Temptations of Jesus: Part 4 Kathryn Kuhlman Perfect Trust

I shall read from the fourth chapter of the book of Matthew and refresh your memory regarding the temptations of Jesus. There were three. We have already discussed the first. We are now beginning the second. And at a later time, we will discuss the third of these three temptations. Then Jesus was led up of the Spirit. into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And believe me, these temptations were very real. And remember again, if it had been impossible for Jesus to have yielded to any one of these three temptations, then these temptations would have been a farce, a mockery. The fact remains that Jesus, in the wilderness, could have yielded to any one of these three, or he might have yielded to all three of the temptations. But had he yielded to even one of the three, he could not have been in the position where his blood, his shed blood, would have made Atonement for our soul. In the wilderness, he was as much man as though he were not God. He was your representative. He was my representative. He was the representative of man. In the wilderness, as he was being tempted of Satan. That's the reason the scripture could say he was... tempted in all points, even as you had been tempted, as I had been tempted. And yet he came forth sinless, victorious through the power of the Spirit. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hung. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But 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. That was the first temptation. Now the second. 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 pause just a minute i have just read you a portion of the word of god as found in the fourth chapter of matthew there is no definite data for determining the length of time between these two attacks. I cannot tell you definitely whether it was a matter of hours, because there's no way to determine the length of time between the first and the second temptation. In all probability, they followed each other in quick succession. This seems to be suggested by the word with which Matthew introduces the account of the second attack. Because it begins by saying, In other words, immediately following his first temptation, his first attack on Jesus, and seeing that he was defeated in the first temptation, he immediately taketh him into the holy city. Then the scripture says, the devil taketh him into the holy city. So this would suggest that it was immediately. He had attempted the overthrow of obedience through an attack upon the physical nature. We saw that in the first attack. In renewing the attack, He no longer appeals to the element of weakness created by hunger, but to that which was the very strength of spiritual life, namely, the Master's trust in God, the Son's trust in the Heavenly Father. Oh, to me, that... is the slimiest, the dirtiest, the smallest thing the devil could have done. In this, his second attack upon Jesus, he attacked the very strength of spiritual life. She tried to attack the simple trust that Jesus had in Almighty God. For remember, it's our trust, our faith in God that is the very foundation for everything else. That's our strength. That is man's strength. spiritual strengths. That's our stronghold. That's our foundation. Now follow the order of the attack. Watch it. In this renewal of temptation, the enemy passes to that which lies behind the citadel already unsuccessfully assailed. Having Never to seduce Jesus from his position of unswavering loyalty to the will of God, he now flings all the force of his subtle art against that which was the strength of his abiding in the will of God. In other words, he has perfect confidence in God. Jesus had absolute confidence in God. He had a perfect confidence in his heavenly Father. He came to earth with perfect confidence in his father. He had lived those years of his life here on earth with perfect confidence in his father. There could be no question that the element of strength in Christ's steadfastness in the will of God was that of his absolute confidence in his father. His quiet and perfect trust. It was this trust which made him deliberately choose to suffer hunger, which lay within the divine will, rather than to satisfy that necessity of his life by yielding to his own... deity and his own power to turn those stones into bread. He had perfect trust in his father, knowing that it was in the will of father that he fasted those 40 days. Perhaps he didn't understand why. Perfect trust does not have to see a foot ahead. Perfect trust. does not demand an immediate answer. Perfect trust does not have to see. That's what perfect trust is. The enemy, having failed to persuade him to turn aside from that pathway, now directed his forces against the principle of strength, which was the very secret of the previous... triumph of Jesus. He thought to himself, if I could just get him to deviate from that perfect trust, if I can just sidetrack him just a little, then I can cause him to sin. He will no longer be the perfect Son of God. Too much emphasis can hardly be laid on this thought that I'm giving you just now. God's perfect man was perfectly victorious. And he was completely victorious because his trust in his father was so complete that his... relation to the will of God was something instantly beyond that of resignation or merely a determination when it came to his submission. We can only become perfectly and completely submitted to one and to the will of that one when we have perfect trust in that one. Know that. I can only be completely submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. I can only and I do only submit my will, my life completely to him because I have perfect confidence and perfect trust in him. It's like that. When a child ceases to have perfect trust in a parent, then that child will no longer submit their will to that other parent. When you have lost the confidence of your child. When you have lost that perfect trust that that child has in you, you've lost everything. Everything has been destroyed. Here the enemy sees that Jesus has perfect trust and perfect confidence in his Father. And he says to himself, if I can destroy that, I've got him. Oh, I'll tell you something. There it is. There it is, beloved. He knew, Jesus knew, that he was safer hungry, but hungry in the will of God, than he could have been satisfied from hunger outside the will of his Father. Oh, if you and I could only get to that place, greatest experiences of our life. This being the objective point, now carefully mark the subtlety of the approach of the evil one. I read the scripture now. Then the devil taketh him into the holy city, and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written. Oh, oh, look out. The devil begins quoting Scripture. In the first temptation, he did not quote Scripture, but Jesus refuted the attack. by saying it is written. The devil in the second temptation has become so cunning, so subtle, that he begins by quoting scripture himself. That's the reason I have said to you over and over again, Christians are so gullible. Sometimes I think they're the most gullible people in the world. They'll accept anyone who goes around tooting a Bible. Christians are so gullible. If somebody comes to your house, and if they have a Bible under their arm, why come right on in. Sure, we're so gullible. Sit down. Do you want to know something? The devil can quote Scripture better than the greatest saint that ever lived. The devil knows the Scripture. The devil can quote Scripture. And he can quote it hard and fast. He had the audacity to literally stand before the Son of God and quote Scripture. And this is what he said. And it was Scripture. It was the Word of God. Nothing had been taken from. Nothing had been added to. It was exactly... as the scripture itself had been given. For it is written, here's the devil quoting, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee. He keeps right on. On their hands they shall bear thee up, lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone. The devil is quoting scripture. And it was the word of God. Pause a minute. The choosing of the place is first evidence of how subtle the foe really was. He took Jesus, the scripture says, to the holy city. The holy city. and the temple in the holy city, and in the temple, the pinnacle. How largely the mind is often influenced by surroundings. How you and I are very often influenced by our surroundings. And the devil knew, oh, he knew what that location meant to Jesus. He knew this place meant everything in the world to Jesus. Everything, for Jerusalem was the very center of the deepest life of the nation, and all the aspirations of the people centered therein. The devout child of Abraham, in whatever part of the earth he found himself, turned his face towards the city as his heart went out to... God in his prayers. And concerning it, thousands would join the prayer of the sonnest of old when he said, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill. And believe me when I tell you that Jesus of Nazareth was no exception to the rule. How he loved that city. He came to it over and over again. He was very sentimental. over the city of Jerusalem. The devil knew it. That is why in his second temptation, he took him to the spot where Jesus was most sentimental. My goodness, life, I've just looked up. I've got to leave you. And don't miss our next heart -to -heart talk on the second temptation. God bless you.