In the last sermon, we arrived at the topic: warfare in the realm of spirits. The warfare is not between angels and demons. That war is over. The angels won, Satan lost. But the warfare the speaker is going to talk about is a warfare between demons and you. This spiritual warfare started in the Garden of Eden, in the temptation of Eve. The speaker discussed how Satan sold the truth to Eve and bought over the whole of humanity in 3 sentences.

So in the first battle, Satan 1 Man 0. But God loved Man. God loved you. So He has a plan to bring you back into His kingdom. So Jesus came. And the New Testament regraded Jesus’ coming as a rematch.

1 Cor 15:45
Paul described Jesus’ mission as the last battle, to regain from Satan what Adam lost. So the temptation of Jesus was a rematch. And Satan thought that he could use his same old tricks. 3 sentences. Let’s study it.

1st Temptation
Matt 4:3-4
“If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
[You see Satan doesn’t need to talk a lot because he’s very smart. He uses effective words, just one sentence.]

Just like the temptation of Eve, what Satan said isn’t necessarily sinful or bad. When we think of the word temptation, we always imagine somebody wants us to do something wrong or sinful. But Satan is SO subtle that he can say something that’s NOT wrong and YET a temptation.

“Command the stones to become bread.”
Is it sinful to do this? Is there a command/law in the Bible (or in the Torah at that time) that making bread from stones is banned/sin?

Now look at the life of Jesus after this temptation. Is transformation of substance a sin? [When we study the Bible, we really need to go in deep.] Jesus’ first miracle was converting water to wine. If He can do this, why can’t He convert stones to bread?

Let’s go deeper.
Is miraculous production of food or bread a sin? No. Remember? From 5 loaves of bread, Jesus miraculously produced enough bread to feed 5000 men (+ women and children). So miraculous production of bread is not a sin. Jesus did it.

So what was this temptation about?? What’s wrong with turning stones to bread?

Jesus, as you know, studied and loved the word of God. Even when His parents left the temple, He was still talking about the word of God and got left behind. Jesus loved the Torah. And during His temptation, His mind went back to the Torah, the 5 Books of Moses.

Where was Jesus during the temptation? And why was He there?
Read Matt 4:1
Jesus was in the wilderness. And He didn’t go to the wilderness on His own accord, He was led by the Spirit.

So the mind of Jesus went back to the Torah when the Spirit of God also led the children of God, the Israelites, into the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire.

What does wilderness mean? No food. No water. So the hunger was INTENTIONAL, since He was LED to the wilderness.

If you don’t believe God led the Israelites into the wilderness INTENTIONALLY, read Deut 8:2-3. Same as Jesus. “God LED you” Hunger in the wilderness was PLANNED. Why? Because before they were led into the wilderness, what was the promise of God to them? “I will rescue you FROM Egypt and bring you TO Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.” God promised to bring them FROM Egypt TO Canaan.

What was the consequence of this promise? That they wouldn’t die in the wilderness. Because if they did, they wouldn’t reach Canaan. So when they were in the wilderness and had no food to eat, if they had remembered the promise, they would know they wouldn’t die in the wilderness because the promise was to reach Canaan.

From here we can see the similarity with the first temptation of Jesus. Jesus was in the same situation. The spirit of God LED Him to the wilderness. So He knows in His mind the intention was to let Him hunger. 40 days. Of course He would be hungry.

But, if God wants Him to be hungry, He should be hungry. Because He knows His mission was to die on the cross. If that is His mission, that means He wouldn’t die in the wilderness, He has to die on the cross.

See the similarities? The Israelites should’ve known they wouldn’t die in the wilderness because God had promised to lead them to Canaan. Jesus wouldn’t die in the wilderness because He was supposed to die on the cross.

Not dying means what? Means to live. So if they live by trusting in the promise of God, in the word of God, that’s all that’s required.

Deut 8:3
“Man shall not live by bread alone” and the word from the mouth of God was “I will bring you to Canaan.”

Now we go back to Matt 4:4 and see Jesus’ response to the first temptation.

“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.’”

His mind cast back to the wilderness journey of the Israelites. The answer to hunger was to live by the word of God. God will fulfil His promise. “I will live. I won’t die. All I have to do is trust in the word of God.”

The same thing happens to us today. God puts us in situations. Your wife or your husband may suddenly leave you. You may have cancer. You may lose your job. But before all these bad things happen to you, God doesn’t send an email to you and say, “Dear Brother Yeoh, you’re gonna get cancer in 3 months. But don’t worry, it’s My test to you.” God will just put you in a tough situation. Your husband or wife leaves you. You get cancer. You lose your job. You get depressed. Things fall apart. He puts us in a tough situation and doesn’t tell us why.

When Jesus was led to the wilderness, the Spirit just led Him there. There was no forewarning or heads-up. He was just led there.

And if you ARE in the wilderness, that means God wants us to hunger. So we just hunger. We won’t die.

So very often we’re just put in tough situations. We talk to God, we talk to the preacher. We don’t know why. We haven’t done anything wrong!

This is the time we must accept the situation. Accept we have cancer. Accept we have lost our job. Just like Jesus. He accepted the situation. He accepted the hunger. “I don’t need to turn stones to bread.” I’ll accept the situation God has put me in.

This is key: accept the bad situation we’re in.

Acceptance doesn’t mean suicide. Acceptance must be complemented by trust. We must live BY the word of God. Which means: what has God promised you?

If we’re lonely, God has said, “I will not leave you.”
If you’re troubled, what’s the promise of God? “I will give you peace that surpasses all understanding.”
The Bible contains many promises of God that we will be well taken care of in times of trouble. Don’t do your own struggling. Turning stones to bread is doing your own struggling, finding you own solution.

In tough times, accept the situation God has put you in. It won’t be long. It will be over. And after that, God has something much better in store for you. And if you hold on to the Promises and word of God, you will live THROUGH the suffering.

2nd Temptation
Matt 4:5-6

Again one sentence.

“If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down

Again, on the surface, what’s wrong with this? Where’s the sin? Where was Satan coming from? What kind of temptation was this? Ha! You need to know the background.

What happened immediately before the temptation? Two declarations to Jesus. The first declaration came from the mouth of John the Baptist, “Begold . It happened just before the temptation. Then John the Baptist baptised Him. Right after the baptism, God declared, “This is my beloved Son.”

These declarations confirm Jesus is the son of God. Now we know the background. For the first time of Jesus, He was told His mission. “I’m the son of God. I’m supposed to take the sins of the world.”

Now let’s go to the pinnacle of the temple. It’s in Jerusalem. It’s a capital. Let’s say it’s like New York. Lots of people there. And the temple is right in the middle of Jerusalem. Like Manhattan right in the middle of New York. The who’s who, the media, the central government is all there. Suppose Jesus went to the pinnacle of the temple, jumped down and landed like Iron Man LOL, can you imagine the media at that time? The Pharisees and high priests wow-ing? And Jesus saying, “Therefore I am the son of God. Because in Psalms, the son of God will be borne up by angels!” By this spectacular display of super power, who wouldn’t believe He’s the son of God?

Now we’re beginning to sense how clever Satan is. What Satan is saying is: “Hey don’t need to preach so much. Going from city to city. Suffer and die. Just do this stunt to prove you’re the son of God! People will believe You!”

“Unless…You don’t really think You’re the son of God. The voice from heaven and what JTB? They’re just kidding you.”

What was Satan trying to do? Think deep. It’s not a clear sin. What Satan was trying to do was to make Jesus DOUBT the status, the declaration that God has given to Him.

Again, the mind of Jesus went back to the wilderness, the Torah, and He found His answer there. In the wilderness, they ran out of water.

[Incidentally, in all 3 temptations, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy.]
We read Exo 17:1-7 to get a better idea what went through the mind of Jesus when He went through the second temptation.

When they ran out of water, not only did they contend with Moses, they asked the question (either in their hearts or by their mouths), “Is the Lord among us?”

There’s a background to this question that can be read in Exo 6:2-9.
v2-8 is what God promised the Israelites through Moses. v9 is what Moses repeated to the people of Israel. One of the promises is that God would be their God and they His people. This was the background to the question, “Is the Lord among us?”

“God, you told us we’re your people. If we’re really your people, how come we don’t have water to drink?”
They were doubting the status God had bestowed upon them. So when we move 4000 years later to Jesus, same thing. The doubt Satan wanted to instil in Jesus was: are You sure You’re the son of God? Well…there’s a way of finding out. Throw Yourself down from the pinnacle and if You survive, You’re really the son of God. Furthermore You achieve Your mission, everyone will believe You’re the son of God.”

Jesus’ mind cast back the wilderness. And His answer was, “No. The word of God is enough for Me. Even though the path ahead will be difficult, accepting e
But I will not doubt My relationship with God, My status. What has been bestowed on Me.”

Many Christians have fallen because of this same trick. Are you really a Christian? If you’re really a Christian, a child of God, why’re you still struggling? Look at this guy who isn’t a Christian. A big house, nice car, pretty wife. If you’re a Christian, why’re you sleeping beside me in this hospital bed? God should just heal you.

When you’re going through tough times, this thought will come to your mind: am I really one of the people of God? Why am I suffering?

The same voice in our heads also went through Jesus’ head. “Are You really the son of God? If You are, try something. Do some tests.”

Jesus answer came from Deut 6:16. Not tempting/testing God means not doubting our status.

We go back to Matt 4:7 to see Jesus’ response to the second temptation. Again Jesus thought about the word of God to resist the second temptation. “There is no need for Me to do anything. I’m the son of God. If I doubt it, and need to test it, I’m testing God.”

Doubt is one of the most potent poisons that Satan can implant into your heart. Is my God REALLY that good? Is He keeping something from me, that He’s not giving me?

In the previous sermon that discussed the temptation of Eve, that’s what Satan tried to implant in Eve too. “God is good. But is He REALLY good? Is He keeping something from me?”

So, have no doubts! God is good. You will be taken care of.

1. Matt 4:8-9
   Again, only one sentence.

In 3 sentence, Satan brought Eve down. Again, in 3 sentences, Satan tackled Jesus.

This temptation is very clearly a temptation. Falling down to worship Satan was obviously a sin.

So is this a stupid temptation? This is the first of the 10 commandments. You know Jesus won’t do it because it’s obviously a sin! Even children won’t do it. So was this a stupid temptation?

Let’s see the background, then we’ll see how smart Satan was.

What was Jesus’ mission? Redemption. What does redemption mean? To bring back the lost souls under the captivity of Satan into His own kingdom. In other words, to regain the kingdom Adam and Eve lost.

If you go deeper, this is actually the most difficult temptation because it really put Jesus into a dilemma. What Satan was offering was this: the easy way or the hard way? The hard way is this: from today onwards, You have got to go from place to place. Walk and preach. People will insult and try to kill You. And then Your best friend will betray You. You’ll be brought to be judged, beaten and spat on, and crucified. Then after dying, it’s not over. You have to pass on the baton to weak mortals to save souls into the kingdom for the next 2000-3000 years before spiritual kingdom comes.

I offer you a shortcut. It just takes 5 seconds. Just bow and I’ll give you the kingdom. You’ll be pleasing to God because You achieved the mission, You got back the kingdom.

See how this difficult was? You commit one sin and you get back the kingdom and achieve the mission immediately! And because You accomplish what God wants you to accomplish, He’ll probably forgive You right? One sin and You achieve Your mission so quickly! Just 5 seconds and I’ll give you the kingdom, You don’t need to find for it.”

Don’t you go through this same temptation everyday in our lives? We say to ourselves: I can commit this sin because if I do, it can achieve a good outcome that can bring glory to God!

The Bible is very very clear Christians are not supposed to marry outsiders. But then, there’s a counter argument: if I marry an outsider, I can bring the outsider to church and therefore a soul is saved! By sacrificing myself to commit one sin, I produce a good outcome!

The proposition of Satan is that we can achieve good outcomes pleasing to God by just a small sin.

The same trick Satan lay on Jesus is done to us everyday of our lives. “If I just

“If I pick a job that has a higher pay but needs me to work on the Sabbath, I can pay a higher tithe. So that’s a good outcome!”

One sin that can produce a good outcome. So should we do it or not?

Jesus’ answer: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.

Deut 6:13-14
Again, the mind of Jesus shifted back to Deuteronomy and used the word of God to answer back. “I don’t care about the outcome. I just care about the action.” This is the wrong action. I’m only supposed to worship God.

The takeaway from Jesus’ answer is: the good outcome doesn’t justify the small/big sin. God is more interested in your right action than the good outcome.