Temptations of Jesus: Part 6 Kathryn Kuhlman Presumption, Trust, & God's Perfect Will

Here we are again in that second temptation of Jesus. I dare say that you have thought more about these temptations of Jesus and what the temptations really were than you have ever thought about them during your entire lifetime. And you're realizing now for the very first time that The enemy was so subtle in his attack. He was so subtle in tempting Jesus that the real sin could not be seen on the surface. And do you want to know something? He is still that subtle. in his temptations in your life and in mine something that seems so innocent in itself on the surface we see no sin in it whatsoever it almost looks reasonable and yet the old boy is so cunning he is so subtle that it isn't long before we find out he's got us trapped. And it's just like that. He has the same personality he has always had. He has the same bag of tricks that he has always has. He has no new tricks. It's the same old bag of tricks. So watch them. All right. Now, I'm going to begin exactly where I left off when I left your home. And I'm going to talk hard and fast in this little heart -to -heart talk because I want to finish up in this, the second of the temptations of Jesus. Then in our next heart -to -heart talk, we'll begin with the third of the three temptations. Let me just read again from the fourth chapter of Matthew, the fifth verse. 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 shalt dash thy foot against a stone and jesus said unto him it is written again thou shalt not tempt the lord thy god In was the temptation in this, the second of the enemy's attacks on Jesus. It was the sin of presumption. And I want to remind you again, if you forget everything else that I might say in the next 30 minutes, remember, precious Christian, there's a mighty... between trust and presumption, between faith and presumption. Presumption can be sin, and presumption and trust are two different things. Turn now to consider the victory of Jesus. And in doing so, note first of all the weapon that Jesus used. The enemy was challenging Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple in the city of Jerusalem before the whole world to prove his trust in Almighty God. jesus yielded to the subtleness of satan had jesus jumped as satan was challenging him to do he would have committed the sin of presumption the devil even quoted him scripture in making his challenge why he said nothing will happen to you for it It is written, according to scripture, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee. On their hands they shall bear thee up. You won't get hurt. Go on. Prove your trust. Prove your faith. Jump. He'll be right there with his angels. They'll catch you. Lest happily thou dash thy foot against a stone. It would be like a man jumping off of the bridge and saying, I'm going to prove the word of God. I'm going to prove my trust. I'll prove my faith. I'll jump off the bridge. Because the word of God says he shall give his angels charge over thee. On their hands they shall bear thee up. Lest haply thou dash thy foot against the stone. To prove... trust in God, I'll jump off the bridge. Do you want to know what'll happen? The old boy will drown. Why? It was not trust. It was not faith. It was presumption. Yeah? The enemy quoted scripture. Now, in the first temptation, in answering the enemy, Jesus was the one who quoted the Scripture. Jesus answered by saying, It is written. In the second temptation, after the devil quoted the Scripture, and in the second temptation, the devil was the first to quote the Scripture, Jesus answered. answered the enemy by saying, Again it is written. And in the use of the word again, we have a revelation of our Lord's perfect mastery of the weapon. In comparison with Christ, I repeat again, the devil was certainly a poor swordsman. All the devil can make such a fool of himself when he starts using the sword of the Spirit. It would seem as though with quiet and yet mighty movement of his strong arm, Jesus just wrested the sword right from the hand of Satan. And the force of that wonderful word again. lies in the fact that it is an answer to Satan's, it is written. Jesus did not deny the correctness of the satanic question, no ma 'am. But he replies to it by saying, again, it is written. That is to say, there must be proper use made of the words of God. You must use God's words properly. Be careful how you use the scripture. Be careful what use you make of the word of God. No one statement, rested from its context, is a sufficient warrant for actions on anyone's part. Careful how you use the scripture. It is written. You may point your finger to the certain portion of the word of God. And say here it is. But be careful regarding the meaning. Or the context. Regarding that portion of the word of God. The devil quoted the scripture. But he had taken it. out of its context, had twisted its meaning. That's the reason Jesus quickly comes back and says, Again it is written. And for the proper definition of life, no one isolated text is sufficient. It is absolutely necessary that there should be acquaintance with the whole scheme of the divine will of God and the true balance and proportion of life. You must keep the scripture in its context. There must be a perfect balance for the use of that scripture. before you can claim it for a certain purpose. That's the reason we have so many false doctrines today. And practically every religious organization is based upon some scripture. They have to use some portion of the Word of God as their foundation. It is based on some part of the Word of God. But it's the easiest thing in the world to use Scripture for a purpose for which it was not intended. What infinite value there is in that word again. How excellent a thing it would be if the whole Church of Christ had learned that no law of life may be based upon an isolated text. It is always necessary to discover the varied sides and meaning of the truth. Be careful how you use the scripture. Be very careful. Every false teacher who has ever divided the church has had an it is written on which to hang his doctrine. Every body of believers that has ever been divided, it has been divided on it is written. But be careful. Be careful how you use the scripture and for what purpose. Again, I repeat, every false teacher today uses scripture. Every division of church has had as its basis for division, scripture. Watch it. Oh, many a Christian would have been saved from heartbreak, from weeping. Much reproach could have been saved the church if only we had used the scriptures wisely and for the... purpose for which the word was given. To pass, however, to the actual scripture with which Christ resisted the attack, this is what he said, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God. It's been somewhat commonly understood that here Jesus was addressing himself to the devil as though he should say to him, Thou ought not. to make trial of me. But somehow it almost seems to miss the supreme value of the words. In these words, as in those with which he defeated the enemy in the first temptation, he was defining his own position. Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God. was addressed to man and in this quotation the Lord gave his reason for refusing to cast himself from the wing of the temple. Right here, Jesus took his position. Right here, the Lord gave his reason for refusing. to cast himself from the wing of the temple in Jerusalem. Thou shalt not make trial. Thou shalt not make mockery of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not make mockery of my trust in my heavenly Father. It's something too sacred to front before the whole world. It's something too sacred to publicize. It's something between God and myself. And I don't have to prove it. it is something that is a living vital part of me oh that's marvellous here then is the exposure of the deepest meaning of this subtle attack what could be more excellent to all the outward seeming than that this perfect man should trust in god what more fitting than that he should prove his trust by daring something, by taking some great risk. In a sentence, the master strips the whole hypocrisy and he reveals the murderous intent. To have cast himself in the wing of the temple, to have... cast himself down into the street in the very last and final analysis would have demonstrated not trust, but the lack of confidence. It is when we doubt a person that we make experiments to discover how far they're to be trusted. To make experiments of any kind with God is to reveal the fact that one is not quite sure of him. Crust never desires to tempt. Crust never desires to test. One never trifles with crust and confidence. Never. If you do not have confidence. It's then you have to do something to prove the trust you have in someone. Oh, sure. But perfect trust just quietly abides in sure confidence. All with what matched the skill of this perfect Son of man has revealed the strength and at the same time the weakness of the satanic onslaught. The true territory of trust is revealed by the Lord's answer. That territory is again the will of God. In effect. The master declared that he could trust God perfectly so long as he remained within the sphere of his revealed will. But that if he passed out of that sphere, if he took himself out of the will of God, then he had no right to trust. He could no longer trust the hand. and the protection and the power of the Heavenly Father. But Jesus knew. He had that confidence. He knew that so long as he was in the will of the Father, he could trust him completely. He had that confidence. What infinite value for all of us there is. is in this unfolding of the true nature of faith in our God. The devil is saying, do something adventurous, do something magnificent, do something out of the ordinary, and thus demonstrate your confidence. Do something heroic. And in so doing, you'll demonstrate your faith, your trust. But the master is always replying, Trust is not evidenced by such action. That would be to tempt God. And to tempt Him is to reveal the depth of trust. Trust never makes experiments outside of the will of God. Never. Never. Jesus, refusing to tempt God, demonstrated his perfect confidence in him, and thus revealed for all time the fact that man, so devoid of selfish interest as to be willing not to appear heroic, Christ Jesus will come forth victoriously. In these two temptations, the twofold nature of the Son of Man has been subjected to severest testing. Weakness in the physical realm was tested. Strength in the spiritual realm. was attacked. Physical witness abiding in the will of God proved stronger than the mightiest forces of evil. And spiritual strength, calmly content with what seemed to be the commonplace of life, was demonstrated to be mightier than all the subtleness of spiritual wickedness. Oh, sure. That is why, beloved, remember something. We too can stand today in that glorious portion of the word of God that's given in the book of Romans. Oh, there it is. You and I are not only conquerors, nay, in all these things. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded I had that trust. I had that confidence that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is our trust. That is our sure confidence. That is our faith. And, beloved, I would stake my life on the keeping power of our Heavenly Father. Amen.