“Matthew 6
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Luke 4
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”
Jujutsu is the art of turning your opponent’s strength against himself. You use jujutsu to defeat an opponent who is stronger than yourself. You manipulate the momentum from his punch to throw him to the ground.
Jujutsu extends beyond the martial arts. You see its international relations. The communists majored in political jujutsu. They turned the strength of the American economy against this nation by calling it a sign of decadence. They told other nations that America’s wealth came at their expense. Rather than confess that capitalism produced superior wealth, the communists turned America’s wealth into a political weakness.
Jujutsu is the art of turning your opponent’s strength against himself. This morning we see Satan attempt to turn Jesus’ strength against himself. Satan’s opponent was stronger than himself. We’ve seen Jesus’ strength in these temptations came from Scripture. He has twice answered Satan’s temptation by saying, “it is written.” Satan has had no answer to his faith in the word of God. Now he tries to turn Jesus’ trust in the word against Jesus.
If you take God’s word seriously, you need to watch out for this temptation. It comes up in churches. It comes up in council meetings. Satan can turn our strength against us. Satan will twist God’s word to deceive God’s people. When Satan twists God’s Word, respond with the Word. That is the claim of the sermon: When Satan twists God’s Word, respond with the Word.
We will study this in two points. First: don’t you believe God’s word? Second: don’t test the Lord your God. First, in verses 9-11, Satan opens the Bible, twists a promise, and asks Jesus, ‘don’t you believe God’s word?’ Second, in verses 12-13, Jesus responds with God’s word.
First: don’t you believe God’s word? You must take Satan seriously to pray the Lord’s Prayer with integrity. Jesus trained you to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” You have an enemy who would be happy to do far worse to you than you’ve ever wanted to do to anyone. You need to take him seriously.
We’ve gone to the wilderness with Jesus to take Satan seriously. If you are going to pray with proper fervency for deliverance from his temptations, you need to see how dangerous these temptations are.
Today we arrive at the final temptation recorded by Luke. Verse 9, ‘The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.”’
On the face of it, this temptation seems to be about fear. By speaking of the highest point of the temple, Luke may have been speaking about the Royal Porch. From its height to the Kidron Valley below would be a fall of about 450 feet. The temple itself wasn’t 450 feet tall. 450 feet was the drop from the top of the temple to the bottom of the valley on the temple’s southeast edge.
To put that 450 feet into perspective the Washington Monument in DC is 550 feet. The tallest building in Inwood is the grain elevator, which is about 150 feet tall. Imagine standing on top of three of those grain elevators stacked on top of each other. The thought of freefalling from that height would make anyone afraid.
Perhaps you have done the trust fall exercise. You stand on a chair or a ladder and turn around with your back facing your friends or coworkers. These people are standing in two lines with their arms extended ready to catch you. You must close your eyes and fall backwards into those waiting arms. It takes trust to fall backwards three feet into the waiting arms of co-workers. It takes trust to fall 450 feet into the waiting arms of your Father in heaven.
Satan told Jesus that if he really was the Son of God, the Father would catch him. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully…”
Satan was calling Jesus’ identity into question. He wanted Jesus to doubt that he was the Son of God. He told Jesus that such a jump would give him reassurance. Have you ever wanted to witness a miracle to reassure you that you already know is true is true? Have you ever wanted to see God write something in the sky to prove His love to you? Falling 449 feet and being caught by angels would be a wonderful reassurance to Jesus that what he already knew was true—he was God’s Son.
If you are a child of God, if you are born again of the Spirit, Satan wants you to doubt who you are. You have reasons to doubt that you are a child of God. ‘If you are a child of God, why don’t’ you feel like it? You know yourself. I don’t think anyone who knows me would vote me ‘most likely to be a child of God Almighty.’ You need to remember who you are because Satan tempts you just like he tempted Jesus. “If you are the Son of God…” ‘If you are a child of God…’
I imagine that at some point over the past few minutes, you have wondered if you would jump. Would you trust God enough to jump? Forget about getting out of the boat like Peter. Would you step into a 450 ft. freefall? Would you jump?
Jesus didn’t jump. That should tell you there is more to this temptation then meets the eye. When Satan tempts a man, he thinks like a chess master. He thinks five moves in advance. So, is this temptation about heights? Yes, it is about heights in the same way that a chess master’s first move is about that pawn. It is about that pawn and it is about the next four moves. Satan’s temptation included the fear of heights. It included calling Jesus’ identity into question, but that wasn’t the end game. That wasn’t the checkmate Satan was aiming for. Satan was aiming to turn Jesus’ strength into weakness. Jesus didn’t jump because he saw that Satan was trying to turn Scripture against him. The urgent question ‘will you jump?’ was not the important question. The most important question was about Scripture.
Twice Jesus had answered Satan’s temptations with Scripture: ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.”’ ‘It is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”’ Twice Satan had no response to the word of God. Satan recognized that he couldn’t tempt Jesus to disobey Scripture and so he twisted Scripture. He twisted Psalm 91.
Please open your Bibles to Psalm 91, which is on page 931. Let’s start with verse 9, “If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the Lord, who is my refuge— then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” ‘That’s God’s word, Jesus.’ ‘You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Satan didn’t put those words into God’s mouth. God spoke those words. Psalm 91 is God breathed. Satan just asked Jesus if he trusted those words. ‘Don’t you believe God’s word, Jesus? He said that since you love Him, He will rescue you. He said that since you call on Him, He will answer you. You love Him. You call on Him. Will you trust God’s word, Jesus?’ Satan wanted Jesus to think that if he refused to jump, he would betray God’s word.
Satan twisted the meaning of Psalm 91. This Psalm didn’t promise protection from consequences. I love the Lord, but that doesn’t mean I can start a chop saw and bring that spinning blade down on my hand without consequences. Psalm 91 doesn’t promise that when it says, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him; I will protect him.”
Satan twisted Scripture in an effort to harm Jesus. Satan twists Scripture in an effort to harm God’s people. Let’s take, for example, the Scriptures that say the husband is the head of the wife. Satan twists that verse so it excuses chauvinism. Satan twists that verse so it excuses spousal abuse. Satan twists this picture of Jesus laying down his life for his bride, the church, into something toxic.
He does the same with passages about the discipline of children: spare the rod, spoil the child. Satan will twist the meaning of that verse until it looks nothing like the discipline given by God the Father. God didn’t speak those words so you can lose it with your child and feel like you’ve got divine approval for doing so.
Satan uses God’s word to deceive God’s people. If you are a Christian, Satan won’t quote an occultist to you. He won’t quote Aleister Crowley to you. He will quote Scripture to you and that makes him very dangerous to a Bible believing church and a Bible believing family.
Satan can use truth to lie. That shouldn’t surprise you. Paul warned the Corinthians saying that, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” Just because something sounds Biblical doesn’t mean it is.
“Judge not lest thee be judged,” sounds Biblical, doesn’t it? Jesus did say it after all. Jesus’ words have been twisted to approve of sin. Homosexual encounters? “Judge not lest thee be judged.” Racist slurs in conversations? “Judge not lest thee be judged.” Getting high on the weekends? “Judge not lest thee be judged.” Greed? “Judge not lest thee be judged.”
“When people tell me judge not lest ye be judged,” said evangelist Paul Washer, “I always tell them, twist not Scripture lest ye be like Satan.” Just because something is in the Bible, does not mean it can’t be twisted by the devil.
But just because something can be twisted does not mean it isn’t good. Scripture can be twisted. That doesn’t mean it isn’t good. When Scripture was twisted, Jesus responded with Scripture. We see that in our second point: do not test the Lord your God.
Satan had quoted Psalm 91 to Jesus. Before seeing how Jesus responded, I want you to see how he didn’t respond.
Jesus didn’t deny the authority of Scripture. He didn’t say that the Bible is a collection of writings some of which are useful but not all of which are authoritative. Some regular church attenders unwittingly deny the authority of Scripture. They take what they find useful and convenient from Scripture, but they never submit to what they don’t like or to what is uncomfortable. Not surprisingly they wind up with a Jesus who always agrees with them.
Jesus didn’t deny the authority of Scripture. He also didn’t refuse to listen because of the messenger. ‘He didn’t say,’ I don’t need to listen to Psalm 91 Satan because you aren’t obeying Psalm 91.’ We do this. Imagine that you are friends with a woman at work and she in a lesbian relationship. She grew up in the church and knows a fair bit of Scripture. She knows that you are a Christian. One day you are grumbling about your husband, in fact you’ve been doing it for a week now, and she tells you that the Bible says that wives are to respect their husbands. She is right. If you discount what she says because she is in a lesbian relationship, you are wrong to do so. Her sin doesn’t take away from the truth of what she said. God’s word carries its own authority. It doesn’t depend on the perfection of the messenger. Jesus didn’t dismiss the authority of God’s word because of who spoke it.
Jesus didn’t put Scripture into conflict with Scripture. He didn’t say, ‘Oh, yes, Psalm 91, but what about Psalm 29?’ Many well-meaning Christians do this. They are embarrassed by texts like Isaiah 66 with its picture of hell and so they put it into conflict with other texts. ‘Oh yes, yes hell, but “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” True, but that doesn’t remove the horror of hell, “they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” God loves people and acted to rescue us from that hell. That love doesn’t make hell disappear. Don’t be embarrassed by God’s word. Don’t cover up what you don’t like with what you do like. Jesus didn’t put Scripture into conflict with Scripture.
Jesus also didn’t answer Satan with something other than Scripture. He didn’t say to himself, ‘well, Satan just twisted Scripture so I can’t use that anymore. I will have to argue my point some other way.’ He didn’t respond by trying to reason with Satan. He didn’t respond by telling Satan his own experience. He responded with Scripture. Luther was right, “the devil fears the word of God. He can’t bite it; it breaks his teeth.”
Jesus responded to twisted Scripture with Scripture. Verse 12, ‘Jesus answered, ‘It says: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’’
Jesus responded with Deuteronomy 6. Please turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 6. It is on page 284. If this chapter sounds familiar, it is the same one Jesus used against Satan’s last temptation. Jesus saw glorious things every nook and cranny of God’s word. You are to pray to have eyes to see what Jesus saw. “Open my eyes,” prayed the Psalmist, “that I may see wonderful things in your law.”
Deuteronomy 6—we will start with last week’s verse—verse 13. “Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and His anger will burn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.”
“Do not test the Lord your God.” That’s what Jesus told Satan. “Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.”
I hope that when you read that, you were curious about what happened at Massah. Jesus knew what happened at Massah and so he knew not to do it in the wilderness. If you don’t know what happened at Massah, how do you know that you aren’t doing it right now?
So, what happened at Massah? At Massah, Israel asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Israel was travelling through the wilderness and had come to a place with no food and no water. They provoked God to get food. The taunted Him to get water. “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Jesus wouldn’t ask that same question. Satan wanted him to. ‘Jump. Is the Lord among you or not? He said he is. Put Him to the test.’ Jesus responded, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” If Jesus jumped, he would have told God that, “you must take care of me now and on my terms,” in the words of Darrel Bock.
Have you ever tested God that way? Has your attitude ever said, ‘God, you must take care of me now and on my terms’? Have you put the Lord your God to the test? Maybe you’ve done it with money—‘God, I am going to give this tithe, but I am trusting you to multiply it and give me more back.’ Maybe you’ve done it with worship—‘God, if you don’t heal my mother I am never darkening the door of a church building again.’ Maybe you’ve done it with grace—‘God,You love to forgive and I love to sin.’ “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Jesus stood before God when he read Scripture. He was concerned with what the Father thought. He wasn’t concerned about whether the devil thought he obeyed Psalm 91. He was concerned with obeying his Father’s voice in Psalm 91. When Jesus heard those promises of protection in Psalm 91, he heard his Father’s voice; he didn’t want to put his Father to the test.
Do you hear God’s voice in Scripture? When you hear the Bible read, do you only hear sentence structures or do you hear God? When you hear the Bible read before the sermon, what are you hearing? Are you hearing a topic for study or are you hearing God? Jesus returned to what was written because that’s where he heard the voice of his Father.
Many widows have a man’s voice on their answering machine. It is the voice of their late husband. When they hear those words, they hear their husband
Jesus heard his Father in this word. This wasn’t a mere document to him that said, ‘do this,’ ‘don’t do that.’ This was his Father speaking to him. He wouldn’t be separated from this word any more than a widow would be separated from that answering machine. Jesus would not put Scripture above his Father any more than that widow would choose that answering machine over her husband.
Satan tempted Jesus to put Scripture above his Father. He does that with us. He tempts a Christian man to put, “it is not good for a man to be alone,” above the Father and so marry an unbeliever. Satan tempts a Christian woman to put, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” above the Father and so look down on others who aren’t intellectual as her. Such foolishness causes great harm and puts the Lord to the test. He doesn’t like your sin wearing the clothes of His word.
Jesus responded to Satan’s twisting of Scripture with Scripture. You must do the same. Calvin was right, “Whenever Satan covers his deception with Scripture, and ungodly men labor to subvert our faith by the same means, let us borrow our armor exclusively from Scripture for the protection of our faith.” To stand fast before Satan, you need to hear from God. Your own thoughts will not do. You need Scripture.
Satan can twist Scripture, but he cannot refute Scripture. Jesus silenced the devil with the word and the devil left. We see that in verse 13, “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Jesus gets the last word in every round and the last word is the word of God.
You have this same word. Josh and Melissa, you have this word. Penelope needs this word. She needs to know how to answer the evil one. She needs to know what is true when she is tempted. She will never be able to outthink Satan. She needs the word. She will never be able to outwit Satan. She needs the word. She needs to know what is written. “The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure, one little word shall fell him.” The word made Satan flee in the desert. The word still makes him flee.
Do you believe this word? The word silence Satan, but it does more. The word tells you about yourself. You are a hopeless sinner. You will not and cannot improve yourself in any way that will earn God’s favor. The word tells you about God. God made you in His own image. He loves you and demonstrated this by sending His Son. The word tells you about his Son. He became like you so that you could become like him. He suffered the condemnation you deserve so that you might have the peace with God he deserves.
Don’t let anything separate you from this word. Don’t let Satan separate you from this word. It shows you Jesus. You live by what is written – every word that comes from the mouth of the God. Amen.