit in us, “whereby we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:15-16) You will have noticed, by your own experience, that that self-same Spirit has also given you a love for the Scriptures, a dependence on the Scriptures, and a reverence for the Scriptures. Sometimes quite without any particular instruction you will be given a firm conviction about something. (I’m not talking about a stubborn opinion – even unbelievers can be opinionated! I’m not talking about a merely emotional stand on an issue – even unbelievers can get steamed up emotionally about an issue. But I’m talking about something you just know to be right, or not right, as the case may be.) To cite an example, years ago as a very young Christian, I well remember hearing in a sermon a man say that a certain Bible word was a bad translation and really should have been translated some other way. The same man used to do this quite often and it always made me uneasy. I had the instinctive sense that the Word of God was being undermined, even at a time when I was totally ignorant of the existence of various Hebrew and Greek Texts, various translations etc. I use this illustration to point out that God sovereignly and miraculously gives His children a love for His Word and a confidence in it.
Just recently I spoke to a man who has been a Christian for nearly 20 years, but who can’t commit himself to a Church because every Church he has had anything to do with is not really interested in what the Scriptures say! He said to me, Why are they not interested in the Scriptures? (Now, we know that there is also a responsibility upon Christians to be members of a Church, not just a law unto themselves, and that involves sacrifice and patience, and bearing with the weaknesses and differences of others. They can’t expect everybody to bow down to their every wish or agree with their every interpretation of Scripture. It’s easy to criticize the local Church, but not so easy to build it up in the face of all sorts of evils that are pitted against it! In fact, most of these people show their immaturity by the fact that they also are unwilling to obey Scripture. They are unwilling to do the hard and sometimes painful work of building the local Church, which is a life-long commitment, just as is the raising of a family. But at the same time it is sadly true that many are not in Church today because they are fed up with the hypocrisy of so many Churches which simply will not make the Scriptures their only rule!)
And I say that to say this – that it is amazing to me that so many professing Christians, and professing “Reformed” Christians and “Reformed” Churches will make all sorts of important decisions about doctrine and Church life without any reference to Scripture! “Scripture alone” is the first and most important point of Reformed Religion and yet Reformed Christians can so easily set aside their own principles. Some think they are “Reformed” because they are Protestant; others think they are “Reformed” because they hold to a “once saved always saved” doctrine. Some are quite happy to make important decisions and rulings on the basis of emotion, fear (of what will happen or what will not happen if they made the other, scriptural choice), or merely out of tradition (what the “Church” has always done), or fashion (what others do. We don’t want to be the odd ones out), or out of expediency (we must do this because it’s urgently needed), or out of pragmatism (We must do this because others are doing it and it works). All these things do not move them towards the Scriptures! Their consciences seem to be seared! They seem to be incapable of accepting the simple facts!
I’m not saying this to pretend I’m more faithful than anybody else, or more pure than anybody else. I am as sinful as the next man. I need the Lord’s forgiveness continually. “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) And we can all thank God that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).
I’m not saying this to promote our own Church above others.
I’m not saying this to condemn others who fail.
I am saying this to point out the weakness all God’s children and all the Churches have in the flesh, in spite of all that God has done for us, and the need to watch against the devil’s temptations. His temptations are not harmless. Sin is not harmless. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
I am saying this to point out the manner of temptation – the way the devil tries to get at us, i.e. he tempts us to ignore God’s Word, or to take it lightly, and tempts us to use humanistic reasoning to justify doing so.
Note the simplicity, and yet the mighty power, of God’s grace towards us. He has given us His Word, and His Spirit within us. We lack nothing in our battle against temptation!
In closing today let us consider Him who was tempted in all points as we are and yet without sin. So, let us be encouraged by the full and complete salvation provide in Him by the sovereign grace of God to sinners such as we are. (Hebrews 4:1416).