Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1924-07-24

Himself hath suffered being tempted,
He is able to succoar them that are
tempted Heb. 2.18
PRIMARY TpPIc-Jesus Refuses to
Do Wrong.
JUNIOR TOPIc-Jesus Conquers the
Tempter
INTERMEDIARY AND SENIOR TOP
IC-J esus Shows Us How to Overcome
Temptation,
Y0CNG PEOPLE AND ADULT TOPIC
Victory over the Tempter
!. Its Purpose " u.
The Holy Spirit led Him into the
wilderness with the specific purpose,
that He there meet and overcome the
one whose works lie came 10 de-
stroy (Ifeb ? ;14) His temptation was
not a preparation for His work. as
usually thought. but rather the opening
of the dreadful conflict between Christ
and Satan. which was to issue in Sa-
tan's defeat. It was not to test Jesus
to find ont as to whether He. would
stand fast-to see whether He would
sin The eternal purpose Of God as to
redemption absolutely could not fail
1t was rather to exhibit Him as an OBJ
ject upon which faith might rest. to
show that a union between God and
man had been effected which would
insure mans reconciliation.
VI. The Conflict (vv. 2-11).
/. The Combatants (v. ~.
"a Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the
Divine Man, is now entering upon His
mediatorial work. He went immedi-
ately from the place of amounting and
heavenly recognition as the Son of
God to meet the arch-enemy of the
race.
(2) The Devil. He was a real per-
son and, while always filled with cum
ming and malice, in this case the initia-
tive was taken by the Lord. He was
dragged into the presence of Jesus
Christ and forced into the struggle.
2. The Battle Ground ". u. 1t was
in the wilderness of Judea The first
man was tempted in a garden with the
most pleasant surroundings and failed
The second man was tempted In
barren wilderness, surrounded by wild
beasts, and gloriously triumphed
B. The Method of Attack wv. 2-10).
Since as our Redeemer Christ sus-
tanned a threefold relationship, the Son
of Man, Son of God and as Messiah,
each one was made a ground of attack.
% As Son of Man wv. 2, 81. This
was test of the reality of His human
ity. To demonstrate whether the hui
manity which He obtained through the
virgin birth was real, the appeal was
made to the instinct of hunger. Hun
ger Is not the result of sin. While the
appetite is not sinful, to have satisfied
1t In wrong way would have been
sin.
(2) Son Of God wv. 5, g.. This was
test as to whether the personality
which had come from heaven and
taken upon itself humanity was divine.
The Devil quoted from a Messianic
psalm to get Him to presume upon
Gods care. God does care for His
own, but to neglect common precau-
tion-to do the uncalled for thing
just to put Gods promise to a test is
sin and death. Satan tempts men to-
day to do the spectacular things in or
der to get publicity, to gain the ears
Of the people
(3) AS Messiah (vv. s, 81. Christ's
mission as the Messiah was to recover
this world from the Devil. The Devil
offered to surrender to Him on the
simple condition that He would adopt
his method thus obviating the neces-
sity of the cross. The Kingdoms were
really Christ's and He knew that they
would ultimately become His. The in
ducement was to get immediate posses /
sion without the sufferings of the
cross. j
A. The Defense wv. A, Z, 10Y. Christ
met the enemy each time and repulsed /
his attack with the Word of God. Each !
time He said, at Is written" and
quoted from Deuteronomy the book
which the higher critics would dis
credit. Christ had enough confidence
in it to use 1t in this, the most crucial, |
hour Of the worlds history
5. The Issue ". ~.
(I Satan vanquished. The enemy
was completely routed The strong
man was so bound that the spelling of
his house was possible
(2) Angels came and ministered !
unto Him. This event was so notable |
that these glorious beings were sent
from heaven to give it recognition and
to minister unto the triumphant King |