III. The Temptation on the Mountain
Satan finally comes to Jesus in the last of these three great temptations. He is pouring out his lies upon the Son of God in order to cause him to sin so he can win the victory over the appointed Savior of the world. God, the Lord, however, uses this opportunity to point out that there is no weakness in His Son’s armor. In relying upon the Word of God and the Spirit of God He will certainly prevail. The lie of Satan cannot prevail against them. And in a similar way our armor must be taken up in reliance upon the Word of God and the Spirit of God, for they will reveal the truth of God to dispel the lies of Satan.
The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 10 says that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but are divinely empowered so that we might take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We have recognized and countered the previous two lies of Satan with the truth. We understand that Satan wants us to believe that we should fulfill our physical appetites without regard to the will of God. Yet the Lord’s truth is that the Word of God should be preeminent in our lives. Then Satan wants us to accept that in order to believe God you have to see, but Christ countered that lie with the truth that to really see you have to believe. So now comes this last lie of Satan.
A. The lie: You can have glory without suffering
The tempter brings Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain. From there he allows Jesus to see all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Everything great and marvelous from around the globe was paraded before Jesus. It was like a royal procession passing before the Lord. It was akin, I am sure, to the one which the Queen of Sheba was treated to when she sought the presence of Solomon. Second Chronicles 9 says, “When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built, the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless.” She was shocked at the royal splendor of such a thing. And perhaps Jesus had a somewhat similar physical response when He saw all the glories of the kingdoms of this world.
But notice that Satan excludes something in his display. There is an omission in his exhibit of pomp and circumstance. He does not show Jesus the corruption of these kingdoms. He shows Him the glory of the kingdoms, but he does not portray the effects of sin upon these civilizations. In a sense, by doing this, he is seeking to take Jesus’s mind off the primary reason He came. Oh, He came to rule: He came to rule those kingdoms (and He will). But He came first to die. To suffer the shame of the sin of the world. To take the cup of wrath that was our due upon Himself and to drink it to the last excruciating drop. But the devil would not have Jesus set His mind upon that. Oh, no, think about the glory (to which He was certainly entitled), not about the suffering. But Jesus didn’t just wish to rule the world. He wanted to redeem the world. He didn’t want to rule over a corrupt creation, but a redeemed one. And that, of necessity, would take Him to the cross. He knew His purpose. Satan sought to distract Him from that purpose. Jesus said in the gospel of John, “What shall I say, ‘Father save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” He knew what it was that needed to take place. He knew that His suffering and death were an integral part of His coming.
The lie that Satan sought to bring to Jesus was that “you can have glory without suffering.” Avoid all difficulty and get what you want. Enjoy the now, enjoy life. Rule the world, Jesus. You don’t have to die. Avoid pain at all costs. Avoid the difficult. Well, at least believe that you can avoid suffering for righteousness’ sake. This lie that Satan propagates is often neglected in the physical realm. Though there are a few lazy individuals who love to believe that you can have glory without suffering in the physical realm, most everyone knows that to achieve something glorious you must sweat for it. But Satan isn’t too concerned that we don’t apply his lie to the physical realm as long as we continue to believe it is as a principle in the spiritual realm. After all, we say things like play hard, work hard, recreate hard. Devote your free time and attention, train hard, and devote yourself for a small passing glory. Do that. Work hard there. As long as you believe that whatever you wish to achieve in the spiritual realm shouldn’t cost you anything except a little bit of time you weren’t using for anything else important anyway. Sacrifice for the Lord? Give up your free time to serve Him in the church? Naw!
Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit.” Whatever gain you receive from working out is temporary. Once you stop, you begin a retrograde progress. It all withers away. Whatever gains you have made atrophy. Paul is not excluding exercise, but he is reminding us that it holds very little profit because it and its gains are temporary.
Satan would have you think only about the necessity to suffer for temporary material gains. In the spiritual realm he would have you think that there really is no need to sweat and suffer for the sake of righteousness. You can have all the glory and reward of heaven while putting very little effort toward it. Don’t wake yourself up early to pray to God. Don’t take the time to dedicate your day to God and commit your way to Him. You can do that just as easily, if you remember, as you go on with your day. Don’t contemplate using up a free night of the week to serve the Lord in evangelism or discipleship (after all, my favorite TV program just happens to be on that night). The Lord understands because I try to witness to people at work by praying for my meal in front of everyone. They must know I’m a Christian (or a backslidden Muslim who only prays once a day instead of five times). Don’t take time to read the Bible with your family. The children don’t stay quiet anyway and probably aren’t listening. Besides the Lord knows that I don’t read too well. And we sort have devotions because we watch Veggie Tales each night (and you know they are loaded with Bible content—once you get past the parodies and swanky songs with Larry and…). Don’t make the effort to minister to people by picking them up to bring them to church. After all, they do smell a little bit and I have this new car that God gave me (I wonder what other thing He might have me do with my car instead…because it is His car…just I’m sure he wouldn’t have me do something that might cause it to smell, that’s all).
Satan wants you to pour your heart out into all kinds of things that profit little. Why? Because he knows that they have no eternal value unless our heart is set on redeeming them for such a purpose. Think along his lines. We know it’s true that in order to get a promotion at work, you should put in some extra hours, be diligent about how you do your work, and make sure that you set your desire on pleasing your boss. But when it comes to seeking eternal glory from the Lord, we think that second best will do. We believe that we can give Him the leftovers when He gave us His own Son. We are content to give him the labors of our old age when the vigor of our youth is spent on our pleasures. Why do we think this way? Only because we have sucked in the devil’s lie that we can have glory (spiritual glory, eternal glory) without work, without suffering, without discipline. Do you see it yet?
Now we come to the truth that will dispel the darkness of the lie of Satan and cause us to overcome this temptation when we are willing to repent of the lie that we have been suckered by. If you want to be set free and be useful to the Lord, you have to get over the fact that you’ve been lied to (Don’t you hate being lied to? Don’t you hate admitting you’ve fallen for a lie? Did you ever send out one of those fake emails?) You have to get over that fact. Because we have all been lied to and have all fallen for such a trap. The question is, are you going to allow the truth to captivate your heart instead? The truth is not something that happens to you, but something you must embrace, something you must have a heart for.
B. The truth: Suffering according to the will of God brings eternal glory
How does Jesus reveal this truth to us, this competing truth to Satan’s lie? He quotes from Deuteronomy 6. In this passage, Moses instructs the people about what God is going to do for them when He brings them into the Promised Land and warns them not to forget the Lord. He says that when you have “houses full of all good things which you did not fill… vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt… You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him…”
Good circumstances or bad circumstances are not to turn our hearts away from serving the Lord. In this situation, Jesus could have forgotten His first and primary allegiance to His Father so as to bypass the cross and its attendant suffering. Through that decision He might rule the world and achieve the passing pleasures of sin for a season. But there would be no eternal glory awaiting for Him. For if Jesus chose to worship Satan for the glory of those kingdoms so that He might avoid the suffering of the cross, He would have perished anyway and the world along with Him. For the next verse in Deuteronomy 6 after Jesus quoted “You shall worship the Lord your God only” says, “otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.” Again Jesus was quoting the context of the verse and not just the verse itself.
Jesus Christ had a choice. Glory now and suffering later or suffering now and glory later. What is the truth that Jesus gives us to overcome the temptation of the evil one? It is this: suffering according to the will of God brings eternal glory. You can discipline yourself (exercise yourself for godliness) for His sake and service in the gospel or you can live for yourself. Yes, as a Christian you can live for eternal glory or temporary pleasure. But if you live for yourself instead of as a servant of the gospel, then the Scripture says, “If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” Why, as a Christian who knows this, would you continue to live for self instead of considering that, in Christ, you are dead to self?
What we recognize on the physical level, Satan wants us to forget on the spiritual level. If we think that we can have eternal glory without effort, without pain, without suffering, then we are wrong. The eternal glory of heaven was purchased for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. His pain, torment, and death bought it for us. And because that glory has been paid for by the shedding of blood for your sin, it is available to all who call upon His name. God wants us to share in this glory in a greater way by leading others to receive the gift of eternal life (and the glory that goes with it) that is available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But if we are to have a reward beyond that glory that is freely available to all who call on His name, then you will need to expect suffering. Why? Because the enemy of our souls hates the gospel. Why does he hate the gospel? Because “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” And because he hates God, he hates that which would deliver us from hell and bring God pleasure: to see the salvation of sinners.
Footnote: Peter makes it clear in his first letter. This is not self-induced suffering. This is not suffering as an evildoer. It is suffering that comes about because you are set for the progress of the gospel.
Until we realize that what is true in the physical realm is true in the spiritual realm in regard to suffering and glory, we will not come to set our heart to win eternal glory. Unless we understand it relates to bringing people to salvation through Christ and to fruitful maturity in Christ, we will be misdirected in our desire to serve the Lord.
And if we don’t recognize that seeking after such glory will cause pain then we may become discouraged in our effort, thinking that somehow what we are doing is displeasing to the Lord. After all, if we were doing what was right, wouldn’t we have His protection from harm? But as those who fought for the glory of Rome or the glory of England or the glory of America well understood, there would be no glory without sacrifice or suffering. You and I need to be armed with the same purpose in understanding that the kingdom of Christ will go further when we are willing to surrender to it, sacrifice and suffer for it. Peter said in chapter four of his first letter, “Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to the live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” Peter understood it very well. Later in chapter four Peter tells us, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”
How can you rejoice in this? Naturally we are unable. But it is clear from Scripture that we do not carry this out in our strength. It is the power of God that allows us to rejoice in it. It you don’t want to suffer reproach for the gospel, you won’t make any gains in reaching people with the gospel. Look at how the apostle Paul describes it in 2 Timothy 1:8: “Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.”
The lie says, “Give me glory but don’t allow me to suffer for it. Give me reward but allow me to do as little as possible to attain it and care even less about it. Let me forget about difficulty and trials. They don’t add a thing to me.” The truth says, “Let me care passionately about God’s will concerning the lost and let me set myself apart for the cause of Christ and suffer IF NEED BE for it. You will suffer if you desire to bring the gospel to others because Satan wants to discourage you from continuing in it.
If any glory is worth disciplining oneself for, then certainly the crown of eternal glory must be worth the discipline of an entire lifetime. For this glory NEVER fades or passes away. In 1 Cor. 9:25, the apostle Paul says, “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath (a perishable crown), but we an imperishable.” Will you not set your heart to work for and if need be suffer for a greater eternal glory? Isn’t this a cause for which we can wholeheartedly devote ourselves, seeking to deliver eternal souls from an eternal torment and bring them to eternal life?
When black slavery enveloped this land as a stain upon our nation, a Christian nation as it was written upon our judicial record books, some slaves received their freedom: some by escaping, some by earning it, others as a gift, as if their freedom was able to be granted by another. Some of these freedmen found that in their freedom they were free to ignore the plight of their fellows who were still in bondage. They were ecstatic over their freedom. But they didn’t want to endure further hardship and suffering that would certainly take place if they sought to win others to freedom. Who could blame them? What they suffered in the life of slavery was probably more than most Americans would ever suffer. But a few of these men and women saw that their freedom gave them a responsibility to advocate for and seek the release of those still in slavery, that by whatever means they might win some. To be sure, they were mocked, scorned, some even beaten or killed for the cause of seeking to free a few more of their fellow human beings. They knew the cost. They understood the discipline required and the sacrifice and suffering that awaited them. But they continued nonetheless. And in the annals of American history, their glory is still touted.
The slavery of sin has always overshadowed the human landscape. Some of those who were slaves to sin were set free by the price paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. Many who were set free have been content to see that their freedom allows them to ignore the plight of their fellows still in bondage to the slavery of sin and the penalty of eternal death. They were ecstatic over their freedom. But they didn’t want to endure further hardship and suffering that would certainly take place if they sought to win others to freedom. Who could blame them? For whatever reason (and probably many good reasons), they have neglected their responsibility to those who are still there. There are some who have been zealous for the cause of bringing the gospel of salvation to others. The Scripture says in Daniel 12:3 that those who bring many to righteousness will shine brightly like the stars forever and ever. They will have an eternal glory like very few. But God has called you, not just to freedom, but to seek to bring others into that freedom in the gospel. To be sure, you may be mocked, scorned, beaten, or killed for the cause of the gospel. But let me ask you, is it worth shining with eternal glory forever and ever? Is whatever temporary hardship you might suffer for being bold in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the salvation He brought you worth a glory that will last forever? Don’t let Satan blind your eyes to the truth that this glory is far more real and beautiful and meaningful and lasting than any other glory you might seek on this earth. Commit yourself to believe the truth that suffering according to the will of God for the gospel brings eternal glory, and commit yourself to live by that truth.
IV. The Sum of the Quotations
What do we need to see as the big picture in this whole passage?
A. It was necessary for Jesus (in His humanity) TO MEMORIZE the Scripture to overcome the temptation of the devil.
When we think of these spiritual battles in which Jesus is engaged with the devil, we tend to minimize Jesus’s humanity. We think that He was the Son of God and therefore could not be tempted. But we miss the whole idea of Jesus’s coming. He was not just the Son of God. He was the premier human being (the Son of Man). In His humanity, He needed to learn. He needed to grow. He needed to develop in His humanity. We find this in Luke 2:52: “And Jesus grew…”
We want to think that the first time he carved a bench with His stepfather Joseph it turned out perfectly. Needing to learn to carve a bench is no moral defect. Growing in the skill of carving a bench is no moral defect.
His humanity was evident for all to see. Hungry, tired, needing to learn.
Jesus was without sin, but it did not mean there was nothing He needed to learn. He had to memorize Scripture. Even if He had a good memory, He still had to make an effort to memorize the Scripture. He still had to put it into His heart so that when the devil came to Him, He would have the Scripture that was necessary to rebuke his lies.
He understood the necessity of having the Word of God placed into His heart. He recognized the importance of passages like Psalm 119:9-11, “How shall a young man keep His way pure? By taking heed according to Your Word… Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You.”
Do you see it? Do you recognize the importance of memorizing the Scripture? I don’t care how much you memorize but that you seek to put it into your heart and not to give up.
B. It was necessary for Jesus (in His humanity) TO MEDITATE on the Scripture to overcome the temptation of the devil.
The verses Jesus used weren’t just pulled out of context. They applied to each situation at hand. He had to understand their meaning and background, their context and how they related to Him as the Son of God, but more importantly how they related to Him as a human being.
I would encourage you to memorize this passage of Psalm 1 first: “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of the ….” Meditate upon it. Why meditate upon the Scripture? It changes the way you think about God, sin, yourself, this world, heaven. The renewing of our minds through Scripture transforms (Rom 12:2). If you memorize and meditate upon Psalm 1, it will change what you believe about Scripture.
When the Word of God transforms the way we think, it will also transform the way we operate. It will determine whether we walk by the Spirit or by the flesh.
– 1 John 2:14: “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
– Colossians 3:16: “Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you…”
Why is it important to think on the Scripture and have a grasp of it? Because the devil uses it also.
C. It was necessary for Jesus (in His humanity) TO USE the Scripture to overcome the temptation of the devil.
You may have the best weapons in the world, but if you do not use them you cannot defeat your enemy.
If you are content to merely hear the Word of God and not put it into practice by faith, then you are deceiving yourself. James says in his first letter, “Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
Do you want to be blessed by God? Then claim by faith (trust) that His Word will perform its work in you (call upon the Lord to carry it out in your life) and read it. Look for the blessing in seeking His Word and seeking to walk in it.
What we need to recognize as we close this passage of Scripture is the absolute necessity to counter the lies of Satan with the truth of the Scripture. If the Son of God needed to use Scripture to overcome the devil’s attacks, if he could not do it by self-will and determination, then how arrogant you and I are when we refuse to be in God’s Word each day. When we forgo placing the Scripture into our hearts. When we minimize the place of the Word of God in our lives for overcoming temptation. How foolish is the man who thinks that he can stand without the Word of God when the Son of God would not even think of doing so.
Do you want to overcome Satan’s temptations? Then you need to commit yourself to memorize Scripture. You need to commit yourself to meditate upon the Scripture. You need to commit yourself to use Scripture when your spiritual battle is raging. Will you? Will you start by memorizing one verse a week? Will you commit to thinking upon that verse during your day? Will you use that Scripture in your battle with the devil?