Middletown transcript., 1922-10-21
|. The Place of (v. 1.),

!. The Place of (v. 1,),
Ihe wilderness of Judea. The first
"ah' Adam, was tempted in u garden
win the most pleasant surroundings.
1he second man, Jesus Christ, was
tempted in barren wilderness sur
"ounded by wild beasts Mark 1 :13).
u. The Purpose of ". ~. He was
led into wilderness by the Spirit.
Chrlsts temptation was Messianic.
Though He was tempted In all points
like as we are," we are not tempted
as lie was in this instance, but the
same methods are employed on us.
During the eighteen years of retire
ment Satan surely tempted Christ as
lie tempts us. Satan, no doubt, would
nave gladly escaped this hour, but the
time had come for the Redeemer to
enter upon His mediatorial work;
therefore He went from the place Of
amounting and heavenly recognition as
the Son of God to meet and despoil
the arch enemy (Heb. 2:4).
1. 1t was not a preparation for His
work, but rather its first conflict. In
baptism we have the symbolic act of
dedication of himself to the work of
redemption through the cross-the
making full righteousness. In the
temptation. the strong man is spoil.
Ing the enemy.
z. 1t was not to see if Christ would
stand fast-w0uld fail under the most
crucial test. Christ could not fail.
To so postulate would make Gods
scheme of redemption to have been
unsettled until after this temptation.
and would have made God guilty of
setting forth scheme of redemption
on the basis Of possible overthrow.
3. 1t was to show Christ as an OBJ
Ject upon which we may rest our faith
with mistaken confidence. He came
as the second Man, the head Of q new
race, Its very source and life. 1t was
demonstration Of the inseparable-
ness of the divine and human natures
in the incarnation.
III. The Method Of wv. 2-12).
Christ as the worlds Redeemer
sustained threefold relation-Son of
Man; Son Of God; and Messiah, there
fore Satan made each one ground of
attack.
l. AS Son of Man wv. 2-4), Satan
made his first assault upon Him as
man by appealing to the instinct of
hunger. Satan urged Him to use His
divine power and convert stone In.
to bread. Hunger is natural and sim
less. The temptation was in satis-
flying a right hunger in a wrong way.
10 have yielded in this case would
have been to renounce the human lin
itations which He had taken for our
sakes. To use divine power to satisfy
human needs would have been to fail
as Saviour and Redeemer. This first
temptation shows that the child born
of Mary was real human being. As
such He bore the pinch Of hunger to
the limit. Also that the devil uses
the innocent and necessary wants and
desires as levers to overthrow our
souls.
>. As Messiah wv. 5-8) Here the
temptation was to grasp His right
full dominion by false means. The
devil offered to surrender unto Him
the world If He would worship him.
The force of this temptation was In
the fact that the. Kingdoms of the
world are Christ's by Gods covenant
with Him. Gods method by which
Jesus was to possess the world was
the cross. The temptation Satan is
pressing upon the church today is to
get possession of the world BY other
means than the cross. To BID For DOW.
er by using worldly means Is to follow
after Satan.
3. AS Son of God wv. 9-12). Here
Satan tries to induce Christ to pre-
sumo upon Gods care. He quotes a
Messianic Psalm to induce Him tn 90
act. To do the spectacular thing in
order to get notice is to fall into Sa.
tan's temptation. For Jesus to have
placed himself in danger in order to
get Gods special help in delivering
Him would have been to sin. To pnt
ones self In moral and spiritual peril
in order to test Gods fathfulness ia
to sin. Satan is never quite so dan.
erous as when he quotes Scripture.
~. christ's Defense wv. 4. g. 1a,
1t was the Word of God. He met
and repulsed the enemy with Tt ia
written" Our defense is Gods Word
May every Sunday school teacher
know how, to use 1t!
v. The Issue ". 13).
Satan is vanquished.' If We will hpt
trust God and use His Word we too
can overcome.