THE TEMPTER CAME TO HIM

Matthew 3:16 And 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: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

What a pattern our Lord Jesus is to everyone of his believers! He is baptized, not because he is a sinner, but in order that he might fulfill the example of righteousness for his Father and for his church! True believers are cleansed by the application of the blood of Christ to their souls by the Holy Spirit. The city or county water system holds no cleansing power for them. Before they enter into the baptism waters, they also are already cleansed by the washing from the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s side! They are baptized to  obey the righteous command of their Savior, and as a witness to all, that their faith and obedience is to Christ.

As the Lord parts the waters in prayer (Luke 3:21), heaven witnesses to his being a beloved Son of God! And every believer also obeys the leadership of the Spirit, coming to the light for that confirmation that his deeds are wrought in God! (John 3:21). And their evidence of faith is also prayer. That was the one comfort that the Lord gave to Ananias in order to get him to go lay hands on the now converted, former Jewish terrorist, Saul of Tarsus! He says, “for, behold, he prayeth!” (Acts 9:11).

The next event begins with the word, “Then.” For it is the Holy Spirit’s work to lead a recently baptized convert into the realm of the trial of that faith! All God-granted faith is active! There is no such thing as a faith that lies dormant. In fact, Christ, the author of faith, sired it in afflictions! A Spirit controlled trial is the very bond between Christ, the Head, and the Church, his Body! Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Next we find that the Lord, our pattern, fasted. And in the very next chapter, (Matt. 5:6), he teaches that it is a blessed thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness! For as our Lord gave witness that his food was to do the will of his Father, (John 4:34), so the true believer feeds from that same obedience in faith, spiritually eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ! (John 6:53). We are instructed in John 6:27, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. In this the believer sets his affections on things above, and not on things of the earth! He enters into the mortification of his carnal man, feeding the spiritual man from the heavenly source by faith!

Did you know that the Hebrew word translated, “soul” in Genesis 2:7 is also translated “appetite” in Ecclesiastes 6:7? Therefore, through the first Adam we received an appetite for the natural realm. But now the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, grants us a new appetite, a new taste for the things of the spiritual realm! Psalm 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

In this life-long struggle the believer engages in the maturing of his soul! Gal. 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. This warfare not only involves the flesh, or natural man, and the spiritual man, born from above, but it also involves a wrestling against spiritual wickedness in high places! (Eph. 6:12). And again, our Pattern, the Lord Jesus, sets the bounds in this. For as he was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, so every believer’s trials and temptations are Spirit controlled! 1Cor. 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. For God does not allow temptation in order to cause you to sin, but to mature your faith!

Pastor Gene Breed

JESUS AND THE TEMPTER

Matthew 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

The two characters in this passage had been together before! But then they were in a much different form than that in which we find them here! The Lord Jesus is the Eternal Son of God! His eternality caused the prophet to proclaim, Unto us a son is given! (Isaiah 9:6). For he had to previously exist as the Son of God before he could be “given!” As someone once rightly said, “He was already here before he got here! He didn’t have to get here in order to be here!”

And that character, here called, the tempter, was then called  the anointed cherub that covereth! (Ezek. 28:14). The mercy seat, with the angels stretching forth their wings to cover, and were seen as peering into the ark, depicted him as one who was supposed to “cover,” or protect the heirs of salvation, and was to desire to look into these things! (Heb. 1:14, 1 Peter 1:12).

Their relationship was far different then, than that which we find them in here in our Matthew passage! For then the pre-incarnate Son of God was found to be far above that cherubim. For in Exodus 24:10 we read, And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. His feet were resting on a pavement of sapphire stone!

Now look at Ezekiel 1:25-26, where we read, And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings. 26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. Here we find that the angelic beings stood beneath the firmament upon which a throne of sapphire stone stood, with the image of a man sitting upon it! And the visible appearance of God is always the Person of the Son! Colossians 2:9 reads, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

And this is where our tempter then stood, as the anointed cherub! Ezek. 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

But now we find the glorious, eternal Son, having emptied himself of that glory, now appearing in the fashion of a man, and even the form of a servant, susceptible unto death! (Phil. 2:6-8). And we find the cherub to be now known as “the tempter!” He has stolen the dominion given to the first Adam, causing man, made in the image of God, to fall by transgression, and is also now known as “the god of this world,” and as, “the prince of the power of the air!” (2Cor. 4:4, Ephes. 2:2). And the worst of it is, now his Master has become man, and therefore susceptible to death, while he now has “the power of death!” (Heb 2:14).

The Wisdom of God

Did you ever think it unusual that the Apostle took up the first two chapters of the Book of Hebrews, writing on the subject of angels? But here we have insight given concerning the importance of this wilderness field of temptation and these two characters thereon! Listen …

Hebrews 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. 7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

The Lord God is revealing to us that he never called the angel, who became the devil, his son! He never authorized him to have a throne! Although he allowed this devil-angel to retain the power of death  until the last Adam came, this usurpation was certainly not sanctioned by God!

And although God, through much long suffering endured this vessel of wrath, Satan, who was “fitted to destruction” (Rom 9:22), he never authorized him, or any other angel, to be as a son to him and sit upon His throne! Satan was out of order in God’s court, and was thrown out by the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God! Read John 12:31 & Rev. 12:7-9.

God had a trick up his sleeve! This Great, Wise God, who commands you not to resist evil (Matt. 5:39), does himself obey his own rule! For it is the wisdom of God to win by losing all! {It is appalling to see the “issues” that the true church is taking up in our day, from the example of the Harlot church, trying to resist evil, that are no “issues” at all! You’d think we were now just a bunch of politicians, and social workers, instead of being “living stones” for the habitation of the Spirit!! – Amen Preacher!}

Listen at these Hebrews verses – Heb. 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

In verse 16 we learn that Christ Jesus never meant to take upon himself the responsibility of providing redemption for the angel nature! He was only sent to redeem those of the seed of Abraham – humans, made in the image of God! And he would “destroy him” who had usurped the power of death “through death” itself! And after this work of destruction upon the devil, he would then “deliver them” who had been subject to bondage by the fear of death! What a glorious wisdom of God!

Satan is not all knowing! He didn’t know God’s plan! He had been ‘suckered’ into this fight by the ease in which he beat the first Adam! But he, like Goliath, mistook his challenger! And the reason that he didn’t know, is because he left his first estate (Jude 1:6), which would have given him a look (as the angels on the mercy seat), not just into the law of God, but into the gospel of God, wherein this mystery had been hidden since the beginning!

Rom. 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

1Cor. 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Any being, angel or human, is extremely foolish to refuse to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! For in it is the manifold wisdom of God revealed! And God’s chosen vessel for the publishing of this glorious gospel is the Lord’s church! Eph. 3:9 And to make all men (This word, “men” is in italics, meaning that it was added by the translators. But the very next verse relates that it was not just to humans only, but also to “angelic rulers” – Amplified Bible), see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

And just as the Lord came among wicked men (Acts 2:23), to provide salvation for his elect people,  {I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)}, even so he had to come first to deal with the “great red dragon,” (Rev. 12:3), and his wicked angels, in order to recover dominion and provide safety for his elect angels! (1Tim. 5:21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels,…).

In Matthew 16:27 the term, “his angels” refers to Christ’s elect angels. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. But in Matthew 25:41 this same term refers exclusively to Satan’s angels! Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Revelation 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Pastor Gene Breed