Matthew 4:5-7
We are continuing our Sunday School lessons in the Gospel of Matthew. We are in Matthew Chapter 4. At the end of Matthew Chapter 3, we saw Jesus get baptized in water. And now we see him being tempted by the devil.
Last week we saw Jesus being tempted to turn the stones into bread after fasting for forty days and forty nights. That was the first temptation by the devil to Jesus. Now, we’re going to study the second temptation.
Matthew 4:5-7
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
The Tempting of Jesus Christ by Satan
We must pay close attention to every word of God. The devil takes Jesus up into the holy city. Jesus was just in the wilderness. The devil is able to take Jesus up into the holy city. He sets him on a pinnacle or the highest part of the temple.
The Gospel of Luke, Luke Chapter 4, tells us that the devil brought him to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of the temple. The Bible calls the city of Jerusalem the holy city.
And the devil, also called Satan, says to Jesus: “If thou be the Son of God.” This is the same strategy that the devil uses all the time. Watch his strategy and learn from this. He’s already questioning Jesus Christ the same way he questioned Eve.
“If thou be the Son of God.” He tries to make the person he is tempting question themselves. Hey, you’re a Christian? If you’re a Christian, why are you doing this? If you’re a good man, why are you doing that?
If, if, if you’re this or if, if, if you’re that, then why don’t you do this or why don’t you do that? This is called being subtle or sly, artful, cunning, crafty, and insinuating. He plans these schemes out. He is deceitful.
Hey, if you’re so strong, why don’t you run into that brick building? If you’re that strong, then it won’t hurt you.
Tempting People Using “IF”
Hey, if you want to have fun, why don’t you just drink that alcohol? Hey, if you want to be seen by the girls as a man that all the girls want, why don’t you just do those drugs? If you want this, you have to do that. If you want that, you have to do this.
This is a strategy of the devil. He will use that same strategy on you. Other people will use that same strategy on you. For example, a woman once told me that I wasn’t a real man IF I couldn’t buy my wife what she wanted. That doesn’t work on me. I said, “Well I guess I’m not a real man then.” That was a strategy of the devil. And I am sure that woman was of the devil.
The word of God tells us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Satan knows Jesus Christ is the Son of God. But he stills runs his mouth. He said to Eve, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not of every tree of the garden?”
Eve knew that God had told her to not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” But Satan gets her to question what God said. Did God really say that?
And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” God said you would die. Satan said you won’t die.
Jesus, If You’re the Son of God
He says to Jesus, “Are you really the Son of God? I know you think you are the Son of God, but are you really the Son of God?”
Look at verse 6 again, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” Satan is telling Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple. Cast thyself down. Jump, Jesus, jump. That’s what Satan is telling Jesus to do.
And then Satan uses the Holy Scriptures. Satan knows the Scriptures. He will attempt to use those against you as well. He tries this against the Son of God, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.
“For it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” So, this is Satan quoting a verse to the one who wrote the verse. Jesus Christ is the author of the Bible. The Bible is written by the hand of men and by the hand of God.
Psalm 91 Quoted by Satan
So, what is Satan quoting there? Let’s compare what Satan says to where it is written in the Old Testament.
| Matthew 4:6 | Psalm 91:11-12 |
| And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. | For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. |
He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
In other words, Satan is tempting Jesus Christ to jump off the pinnacle of the temple. He’s saying, “If you jump off this temple, God will certainly save you. The angels will save you. They will bear you up in their hands. Nothing will hurt you, Jesus.” He wants Jesus to prove to him that he is the Son of God. Jump, Jesus, jump.
If you are who you say you are, jump. The angels will save you. God would never allow you to get hurt.
Now, verse 7 is what I want to focus in on here. Take a close look.
Don’t Tempt God
Matthew 4:7
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
If Jesus threw himself off the pinnacle of the temple just to see if God would send the angels to save his life, that would be tempting God. And make sure you hear this today because you don’t want to make that same mistake in your life. God will not be happy.
Satan attempts to use a Scripture to get Jesus to do something that would break another Scripture. That’s how crafty and cunning that Satan happens to be.
For example, the world teaches you to judge not. And they will take a Scripture from Jesus and ignore all the Scriptures around that same Scripture.
Matthew 7:1
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
The world, or Satan, teaches you not to judge anyone or anything for any reason. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. Let’s read the entire set of Scripture.
Matthew 7:1-5
Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Judge All Things Righteously
There’s an entire book of the Bible named Judges. As we live our life, we make judgments all day long every day of our life. We need to judge all things. But Satan attempts to take a Scripture and tell you not to judge anything.
Jesus is teaching not to judge unrighteously. Get something right in your own life before you can help someone committing the same sin as you. Get it right yourself first.
Jesus says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
John 7:24
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Jesus says right there: “Judge righteous judgment.” Don’t look at someone and think you know everything about them. Don’t look at a black man and think he’s evil because his skin is black. Don’t look at a white man and think he’s evil because his skin is white. Don’t do it.
Don’t look at a man screaming and cussing his dog and think that he’s evil. He might just listen to the Gospel and get saved. Don’t skip over him.
It’s important for you to read the Bible over and over again and know what the Scriptures are teaching throughout.
For example, don’t take a statement in the Bible such as “faith without works is dead” and try to teach and preach that you must have good works to get to heaven. That is not what the Bible teaches. That is not what James Chapter 2 is teaching. Don’t allow Satan to use his subtilty to get you to believe lies. Be like Jesus.
Don’t Fall for the Tricks
Matthew 4:7
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Satan is tempting Jesus and Jesus is God. But doing something like throwing yourself off a pinnacle of a temple just to see if God will save you is called tempting God. Jesus says, “It is written again.” There is another Scripture that you can’t break or it is sin. And Jesus doesn’t sin.
It is written again, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Since Jesus says, “It is written,” we’ll go find the exact Scripture that Jesus is quoting back to Satan. It’s important to know the Scriptures to battle the temptations in your life.
What I am about to show you in the Bible is very, very important in your life. You need to know what it means to tempt the Lord. I can almost guarantee you that you do this in your life. And it needs to stop because you won’t get God’s help by tempting him over and over again. Most people tempt God. Watch this closely.
Deuteronomy 6:13-16
Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. 16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
Interfaith Services with Sodomites and Muslims
For example, we don’t have interfaith services with sodomites and Muslims. We serve and worship the one true God and we don’t play around with that. God will destroy us. He is a jealous God. Verse 16 says, “Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.”
What’s this talking about? The children of Israel, his own people, God’s people, tempted him in Massah. Let’s see what they did. This comes from Exodus Chapter 17. Don’t make this same mistake.
Exodus 17:1-3
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? 3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
Exodus 17:4-6
And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. 5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 17:7
And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
Where Are You God? Are You There?
Look closely there. “And because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?” They were going through tough times out there in the wilderness. There was no water for them to drink. That’s rough. If we had no water to drink in this country, people would go crazy.
In 2020, people went crazy over toilet paper which really isn’t a requirement to stay alive. Water is a requirement. They had no water.
They said, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Have you ever had so much trouble in your life that you’ve said, “God are you there or not?” That’s called tempting the Lord. He’s there. He’s watching. He sees it all. He sees everything. He’s there. Don’t tempt him.
Don’t go do something crazy like jumping off a building or a bridge and think that God is going to save you out of it. Don’t go sky diving to get a thrill and pray that God will save you if something goes wrong.
For example, we go out and preach the Gospel in dangerous areas at times. We are following the commandment of the Lord to preach the Gospel. He protects us because we are following his commandments. I don’t purposely go into dangerous areas to see if God will save me. That would be tempting God. I go out there because I care and love the people around here. I don’t go out there for any other reason.
In situations in your life, don’t get mad at God and act like he doesn’t exist in certain situations. “Hey God, if you’re there, show me. If you’re there, do something and prove you’re there.”
“Show Me You Are There, God” Is a Very Dangerous Thing to Say
Hey, that’s a very dangerous thing to do. I was in a church one time and the pastor was on vacation. A man was preaching there, and he kind of went off the deep end in my opinion. I think he was trying to please the women there by using emotions and causing everyone to get emotional.
The man’s wife starting yelling out during the very long prayer that God needs to show his power. She yelled, “God, you aren’t showing us your power. Show us your power. Show up and do something.”
Hey, I don’t want any part of that. That’s called tempting the Lord thy God. That’s Satan. That’s what he wants you to do. God commands you not to do that. “God, IF you’re there, give us water.”
“Hey Jesus, IF you are the Son of God, jump and let me see God save you.”
“God, IF you are there, show me.” Are you tempting God? You don’t think he’s there. “If you’re there, show us.” Don’t ask God to show you signs that he’s there. “God, IF you’re there, show me a sign.” Don’t tempt God. You’ll get the wrath of God. He’s there. You can know that.
Psalm 95:7-9
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
You must know that God is there. You know he’s there. Hear his voice through this Bible and through his words. He left this Bible with us. Don’t provoke God by tempting him. Satan wants you to do that.
Don’t Harden Your Heart and Tempt God
Don’t do it. When you’re going through tough times, don’t harden your heart against God. Don’t provoke him. Don’t tempt him.
God gives us hundreds of examples throughout the Bible of him being there. He was always there. He is always there. And he always will be there. If you can know one thing to be true, it’s that. God is there.
They tempted God. They proved God. They saw God’s works. And all of his works that you need to know are in the Bible. Read all about it. It all happened. He gave us his words and there is no book like the Bible in existence. There’s nothing even close. He left us with his words.
Don’t provoke. Don’t tempt him. Know that he’s there. Know that he will help you through troubles and trials. Have faith that he will save you out of all things. Have faith that he will help you through.
For example, we will have tough times at this church. But this church is a good church. And I know that God will get us through every tough time that we have. We will simply trust him while we continue to do right. When we do wrong, we ask forgiveness from God. We say, “I’m sorry.”
And we keep going. We don’t give up. We don’t quit. We win. The Lord ensures us of that.
The devil tempted Jesus. “Jump, Jesus, jump. God will save you if you jump. If you’re the Son of God, the angels will save you.” Hey, don’t fall for those tricks. “If you’re saved, you will do all these good works. If, if, if.” It’s a trick. Know the Scriptures. Know the tricks of the devil. And resist the devil by following in the footsteps of Jesus.
Let’s pray.
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