Matthew 4:5-7. Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and 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. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
We have seen mountain paths, on the one side of which there is a deep quagmire, and on the other side a precipice. In such paths, if we step to the right hand, we will most surely be covered in mud, and if to the left, we are in danger of being dashed to pieces; and such are the paths by which God is pleased to lead His people. Let them turn to the right and they fall into unbelief, to the left and they are guilty of presumption. Let them then proceed straight onward, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, and they are safe.
But there is a most subtle tempter who besets them on every side and, by his devices, would turn them aside from the right way. The mountain path is perhaps rough and difficult, while on the quagmire grass is growing which tempts us to leave the solid path and venture onto its treacherous surface. So it is with Satan’s temptations. Sometimes the people of God encounter sore trials and discouragements; they think they will avoid them by a small sacrifice, as it seems, of principle, instead of meeting them in God’s strength, as they ought. Thus they fall into a mire of unbelief.
Sometimes, on the other hand, adventurous travellers, trusting too much to the steadiness of their heads and the firmness of their footing, venture too near the edge of the precipice and perish miserably. So, in spiritual things, there is a sin called presumption, which consists in thrusting ourselves un-called into circumstances of trial and danger and then trusting that God will deliver us.
This was Peter’s sin. He chose for himself a post of imminent danger, a situation which Satan might use to tempt him to deny his Lord, through concern for his own safety. He ventured into the palace of the High Priest, and God suffered him, for our warning, to fall. Let us beware then of these two extremes: presumption on the one side and unbelief on the other. Let us remember that “narrow is the way that leadeth unto life”.
Looking back on the first of these temptations, we find that in it Satan tempted the Redeemer to unbelief, to distrust God and provide bread for Himself. But now his next temptation was to presumption – as if the cunning tempter judged that, recoiling from the quagmire, the Lord would the more readily incline toward the precipice. And we, poor weak sinners, in avoiding one extreme, often fall into another. If a man is not a spendthrift, he is frequently a miser. If he is not a prodigal, he becomes self-righteous. Likewise we, fond of extremes of unbelief, are apt to rush into the extremes of presumption, because we are unable to direct our own steps. May the Lord, who alone is able to keep us from falling, send light and grace from high, of His great mercy, to lead and guide and sustain us in the right way.
“Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city.” He had been foiled, his head had been bruised in the wilderness; so now he chose another scene of trial and transferred the Lord to a pinnacle of the temple. Consider the place. It was the holy city, the city that God had chosen above all the cities of the earth, that He might set His name there. Further it was one of the holiest places in that holy city – the temple itself, the very rest and dwelling-place of Jehovah, in which He had often appeared in visible glory. Yet Satan chose it as the scene of his vile temptations. There is no place on earth so holy but a foul tempter may enter. The true believer’s closet is a place consecrated by many prayers and tears and much sweet communion. Yet Satan is not afraid to venture there. The church is the house of God; it is Bethel, and to many a one the gate of heaven; yet Satan is not afraid to venture there. In the closet, in the church, at the communion table, he is always busy – perhaps most busy there.
He “setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple”. We must beware here of going beyond what is written. But it is true that in the spiritual world, as in the material, high places are slippery places, where the head is in danger of becoming giddy and of betraying us into a fall. We read of some, for instance, who “being lifted up with pride . . . fall into the condemnation of the devil”. And the Apostle Paul tells us that, lest he “should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations”, God sent a thorn in the flesh, to keep him low.
The purpose of God is very different from the purpose of Satan in His dealings with His people. God casts them down to the depths, that they may cry from there and that He may exalt them in due season. Whereas Satan’s aim is to lift them up that he may cast them down. Let us watch and pray against pride and vain glory, spiritual pride and sinful boasting of what God has wrought either in us, or for us, or by us. When the sails are spread out to the very top of the mast, the squall is all the more dangerous and destructive when it comes. It is ours then to carry a low sail, to watch against pride. If salvation is wrought, it is a salvation wrought by the Lord’s right hand. Let us be content to be accounted fools and babes for Christ’s sake.
But let us now proceed to consider the temptation. It is in these words, “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down“. What! Does the foul tempter still have his doubts? Is he not yet satisfied that Christ is the Son of God? Yes, he knew from the first who he had to contend with; he knew that he was in a contest with Omnipotence in human form; perhaps he even knew that he must certainly be foiled. But this was one of his last and most desperate attempts to maintain possession of the empire which is about to be wrested from his grasp. Like the struggles of a fierce lion when the net of the hunters is thrown over him; like the lashing of the waves against a rock, which fall back in scattered drops from its sides; so it was with Satan’s repeated attacks on the Lord. He knew full well that this was the Son of God and that he was as a child in the hand of a giant; yet his proud spirit contended to the last.
In the former temptation, he would have Jesus doubt that He was the Son of God; he would have Him distrust God’s fatherly care and put forth His power to provide bread for Himself. But in this temptation, he would remind Him of the doubts which the Jews entertained of His Sonship. True, by the banks of Jordan they had seen heaven opened and the Spirit in a visible form descending and lighting on Him and they had heard a voice from the excellent Majesty declaring Him to be the beloved Son of God. They had heard and they had seen all this, but they were still unconvinced. Now, Satan argued, is Thine opportunity for scattering all their doubts and for giving them startling evidence of Thy Sonship: “Cast Thyself down”, down from this pinnacle into the courts of the temple beneath, now thronged with a crowd of worshippers, and these courts will resound with hosannas; they will bid Thee welcome as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world.
Such was the temptation, and it showed at once the depths of Satan’s subtlety and his fiendish cruelty too. There was a wondrous subtlety in it. For the tempter knew the Lord’s errand into the world: that He might persuade sinners to believe in Him, and that believing they might have life through His name. And here Satan set before Him a plan by which He might at once dissipate all their doubts and confirm their faith in Him – by a wondrous miracle, casting Himself down from a giddy height and yet alighting unhurt amidst the multitudes in the courts beneath.
But there was also a fiendish cruelty in it. In the first temptation his appeal had been to a carnal appetite: Jesus was hungry. But in this it was to the inmost and most powerful and pervading emotion of the heart of the Son of God: His love to the poor perishing sinners of Jerusalem. The tears which He afterwards shed when “He beheld the city” from the Mount of Olives – and that most touching exclamation, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” – sufficiently attest how His compassionate soul yearned over them. I say then that there was a fiendish cruelty in appealing to so generous an emotion as this, in saying, as if pointing to the poor perishing multitudes that stood below, Cast Thyself down and then these poor sinners will believe in Thee and be saved.
But further, Satan had still another dart in his quiver, one borrowed from the Word of God itself, for he added, “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”. What, is Saul also amongst the prophets? Does the devil know the Bible? So it seems. Yes, and he knows one of the richest parts of it, a psalm, Psalm 91, which is stored with precious promises from beginning to end.
Truly Christ’s people are a tempted people. They retire to their closets; they open God’s Word; weary with this wilderness world they seek for comfort and refreshment in its green pastures and by its still waters; yet even there Satan may meet and distract and terrify them. He would turn the bread of life into a stone, he would hold his crooked, distorting glass between their eye and the Word, that he may, “if it were possible . . . deceive the very elect”. What believer is not familiar with his devices in this way? That command, for instance, “Provide things honest in the sight of all men”, he would convert into an encouragement to worldliness. And that other, “Use a little wine”, into an encouragement to drunkenness. And that other text, “The Sabbath was made for man”, how often it is converted into a shield for the Sabbath-breaker? And so here: “Cast thyself down: for . . . He shall give His angels charge concerning thee”.
But observe, while doubtless he believes the promise, he misquoted it. In Psalm 91 it runs thus, “He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways”. He takes care to leave out the last clause in the verse, “to keep thee in all thy ways” – that is, to uphold thee in the path of duty, in every path of duty, however rough and dangerous it may be. If he had quoted this, so far from tending to cast the Redeemer down, the text would rather have ministered to His support. Satan needed to quote a garbled promise; he needed to construct a weapon from the Word to suit his own purposes; else the Redeemer might wrest it from his hand and turn it against him. Thou sayest, Jesus might have told him, that the angels have a charge to keep Me in all My ways; but this is not one of the paths which God has marked out for Me; I have no commission to cast Myself down from this pinnacle; this way is one of thine, one of thine own advising; if I follow it, I shall sin against God.
My friends, does Satan ever tempt you, through the Word, to sin? Then go to that Word, that particular passage through which he tempts you; weigh it well; read the context; compare it with others; and pray also for light. Then do not fear; with the sword of the Spirit you will speedily make Satan flee from you.
The Lord’s Answer to this Temptation
And this leads us to consider the Lord’s answer to this temptation. It is short, but how sweetly and powerfully it meets the temptation. Eight words and Satan is overthrown. “Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”. We find these words in Deuteronomy 6:16; in this chapter there are a variety of injunctions that Moses addressed to the Israelites about their duty – now that they were about to enter the promised land. Then he added, “Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted Him in Massah”.
The tempting of God in Massah is related in Exodus 17:1-7. We there find that, journeying through the wilderness, they came to Rephidim and were ready to perish for lack of water; but that instead of waiting patiently – as well they might who had seen such wondrous miracles wrought on their behalf in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea – they began to murmur. They came to Moses and said, “Give us water”; they demanded an immediate miracle to be wrought on their behalf; they were not content to wait till God, in His providential care over them, should send springs in the desert. No, they would cast off God and demand a miracle to be wrought for them by His servant. “Give us water,” they said; it seems a question if the Lord is among us or not; use then that rod, that wonder-working rod by which before now thou hast controlled the elements, and bring us water out of this burning sand or yonder barren rock.
And what was their sin? Was it not a casting off of God and a trusting in His servant, that minister of mercy through whom He had led them forth. It was presumption; it was a tempting of God to leave them to themselves, as Moses said, “Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?”
Now observe that the Lord’s answer to the tempter is all the more appropriate as there is an analogy between His circumstances and these of the Children of Israel. Both were engaged in an arduous undertaking and both were for a time apparently forsaken by God. The Israelites were thirsting for water; the Redeemer was longing, yea fainting, for the courts of the Lord, for the time when He should be manifested to Israel and publish to them the glad tidings of salvation. Israel cast themselves on Moses and craved at His hand a miracle through which they might quench their thirst. And Satan likewise would have Jesus cast Himself on the guardianship of angels so that, borne in their arms from the battlements of the temple to its lower court, He might thus “suddenly come to His temple” and enter at once on His public ministry. The temptation was most specious and subtle, but eight words scattered it to the winds and struck the tempter dumb: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”. Learn from this the power and majesty of God’s Word. Satan fell like lightning before it. It did not need a lengthened argument to cast him down; a single well-chosen text brought home, and the tempter was vanquished.
And now, let us draw some practical lessons from this subject. Let me ask you: Does Satan not often tempt you to tempt God?
First, the Sinner
First, let me ask the sinner: Does he never tempt you to make trial of the patience and forbearance of God? Does he never tempt you to turn the grace of God into licentiousness? What is his commonest argument with the perishing: his subtle whisper, by which he keeps the child immersed in sin till he becomes a youth, and the youth till he becomes a man, a grey-headed man? It is simply this: You will have time to repent before you die.
Now what is yielding to such an argument but a tempting of God? Is every hour spent in sin not a trial of God’s forbearance? God has given abundant proof to you, as He gave to Israel, that He is able to deliver you – that He is willing to deliver you. He has sent His Son, and in His death there is ample provision for taking away guilt – there is ample provision in His blood for cleansing from sin, in His merits for justifying, in His spirit for quickening the poor, guilty, filthy, dead sinner. What more could you ask, what more do you need, than this: the doors of God’s storehouses are thrown open to you?
And yet you are content to linger on in sin and danger, every day bringing you nearer the grave, the judgement seat and hell; yet you still tarry in the city of destruction, and count on some future time, some convenient season, some almost-miraculous interposition of grace on your behalf. What is this but a tempting of God? Satan sets a sin before you, and he says, “Cast thyself down”; give the lust its full swing and enjoy it while you may, for surely it shall not land you in the depths of hell; no, there is a good time ahead, when the sin shall be forgiven, and you shall land safely and quietly at last in the courts of the new Jerusalem. Tell me, is it not so with you every day? Every day there is some new trial of God’s forbearance, some fresh presumptuous sin.
What can we do, you may perhaps be inclined to ask, for God has left us in this miserable state, and unless He will put forth a helping hand, it is vain for us to strive? This is just what Israel said; they denied that the Lord was among them. But it would have been very different with them if, instead of crying to Moses, “Give us water”, they had gone on their knees and prayed to God for it. It would have been very different if they had owned the Lord’s power and faithfulness in this matter and made trial of them.
It was very different on another occasion, when, as we read, the princes of Israel dug with their staves and, as they dug, they sang, “Spring up, O well”. And forthwith, in the use of these means, and at the sound of that cheerful, prayerful song, the refreshing streams came gushing forth from the burning sands, from which they drank and lived. Yes, and so will it be with you, if you use the means and pray; if you dig in the Word for the living well of living water, and pray to God to make it spring. Cease to try God’s patience and resolve now to make trial of His power, faithfulness, love and truth, and you shall find rest to your souls.
Second, the Professing People of God
Second, let me remind the professing people of God that to involve themselves with sin, in the hope that grace will be given to resist it, is a tempting of God. Sometimes God’s children may be tempted, trusting in their strength, even to court temptation, somewhat like the warriors of old who wandered over the length and breadth of the land, seeking someone who might measure spears with them. Like Lot, like David, and like Peter, they sometimes place themselves in circumstances in which they know they shall be sorely tried. One goes to the ballroom and another to the racecourse and a third to the tavern; another frequents the society of godless worldly people; another loves to sit under the shadow of the great; another is engrossed in the foolish fictions of a novel or a play; and another allows the sinful wanderings of his imagination to go to forbidden objects. Yet, in all these circumstances, they trust that grace will be given, that they will come forth from the midst of the fire without harm.
Now what is this but to cast ourselves down or tempt the Lord our God? He would be accounted a madman who would cast himself into a deep pool or into a raging furnace, in the hope that someone may be at hand to pluck him out, and are these any better? They trust to grace, in circumstances in which grace may be denied. They court the danger and then, when the danger comes, they cry for help. What can they expect but that help will be withheld, and that they will be met with the withering rebuke, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”?
Yes, it is only when we meet temptation in the path of duty that we can look or cry for help from on high. If we meet the tempter in the narrow way of life, neither his terror nor his threats nor his fiery darts need make us tremble – they need not make us give up a single inch – for then we have this promise, amongst others, to support us: “He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways”. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?”
Who is he? This is a triumphant defiance given to all the powers of earth and hell. For, if we stand in the strength of God in the post of duty, we need not fear though it be the post of danger. He who set us there is surely able to maintain us there. I have seen a father set his infant child on the parapet of a lofty bridge, but there is no danger to that little child, for his father’s arm is underneath and around him, and he holds him there with a firmer and more anxious grasp than if he had set his feet on an area of grass. And so with God and His elect children: dangers they must encounter, but the greater the danger the greater His tender care. “The Lord pitieh them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.”
Conclusion
Let me remind you, in conclusion, that you will encounter temptations without going in search of them. God has appointed them, and they are numbered among the “all things” that shall work together for His people’s good. “Yea, I find it most true,” says Samuel Rutherford, “that the greatest temptation out of hell is to live without temptations; if my waters would stand, they would rot. Faith is the better for the free air, and the sharp winter storm in its face; grace withereth without adversity. The devil is but God’s master-fencer, to teach us to handle our weapons.”
But let us see to it that we have weapons. The Word is God’s armoury. Are you tempted to unbelief? What an impenetrable shield is the assurance that God “is faithful that promised”. Are you tempted to worldliness? Then cast back the temptation with that word, “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”. Are you tempted to uncleanness? Then remember Joseph’s refuge, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Be faithful unto death and then none of the powers of hell can come between you and the crown of life.
1Taken with editing from The Free Church Pulpit, vol 3. At the time he preached this sermon, M’Farlan (1815-91) was the Free Church minister in Monkton, Ayrshire.