The Temptations Of Christ!

.....Mathew 4: 1-11 says, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward hungry. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil took Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.

.....Today I would like to take a look at the temptations of Christ, and share some things concerning this. But before we do, let us take a look at the real meaning of the word tempt. In English, the word tempt has a uniformly and consistently bad meaning. It always means to entice a man to do wrong, to seek or seduce him into sin, and try to persuade him to take the wrong way. But the Greek word for tempt, "Peirazein," has a quite different element in its meaning. It means to test.

.....An Old Testament example of this would be the story of how narrowly Abraham escaped sacrificing his only son Isaac. Genesis 22: 1 says, " And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. Now clearly, the word tempt here did not mean to seek or seduce into evil. We all know that it is quite unthinkable that God would try to make any man sin or do wrong. What is quite clear here is the true meaning, "After these things God tested Abraham." A supreme test of loyalty. Just as metal has to be refined and tested far beyond any stress and strain that it will ever be called upon to bear before it can be put to any useful purpose, so a man has to be tested before God can use him for His purposes. What we call temptation is not meant to make us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin.It is not meant to make us bad; it is meant to make us good. It is not meant to weaken us; it is meant to make us emerge stronger, and finer, and purer from the ordeal. Temptation is not the penalty of being a man, temptation is the glory of being a man. It is the test which comes to a man whom God wishes to use. So then, we must think of this whole incident concerning Jesus, not so much as a tempting, but a testing.

.....So why did the test that Jesus had to endure have to take place in the wilderness? Because Jesus had to be alone. His task had to come to Him, and God had spoken to Him. He had to think and ponder as to how He was to attempt the task which God had given Him to do. He had to get things straight in His mind before He started out on His mission, and He had to be alone to do this.

.....How many times do we often go wrong simply because we first never try to be alone with God, and to receive the instructions for what He has called us to do. There are certain things today which every man has to work out alone, with God. And, there are times when no one else's advice is any good to him. Such times is when a man has to stop acting, and start thinking. We all would and could make less mistakes in life today if we would just set aside the time, as Jesus did, to be alone with God. So please, take some time out of your day today, to be alone with Him.
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