Mat 4:1-11; Hard Times Means that God Is Close By.

Class Outline:

Wednesday February 7, 2024

Today, as we continue in our study of Jesus’ second trial, we will look at the source of Jesus’ response.

 

Idea: When life gets hard, God is still with us. 

We do not have to see God on radar (testing Him).

 

MAT 4:5-7

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand 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 WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU';

 

and

 

'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,

SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"

 

7 Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

 

Jesus’ reference to DEU 6:16 is in the midst of the context of the Exodus when they tested the Lord when things got hard because water was running low. The result was that they doubted that the Lord was with them.

 

Testing the Lord in Deu 6 was Israel questioning God’s providence and love. Doubting the Father’s competence and dependability. 

 

EXO 17:1-7

1:1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one with his household:    1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;    1:3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;    1:4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.    1:5 All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt.    1:6 Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.    1:7 But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.

 

EXO 17:7, “Is the Lord among us or not?” [Exposit vv. 1-7]

 

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down = Is the Lord with you or not? 

 

DEU 6:1-25.

6:1 "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it,    6:2 so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.    6:3 "O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.    6:4 "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!    6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.    6:6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.    6:7 "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.    6:8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.    6:9 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.    6:10 "Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,    6:11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,    6:12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.    6:13 "You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.    6:14 "You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,    6:15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.    6:16 "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.    6:17 "You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.    6:18 "You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers,    6:19 by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.    6:20 "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?'    6:21 then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand.    6:22 'Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household;    6:23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.'    6:24 "So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today.    6:25 "It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.    

 

When times are hard, mix the promises of God with faith (1CO 10:13; Heb 4).

• Do not follow their disobedience. 
• God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. 

 

When trouble, loss, pain, trial come, and we have seen that they will and must (2Co 12, when I am weak, I am strong), do not question God’s providence, nor His love for you (ROM 8:31-39;

 

DEU 6:4-5).   

.    6:4 "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!    6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might

 

ROM 8:31-39

8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?    8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?    8:33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;    8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.    8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?    8:36 Just as it is written, "For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."    8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.    8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,    8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.    

 

The devil perverts the interpretation of Scripture.

 

The devil knows the Bible. Make sure you know more than him in the field that he cannot know: interpretation. 

 

Satan has no faith, and no ministry of the HS therefore he cannot interpret Scripture truthfully. He does not have a love relationship with God. 

 

The devil’s plan is patient, to get you to doubt a little or live sinfully in a small area which areas he will stoke over time.

 

Conclusion / application. 

 

If the Lord throws Himself down, the salvation of mankind would be in jeopardy. If He throws Himself down, we would follow Him.

 

You are to be like Him. Do what He does. You stand your ground with the armor of God and do not tempt God. You do use Scripture to interpret Scripture.

 

Therefore, you are disciplined in your spiritual life - Bible study, prayer, reflection, application.