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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 059. The Temptation Itself
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The Temptation Itself
Then mark the temptation itself. The temptation ran through forty days. The bit we get is simply the climax. Those three great temptations are simply the last terrific onset, but the temptation has run through forty days, as Mark's note makes quite clear. And you can imagine how subtle old Satan was. How suavely and sneakily and smoothly the old serpent began his attack. Through forty days it ran until the climax in the bit that is given to us.
It was a real temptation. Our Lord was tempted. That is to say, please listen keenly, and do not misunderstand, it could not have been a temptation unless there was present the possibility of a yielding to temptation. There is no temptation where there is no possibility of yielding to it. You can say on one side of the question that our Lord could not yield. Theoretically, ethically you say quite truly, that He could not yield to temptation. But practically it was entirely possible for Him to yield. He was really tempted. He faced the question of yielding. He felt the power of each temptation. But He asserted His will, and in full dependence upon the blessed Holy Spirit, He met the tempter at every point. He did not meet the temptations as Son of God; please remember that. When you are tempted, please remember that He met every temptation as a man, just as we must meet ours, and as we may meet them in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
The first temptation was an appeal to the body. Just as in Eden so still he tempts through the body. It is a favourite mode. Satan is still coming to each of us through our bodies, far more than we suspect. The temptation was to a perfectly proper appetite. The desire for food is a perfectly normal desire. Satan prefers the normal paths of life. He always comes along the regular road of life. And then he approached Him at His likeliest point. The likeliest point, the openest point was the hunger, a perfectly normal condition of His body. He is always watching for the likeliest point. And because a man's strong point is very apt to become, in turn, his weak point, therefore guard your strong points and guard your weak points, and, I would suggest, guard all between, from my experience.
Then note the temptation itself: Satan said, "If Thou be the Son of God." I think the better reading in English would be this, "Since Thou art"; "If" in the sense of "since." "If" raises a doubt about Jesus Christ's divinity, and asks Him to prove it. "Since" means he is asking our Lord to use His divinity to help out His humanity. It was a temptation not to prove that He was divine, but to use divine power to help Himself as a man. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone." Satan said, "You are Son of God; go up to the God level." "Ah, no," our Lord says, "I came down for my brothers' sake. I will never leave My brothers. I will stay with My brothers. I will meet every temptation as My brothers must meet it. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
He answered as a man. I love that. Our Lord was a man, tempted in all points like as we are. He knows how things are going with you: He knows all about your life. He comes down alongside in the Wilderness and says, "Let us pull together. I will stay right by you."
The second bit in the answer was this, full trust. He said, "Even if I starve, My Father will attend to that. Maybe I will starve. I have had nothing for forty days, nothing but stones. You can't live on stones. It looks like starving. Well, I am willing to starve if that is the Father's wish. I am not concerned; the Father will take care of the starving. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." And this is far more true to-day in the things that touch our physical strength than most of us know yet.
The thing that Satan asked Him to do was not wrong in itself. Our Lord supplied food afterwards in far greater measure. The mere changing of stones to loaves would not have been wrong, if underneath the Father was guiding. But the wrong would have been in doing anything that the evil one suggested. And I want to say this, it is bad to do good at Satan's suggestion. It is a very common thing among Christian workers to say "This is a good thing to do." Yes, this is a good thing to do—if the Master told you to do it. It is not good to do good unless it is God's will for you.
Now mark very keenly the effect upon Satan. He left that temptation. Practically he gave in. He could do nothing. Apparently he closed. If you notice keenly you will see he closes only to start again. Have you found that out? If you have met him at one point of temptation, and he has left you, just remember this, he is around the corner figuring out where he can best strike in next. He leaves to come back. The Word of God forces him to leave. It is very striking: he is afraid of that Book. The quotation shuts him up at once. He leaves, yet only to shift the attack, only to come back on another line of approach.