By:
Edited By W. T. P. Wolston.
(Read Matthew 3:16, 17; 4:1-11, 23-2516And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:16‑17)
1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (Matthew 4:1‑11)
23And 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. 24And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. (Matthew 4:23‑25); Mark 1:12, 1312And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. 13And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. (Mark 1:12‑13); Luke 4:1-151And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 9And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: 10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: 11And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. 14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. (Luke 4:1‑15).)
GOD has been pleased to give us a threefold account of the temptation of the Lord Jesus. In each gospel some point that is very noticeable, but which the other evangelists do not record, stands out. Matthew gives you the historical sequence of the temptation, while Luke gives you the moral order of events.
When we think Who it was who was tempted, it well becomes us, with unshod feet, to look on, and with circumcised ear to listen to what God says to us. We have the history here of a Man, a true, real Man vigorously assaulted by the foe of God, as it says: “Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered” (Luke 4:22Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. (Luke 4:2)). He was forty days and forty nights without food, and then, as you might expect, He was hungry. Then the tempter came, man’s tempter, your tempter, my tempter, in that day the tempter of the Lord Jesus. I do not doubt Satan came thinking that he would do with this Man as he had done with the first man he tempted, that is, upset Him to His ruin.
We all know that the first man was absolutely conquered, and it is a great thing for you and me to see that we belonged to a conquered stock, a conquered race, a stock that has been overcome by the power of the tempter. The first man, I repeat, was absolutely conquered and ruined by the tempter. Here is another Man, the second Man, the last Adam. Why the last? There is no other to come. There are only the first and the last. The first was the parent of the fallen family to which you and I by nature belong. The second Man, the Lord out of heaven, the last Adam here comes before us in all the blessed moral perfection that was His, as a dependent and obedient Man; and God permits us to see the victory of Christ, and the downright and complete rout of the devil in the wilderness.
This is grand tidings for men and women like you and me, who belong to the first man, children of that Adam who was unable to cope with a foe like Satan. We are permitted to see Jesus, before He comes out into this world to begin His lovely ministry, defeat the enemy absolutely. This is indeed a blessed sight for us, but that is the way the Spirit of God introduces the Lord here, ere He commences His public ministry. Satan, who had ruined the first man and reduced the earth to misery through sin, to start with, and then brought in corruption and violence, here assumes to put his fraud on this blessed, holy Man, but it was only to be defeated absolutely. And mind you the devil tempted Christ just like he tempts you and me. That is, he took Him up on the very point where he thought He was weakest. If Jesus were an hungered―and there was nothing wrong in His being hungry―the question is raised of how to get Himself bread to meet His hunger. But you will see that He defeats the devil by obedience to, and dependence on God. And there is no other way of victory for you or for me, but by being in the same path as the Lord Jesus.
But, first of all, see how the Lord is introduced here. He comes out into notice after His baptism by John the Baptist. Observe what takes place as He is baptized. The Gospel of Luke adds this particular, that He was praying (ch. 3:21). He was a dependent Man. When baptized He comes up out of the water and the heavens are opened. There are four occasions where you find them opened in the New Testament. They are opened here for God to look down to earth to see a Man in whom He could completely delight. Next they are opened when Stephen looks up and sees that same Man glorified in heaven (Acts 7:5656And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (Acts 7:56)). The next time is when Peter saw them opened and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, and received up again into heaven. He saw all sorts of four-footed beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air in it (Acts 10:11, 1211And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. (Acts 10:11‑12)). What is the meaning of that? Nothing goes into heaven but what comes out of it. How then am I to get there? That is a serious question. If there be not the work of God in my soul and yours, let us not dream of heaven. That is the lesson I get in Acts 10.
And where is the last time the heavens are opened? They have not been opened as yet, but they are going to be opened for the fourth time (see Rev. 19:11-2111And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; 18That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:11‑21)), for this blessed Man to come out and take possession of all things, to which He has right and title on the ground of what He was personally as the Creator, and also as Son of man, on the ground of redemption; for He has earned all, as Man, by going into death. He is going in this way to take His world-kingdoms, which the devil proposed in the wilderness to give Him without treading the pathway of suffering, but at the expense of the truth, at the expense of the homage that was due to God, and which the devil has always sought to have rendered to himself. Do you know what took place there The Lord refused Satan’s way, at the cost of His life, blessed be His name. He went to death, but that death has delivered us who believe, and enabled Him to associate us with Himself. Thank God, what He refused from the devil’s hand that day, is what He is going to come out of heaven for by-and-by, and we shall be with Him in the day of His glory. Ah, my reader, there is a grand day coming for the world when Christ gets His rights.
But now, look carefully at this scene on Jordan’s banks. The heavens are opened, and the Father’s voice is heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)). For thirty years he had been in retirement at Nazareth, and men bad seen nothing of Him. As a child of twelve He was up at Jerusalem and was found in the temple, “sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions” (Luke 2:4646And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. (Luke 2:46)). Then for eighteen years God dropped a veil upon His life. All we know of that period is this, that when He came out men said, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:33Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (Mark 6:3)). So I conclude that this blessed Son of God, here in human form on earth, wrought with His hands. Let not any one think then that service or toil is a menial thing to be shunned. Toil has been ennobled by the pathway of Christ, even as the grave has been sanctified by the fact that He has gone into it. Wonderful indeed is the pathway of Christ.
And now the thirty years are over, and He comes out. The Father’s heart is delighted then to say, “This is my beloved Son,” as the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, lights upon Him. In Noah’s day the dove went out of the ark but came back because it could not find a resting-place. For four thousand years the Spirit of God had been searching all over the earth to find a sinless man, a man suited to God’s heart in every respect, but every man was sinful. No resting-place was found. At length there comes a Man upon whom this Holy Spirit can descend and abide (John 1:3232And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. (John 1:32)). There is the resting-place the Spirit of God has found, a man suited to God in every spring of His being, every thought of His heart, every act of His life. He came into this world to do the will of God. And you will see how in doing God’s will He is preserved, when the enemy comes to Him.
What a joy must it have been to Him to hear the Father’s voice saying, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:2222And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22)). Notice this. People are sometimes troubled about the Trinity. You have it here. “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him.” Then “a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” There you have the Son, a real, true Man, before your eye. A Man whose only thought was to do the will of God.
Beloved reader, have you any doubt about the Trinity? If you have, you will never make progress in your soul as to God’s truth. It is not that I find the word in Scripture, but I find the blessed reality. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are each before us in this scene. The Son was come here to make the Father known. And moreover, in the power of the Spirit, He was come to do the work by which man is delivered, as well as Satan absolutely defeated.
Are you not yet clear about the Trinity? It is of vital importance to have the sense of what the Trinity involves, and to rejoice in it. Christ is the revealer of the Father’s love. He became incarnate that He might reveal God, redeem man, and absolutely crush and break the power of the enemy. The Man who adorns the throne of God today has defeated Satan. I quite admit He has not yet taken sin out of the world, and the devil has power yet over men’s minds, but the title to everything is in the hand of Christ. He met Satan in the wilderness and defeated him morally. Then on the cross, and in His death He utterly destroyed his power.
And now redemption is accomplished, and Christ is risen, and the consequence is that if you have till now been in your sins and in misery, you may get the sense that your sins are gone, because the Lord Jesus, when upon the cross, bore the sins of sinners, that He might put them away forever. And if He has not put them away, He never can do so. Why? He will not die again. Then you say, What am I to understand? That a work has been done by this blessed Man that enables God to let you know that your sins are blotted out. If you get hold of the truth of redemption, as revealed in the cross of Christ, your heart will be attached to Him, and you will seek to do, in your pathway, what He did perfectly in His—the will of God.
W. T. P. W.