THE BEST ENVIRONMENT TO RESIST TEMPTATION

Matt 4:4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”[a]

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”[b]
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”[c]

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,[d] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”[e]

11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.


When reading this passage about Jesus' temptation, it's easy for us to remember that the enemy tempted him in WHAT HE ASSUMED was the BEST PLACE TO TEMPT Jesus. However, what we often forget is that THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS THE ONE TO LEAD JESUS INTO THE DESERT. Now, the Spirit obviously didn't plan this in order that Jesus would fall, because the Bible says that God tempts no-one (He allows it, but isn't the author, the Bible says that we are tempted when we are drawn away by our our lusts and enticed). So the crucial question is- why did the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness?

1) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show us that God tempts no-one, but that if any man is tempted, we are tempted simply because of our own nature. This teaches us one, to recognise our own frailty and weakness, not so that we should despair, but so that we should be completely dependant on God for strength, and so that we might be humbled.

2) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show us that THE BEST PLACE TO RESIST TEMPTATION IS THE PLACE OF THE LEAST THINGS OF THE WORLD. Think about it- the Spirit didn't lead Jesus to a place of LUXURY and a PALACE (remember what He said to John the Baptist!), but led Him into a place that was deprived of everything except the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (spiritual things that live within!). On the flip side, IT WAS THE ENEMY who showed Jesus the KINGDOM'S OF THE WORLD, it was the devil who gave him a full and complete vision of the IMAGE OF THE WORLD, all its glory and all that the world holds dear. It was the enemy who GAVE HIM FOOD that would've made him stumbled. THINK ABOUT THAT ONE! Food or sustenance for the body that would've been ok at any other time, WOULD'VE BEEN DEADLY in this time of temptation! God had obviously made His known will to Jesus that He shouldn't eat in this time, and Jesus knew it. This was to show us that God would have us sustained in this life sometimes BY HIS WORD AND HIS WORD ALONE (why this is, is not for us to know, we need to trust that God has His reasons)

3) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show man that as good as bread is for sustenance, those things that give physical life are always to be kept in moderation, and abstained from when God says so, so that the spiritual life can be maintained and grown. Times of lack for the physical body are usually times when we focus most on ensuring that our spiritual lives are healthy. As Paul said, 'While outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day'.

4) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show Christians that the values of the world are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT to the values of God. While the world thrives on all that is in the world; the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, (1 John 4v16: For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.) the Christian must learn to thrive on spiritual things, and must learn that 'those things that can be shaken, will be shaken'. No matter who we are, we must count on experiencing such a time in our lives on earth, a time when material things and those things of the world will be lessened or taken from our lives, and so must prepare our hearts and minds accordingly (and not get taken up with those things that just feed the natural body)- including preparing by storing up our knowledge of the Word to be able to resist the enemy.


5) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show that, not only does God bring us to times of physical lack, but also that we ourselves should agree with and facilitate such times by OURSELVES BEING MEAGRE IN OUR FEEDING OF THE PHYSICAL BODY. Jesus showed us this by Himself fasting when the Holy Spirit had led Him to the wilderness experience. Much of the Church in the West today does itself absolutely no favours by building palaces and feeding itself to the absolute limit because there will come a time when they not only do not help followers of Jesus to follow Him, but they also will unwittingly making it even harder for Christians to resist temptations from the enemy. Jesus showed us that we must make it our aim to work with God in whatever way He chooses, and so we should be ready at any moment to lose all material things and things of the world in order to continue to follow Him.

6) The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to show us that we shouldn't think it strange when He does so to other Christians. Most of the Church cries heretic, apostate or 'lost sheep' any time a follower of the Lord leaves it's gatherings, but we must remember that while the Word says 'do not forsake the gathering together of yourselves', it does not say that such a thing only includes the organised gatherings of its own place of worship, but that as long as there is a 'gathering' for encouragement, that person can still be brought aside especially for the Lord, even as Paul was before he entered his life-long service for the Lord.

So, overall, we must above all remember that the wilderness experience is an experience that is by its very nature an experience that necessitates a time when we become quite poor in the things of this world (this may take many forms!), or a time when the love of such things is deadened in our hearts, or a time when our view of such things is taken away from us as we are drawn aside to behold more closely the Lord and the things of God. To fight against such a thing will be a grave mistake on our part and will make it very hard to follow the Lord. To build great palaces in our midst and to heap up luxuries for ourselves both in the world and in our hearts, will again make it very difficult for us in such times. Paul said that with food and clothing we should be content. If we do content ourselves with such things, we will be content when God takes us through times where the bear necessities may be all we have.