The following sermon is the second of a two-part series entitled, Led by the Spirit, Tempted by the Devil, delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe on March 15, 1981, at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. 

We saw last week that Satan chose to attack Jesus with temptation at precisely the moment that you might have thought he was least vulnerable to attack. A moment that he had set aside for worship, for prayer, for fasting, for seeking his Father's face. And yet Satan came at that moment and attempted to derail Jesus from God's agenda.

We notice two things about that. Number one, that he began, and I suggest he always begins, by calling into question what God has said. By planting a seed of doubt, if he can, as to the truth of God's Word.

We saw that it's always been so. His very first words in the garden. Did God say, you shall not eat?

And so he comes to Jesus. If you are the Son of God. God the Father has just immediately before this declared Jesus to be His well-beloved Son.

Publicly, dramatically. And Satan comes and questions that. If you are God's Son.

And so he comes to us and casts doubt upon the Word of God. And that's the beginning of temptation. Secondly, we notice that he began by suggesting something to Jesus that was not out and out immoral.

It wasn't even illegal. It was a perfectly legitimate thing, except for the fact that it was outside of the purposes of God for him. What's wrong with turning stone into bread?

Absolutely nothing, except that my Father has not told me to do that. And again, I suspect that most of the time, for most of us, it's not going to be that we're tempted to do some heinous, evil, ugly, sinful thing, but that we substitute the good for the best. We substitute what seems good to us for what God would have had us do.

And you know what? You didn't even realize that you fell. you didn't even realize that it was a temptation but you made the decision in the strength of your own wisdom rather than waiting for a word from God back in the garden he comes and appeals to Eve to make the decision for herself to decide for herself what is good and what is evil irrespective of what God has said on the subject did you notice the order of things it says when she saw that it was good for food it was a delight to the eyes and it was desired to make one wise he appeals to her bodily appetites to her aesthetic sense and to her intellectual pride and she succumbed to making that decision on her own here is the beginning on the one hand of humanism and on the other of the occult to decide what is good and what is bad irrespective of what God has to say on the subject.

Well, he comes and he attempts to make Jesus fall for the same trick, but Jesus won't have it. I want us to notice one other thing before we move on. Satan consistently begins with our bodies.

If he can ensnare us in relation to some physical appetite, He doesn't need to be any more subtle. He consistently begins with our bodies, with our flesh. There are only three instances in all the Bible where we see Satan actually speaking.

He's assumed behind the scenes always and everywhere. But in three instances, it's recorded that he speaks. And it's interesting to notice those three instances.

The first is in the garden. where he's accusing God to man. He's accusing the character of God.

He's saying God has set these arbitrary rules. God doesn't want you to grow up and to be mature in your own right. God is jealous.

Lest you become as He is, He's set a rule for you. He accuses God to man. The second instance is in the book of Job when he's accusing man to God.

You think Job is so special but that's just because he's got vested interests. Let me afflict him a little bit and see how long he follows you. And the third is here in the wilderness when he's attempting to find a point of accusation against the God-man.

You begin to understand why John calls him the accuser. Notice that in all three instances the first point of attack is our flesh. To Eve, to Job, and to Jesus, the first appeal is our bodily needs, our bodily appetites.

If He can get us there, He's got us. How many have been diverted from being what God wants them to be by failing to discipline their sexual appetite? Our flesh run rampant.

It doesn't need to be as gross as that. It can be any physical appetite. It becomes a source of bondage and ensnares us.

That's where he begins, and Jesus resists him. If he can't get us there, he moves on to something a little more subtle. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, same appeal, if you are, throw yourself down.

For it is written, he will give his angels charge of you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. If he can't get Jesus in relationship to his bodily appetites, he goes to the opposite extreme and appeals to his spiritual vainglory. Do you understand what's going on here?

He takes them to the pinnacle of the temple. That's the highest point in the temple wall. It overlooks a tremendous drop down to a road beneath it, several hundred feet.

And I want you to picture the scene. There are scribes, Pharisees, priests, pilgrims from all over, not only Palestine, but coming from all over the known world. And just think, here's Jesus.

He goes up on the pinnacle, does a tremendous swan dive, And just before he spatters on the pavement, a legion of angels comes wafting in and lifts him up and everybody sees it. I mean, can you imagine what that would do for his career? You're not supposed to be able to get to the pinnacle these days because of the danger of it.

A couple of years ago, Money and Betty and Karen and I somehow were allowed to get right to the pinnacle. we have pictures standing there looking I must say for a moment it went through my mind if he can't get you with a bodily appeal he goes to what seems to be the opposite extreme spiritual vainglory look at me and notice that Satan quotes scripture how remarkable if Jesus is going to answer him with Scripture, then he'll quote Scripture back. Now, some of you may not know this, but however many Bible verses you have ever memorized, Satan has more.

He has memorized more Scripture than you will ever memorize. And please don't think that he comes dressed up in a little red suit and horns and pitchfork looking ugly. The Bible says he masquerades as an angel of light.

he presents his appeal wrapped in apparent godliness he quotes scripture do you understand that Jesus is being really tempted at this point this appeals to him it sounds good for a moment but Jesus finally says no Satan I am not going to put myself in the position of endangering my body that God will have to deliver. If I find myself there as a natural circumstance that's one thing. But it's not up to me to manipulate things such that God has to deliver.

That's tempting God. And I won't do it. How many people are coming around quoting Scripture and saying, claim it, it's yours.

God has to deliver. Jesus says, I won't succumb to that appeal. Unless God makes personally and specifically relevant a promise of His Word to our circumstance, don't you dare claim it.

Let Him make that real to your personal experience. Then stand on it. But not until.

It's not up to me to manipulate my circumstances that this would have to be so. It's interesting that Satan is quoting from the 91st Psalm because had he gone on one more verse, he would have had to quote, and the serpent you will trample under your feet. Do you understand that Jesus, In refusing to succumb to fulfill that word is fulfilling that word.

God said to Eve in the very moment of her judgment, you will bear a man-child. One of your descendants will trample Satan underfoot. That's exactly what Jesus is doing.

By standing on the word of God, he's trampling Satan underfoot. One more try. Satan takes him to a very high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.

And he says to him, all these I will give you if you'll fall down and worship me. Notice, he does not say deny God. He says, worship me too.

If you go through the Scriptures, I don't think you'll find a single instance in which the people of God out and out denied the Lord. But their problem consistently was they thought they could have Jehovah and Baal. Jehovah and Moloch.

Jehovah and the Asherim. Jehovah and the high places. Jehovah and child sacrifice.

Jehovah and the abominable practices of the Egyptians. He doesn't say deny God. He says, worship God and me.

One little tiny area of compromise. Scholars love to debate whether or not Satan really could give to Jesus the kingdoms of this world. After all, he's a liar and the father of lies.

My own belief is that they were his to give. He's the prince of this world. And what He's offering Jesus is not that which is noble and beautiful and enduring within worldly government, but that which is the glory of this world.

And you can have it all. And friends, you and I can have a good piece of it today if we would succumb to think Jesus and. Just a little, tiny compromise going along when I know I ought to stand against remaining silent when I know I ought to speak out worldly ways of doing God's business Jesus and but once again Jesus stands on the word of God and I want to say one more thing about this often it is said Jesus quoted scripture to the devil that's not quite accurate What he really was doing was quoting Scripture to himself in the hearing of the devil.

He is not saying, you, Satan, are to worship me, the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. That's not at all what he's saying. He's saying, I, an obedient human being, am under the word of God which says, I am to worship the Lord my God, and therefore I'm not going to bow down and worship you.

Yes, this is God come amongst us. But this is also truly man who was truly tempted in every point like as we are. And his answer to temptation was consistently to submit himself to the Word of God written without compromise.

Isn't our biggest problem divided allegiance. Jesus and. The Lord and.

Who's going to see? Just a little tiny compromise. But Jesus says no. It is written and I will obey it.

Satan, you go to hell. And he does. Let's bow our heads.

Lord we find ourselves in this story jumping to make decisions on the basis of our own wisdom indeed on the basis of our own needs physical and otherwise we find ourselves loving the acclaim of men and strangely ironically craving that most of all in the area of spiritual things we find ourselves thinking over and over again we can have the Lord Jesus and something else. We thank You that in each of these temptations He set for us a pattern and an example and that He bids us to draw upon His strength to live out that same pattern as we find ourselves tempted. So may it be for each one of us.

We pray in His name. Amen.