The Tempatation

In his book, The Magician's Nephew, C. S. Lewis writes of the creation of fictitious Narnia through the song of Aslan (the lion who represents Jesus in the book). The Creation Song is clearly intended to reveal the majesty and glory of Aslan. As in Genesis 1, it is a grand call to worship.

But there was one (Uncle Andrew) who would not hear it. The consequences were staggering: When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole point, for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel.

Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a Lion ("only a lion," as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make himself believe that it wasn't singing and never had been singing, only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world. Of course it can't really have been singing, he thought, I must have imagined it. I've been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?

And the longer and more beautifully the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.

And when at last the Lion spoke and said, "Narnia awake," he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl. And when the beasts spoke in answer, he heard only barkings, growlings, bayings, and howlings.

Unbelief is one of those things that affect us and blinds us to the wonders that the Lord provides. And because we continue in unbelief more and more everyday the word of God becomes less and less. We saw in the state of Theology done by Ligonier (RC Sproul) that many in the modern church do not believe that the Bible is literally true. Not the Word of God but book written only by men. Almost half of evangelicals believe that religious belief is about person opinion and not objective truth. And it is increasing every year. A rising disbelief in the Bible’s literal truth may help us understand why American evangelicals also increasingly believe that religious faith is a subjective experience rather than an objective reality. If the church is ignorant of the objective truth given in the doctrines of the church Voddie Bauchman said the church will never be able to tell the difference between truth and falsehood, therefore, never able to identify the false teacher. Which if you remember was what Christ commended the church in Ephesus for in revelation.

But this stems from the continued testing of our God when it comes to His promises. We test and test and He continues to not take the test and we fall into even more unbelief. We should see and be honest with this today. Because of our unbelief we test the Lord and when He does not take it, we assume it is God not doing what He promised and then we fall into more doubt and more and more the Words of the living God becomes empty words and eventually babble and eventually the teacher from Charlie Brown. Let’s check it out.

Matthew 4:1–11 NLT

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’ ” Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’” Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.

Testing the Lord

He Cares for Us

The first thing we will look at today is the reality of our failure to keep ourselves from testing the Lord on a day to day basis. Second, we will see how even though is is a sinful reality that we do this, Christ cares for us shown in the gospel as the angels cared for Him after His temptation.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world causes us to doubt the Word and test our God, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will cause us to see the reality of love of God and grace of Christ and that His words are Yes and Amen.

I. Testing the Lord

-An experiment of Unbelief

A. So God is gonna provide for you you say. Man does not live on bread alone… ok well lets see if you really can trust the goodness of God. Since you are the Son of God and you are the best of the best… Im sure if you jump from here God will send his angels to protect you and you wont get hurt. Here the Devil tries to cast doubt on the word … did He really mean it? And he quotes Psalm 91.

Psalm 91:11–12 NLT

For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.

B. Do not be deceived… the devil knows the Bible well. And what we see here is… Satan is suggesting that the care of the angels will be so much so and in such a way that even the smallest injury is quite impossible. There would not even be a stubbed toe. No bruise, no scratch, not even a broken nail. So why don’t we try it to see if it is really true.

C. And of course Jesus is wise to it. And continues to fight temptation with the very words of the living God. What you are suggesting is a test and we are not to test our God. He then quotes Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:16 NLT

You must not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah.

D. Lets take a quick look at that… Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1–7 NLT

At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?” But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!” The Lord said to Moses, “Walk out in front of the people. Take your staff, the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on. Moses named the place Massah (which means “test”) and Meribah (which means “arguing”) because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord here with us or not?”

E. So the Lord says that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Is that really true? He said He will provide all of your needs according to His riches in glory. Is that really true? Ask and you shall receive. Is that really true? Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added onto you. Is that really true? Maybe you should test it out and see if it is really true. See if it is true… ask for something, see if He gives it to you. I like the way Hendrickson applies this…

“Daily life all around us affords abundant illustrations of false confidence, similar to that which the devil urged Jesus to exercise. A person will earnestly beseech the Lord to bestow upon him the blessing of health; however, he neglects to observe the rules of health. Or, he will ask God to save his soul; however, he neglects to use the means of grace, such as the study of Scripture, church attendance, the sacraments, living a life for the benefit of others to the glory of God. Again, someone will plead with the Lord for the spiritual as well as physical welfare of his children, but he himself neglects to bring them up in the way of the Lord. A church member, admonished because at a circus he had eagerly rushed into a corrupt side show, defended himself by saying, “I cannot deny that I went there, but while I was there I was constantly praying, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity (Ps. 119:37 A.V.).’ ”—“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” is the answer to all of this.”

F. The reason why we test is because we don’t really believe. We just cannot take His word for it. Can we get somekind of money back guarantee? Testing the Lord just like we test the stability of a bridge… trust God yes and then when things get hard we say we just don’t know. Before I can really believe in this stuff, isn't there something you can show me to prove it to me? My atheist opponants do this… prove it, make it happen, then I will believe. So we live according to what we want and hopefully God will take care of us when things go bad. And when they go bad, we tell God that He failed. So is it that we have an ongoing test going on right now with God.

G. We do not test God because he does not need to be tested. Neither can He be tested truly and logically. The test is based on what he does. Everything he does is in accordance with passing a test because what He does is what it is to pass a test. We cannot test Him because there is no potential for Him to fail a test. To test God is to demonstrate that we believe that there is a possibility for Him to fail. How insulting can we be. And here is something… our arrogance… did you know that to test God is to believe that we know enough about the situation to imply that we know enough about what is really means for God to pass a test. If you know nothing about football how do you decide if a football coach is good or not? If God says no… how do we know what it entails? How arrogant and sinful can we be?

II. He Cares for Us

-Forgiveness is a reality.

A.  The reality is… we are always testing God because of our little faith. Many of us even do this without being tempted. We just do it. It is because of sin. The reality of sin. After the temptation of Christ, the angels came to take care of Him.  And do we not know that Christ has taken care of us as he still takes care of us.  Adam’s failure did a number.  All of us are in sin with Adam.  He was our representative head.  We all sinned in Adam.  And sin had a consequence.  We are weak with temptation.

B.  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  There is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. We are all by nature children of wrath. If we break even the smallest of commands we are as guilty as one who has broken all of it. So you see we are in trouble. How much trouble?

C. The place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Outer darkness. Eternal darkness. The smoke of torment and anguish never cease. The worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. The place reserved for the devil and his angels. This is the reality and destiny of the effects of sin and the fall of man. 

D. So Shane then I’m in trouble. Can I be saved from this? Yes.  Salvation has come and we find it in Christ and in Christ alone.  This is the one whom John the Baptist pointed to. He said that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Yes. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Jesus came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.

G. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.  Confess your sins and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repent and believe the gospel. Repentance that leads to salvation.

H. Rejoice today.  By the power of Christ, we are freed from the curse and consequence of the sin we commit.  But by the Power of the Holy Spirit we can defeat the tempter and the accuser.  We are more than conquerors.  We have overcome by the blood of Jesus.