“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”— Matthew 4:1.
WE often hear people say that Satan is not a person. I do not believe in the personality of Satan, you say. Perhaps you do not. But you forget this, that the very thing that would delight him best of all is that you should not believe in him. If you believed in him you would be afraid of him. I will ask you a question: Do you believe in the personality of Christ? Oh yes, of course I do; Christ is the Son of God, and the Saviour. And you hope to be saved by Him? Yes. What kind of a Christ must you have to save you? He must be a sinless man, that is certain. I agree with you.
Now, let me ask you another question. What is Satan, then, if he have no personality? Do you reply, as many others today—Satan is the proclivity to evil which is found in man’s heart. That is plain, at least. Satan is not a being who can trip men up? No! Satan, forsooth, is the tendency to evil in man’s own heart, and then, you tell me you must have a perfect Saviour. True, but I want you to notice that if you get rid of a personal devil, you get rid at the same time of a personal Saviour. They both go together. How is that?
You tell me that the devil is only the proclivity in a man’s heart to evil. There must be sin coupled with that. I read that Christ was tempted of the devil. Had He any proclivities to evil? Oh no, you exclaim. How, then, was He tempted of the devil? If Christ was tempted of the devil, and the devil be the proclivity to evil in a man’s own heart, then He must have had such, for Scripture affirms that He was “tempted of the devil.” Do you see, my friend, where you are? You have a Christ before your mind with proclivities to evil in “His heart. If that were true He would not be perfect, and He would not be a truly holy man. God forgive me for saying the words.
But I am only showing you where your false and hell-born ideas as to Satan are taking you. Their issue is the complete destruction of Christ as a possible Saviour, because He must have a fallen nature to have proclivities to evil in His heart—since out of it are the issues of life. That man cannot save me who has such a nature. A Christ with any proclivities to evil in His heart could not meet my case nor yours. No, my friend, by your casuistry and infidelity you have swept the devil and Christ off the scene together, and you have left yourself where you are, a sinner in your sins, and on your road to hell, and when you get there you will find that there is a devil, who will be your companion for eternity.
But further, I press on you that there is a Christ, whom, if you go on in your present sad and awful condition, you will never meet but once, and that to get at His hands the judgment you have earned. Ali, my friend, you may say, I do not believe in judgment. Satan is clever enough to keep you from believing that too. There are plenty of men who say, “Did God prepare hell for men?” No, He did not. “And did God prepare eternal fire for men?” No. The Lord Jesus will yet say, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).
But do you not see, that if you will not have the company of God’s Man for eternity, you must have the company of God’s foe for eternity? If you are not going to spend it with Christ, through faith in His blood, and through faith in His name, if you are not going to spend it with the One who defeated the devil, and the One who loves to deliver and save you, you will spend it with the one who has deceived you. The first and last acts of Satan are identical—deceiving men. (See 1 Timothy 2:14; Revelation 20:3, 8-10.) My friend, better far wake up to the truth now. Better far take your place as a poor, good-for-nothing, ruined, undone sinner, and let this blessed Son of God, this Man who is the Victor over Satan, bless and save you. How will He do it? Follow His history, and you will soon learn.
In the end of the fourth chapter of Matthew we read that Satan being overcome, Christ comes out to bless and deliver man: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” (vs. 23). In plain language, He fulfils a very striking verse found in Luke’s Gospel. There the Lord Jesus says, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, lie taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoil” (Luke 11:21, 22). And what is the meaning of that? Satan is the strong man, and he is armed with everything that can encircle and hold his vassal—man. This strong man keeps his palace. His armor is the knowledge lie has of the weakness of man, a weapon which he has well learned to use in upsetting and overcoming man. His palace is the world. His goods are sinners. And while he holds them thus, they are in peace. You were never in anxiety about your soul? Never. You have been in peace all your days. You do not believe in Satan. Not you. You are just an illustration of the truth.
But who is the stronger Man? The blessed One who was tempted of the devil. He overcame Satan, and bound him morally in the wilderness. He took all his armor from him. Christ has gone into the devil’s camp of set purpose, hence we read, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that lie might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). He has come here to refute the devil’s lie that God did not love men. God is love, and He has given. His own Son to death for us, at a great cost.
When the devil left Christ in the wilderness, we are told by Luke that it was “for a season” (ch. 4:13). Another time Satan crossed His path in the garden of Gethsemane. Regarding that attack the blessed Lord said to His disciples, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). He had met Him once before, and been defeated by Him. But, unabashed, he came to Him again in the garden. Then he evidently pressed on Jesus the awful consequences of His pathway if He would go on, even death. What was Christ’s action? We read, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from (or out of) death, and was heard in that he feared” (Heb. 5:7). His agony was so deep then, that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22).
Doubtless Satan then suggested to Him to pause and not drink that cup, for it would cost Him His life, and the forsaking of God. He looked into the cup and measured its contents. It was all God’s judgment against sin. If He drank it He must be forsaken of God, and be cast off, upon the cross. Not merely was it the physical suffering and sorrow that man could give Him, as they nailed Him to the tree, but the inevitable sense that God and He must part company. Hence as He looked at that cup, He said, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.” He knew that if He did not drink that cup of judgment upon the cross, you and 1 would have to drink it in eternity. If He did not drink the cup in our room and stead, there was no deliverance, no salvation, no pardon, no cleansing, possible for you and me.
As He looked at that cup He shrank from it in all the perfect holiness of His being, and deprecated it with the utmost intensity. Then He took it, and drank it to the very dregs in the perfection of His love. Blessed Saviour! Well may each redeemed one cry, Hallelujah, I am saved; I am saved by His death. We are saved because He drank God’s cup of wrath, to the very dregs, so that He, in tender love and divine righteousness, might put the cup of God’s salvation into our hands, and press it to our lips. May we not joyfully say, “What hath God wrought?”
Nor is this all. He died to save us, He now lives to succor us. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). What is that? Just what we have been considering—the temptation in the wilderness. And now He is able to succor us. “For in that he himself suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). He is able to save, He is able to succor, and He is able to sympathize (Heb. 4:15). Note well the passage— “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). What is the meaning thereof? That blessed, great High Priest, now at God’s right hand, understands perfectly all the pathway of the Christian here. He has gone through it Himself. He took up all our sorrows in His life that He might sympathize, and He took up all our sins in His death that He might save. Now on high He can succor and deliver His people absolutely. Hebrews 4:15 alludes to the temptation in the wilderness, and Hebrews 5:7 gives us the agony in the garden, as He looked at the cup, shrank from it, and then drank it.
With Him, then, it was “prayers and supplications.” Do you know what the apostle connects with prayer and supplication for us? “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6). Thank God. Christ’s prayers and supplications were coupled with strong cryings and tears, ours are to be coupled with thanksgivings, for His death and resurrection have brought its into peace, liberty, and rest before God.
And now, let me again ask, who would not have this blessed One as Saviour, Lord, and Friend? Who would not seek to follow Him? He is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him, for He has overcome Satan and spoiled his goods. Fellow-Christian, you and I were once servants and slaves of the devil. But what has happened? The Lord has picked us up, saved us and cleansed us, filled our hearts with peace and joy, and given us the privilege of telling other people of Himself.
What a wonderful thing is the grace that picks up the vessels of Satan’s power, delivers and cleanses them, and then deposits in them some spiritual gift by which others may be helped. Christ ascended on high that He might send down the Holy Ghost with the glorious news which, when believed, divers sinners from Satan’s power, and brings them from darkness to light. And there is the value of preaching. The preacher goes out and tells the simple tidings of the love of Jesus and the value of His blood. Any one that believes and decides for Him, God will give His Spirit to, and very likely make him the means of blessing to somebody else. That is the way the gospel spreads. First of all you receive the gospel yourself, and then constrained by His love you go and tell others what Jesus has done for you. Like the man whose eyes Jesus opened, you can say, “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). Who wrought this marvel? Jesus. My reader, believe in Jesus, and then go home and tell your friends: “I have found the Lord. I am delivered. I am set free. His blood has washed all my sins away.”
Now, the gospel is not only that Christ has overcome Satan morally when tempted in the wilderness, but that He has gone right down into death, and there destroyed his power. Further, He has risen triumphant, and the devil knows it well. As a consequence, there is peace for you. You learn to know a risen, triumphant Christ at God’s right hand. The Man who overcame Satan morally in the wilderness—while He was on His way back to God’s right hand—has on the road carved the pathway for me to accompany Him, and has opened the doorway right up to God’s presence through His death and resurrection. As He died He said, “It is finished.” When He rose, He said, “Peace unto you.” The Holy Ghost has now come down to tell us that the Victor is in the glory. And the man that believes in Him shares His victory, and enters into the spoils of His conquest.
If you have never before made up your mind for Christ, surely you will believe Him and confess Him henceforth. Then you can joyfully go through this world and say: “Come, see a Man that has overcome Satan, borne all my sins, saved me forever, and now fills my heart with peace and joy. His name is Jesus.” If this be the case, God will make you the means of blessing to others. May He grant it for His name’s sake.
W. T. P. W.