Well, sir, I left you so quickly the last time
I was in your home, and we were right in the
middle of having a little heart -to -heart talk
regarding the second temptation of Jesus. It
just seems like some days the clock goes a little
faster than other days. And I got the shock of
my life when I looked up, and, yon and behold,
I had to quickly say, I'll see you next time.
Bye. And I had to leave you. So today I'll begin
exactly where I left the last time I was in your
home. I hope you have brought your Bibles along
with you because we're discussing the fourth
chapter of Matthew. And we're in the fifth verse
of that fourth chapter. It's the second temptation
of Jesus. Then the devil taketh him. That is
immediately following the first temptation. The
devil took Jesus up into the holy city. That's
Jerusalem. And I still contend that the enemy
took Jesus to Jerusalem because he knew how sentimental
Jesus was. over Jerusalem. Oh, beloved, do you
remember the incident how he wept when Jerusalem
refused to hear him and turned from him? Great
tears of compassion and love flowed down the
face of Jesus. He loved Jerusalem. He was very
sentimental over the city, over the temple. Think.
of the months. Think of the time that Jesus spent
in the temple of Jerusalem. And the enemy knew
that if he could take Jesus to the place where
he was most sentimental, taking him into Jerusalem,
to the temple, and there attack him in the most
subtle way possible. And he saith unto him, If
thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For
it is written. And here's the old scoundrel quoting
scripture. And he's still quoting scripture today.
The same old devil is still quoting scripture.
I believe that he knows. Scripture better, he
can quote it better than the greatest saint living
this very hour. He knows Scripture. He uses it.
He quotes it. And he had the nerve to quote Scripture
to Jesus. And he was correct in quoting it. And
this is what he quoted. He shall give his angels
charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, thou dash thy foot against
a stone. Now, wherein was the temptation? Pause
a minute. Having endeavored to seduce Jesus from
his position of unswerving loyalty to the will
of God, He now flings all the force of his subtle
art against that which was the strength of his
abiding in the will of God, namely his perfect
confidence in God. He had the audacity to attack
the Son's perfect trust, perfect confidence in
his heavenly father now listen to the suggestion
hear his actual proposal cast thyself down cast
thyself down it is a direct attempt to try to
force jesus to act upon that principle of trust
which has been ministered to by the selection
of this particular place in the city of the great
king in the house devoted to his worship at its
most awe -inspiring point exercise trust in him
by causing thyself to be cast from this great
height. What was behind this suggestion? It was
a suggestion that trust most perfectly expresses
itself in bearing something unusual out of the
common to be heroic. It was as if the enemy had
said to Jesus, there's no necessity for... you
to cast thyself down. It does not come in the
ordinary line of duty, but so much the greater
opportunity for a venture of faith. Trust in
God most perfectly expresses itself in the doing
of extraordinary things for God. The enemy suggested
that the trust of Jesus should be put to the
test and proven by being placed outside the realm
of the commonplace. He's saying if you really
want to show to the whole world how much you
really trust God the Father, Then do the extraordinary.
Do that which is not commonplace. Do the heroic.
Stand before the whole world. Cast thyself down
to the ground. And by that heroic deed, you prove
to all mankind your perfect trust. in the Heavenly
Father. Do you want to know something? That is
still the great danger in the life of the Christian
today. There is a thin line between trust and
presumption. There's a thin line between faith
and presumption. And great is the danger in our
lives when we substitute presumption for trust
and for faith. Watch something. Watch. Many a
time in healing the physical body, we have substituted
presumption for faith. Many a time in the building
of some great edifice or the performing of some
great heroic deed, we have substituted presumption
for trust. For faith. There is a scripture that
I may give you as an example. And it's so very
often misused. Especially among the brethren
who are fanatical and have gone out into fanaticism.
Sure it's scriptural. It's in the 16th chapter
of Mark. They shall take up serpents. And if
they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them. And there have been those who have used
that, thinking they were exercising faith and
trust. And they have deliberately picked up serpents,
expecting those snakes not to harm them or bite
them because they have used the scripture. that
the Bible said they shall take up serpents and
they shall drink any deadly thing and it shall
not hurt them. And they were bitten. And they've
made a fool of themselves. And they have brought
a reproach on the things of God. When, beloved,
that was not faith, that was not trust, that
was presumption. But I... have the trust the
faith to believe that if I went to Macau as a
missionary and was in the will of God and going
there and after doing everything in the world
that I could to protect myself if during the
night I was bitten by a scorpion, I believe that
God would undertake in my behalf. I believe that
I could call on the mercy of God. I believe that
I could go to a foreign country and plead for
God's protection. If I did something ignantly
or innocently because of my Because I was innocent
in what I did. But because of my trust in Him,
I believed that He would take care of me. But
if I deliberately did it to try to prove something
to the whole world, I cannot ask His divine protection.
In exactly the same way, we come to the praying
for the Savior. Somebody comes and said, Miss
Kuhlman, we want this miraculous healing so that
our godless members of our family can know the
reality of the power of God. We want to prove
to our family our faith, our trust, and the power
of God through this healing. That is not... The
right attitude. God does not have to prove himself
to any man, any woman. He does not have to prove
himself to your godless husband through some
miracle. That godless husband of yours has the
word of God. That's proof enough. That godless
husband of yours knows within himself there is
a god. And upon the strength of that, he needs
to have enough manhood, enough common sense to
accept God. and to accept the way of salvation
through Jesus Christ, his only begotten son.
For it is written, and God has given proof of
himself to the inner man of that husband of yours.
He doesn't have to have somebody to do some great
heroic deed or give proof of his person and power
by performing some great miracle. I don't have
to give some outward proof of my trust in the
Lord by performing some heroic deed. No, beloved.
My daily consistent life is proof enough. What
was the sin in that sin? second temptation. It
was the sin of presumption. And Jesus saw it.
Cast thyself down. But Jesus said, I don't have
to cast myself down to prove my trust. my faith
in my Heavenly Father. If thou art the Son of
God, this is the challenge Satan makes the second
time. It's the same argument used in the previous
temptation, but almost certainly with a different
emphasis. In the first, in all probability, it
lay upon the word art, if thou art the Son of
God. Here it seems as though it must have been
upon the word God. If thou art the Son of God,
the emphasis would be upon the nature of God.
In the first temptation, he has proved the fact
of his relationship, but now the appeal is to
that relationship. He's prepared to enlarge upon
the goodness of God and the care that he bestows
upon such as put their trust in him. Oh, look
how subtle. Foiled and boomed at the first by
the master's use of the weapon of the word, he
now makes use of the selfsame weapon. Behold
the very sword of Christ in the hands of the
devil. flashes before us, and he says, it is
written. Endeavoring to appeal to the principle
of trust, the devil made use of scripture. Jesus
had declared that man lived not by bread alone,
but by words proceeding from the mouth of God,
and in an attempt to urge him to a new exercise
of trust, the devil quotes the word of God. He
now accepts Christ's definition of human life
as something more than animal. He acknowledges
that it is the spiritual life that needs to be
strong for the exercise of trust, and moreover,
that spiritual life is only strong as it feeds
upon the Word. So he attempts to minister to
him in the realm of that very spiritual nature.
And it's startling. Pauline. As he begins to
quote scripture, he shall give his angels charge
over thee, lest thou haply dash thy foot against
a stone. Watch. He took that from the portion
of the word of God. The psalm that begins, he
that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
This is the description of the perfect safety
of the trusting soul. Oh, it's beautiful. You
and I have clung to that, of course, the word
of God. Our trust. A place of perfect safety
in him. But there was a day when the devil himself
used that which is very precious to our heart.
Turn now to the answer of Jesus. And what weapon
did he use on the devil? The same weapon, the
word of God. And Jesus begins with again. Watch
it. Again it is written. In the first temptation,
Jesus said, it is written. In the second, he
said, again it is written. And in the use of
the word again, we have a revelation of our Lord's
perfect mastery of the weapon. In comparison
with Christ, the devil was a poor swordsman.
Oh, believe me, when he attempted to use the
sword of the Spirit, he was a mighty poor swordsman.
It would seem as though with quiet and yet mighty
movement of his strong arm, Jesus just wrested
the sword right from the hand of Satan. The force
of the again lies in the fact that it is an answer
to Satan's it is written. Jesus does not deny
the correctness of the satanic question, but
he replies to it by saying again. can it is written
that is to say there must be proper use made
of the words of god you cannot take a portion
of the word of god out of its setting and use
it to prove a point The word of God must be kept
in its context before it can be properly used.
Until our next heart -to -heart talk, God bless
you good.