Testing God or serving God

Pastor Rene's Bible studies

The Gospel of Luke-- Chap 4:9,13

Testing God or serving God

Luke 4:9 (NIV) 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.

What was the devil objet?

To force Jesus to prove himself to Jerusalem, that he truly was the Son of God.
Observe the devil's in citing the Scripture:

satan is sometimes transformed into an angel of light (2Cor 11:4).
Here he comes as a divine messenger, with a bible in his hand, and turned to the place in the Bible...
Here the ennnemy of God comes with the Word of God, and he hide the worstof actions with the best of words. He tries to oppose God to God and turn his truth into a lie.

In the first and second temptation he was refuted by scripture, so he will bring scripture too.. He will pretend to respect what he hates.
CHRISTIANS WATCH OUT! you do not have to do with a foolish devil who will appear in his own color, but he can pretend to be godly.

THE GREATEST PICTURE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE OF ALL TIMES:

This is a direct confrontation of Jesus Himself against satan. How did Jesus overcame him?
Not by binding and loosing any spirit...
Not through casting out any demons...
Not through breaking any curses... or naming any demons' names...
Not through any modern extremes of what is so-called spiritual warfare.
Jesus is our perfect model. We cannot find any better example of how we can overcome satan.
Jesus only weapon was to quote the Word of God...

The scripture he quote:

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.'"

The devil's argument

If God promises to send angels to guard the godly, how much more will he protect you who are the Son of God.
Why should you hesitate to throw yourself down. Here is the best opportunity to prove yourself.

In what was the devil faulty to quote this scripture?

Some says because he left out "In all your ways"... In other words, yes the Lord will keep you in your ways (the ways of the godly, or in your ways of serving God), but not in your own foolish, unwise or dangerous actions.
Also the the devil's error was in application.

He applied the word not to instruct, but to deceive

This is one of the most common misuses of scriptures in today's churches.
These preachers start not from scriptures; but from their own personal view. They already have decided what they want to convince people to believe. They misuses a verse to try to prove their point.
They quote other well known preachers to support their view. They used their own personal experiences as a source of authority.
Where does that method comes from originally?
God commanded to teach what he himself had taught. He commanded to teach his word, not to use his it...

; to give birth to contempt of scriptures instead of respect; to make the Word of God uncertain; to turn reverence to the word into an occasion of deceit;
more particularly to tempt God to a needless proof of his power.

We are not to cast ourselves into danger to force God to rescue us. God will protect us in the evils we suffer, not in the evils we commit.

The change of place.

For a new temptation, he made the choice of a new place. He could do no good in the wilderness or on the mountain, so he carried him to the holy city.
In the temple the Messiah was in his own house, where it was the ideal place to show himself to the people.
The devil did not try to convince him to throw himself from a rock or a tree in the wilderness, but from the top of the temple, a place he could be seen and acclaimed by all the people.

But the Son of God was not to be discovered by the devil's methods.

A new approach to the temptation.

Look at the difference between the first and the third temptationI:
In the 1st temptation, when he was hungry after 40 days of fasting, the devil tempted him to distrust the care of his Father for his physical needs and to use his supernatural power out of the will of God to satisfy his own physical needs and to take into his own hands how he will provide to his daily necessities.. The 1st one was distrust.
Now we see the opposite. the devil lead him to over-confident presumption that God through his action of throwing himself down the temple would be forced to show his power and to prove his cares for his servant the Messiah.
Trying by "your faith" to force God to prove himself.
In the 1st temptation, he tempted him to preserve his own life, and in the 3rd to neglect his own life.
In the 1st one, he tried to make him believe that God would fail in what he promised, and in the 3rd that God would help in what he had not promised.
It is usual with the tempter to tempt man on both sides; to lead them in extremes; sometimes to weaken his faith, at other times to boost man with presumption which is similar to faith but without any susbtance to withold (support)it.

PRESUMPTION: The act of presuming (presume: take for granted without proving; to suppose.
PRESUMPTION looks a lot like faith: It declares, it confesses words of "faith".

The devil said something like: "Throw yourself down, i'm convinced God's angel will carry you.

Hebr 11:1 (KJS) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

(Substance) A thing put under, a substructure, a foundation
(Evidence) The evidence, the proof, a conviction

The temptation was stronger because hidden under the cover of scriptures.

Observations:

The first and second temptation rejected by Christ, the devil made a new assault (like a troublesome fly)
If satan leads us up, it is to throw us down. He brought up many people little by little to high places, that they may break their neck.
Haman:

Esth 3:1 (NIV) After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles.

2 All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.

Esth 7:10 (NIV) So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided.

satan himself was an aspirer
God's manner is quite contrary; before he will to exalt a man, he will first humble him.

Matt 23:12 (NIV) For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Those that are guided by satan go from one extreme to another.
This temptation is quite contrary to the 1st one. 1st was to preserve life, now to endanger life.
1st was to distrust God's care of our needs, here to presume on his care without support.
the devil leads to sometimes pamper the flesh, sometimes to neglect it in a destructive way.
Some Christians are careless of God's interest, others heated with bitter zeal.
the devil can get as many to fall through the worldly glory he puts upon Christ's messangers as by persecution.

Christ' s answer

12 Jesus answered, "It says: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

KJV. - It is written:Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.

The Lord answered to instruct us what to do in the renewed assault of the devil.
"It is written" Christ cut the throat of the temptation by quoting Deut 6:16" You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah."

Exod 17:7 (NIV) And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

We may see here how the Lord uses scriptures, comparing scriptures with scriptures, because scriptures is not opposite to itself but in harmony.
Consider the extremes of the devil and the balance of Jesus.
One place says how God will take a great care of his people, using angels to protect them, then another place warns us "Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.
It also teaches us that scriptures speak to all of us. In Deut 6:16, "ye shall not tempt the Lord your God". This written to all, but here Christ applied it to its situation.

What is this tempting God?

The Act- definition

In the scripture, it is said that we can tempt God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Tempt God:

Psal 95:9 (NIV) where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.

Through words which tend to dishonour God or doubt of his foreknowledge, power and providence, if they don't get what they want the way they want it.

Psal 78:18 (NIV) They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. 19 They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?

Psal 78:18 (KJS) And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Exodus 17:7,

Is the Lord in the midst of us, or no?

They doubted when they continually had proofs of God's presence in their midst. They requested more proofs

And they will choose what kind of signs they want and when.

Every transgression, in a general sense, is a tempting of God:

Numb 14:22 (NIV) not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times--

They make a trial of God's justice, will he execute justice? When we fall into any voluntary sin, we put it to trial.

1Cor 10:22 (NIV) Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

By open volontary sins men dare God to his face

Mala 3:15 (NIV) But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.'"

By secret sins we put it to the trial whether God is an all-seeing God.(Ananias and Saphira.)

Tempt God with distrust:

In Ex 17:7, they tempted the Lord saying is the Lord among us or not? They had sufficient signs of God's presence; but they wanted signs of their own.
This is a frequent sin in modern churches: they will not believe God unless they see a new miracle, or hear a new prophecy, unless God gives new proof that they ask for...
Instead we should accept God's revelation of himself.
Keep what you have received from him in your heart. Believe in him no matter what...
Know God from his word, from prayer (not from new books, teachings, or "revelation".
The same with the Jews in Jesus' time. They wanted Jesus perform a sign just for them, even after Jesus had given so much evidence of his mission and divine power in castingout devils and healing the sick.

If God is with us, let him show it by doing this or that. People now-a-days require stronger proofs of God's power than what he allows...
This is a frequent sin in many modern churches around the world today.
1. Some will not believe God's presence and promises except they see a miracle or hear a prophesy.
2. They will not believe unless he give us new and extraordinary proof such as we require, even if he already supplied to our needs and had done amply to convince us already of his power, love, justice etc...

Psal 95:9 (NIV) where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways."

Psal 78:18 (KJS) And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

Here God must give them the aboundance they want or else they will no longer serve him.

Psal 78:40 (KJS) How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, [and] grieve him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, [nor] the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

Here they prescribe means and times to God. They set their own rules. If God does not help them by their means and at their time, they will not follow his guidance anymore. They will substitute these by their own... Sometimes they want to go faster than God. Sometimes they think God goes too fast.
Some will not be satisfied of their spiritual condition or experience without some proof in the area of the senses to bring them a kind of assurance of God in their life.
In every task, works of service, they need new spiritual candies, they need to overflow with something that can be perceived by their senses or else they will be filled with doubts about God or their mission for God....

Tempt God with presumption

When without any support, we presume of God's power, protection and providence. As here the devil tempted Jesus to cast himself down from the temple.
1st. When we presume upon God's help forsaking the ordinary way. If there are stairs... let's walk down.
In the wilderness, God brought water out of the rock, because there were none, but with Abrahan and Isaac, they had to dig well.
God can rain manna, but if there are corn let's cultivate it and harvest it.
Christ in the wilderness fed the multitude, but near a city he sent the apostles to buy bread.
"If any would not work, neither should he eat." 2Thess 3:10. In the spiritual, men want to have the end without the mean.

Reasons for tempting God

Psal 78:56 (KJS) Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

They that tempt God throw away obedience to God's rules and make others to themselves. Unless God will do this and that, we will no longer believe his power and serve him.

Psal 78:18 (KJS) And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? 21 Therefore the LORD heard [this], and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; 22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

It is to be ungrateful to despise the works God already done in our midst.
It is great unbelief the main cause of tempting God. We must have extraordinary proofs, or else we question all. They believed not Fod.
They must have their own way of supply or delivrance or else they cannot trust God if he does not help them at their time and by their means.
If God does not satisfy their flesh, they will not be satisfy with God. They want to use God for the satisfaction of their flesh.

Psal 106:13 (KJS) They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

Numb 20:5 (KJS) And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it [is] no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither [is] there any water to drink.

Their were impatient of of waiting God's time to receive their inheritance; because they did not have it now. When they encountered difficulty, they concluded they were betrayed. They did not want to wait God's time and trust God's care and his promises.

Conclusion

Let your heart be full with the certainty of the goodness, wisdom and power of God. His purposes may be hidden from us, but he does all things well. Let us not tempt him by confining him to our time, means and manners. (Jesus loved Lazarrus, but when he heard he was sick, he waited...)Whatever our difficulties may be, God is still to be trusted.
Be firmly persuaded of God's care over you. This is assured to us by promises and by experiences.(1 pet 5:7- Casting all your care upon him, for He cares for you.) Remember when Christ provided over and over for your needs (Matt 16:8,9 - When Jesus said... don't you remember the 5 loaves?)
Have a resolute trust and dependance:

Job 13:15 (KJS) Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:

Keep your commitment to your duty "Wait on the Lord and keep his ways" Ps 37:34

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