The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1922-10-19
|. The Place of ". IL

|. The Place of ". ~.
The wilderness of Judea. The first
man, Adam, was tempted in garden
with the most pleasant surroundings.
The second man, Jesus Christ, was
tempted in barren wilderness sur
rounded by wild beasts Mark 1873.
II. The Purpose of ". -. He was
led into a wilderness by the Spirit.
ChriSts temptation was Messianic.
Though He was tempted in all points
like as we are" we are not tempted
as He was in this instance, but the
same methods are employed on us.
During the eighteen years of retire
ment Satan surely tempted Christ as
he tempts us. Satan, no doubt, would
have 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).
/. 1t was not preparation for His
work, but rather its first conflict. In
baptism we have tie 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.
:. 1t was not to see if Christ would
stand fast-would 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 a scheme of redemption
on the basis of possible overthrow.
s. 1t was to show Christ as an OBJ
Ject upon which we may rest our faith
with mistaken confidence. He came
rs the second Man. the head of a new
race, it's 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 a threefold relation-Son of
Man; Son of God; and Messiah, there
fore Satan made each one a ground of
attack.
l. AS Son of Man wv. 90. 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 a stone in.
to bread. Hunger is natural and sin
ess. The temptation was in salts
flying a right hunger in a wrong way.
TO have yielded in this case would
lave been to renounCe the human linn
itations which He had taken for our
sales. To use divine power to satisfy
human needs would have been to fail
as Saviour and Redeemer.
,. AS Messiah wv. 5-S). 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.
3. AS Son of God wv. 9-12). Here
Satan tries to induce Christ to pre-
sumo upon Gods care He quotes a
AIeSsianic Psalm to induce Him to so
act, To do the spectacular thing In
order to get notice is to fall into Sa-
tans 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 put
ones self i'll moral and spiritual peril
in order to test Gods faithfulness is
TO sin. Satan is never quite so dan
erous as when he quotes Scripture.
". Christ's Defense wv. 4, s, 12).
1t was the Word of Cod He met
and repulsed the enemy with ut is
written. Our defense is Gods Word.
May every Sunday school teacher
->EoW how to use it
w. The Issue (v. 13).
Satan is vanQuished. If We will but
trust God ana use His Word we too
cam overcome.