Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1924-07-25
lts Purpose ". 81.

|. Its Purpose ". -.
The Holy Spirit led Him Into
wilderness with the specific parpQ
that He there meet and oyerc&dne a
one whose works He canie to DE-
stroy (Heb. 2:14). His temptaf Aon WAS
not preparation for His work, AZ
usually thought, but rather the openins
of the dreadful conflict between Chrisf
and Satan, which was to issue IN San
tan's defeat. 1t was not to test Jesus
to find out as to whether He would +
stand fast-to see whether He would +
sin. The eternal purpose of God AZ y
redemption absolutely could not fail
It was rather to exhibit Him as an OBJ
ject upon which faith might rest, to \
show that union between God and*
man had been effected which woplN
insure mans reconciliation.
II. The consslot wv. PLY.
1. The Combatants w. ~.
az Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the
Divine Man, is now entering upon Ills
medIatorial work. He went inlmedI-
ately from the place Of amounting and
heavenly recognition as the Son az
God to meet the arch-enemy Of the
race
(2) The Devil. He was real per,
son and, while always filled with
ming and malice, in this case the Inn
tive was taken by the Lord. He u
dragged into the presence of JeslaT Il
Christ and forced into the struggle.
2. The Battle Ground ". u. It Was'
In the wilderness Of Judea. The nrst
man was tempted In garden with the
most pleasant surroundings and failed.
The second man was tempted In "a
barren wilderness, surrounded by wild
beasts, and gloriously triumphed
8. The Method of Attack wv. 2-10l{
Since as our Redeemer Christ susA
tanned a threefold relationship, the Son
of Man, Son of God and as Messiah,
each one was made a ground of attack.
(D AS Son Of Man wv. 2. 81. This
was test of the reality of His human
ity. To demonstrate whether the hu-
mainly 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 SIM While the
appetite is not sinful, to have satisfied
1t in wrong way would have been
sin.
(2) Son Of God wv. 8, 81. This was
a test as to whether the personalifI
which had come from heaven and
taken upon itself humanity was divine
The Devil quoted from a Messiani
psalm to get Him to presume upol
Gods care. God does care for Hi
own, but to neglect common precau-
tion--to do the uncalled for thing
Just to put Gods promise to 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. 8, 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 Chrtst'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.
4. The Defense wv. 4, Z, 10). Christ
met the enemy each time and repulsed
his attack with the Word Of God Each
time He said, ut 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.
s. The Issue ". III.
"a 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 1t recognition and
to minister unto the triumphant King.