Temptation
Barnes on Matthew 4:4
In reply to this artful temptation Christ answered by a quotation from the Old Testament. The passage is found in Deuteronomy 8:3. In that place the discourse is respecting manna. Moses says that the Lord humbled the people, and fed them with manna, an unusual kind of food, that they might learn that man did not live by bread only, but that there were other things to support life, and that everything which God had commanded was proper for this. The term “word,” used in this place, means very often, in Hebrew, thing, and clearly in this place has that meaning. Neither Moses nor our Saviour had any reference to spiritual food, or to the doctrines necessary to support the faith of believers; but they simply meant that God could support life by other things than bread; that man was to live, not by that only, but by every other thing which proceeded out of his mouth; that is, which he chose to command people to eat. The substance of his answer, then, is: “It is not so imperiously necessary that I should have bread as to make a miracle proper to procure it. Life depends on the will of God. He can support it in other ways as well as by bread. He has created other things to be eaten, and man may live by everything that his Maker has commanded.” And from this temptation we may learn:
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That Satan often takes advantage of our circumstances and wants to tempt us. The poor, the hungry, and the naked he often tempts to repine and complain, and to be dishonest in order to supply their necessities.
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Satan’s temptations are often the strongest immediately after we have been remarkably favored. Jesus had just been called the Son of God, and Satan took this opportunity to try him. He often attempts to fill us with pride and vain self-conceit when we have been favored with any peace of mind, or any new view of God, and endeavors to urge us to do something which may bring us low and lead us to sin.
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His temptations are plausible. They often seem to be only urging us to do what is good and proper. They seem even to urge us to promote the glory of God, and to honor him. We are not to think, therefore, that because a thing may seem to be good in itself, that therefore it is to be done. Some of the most powerful temptations of Satan occur when he seems to be urging us to do what shall be for the glory of God.
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We are to meet the temptations of Satan, as the Saviour did, with the plain and positive declarations of Scripture. We are to inquire whether the thing is commanded, and whether, therefore, it is right to do it, and not trust to our own feelings, or even our wishes, in the matter.
Spurgeon on Hebrews 2:18
Sermon First, that temptation to sin is no sin. It is no sin to be tempted, for in Him was no sin, and yet He was tempted. “He suffered being tempted,” but there was no sin in that, because there was no sin in Himself. You may be horribly tempted, and yet no blame whatever may attach to you, for it is no fault of yours that you are tempted. You need not repent of that which has no sin in it. If you yield to the temptation, therein is sin, but the mere fact that you are tempted, however horrible the temptation, is no sin of yours.
And in the next place, temptation does not show any displeasure on God’s part. He permitted His Only-begotten Son to be tempted; He was always the Son of His love, and yet He was tried. “This is My beloved Son,” said He at His baptism, and yet the next hour that Son was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. It does not even show displeasure on God’s part that He permits you to be tempted; on the contrary, it may be consistent with the clearest manifestations of divine favor.
And again, temptation really implies no doubt of your being a son of God, for the Son of God was tempted, even the unquestioned Son of the Highest. The prime model and paragon of sonship, Christ Himself, was tempted. Then why not you? Temptation is a mark of sonship rather than any reflection thereupon.
Note, next, that temptation need not lead to any evil consequences in any case. It did not in your Lord’s case lead up to sin. The Lord Jesus was as innocent in temptation and after temptation as before it, and so may we be through His grace. It is written by the beloved John concerning the man that is born of God that “He keeps himself, and that wicked one touches him not.”
Moreover, do not make it any cause of complaint that you are tempted. If your Lord was tempted, shall the disciple be above his Master, or the servant above his Lord? If the Perfect One must endure temptation; why not you? Accept it, therefore, at the Lord’s hands, and do not think it to be a disgrace or a dishonor. It did not disgrace or dishonor your Lord, and temptation will not disgrace or dishonor you. The Lord, who sends it, sends also with it a way of escape and it will be to your honor and profit to escape by that way.
Far from your hearts be the idea that any temptation should lead you to despair. Jesus did not despair. Jesus triumphed, and so shall you, and therefore He cries, “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” You are a member of His body, and when the Head wins the victory, the whole body shares the triumph. “Because I live,” He said, “you shall live also,” and so you shall; even in the poisonous atmosphere of temptation you shall be in health. They of old overcame through the blood of the Lamb, and you shall do the like. Therefore comfort one another with these words, “He Himself has suffered being tempted,” for you who have His life in you shall first suffer with Him, and then reign with Him.
Spurgeon on Matthew 4:3
🔥Men might be Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder, without trouble, but you could not be a Barnabas, a son of consolation, unless you had first known what it was to be comforted in time of trial. God might use you to scatter His seed with a hand that was never wounded, but He could not use you to bind up the broken in heart unless that hand had been rendered tender and sensitive by trial
I am afraid that sometimes solitude is a help to temptation and that Christian people, who are much tormented by Satan, would do well to mix more often with other believers and tell out their sorrows. A good burst of tears and a narration of your grief to a sympathetic friend may be the best possible way for you to find relief from your sorrows. Do not be so shut up within yourself as to refuse to tell the heartfret that is wearing into your very soul—seek help from some Christian brother or sister, for we are bidden to bear one another’s burdens, and I trust we are not slow to do so.
I. Let us look closely into this double temptation with which he attacked the Savior. “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” And notice, first, that THE TEMPTER BEGINS BY ASSAILING THE SAVIOR WITH AN “IF.”
That is just how Satan comes to each believer. He will not positively say, “You are not a child of God,” but he tries to inject a doubt into our minds, “If you are a son of God.” He will not declare that Christ’s people will certainly perish, but he asks, “Suppose they should?” Often, when I have heard a great many suppositions, I have felt more indignation at them than I have ever felt at a point-blank denial.
Somebody once said to Mr. Gough, “Now, Mr. Gough, suppose you were in a beer parlor.” Mr. Gough said, “I will not allow you to suppose anything of the kind. With my convictions about the drink traffic, I will not have you suppose such a thing.” And I do not know what better answer he could have given.
It matters not how plainly any truth may be revealed in the Scriptures, nor how clear is the language in which it is stated, so that we can see that it is certainly taught to us by God. Yet the devil will come and put an “if” on it. I suppose that some of us who have been Christians for many years have had to fight over every doctrine in the Word of God. There is scarcely one truth I believe for which I have not had to contend in my own soul.
David said that he rejoiced over God’s Word “as one that finds great spoil.” Now, spoil is found after a battle and God’s truth is to most of His people a thing for which they have had to fight with the powers of darkness and they have had to take the doctrine from the enemy by main force through the aid of the Holy Spirit.
Ay, and not only does he put an “if” on Scripture, but he puts an “if” also on past manifestations. You enjoyed, some time ago, a blessed visit from God. You thought that you never could forget it—you said that you would never doubt again. The sacred Dove rested upon you and you were full of holy calm. The voice and witness of the Spirit were within you and you knew that you were a child of God and that you lived in JEHOVAH’s love.
II. But now, secondly, notice that THE TEMPTER AIMS THE “IF” AT A VERY VITAL PART, “If thou be the Son of God.”
When he has not assailed the Godhead of Christ, he has often attacked our sonship. “Oh,” says he, “are you a child of God? You, with all your imperfections and infirmities—are you a child of God?” And he puts it to you, over and over again, as a matter of question, until at last you are driven almost out of your wits. This questioning of Satan is always with an evil intention. He knows that he is assailing us in a very vital place—he is attacking our faith and faith is vital to a Christian. If faith should fail us, then our life has failed us.
He also, by this means, attacks our childlike spirit, for, if we are not children of God, why should we submit to His will? Why should we not kick and struggle against our daily trials? If we are childlike, we trust, we obey, we believe, we endure, we persevere, but he puts an “if” on all that and so he tries to disarm us.
Moreover, he is here aiming at our Father’s honor, for he as much as says, “Is He your Father? If He be your Father, why does He allow you to be tried as you are? Why are you so poor? Why are you so ill? Why are you so depressed in spirit? He does not act towards you as if He were your Father.” Thus the devil tries to take from us all our comfort and all our delight, for if God be not the Father of us who believe, then are we orphans indeed.
III. Thirdly, SATAN SUPPORTS HIS “IF” WITH OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.
I think that the devil seemed to say to Christ, as he looked round the desert and saw that there was not a disciple or friend or anybody about—no guards to take care of this Prince of the blood—“You, the Son of God, alone, deserted, forsaken, in a wilderness? You, the Son of God?”
And sometimes, he has come upon us when we have been all alone. We have looked and there was no man to help us. We had to war a warfare all by ourselves. Friends were all gone—some were dead, others had proved false—and then he said, “You, a child of God? Why, He would have given His angels charge concerning you if you had been one of His children, He would not have left you all alone like this.”
And then Satan, with a glance of his cruel eye all around us, has seemed to say, “You are in the desert. There is nothing but sand and stones—no food to eat, no water to drink, no shrubs or trees to shelter you. This is a pretty place for a child of God! Why, surely, if you had been one of His children, you would have been in a paradise. Was not that where God put Adam? How can you be a son of God and be in a desert?”
Has he never said something like this to you, beloved? “You have had trials all around you. Losses, crosses, bereavements, afflictions, poverty—nothing but troubles and nobody to help you out of them.” And you have echoed the devil’s words, “Alone and in a desert.” And then the question has come, “Can I be a child of God?”
IV. To close my discourse, let me remind you that IF THE TEMPTER CAN BE OVERCOME, IT WILL BE EXCEEDINGLY HELPFUL TO US ALL THE REST OF OUR LIFE.
🔥I believe that your sonship is true when the devil tells you that it is not. If you were not a son of God, the devil would not be likely to utter any “if” about it. I hope I am not in any sense a servant of the devil and whenever I see anyone in my congregation who is puffed up with carnal conceit, and who thinks that he is a child of God, I say to myself, “I will try to preach, next Sunday, in such a way as to make him question whether he is or is not a Christian, for he ought most seriously to question it.”
It is true, as Cowper says,—
“He that never doubted of his state, He may perhaps—perhaps he may—too late.”
It is no part of the devil’s work to make the self-deceived and hypocrites question themselves—he rather lulls them into deeper slumber. But when he does suggest to any man the doubt, “If thou be a son of God,” you may depend upon it that the man is a son of God, or else the devil would never think it worth his while to raise a question about it. So you may take Satan’s insinuation for a certificate of your sonship.
When you are once able to battle with his evil suggestion, you may say, “If I were Satan’s own, he would not worry me. If I belonged to him, he would try to make me content in his service and these doubts and fears, these questions, this self-examination, these great searching of heart are all evidences that I have escaped from the talons of the old dragon, and that he worries me because he cannot devour me.” How we get a confirmation of our sonship even from Satan himself.
Then, dear friends, if you once overcome that “if” thoroughly, it is very likely that it will not occur to you again for many a day, for, as far as I know, our blessed Lord had not that “if” put to Him any more for years. The devil departed and angels came and ministered unto Him, and He spoke with a holy confidence and joy in His Father’s love all the rest of His life.
🔥At the last, when He was in a still worse plight, and His hands were nailed to the cross, and He was faint with thirst and near to death, then cruel men stood round Him and repeated the Satanic insinuation, “If thou be the Son of God.” Oh, but our blessed Master must have inwardly smiled as He thought, “You cannot tempt Me with that ‘if’—I have been tempted, long ago, by a far greater adversary than any of you, even by your master and lord, the arch-fiend himself. In the wilderness, he said to Me, ‘If thou be the Son of God,’ and I repulsed him and turned the edge of his sword upon himself. And now you have only tried to pierce me with a blunted weapon—you cannot wound Me as you cry, ‘If thou be the Son of God.’”
Do you not see, brethren, that a temptation overcome may be used, the next time, to overcome another one? You may lay up this conquered temptation, just as David laid up Goliath’s sword, and one of these days, when you come the same way and need a sword, you will say, “There is none like it. Give it to me.” And you will be glad to get the old sword into your hand again.