Temptations of Jesus: Part 3 Kathryn Kuhlman

We're in this series of messages regarding the temptation of Jesus. And I told you when we began this series of messages that there is scarcely a single Christian but what has spoken of and knows well the scripture regarding the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. And yet, if you were called upon, to answer the question as to just exactly what those temptations really were, to define those temptations, you could not have done it. If you were to ask regarding that first temptation, you would have said that Satan challenged Jesus to turn the stone into bread. But on the surface, There's no temptation in that. Wherein was the temptation? Well, you know the answer now if you have followed me in the two previous messages. And remember, we're winding up the first temptation today, and then I'll go right into the second temptation. So do not miss a single one of these messages in this series. We established the fact that Jesus here on earth was as much man as though he were not God. We established the fact that Jesus did not face temptation nor overcome it in the realm of his deity, but in the magnificence of his pure, strong manhood. And in that hour of temptation, when he stood face to face with the enemy of a soul, Jesus in the wilderness was your representative and my representative. And had he not come out of the wilderness victorious, when he faced those three temptations, it could not... have been said of him that he was in all points tempted like as we are and yet without sin he came out of the wilderness full the spirit and victorious having overcome the tempter was the object of the attack in the first temptation? The objective point does not readily appear on the surface. But in our last heart -to -heart talk, we saw that the key was in those words. Jesus, led by the Spirit, driven by the Spirit, true and in the wilderness. Herein is great significance. He was in the perfect will of God going into the wilderness. This was part of God's plan. It was in God's perfect will, in the Father's plan, that he should not partake of food. He should not partake of bread, lo, those many days and nights. Interfere with God's will and you'll change the results and you'll interfere with God's purpose. Had Jesus interfered with the will of God, had Jesus eaten, during those days and those nights, he would have changed the results and would have interfered with God's purpose. The circumstance of hunger was incidental. It was perfectly natural, but it was not accidental. It was a circumstance within God's divine will. The hunger of Jesus, therefore, was within the purpose of God for him. I left you telling you that if Jesus could have been persuaded by Satan to minister to his physical needs to satisfy his hunger, then his loyalty to the will of God would have been destroyed. Know that. Not that there was any sin in Jesus being hungry. There was no sin in that whatsoever. His hunger was perfectly natural. For the Bible said he had eaten nothing. But Satan knew that Jesus was there in the perfect will of God. His fasting was in the perfect will of the Father. And if he could persuade Jesus to minister to his physical need, to satisfy his human hunger, then his loyalty to the will of God would have been destroyed and Jesus would have sinned. Satan attacked Jesus through the physical. to try to get him to disobey God's will. For Jesus to have eaten would have caused him to be disobedient to the will of God. How did you see something? Long centuries before, long before this incident ever happened, the devil had asked a question, another question in divine presence. Go back with me. Centuries before this, a servant of God, a perfect and upright man, was living in such conditions that all other necessities of his life seemed to be met. He had everything he desired. And the enemy, the same devil, the same Satan, coming before God said, Does Job serve God for aught? Now, around that question and insinuation was one of the lowest, the meanest, the cruelest insinuation that the devil could have possibly made. The suggestion made was that Job's loyalty to God was ensured by the satisfaction of... All physical need. Job was wealthy through the blessing of God. Job was full. Job was blessed. Job had cattle and had lands, had everything. He was a wealthy man. And the devil, in his vulgar language, was just saying this. Job feared God for what he could get out of him. Job served God because he knew what side his bread was buttered. Ha, the old dirty scoundrel. And that's the way the devil feels about it, too. And he was saying to God, ha, ha, if you'll take away your blessing from him, if you'll cease... in supplying his physical needs, he'll turn his back on you. He'll cease to serve you. That same thought underlay the temptation of the master. It is as though he had said to him, thou art hungry. That sense of hunger is a part of the divine arrangement. Therefore, it must be right to satisfy it. If God has made no provision for the satisfaction of a need which he's created, then act independently. Command that the stones be made bread. Use your own authority. Use your own sonship. Use your own deity. It's your right. Work independently of God's will. and command the stones to be turned to bread. Oh, look how subtle the old devil was. The evil of the temptation lies within the fact that he suggested that a legitimate craving should be satisfied in an illegitimate way. Now, notice the argument that the devil made. thou be the Son of God. As I explained to you in a previous message, I do not believe that he was challenging his deity and divinity. They both knew that he could have turned those stones into bread. The if there was not challenging his deity for the temptation closely followed upon the baptism. But forty days ago the silence of the long thirty years had been broken, and the divine voice had said the very voice of God the Father, had spoken and said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And thus the seal of God was set not merely in approbation upon the perfection of life, but in identification. of the personality of Jesus, this is my beloved son. Now here the enemy's if. Not challenging his deity, but saying to him, what is the use of a position such as yours without his privileges? God said you were his son. Then use the privilege. What value is there in being the son of God unless thou shalt make use of all that the name implies? Mark well that the devil's idea of the privileges of sonship is that of selfish gratification. And a lot... are professing Christians are using their inheritance in Christ Jesus for self -gratification. They're playing upon it. They're using it. Using it selfishly, which is a sin. Jesus could have used his sonship. Jesus could have used his power. Jesus could have used his position, his authority, and could have turned those stones into bread. But there was something more important than his authority and his power. And that was his submissiveness to the will of the Father. carry that submissiveness clear on through even to the cross when in the last moment he looked up and cried nevertheless not my will but thine be done oh this is thrilling this temptation moved wholly in the physical realm. Know that. The man Jesus was hungry and the enemy took advantage of this fact. And moving along the avenue of his hunger and using the argument of his sonship, he suggested that he should exercise his sonship for the satisfaction of his hunger without reference to the fact that his hunger at the moment, was a part of the will of the Father. In other words, to sum the whole thing up, the objective point was the loyalty of Jesus to the will of God. The avenue of approach was the perfectly natural and sinless hunger of his manhood. The argument used was that If he were the Son of God, he might use that privilege to minister to his necessity without consulting the will of the Father. Oh, watch it. The devil did not suggest that he should minister to any craving of life. That was not in itself right. indeed such a suggestion would have been utterly useless for there was no such craving in him it was even then as he said afterward that the devil cometh and he hath nothing in thee The enemy asked him to do a right thing in a wrong way, to satisfy a lawful appetite in an illegal fashion, to make use of the privileges of sonship for violating its responsibilities. The temptation was an attempt to pervert the will of God. This was done by a... subtle suggestion of the unkindness of God in order to quench love towards God. This suggestion was the nature of an attempt to cloud the intelligence by mixing the privileges and the responsibilities of sonship. What did Jesus do? Turning to the repulse of the enemy. This is the weapon which the master used. His first words were these, it is written. These words he addressed to Satan in answer to the suggestion. It is written. There was no argument there whatsoever, none. It is written. is a declaration of the fact that he stood within the circle of the will of God. And what that will permitted, he willed to do. And what that will made no provision for, he willed to do without. It is as though Jesus had said to the enemy, I am here as man, and as man I meet thy temptation. That temptation had been to overemphasize the privileges of a son and to minimize the responsibility of humanity. Christ's answer restored the true balance. and with magnificent courage declared that his presence in the wilderness would challenge the devil on the part of a representative man no he did not face temptation or overcome it in the realm of his deity But in the magnificence of his pure, strong manhood, manhood tested for 30 years in ordinary private life and for 40 days in the loneliness of the wilderness, he stood there as your representative, as my representative. There he stood. Thus the first attack of the foe, the first attack of Satan. is seen as being directed against God's man. And the first victory of Jesus is seen as being gained by man as he quietly remained within the sphere of divine government. The man of Nazareth, the second man, the last Adam, stands erect. at the close of the first attack because he had refused to be enticed by any argument from his simple and unquestionable alliance to his God. And, beloved, man with God is equal to all strain and superior to all temptation. Amen.