There is hardly a sin committed that Satan and his demons have not used their influence. The cross was a vicious attack on the Son of God primarily driven by the wicked heart of man, but certainly aroused and propelled to completion by the Wicked One. The Bible seems to emphasize Satan in the crucifixion. The Jews crucified the Lord Jesus because they were jealous of Him. The Romans crucified Him because they were cowardly and wished to protect their power. The cross was the worst that man, that his sin nature could do.

The temptation of our Lord was the worst the Devil could do. It is Satanic from beginning to end. It is personal and after 40 days of temptation, it is face to face. There are no others. Satan waits until the Lord Jesus is isolated, before he begins the work of testing, of probing Jesus to find the chinks, the weak spots. There were none. The three last temptations were tests so powerful that if there were, he would have found them and displayed them for all to see. No one has ever been tested like our Lord. This is solely Satan’s work. He solicits no man as a helper in this work. His power is unchecked and unlimited in his testing of Jesus.

It had to be so. God the Father had just declared, publicly for the first time, that the newly baptized Jesus was His Son, His beloved Son. He had proclaimed that He was well pleased with Him and He sent His Spirit to rest upon Him for the rest of His life. The Spirit resided in the Lord in the same way He does today’s disciples.

Satan, the Tempter, the Devil, wishes to test Jesus if He is all that the Father had said of Jesus. He will test Him and from that testing the devil will see if the Father was right. In his desire to be above God, he will check Jesus out to see if He is worthy such love of the Father.

Satan will find nothing to incite to sin in the nature of God’s Son. The Biblical record of Matthew 4, Luke 4 and Mark 1 gives the details of Jesus’ exhaustion, weakness, and hunger. Although Satan isn’t responsible for these circumstances, in his craftiness, he uses them to accentuate his power to test Jesus.

We notice the power and authority of our Lord over Satan. Satan obeys Him, still. When the Devil finished the third temptation, the Lord Jesus dismissed him as if he were a house pup. “Get away… Be gone,” he said and the devil left without a whimper. He spoke and the devil fled. He had power over Satan all the time, and yet he didn’t use it until it was the Father’s will. This wasn’t a conflict of equals. Jesus maintained His eternal authority over Satan and His powers. Jesus remained under the testing of Satan even though it was painful and difficult. Is He not a model to you and me? Even if we can escape testing, even if we can stop the discomfort, should we? Remaining in God’s will means for the Lord’s disciple may mean to stay under the weight of a trial even if one has the power to end it. A life in which one has died to self, means that the Father alone determines the length of time, the beginning and ending of our testing.

The temptation is words, Satan’s words. “If,” he says. This one word is the core of each test. The temptation is to demonstrate publicly or at least in the Devil’s presence the qualities one would think the Son of God has. His words challenge a quality already declared about the Person of Christ. The Lord knows He is the Son of God, but how will He exert the majesty and power of Deity and man?

The test comes about because the Lord Jesus is unique. What does God, Deity, look like? This new being needs testing, Satan believes. Does the humanity that the Lord added to Himself mean that He is controlled by it? Will Jesus do what all others would do, care for Himself first? Satan is all too aware of the unity of the Godhead, the love and loyalty they have with one another. But what about this new kind of person; will he act with righteousness and love? Will He act like sinful man who takes care of himself first?

What did Satan mean, “if you are the Son of God?” It was a test to see if the righteousness of God was lost when the Son took on humanity. Would Jesus remain loyally and lovingly connected with the Father and His will even when that will brought suffering? Would He choose to become independent as does mankind? When mankind has been in need, self preservation has driven him to do the worst kinds of things. Some have eaten their children when starving. Would Jesus do something simple, something easy— something that is not nefarious to relieve his hunger? Would Jesus act to end His suffering even when He easily could? This is a test that encouraged Jesus to be independent. Passing this test will prove that Jesus humanity included the ability to sin, that He, like sinners, will act to protect His life. This sin is so innocuous. Satan would be the only one to know if Jesus made bread of stones. Satan didn’t doubt that Jesus could do the miracle. He was God. What was questioned, what was tested, is Jesus’ loyalty to obeying His Father. Would He act independently of His Father to fulfill a personal need? Was Jesus really that approved Son well pleasing to the Father? This was a test of the first commandment. Will Jesus love God supremely?

This is a test of Jesus’ make up. Human nature would act to fulfill one’s need, even if it meant breaking with God. The fall put man and his needs as the core and purpose of life. Human beings have lied, stolen, cheated, and murdered to provide for a perceived need. If we had the same suggestion under the same conditions, we would quickly do whatever we could to relieve our pain. We are first. We would not pass this test because of the kind of person we are. In fact if we could relieve our pain, we might think that is not only right, but God’s gift.

It seems dumb or worse sadistic to continue in discomfort when one doesn’t have to. However, God has contracted to care for us. Our job is to keep looking at the sparrow. It is His job to provide.

But there is a difference between Jesus and other human beings. When He took on humanity, He didn’t take the sinfulness that is so much a part of ours. This test proves there is a great difference. Jesus didn’t acquiesce to the temptation to self preservation, even after 40 days of starvation. He is made of higher things, than we. He will not become disloyal to His Father, nor love Himself above Him. He will love the Lord, His God, and Him only will He serve.

The test is real. The circumstances are felt as keenly by the Lord as they would be to you. Jesus’ nature didn’t remove one smidgen of pain that comes from HIs isolation and starvation. He was as weak as you would be, probably more so.

Satan’s suggestion to Jesus was something He could have easily done—stones to bread, an easy task for one who spoke the universe into existence and created all things in six days. That is how Satan tempts you. He suggests ways of escape. Here is how you can stop the pain. Take these pills, drink this, smoke that, get a gun and end it all. Patience, trust and faithful loyalty to God are not easy, and because another escape is so handy, Satan’s suggestion is a powerful influence on our will, too. Satan is only saying words, but they have the greatest weight. They stab at our will, hoping to weaken it. No one will know. Satan can tempt us by good theology. God forgives sins, doesn’t He? He will understand your lapse during times of suffering, won’t He, he reasons.

It doesn’t take us long to imagine Satan’s power in temptation, because we too have been tempted in a similar way. Jesus has been tempted in all points like we have been, (Heb. 4:15) but we have been tempted like He was, as well. We can relate to His temptation and He sympathizes with our weakness that gives Satan an opportunity. He is there to prevent sin for us. God would rather prevent sin than forgive sin.

We hear Satan’s words and we think they are our own voice, “step away, be independent, you have needs, God will forgive because He loves you.” Those words pushed at our resolve hoping to find the slightest crack in our will. Sadly, we have often given in to temptation, unlike our Lord who was without sin, because we are self worshipers. We break the first commandment over and over loving ourselves. As idolaters, we are quick love the Lord our God only when we don’t have to miss a sacrifice to ourselves. We regularly place ourselves before Him. That’s what it means to be a sinner and that is why we need salvation. But the Lord Jesus continued to depend on His Father. He would love the Lord, His God with all His heart, soul, strength and mind. This was an assault on the first commandment.

Although the circumstances of isolation and starvation continued, Satan stopped this temptation. The text tells us that there was an immediate satisfaction to Jesus’ response. Even though a second test will fall on the heels of the first, Satan’s mind is satisfied that the Lord is set in His loyalty to His Father. What did Jesus say that convinced Satan? Why didn’t he continue the barrage as he does that with us? The simple answer is that Satan is certain that we have the weakness to put ourselves before God, if only He can exert enough pressure. He becomes convinced that Jesus will not sin if he pressures further. Jesus will do what is righteous. That is His nature. You and I will sin. That is our nature. God has included all under sin.

Scripture tells us that Satan is given a very short leash when it comes to temptation. He probably never has used all his power against am person, as He did against the Lord. Remember the promise, “he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability…” 1 Cor. 10:13. Notice it is God who will not allow. He permits Satan only limited access to each of us, based on where we are in our ability. In other words, even though no human being is a match for Satan, every temptation can be passed. We can do the righteous act, the right thing. We don’t have to sin, because each temptation is limited by God. He considers each one and gives Satan limitations according to our maturity, our bent to specific sins, and the power we have given our own flesh. And yet, with Satan’s short leash and limitations, we willfully disobey God. We choose self above Him. We are idolaters, indeed.

How did the Lord “satisfy” Satan? First the Lord Jesus responded with the authority and power of God’s Word and secondly, He used it as an expression of His own heart and desire. He didn’t use it as a formula to expell the Devil.

All three responses to Satan, were from the book of Deuteronomy. We are amazed at the Lord’s knowledge of Scripture. His response from Deuteronomy reinforces what we learned in Luke 2. He had to learn as we learn. He developed, He matured, He “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” Luke 2:40 He put aside the use of His divine nature to know all things and to be limitless in power. He developed strength and wisdom. Why did He quote the book of Deuteronomy? It is a book that details what it means for a Jewish man to love God. It defines in detail the first commandment. The three temptations were attacks on Jesus’ love for His Father. The Father had said that Jesus was His beloved Son and that He was pleased with Him. Satan tried to sever Jesus’ relationship with His Father and tarnish the Father’s pleasure of His Son. Jesus passed the tests because He used the same tools available to you and me. The Father continued to be pleased with His Son. He sent angels to care for Him once the testing ended. The Father’s approval of His Son will never be doubted again.

The Lord Jesus had just been baptized by His kinsman, John The Baptizer. His baptism was the same mode as our own, because He went into the water and the Greek word is baptize or properly translated into English by the word immersed. Jesus baptism looked much like the Biblical model practiced today. He was lowered into the water and then lifted out.

But the Lord’s Baptist had a different purpose. He was fulfilling righteousness. He was accruing righteous actions so that He then could apply them to the accounts of those who would believe on Him. His death on the cross not only washed away the verdict of guilty of sins, but also put righteousness to every believer’s account. God sees believers as righteous people as well as forgiven.

Our baptism is a picture of personal identification with the work of Christ, the accomplishment of His death burial and resurrection. Baptism is motivated by personal faith that the Lord’s death cleanses sin and forgives them.

After the Lord Jesus came out of the water, the Father spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended dove like and rested upon Him. What an experience that would have been for the Lord.

Immediately after His baptism, the Spirit led the Lord Jesus away from the new converts at Jordan and away from John into an isolated area of the wilderness of Judea. We know why the Spirit led the Lord Jesus into the desert. It was for the intention of being tempted. Temptation has two aspects in the Bible. There is the test of the one being tempted and the allurement to sin. We often think of it as anything that is alluring and attractive that pulls at us to sin. We can be tempted to do something that God has told us not to do or we can be tempted not to do what we have been told to do. Jesus temptation lasted 40 days, with probably scores of events, but the Bible only records three temptations which probably serve as a general character of all the others.

Because the Spirit is leading, we know that the Lord’s temptations are planned by God. The Spirit is the vehicle through whom the will of God is being fulfilled. The Holy Spirit pulls the Lord Jesus away from the fellowship of John, from the opportunities for teaching and learning that surrounded His stay at the Jordan. The KJV uses the word “drive” to speak of the Spirit’s work. The Greek verb means more than the normal idea of leading and yet, perhaps the word drive gives the wrong impression that Jesus was unwilling to follow.

In our experience the Spirit leads by making His objective attractive. He provides an internal impulse and drawing that motivates us to act or move toward an objective. However, Jesus was driven or led in a more powerful way than we are.

The Lord Jesus had just had a wonderful experience at His baptism. It would have been normal for Him to desire to stay with John to contemplate what had happened to Him. But instead, the powerful leadership of the Spirit moves Him forward to isolation, to the wilderness for a divine appointment with Satan.

We know that it is not the intention of God to lure Christ to consider sinning. That is not the meaning of temptation here. Instead the Spirit wants to put the Lord in a time of great weakness to reveal His nature. This is a time of testing that reveals the character of Jesus. That is the meaning of temptation here.

Jesus cannot sin or be tempted to do evil. James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” James gives two unbendable facts. God, because of His pure nature, He cannot be tempted with evil and the second, God Himself tempts no one. The Spirit was not leading Jesus to a place where He would consider doing evil. Jesus had no inclination to sin. To us it is pleasurable, but within Him there is nothing about it that appeals to Him. By the conception of the Holy Spirit the Lord is protected from the consequences of the Fall. His heart has no desire to do evil in any place or at any time. Even though His incarnation greatly changed the form of the Son of God, in that the invisible God now added flesh and bones, He remains God and therefore incapable of being tempted to do evil. Unlike sinners, there is nothing within His soul or spirit that is attracted to sin. Instead the temptation is a testing to prove He is who says He is. He is God.

The purpose of this divine appointment, this leading of God’s Spirit is to test and prove the substance of Christ. Who is He? What we know about Jesus until now is what God intends for Him to do. He will save His people from their sins. He is the Lamb of God in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Mostly what we know until now is what He will do. The first knowledge of His Person we will learn by Satan’s testing during these 40 days.

We will see our Lord’s nature and character during a time when He is at His weakest. This is the most extreme time of weakness in Jesus life, except for the cross. He suffered more in both of these events more than any human. One may think that because Jesus was God that He was unaffected by bodily weakness. But that is not so. Even though He was God and incapable of being lured or deceived into sinning, He was keenly susceptible to the weakness of the human body. After 40 days and nights He was extremely weak and hungry. He was isolated from human love and encouragement. His only resource would have been the same as is available to you in your times of temptation. God the Father was there in this place of isolation and His fellowship would have been available. The Lord was starving and He had had no water for 40 days. He was exhausted and His body was crying out for relief from the testing.

These conditions would make Him easy prey for Satan. The test would be to stop trusting and to take the first opportunity to relieve our misery. But Jesus did not. He continued to depend on His Father’s will to end the test when He pleased. By the power of the Spirit, He resisted and refused Satan’s suggestion. Satan pointed to a way of relief and it was within Jesus’ power to do the miracle, but it would be an act of distrust. It would break the eternal bond He had with His Father. To remain in love with His Father meant He would trust Him. It would have been easy for us to think God was unwise, giving us more than we could take and that He was letting this go on too long. We may conclude that He had some cosmic lesson to prove and that He is not genuinely loving.

Jesus was not tempted to do evil, yet in this point, He was tempted because of He was fully human. The drive for self-preservation isn’t sinful, but when it rules us, we become idolaters. The Lord Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet He did not sin. (Heb. 4:15, 16) He understands by His own experience the press of the desire to relieve ourselves, to bail out, to stop the pain. Waiting on God is right, but we are tempted to find relief in our own power and in our own time.

The temptations are not perfect models for us. No one has been so weak, so isolated, so hungry and yet so powerfully tempted as the Lord Jesus. Jesus’ body was driven to a knife’s thin edge to death by weaknesses. His temptation is singular and unique by its power and length. However, temptations often come when we are hungry, tired and isolated as well. Our times of weakness are mere shadows of His. But His temptation has made Him an experienced High Priest. (Heb. 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”) Because the Bible has given His experience in testing, we can pray with boldness and confidence for His strength. We can pray for endurance and perseverance in our time of need.

We have the same power available which allows us to resist the devil. (James 4:7) Jesus was victorious over temptation by not reaching into His own deity to supply His needs, but instead He depended wholly upon the Holy Spirit to provide. He allowed God to determine when His needs would be met. He was oftenl,lk weary and hungry. (Jn. 4) His Father provided no place to lay His head. He had to sleep on the ground out doors. He would be called a homeless person by today’s terminology. Yet, He continued to rest, to trust, to joyously depend on His Father’s will and provision. He refused to take things in His own hand.

The Lord Jesus was strong in faith. We might think that because He was the Son of God, we don’t have access to that power, but we do. He turned to God’s Spirit. He depended on Him for the power to resist the Devil who ultimately fled from Him. We, too, can resist Satan because each believer has the Spirit as a Divine occupant in his body. We know we have the Spirit. (1 Cor. 6:15) We get to know Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit’s power to resist the devil and to defeat Him.

We also know that Satan takes advantage of our times of physical weakness. He often comes when we are weak, when we are isolated, hungry, or fatigued. We can resist the devil by the power of the Spirit. In prayer we can call out to our Savior for the ability to continue in the trial until He removes it. When we are weakest, Satan often brings the strongest times of temptation, especially when we have within reach some resource which will bring relief and end the suffering.

In the first temptation of our Lord, Satan offered nothing. Instead He wished to arouse the Lord’s will to use His own power, to use what Christ already had, to relieve His weakness. “Make the stones into bread,” he said. Satan’s work was an encouragement to Jesus’ will. It was within the Lord’s power. He had made the universe out of nothing. To turn stones into bread was within His ability. Satan’s temptation to end Jesus’ suffering would end the union of the Trinity. If Jesus would have become self dependent, trusted in Himself, He not only would have removed His trust, His faith from the Father and on to Himself, but He would have destroyed the Trinity and its fellowship.

The Lord Jesus had the power to do the miracle. He had the need. Did He believe the Father had His best interest in mind by allowing this continual debilitating weakness? Would it ever end? God is never anxious about time, for His resources are eternal, but the Lord Jesus is the God/man. Time puts its pressure on Him as it does you and me. Taking on humanity makes Him susceptible to this test of His trust in His Father.

With us as well, our great drive to preserve ourselves, to make life comfortable can make us vulnerable to Satan’s attack. He suggests using all of our resources for ourselves so we can be comfortable, to stop all of our suffering, to make times of testing short. We fail to learn by experience that the Father will wisely limit our trials so that they are never too heavy nor will they be too long to endure. Instead, by constant bailing, we reinforce self trust. Wiersbe has said that God keeps His eye on the thermostat so that the trial is never too hot and His eye on the clock, so that they are never too long. With testing comes weakness and suffering. Our faith is tested. Satan tempts us, like He did Jesus, to find a way out, to relieve our suffering, with our power we can take care of ourselves. In that moment we side with Satan and break fellowship with God. Joyously endure your suffering, my brother, for it is in perseverance, we resist the Devil and he flees from us. 

Last week we noted that much of what had been revealed in the life of our Lord had been topics of His work, what He would do. This passage along with its synoptic in Mark 1 and Luke 4 reveal the event that begins our journey to getting to know who He is. His invitation to believe in Him has to be built on a faith that rests on a clear understanding of kind of Person He is.

This passage also reveals the devil. In this case the reader doesn’t get to know much about his person as much as the passage reveals his work. Our knowledge of our adversary comes from a knowledge of what he does, what his work was then and continues to be to this day. The devil goes to work every day. Although that quality may seem to be one we value, when we know that he goes to work opposing us and God’s will for us, we realize something about his person. He is our enemy as well as that of the Savior. What we come to know of his work doesn’t draw from us faith and trust, but rather resistance and opposition. This passage produces faith in Christ and resistance and opposition to the Devil.

There will be two ways we learn from the nature of the devil from this passage. One will be through his names and the other will be what He does to our Savior. The Spirit of God has come down from heaven and rested on Jesus. Those who watched His baptism had heard the Father’s voice declare that Jesus was His beloved Son and that He was very pleased with the Person He was. The activity of the Trinity would have brought a time of joy unparalleled in the ministry of Christ. Even the disciples of John wanted to leave him and follow Jesus.

Rather than build on the momentum of His baptism, the Lord Jesus willingly followed the Holy Spirit deeper into the wilderness. The Spirit intended to “tempt” Him. To us, to believers, temptation is a word that describes the painful experience of power, the power of allurement that opposes our hearts and wins over our will to do some act that opposes our God and His will. It is not pleasant in its final outcome. There is pleasure in sin for a short time, but like the Prodigal the pain of our choices awakens us to our guilt. We hate the power of sin that draws us away from God. We hate the sense of guilt and separation that sin produces, the result of our temptation. We hate temptation, because it reveals that we are a weak people, not able to always say “no” to it. Temptation paints sin in such a way that it is attractive and for a moment sin appears to be wise and good for us. We know the pain of gravel and grit in our mouths instead of some promised delicacy. We know the disappointment and regret that comes from saying “yes” to temptation. Our temptation is experienced differently than that of the Lord Jesus, but even though He had no personal experience with sin and the failure to do right as we so well know, He experienced every ounce of power the tempter could produce. No one has had unleashed upon His body and soul the power of temptation, as did our Savior. Temptation would not have been pleasant for our Lord either.

The Greek word “tempt” (peirazein) means simply to try or make proof of; and when ascribed to this event in the life of our Lord it can mean no more than this. We understand Genesis 22:1 , “It came to pass that God did tempt Abraham,” to mean that God tested his faith. (See Deuteronomy 8:2 for another example of God’s testing). God didn’t ply Abraham’s will nor did He incite him to become disobedient. Instead by the test, he revealed Abraham’s personality. This kind of testing or tempting produces a relationship of the reader with Abraham. That is what God intended. We respond to hi s struggle. His loyalty to God was tested, but we grow in our respect of him. We admire his certainty in God’s good will. We see that he is resolute and will not allow anything destroy or weaken his faith. Because he was willing to offer his only son and yet continue to believe God’s promise that his son would be the fulfillment of God’s promises, the reader is brought into a relationship of respect with Abraham. We yearn for the kind of faith he has because we know it is possible, even for a sinner like me and you.

God’s intention was to test Abraham, to put his test under duress, but Satan surely was there as well. One can know that he was working in Abraham’s mind accusing God for making this request. We know it because he does it in our own. Satan hoped to diminish Abraham’s friendship with God through his ability to convey his accusations to him. His assault was intended to cause Abraham to weaken his faith, his trust, his loyalty to God. Abraham resisted those accusations and obeyed God even when His command seemed counter intuitive to all the promises God had made to him. Abraham could have disobeyed God by listening to Satan, but that wasn’t God’s intention. God exerted no power upon Abraham to refuse, but Satan surely did. God wanted by the test to reveal Abraham and his faith so that we would see him as the father of the faithful.

However, for the most part in Scripture the word is used in a bad sense, and it means to entice, solicit, or provoke in order to produce the desire and intention to sin. It is the powerful and persuasive work on one’s will. Temptation is a powerful assault on one’s decision making center. It is the presentation of some future action in such a way that the sinner becomes willing to act out of his or her sinful and independent nature.

The name given in our text to the wicked one is “the tempter.” Accordingly “to be tempted” here is to be understood both ways. The Spirit conducted Him into the wilderness simply to have His faith tried; but because the agent in this trial was to be the wicked one, whose whole object would be to seduce Him from His allegiance to God, it was a temptation in the bad sense of the term.

What the temptation of Christ is meant to produce in the reader’s heart is relationship. We see that He is who was promised. He alone could do the work of saving His people from their sin because He alone, God the Son, pure and apart from sin, could have the power to say no to temptation in the depths of the greatest human weakness. He alone has the power to refuse to disobey God under these conditions. Jesus proved He was different from other humans, because His testing revealed His character. He is sinless and His power is above that of sin’s power to persuade and solicit. There was nothing within Him that sin could hook, that would feel its allure.

No one has been tested like He was. We are foolish to think we have ever been tested as He was. God would never give Satan permission to test us like He allowed access to His Son. “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability,” declares 1 Cor. 10:13. His Son’s ability to say no to sin is far greater than yours. Yes, you are both human beings, but He is without sin. Satan and sin could do its worst, and did. He didn’t sin. You and I are without power and we will always say yes, if the temptation is difficult enough. The testing of Christ proves He is different than a sinner. We can trust in Him when He presents Himself as our sin bearer, our substitute. We can believe in Him because we see in this passage how the God/man deals with temptation. That is certainly different than how you or I would deal with it. We are sinners. It is obvious He is not, as He has said.

The second method Scripture uses to reveal the nature of the evil one is the names it calls Him. He is given over 30 names or titles by God in the Bible. Each one is meant to reveal something of His activity or nature. The evil one has two names in this short passage in Matthew. The first is the Devil. The word signifies a slanderer–one who slanders the reputation of another. The name is like the other name given him (Revelation 12:10 ), “The accuser of the brethren, who accuseth them before our God day and night.” He accuses believers to God. The name devil signifies that he accuses God to people. He is always making an accusation about the character or good will of God to people. He tears down any good concepts of who God is or does to people.

Judas has the term, “devil” applied to him ( John 6:70), and it is also applied to men ( 2 Timothy 3:3 ; Titus 2:3 ) and women (she devils, 1 Timothy 3:11 ). This is because people, too, can do the work of the arch slanderer. There are those today who do not believe that a personal devil exists, but by what they do, we have no doubt that he is at work in their lives. Certainly Jesus did not discount or deny the reality of the devil’s presence.

The second name for the evil one is found in Mark 1:13. The Spirit says, “He was forty days tempted of Satan,” a word signifying an adversary, one who lies in wait for, or sets himself in opposition to another. Satan lies in wait to see opportunities to oppose God’s word and will. The names of the evil one are interchangeable because they represent the work that he is doing within the events of the passage

Eve is a perfect example of his adversarial work. His question to Eve, has God said appears to be neutral, but in reality it was meant to arouse opposition to God within Eve so that she would disobey God. It fulfilled its purpose. David numbered the people, opposing the will of God, due to the work of the adversary. (1 Chron. 21:1)

The Bible mentions Satan so little in the events of the Lord’s crucifixion. Yet we know he was there, because he was being Satan. He was opposing God by arousing and soliciting the worst man could do to Jesus. The murder of Jesus has the fingerprints of Satan all over it. We know he was at work there.

This passage is a phenomenal passage because it reveals the deity of Christ in that He alone has the power to defeat sin, but after He has had enough, He dismisses Satan. Notice v. 10. Jesus says, “Be gone Satan.” You and I have no authority to dismiss Satan, but the Son of God does. Remember the next time you are being tempted that the devil has limited power. When the testing has brought forth its purpose, when it has revealed to you and perhaps others, who you are, the Lord Jesus will say, “Be gone, Satan.” He knows how long your testing should be. With every temptation or test the Lord will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Cor. 10:13)

It is also a phenomenal passage because we see in vivid detail, like in no other passage, the nature, work and impudence of the evil one. Imagine his gall, tempting the maker of heaven and earth—his maker. It is arrogant and proud to rebel against God, but to tempt Him is the height of wicked pride. 

‘And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. ⁷ The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.’ ” Rev. 21:6-7

God has described the new creation in general terms in v.1-4. It will consist of a newly created heaven and earth. He will add that city His Son has been preparing and that He has been populating with saved people for millennia. It will come down out of heaven to orbit or rest upon the earth. The glory of God will be the light of this new universe, so a sun or moon was not created. As well, this new creation is different from His first. The first was capable of pollution by sin, sadness and suffering, the second will not be. Permanently destroyed pain and sorrow will never enter the new creation. Whereas the first creation was made to be temporary and potentially corruptible depending on the choices of those who occupy it, God will secure the second so that no source of suffering or sin will enter it. Life on this new universe will be free of faith testing and “free” will, for those who occupy it have forever chosen the Savior. Their unmovable choice and unshakable trust in Him will never again be tested by temptation, trouble or sin. This new creation is home to those who have chosen Him and they never will want to think or do one disloyal thing to offend Him. Instead they will love Him fully in heart and life.

After some general and brief information concerning this new work of God, He declares the work of creation is complete with “It is done.” All that is left is who will occupy it. Who will live in this new city and world whose purpose is to facilitate the dwelling together of God and redeemed mankind? That answer is found in today’s text.

These verses define two qualifications to live in the eternal state. The first is the condition (thirsty) of one’s heart. The other is the reputation (conqueror) provided by lifestyle. Although neither directly speak to believing, which is often the condition to possessing eternal life, what one believes is presumed, because what one believes is reflected in ones decisions and lifestyle. One of the reasons God doesn’t speak in the book of Revelation as He did through the writings of the Apostle Paul (“saved by grace”), is because the heart is a very secret place and it is deceitful. Lifestyle is always the evidence of salvation. The work of salvation progressively changes a person because beliefs progressively change by the teaching of the Spirit Who uses the Word of God. Many are deceived by their own hearts. Because one feels secure for eternity doesn’t mean one is secure. Spurgeon once said that there will be three things which will surprise him when he enters heaven. One will be who is there, another will be who isn’t, and the third will be that he is there. Spurgeon knew that some who believe that this new city is their eternal home are self deceived. The confidence that comes from looking into one’s heart to see if there is faith or grace often rests on one’s sense of deserving or self righteousness. We know that there are many who think that they deserve eternal life because of doing good works that bless others. Remember what Jesus will say to those who see heaven as a reward for a life spent in service to others. They will be told to depart from Him. There will be those who say, “Lord, Lord, (how often had they prayed using those words?) Have we not prophesied and done good works in your name?” They will challenge God’s judgment with, “I don’t know you. I never knew you.” You had no interest in me, personally. You spent your life in work which was of interest to me, but you weren’t interested in me personally, in knowing me. You thought if you did good things, in doing the best you could, you would be all right. You thought, I would be impressed with your dedication, that I would compare you and your work to that of others, that I would find your dedication and work superior. You thought that what you have done for others would compensate for your lack of desire for me. Your good works have become the instrument which has divided you and me, just as sin divides the sinner from me. He isn’t interested in me because he loves his sin; you aren’t attracted to me because you are satisfied with the good you do. What he loves makes him independent from me, so do your good works. They are a buffer so that you can ignore Scripture. Haven’t you read that to know me is to have life? To use anything good or bad for that matter, as a buffer to keep you from wanting me, as a wall to keep from knowing me, as an excuse to ignore me, is to condemn your own soul. Even good works can become iniquity if one uses them as an excuse to ignore me. Your good works are sin and they have become substitutes for knowing me. (Matt. 7:23) Depart from me.

What one believes, how one relates to God and His work, will determine decisions and lifestyle. Notice that v.6 and 7 speaks of two. “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” It is the thirsty who occupy this new place. Because of Revelation’s metaphoric style, the reader realizes that thirst and its quenching represent something more. Perhaps all human beings are thirsty for something, so thirst alone is not the indicator that one will be an eternal citizen of God’s home. What is that indicator of eternal life is where one went for satisfaction in life. These are convinced that Christ should be sought followed, for He alone can satisfy the longings of the heart. Others may realize that they seek for satisfaction, but it is the attractiveness of Christ that causes one to come to Him. These are attracted to Him. These believe that He alone can quench the desire of the heart. They come to Him. Others used the things He made, they sought satisfaction in the creation, in that which He made and ignored Him. What they knew of Him didn’t draw them to Him. They were not willing to wait until they could be with Him. Life satisfaction was a present occupation, whereas those who will live in this new creation are aware that it is when we meet Him that we will be satisified. These will risk their souls on the promise of future fulfillment, but others will seek it and desire it in the things that life’s opportunities provide. Those who eternally occupy the new creation are those who have waited but they come to the Lord with their thirst. They are convinced that He alone can satisfy their desire and waiting to be with Him will be the fulfillment of the desire of one’s heart. They have a strong pull and attraction to Him and it is powerful. They come to Him. There is no one who truly yearns for the Lord who will not find Him. The Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah,”You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Each citizen of the new creation has found that true.

As well, and we have spent time on this thought, those who wait to enter the new creation will not come with payment. They will well understand that eternity and its life is a gift and requires no payment. These have banked on the truth and their hands and pockets are empty. They have lived their life on earth with confidence in this one fact. Salvation was of great cost to God and His Son, but it is free to the sinner. These have rested their eternal soul and lived their lives from this truth. Now, they see the fulfillment of their confidence. They are not embarrassed or ashamed as they look into such extravagance of the new creation. They know that they can bring nothing to add to what God has already done. Personal salvation was offered to them as a gift and now grace as a principle of life continues throughout eternity. They bring nothing to pay. They receive from God and offer nothing.

The reader of our text also notices the second qualification in v. 7. “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” We notice, as with the first qualification, that entrance into the new creation is offered individually. No one enters because they might have been part of a group or family. Entrance is decided in one’s own heart. Your father’s or mother’s faith, or that of your church or of any other group will not provide an entrance.

It is the conqueror who receives entrance, the one who “will have this heritage.” Is this another category of people and different from those who thirst and wait for Christ’s satisfaction? They are the same, but described differently. Every saved person is a conqueror, in fact more than a conqueror. (…in all these things [tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword v. 35] we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Ro. 8:37)

We are conquerors because we have taken the Lord’s side, we share in His war against sin in our lives and in our world. There is a like mindedness one has with Christ that sin isn’t meant to be relegated to one’s personal morality, but instead that God alone has the right to determine what is sinful and what is not. Since we don’t make the choice of what is sin, the only choice we have is to determine on which side we are. Are we a friend of sin or a combatant opposing it? Do we hate it most in our own lives? All have their own morality. All are judges of sin and determine which act or attitude is sin indeed. But it is God’s opinion alone that determines one’s eternity. Will you share His convictions about sins? Will you come down from your judgment perch and allow Him as God to determine what is offensive to Him? Let God be God.

All believers have had their confidence in God tested. There are those who sit in judgment against God because He allows the list of troubles in Ro. 8:35. They have pulled away because they believe they have the right to judge God’s actions to determine if He is worthy of their loyalty and trust. Those who are Christ’s are empowered to conqueror the worst of painful life experiences. Christ guarantees that they will conqueror them. He will provide whatever is necessary to remain steadfast in troubles. Those who have religion alone or any provision other than Christ withers under the burning rays of trouble.

We know that troubles can know us down. They can cause doubts about ourselves, about our worthiness, about our genuineness. But like Peter, we return. Remember the clown toys of past years? One would fill them with air and hit the clown in the nose. It would roll to its side, then rebound. Troubles and painful experiences are blows, painful blows, but it is this ability to come to an up-righted trust that demonstrates one possesses the qualification to be a citizen in the new creation.

Notice Luke 19:12-23. The nobleman had to leave his business for some time so that he could receive a kingdom. (v.12) He is a representation of our Lord Jesus who has gone away, but who will return to take His kingdom. Instead of leaving one person or an administrative board of several or many persons to administrate His work, our Savior, like the nobleman, places his work in the hands of His servants. These ten are to do business in His stead. The number ten is inclusive and represents every disciple. Each believer is given opportunities (represented by the minas) to lead others to Christ which then will provide success for our Lord’s business of saving men and as well, personal rewards. The Judgment Seat will probably follow the Rapture of the Church which is seven years before the Lord’s physical return to earth to establish His kingdom. Did we spend our resources of time, treasure and self in leading our neighbors, family, and the world to Christ? That is His business.

Each servant was given one mina (pound: KJV), to carry on the hands-on business of the absent nobleman. His work had to be done personally by his representative. It couldn’t be done by Him from a distant land. He depended on His servants to carry on His work, the same work they had witnessed him doing. Theirs was no new work; only a continuation of the same work the nobleman had done day in and day out. When he entrusted the work to his servants, He presumed that the work would continue and that it would be successful, even while he was away. The success of His business wouldn’t be interrupted even though he was absent.

His disciples, whether one of the original 12 or those disciples who have been called through His Word in the pages of Scripture, have been left to carry on His work. He came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) It is this good work of effectively communicating the Gospel that is His business. By the Gospel’s life giving qualities given freely to anyone who entrusts oneself to it, this work increases Christ’s work as it saves new ones. As the nobleman expected success, so does out Lord. He said that the harvest is ready now. All that is needed are laborers. (Jn. 4:35) The success of His work depends on the servants He has left behind.

One of the ten servants refused to use his opportunities (mina) because the nobleman’s commission lacked authority or power to motivate him. By nature he was fearful of risking his security and he was consumed with self preservation. Unlike the other servants, he found no courage or strength in the nobleman’s commission. (Mark 16:15) Because he feared taking personal risk which was essential for increase, he failed to use his opportunities. He hid his mina in a handkerchief. God’s people must not be overcome by fear of rejection and self protection. They must be willing to choose to risk personal position or “stuff” to do the Lord’s business. Our Savior will take great pleasure in rewarding the servant who leads others to Christ They know the power of Christ’s commission through faith.

This verse immediately catches one’s attention. The list of eight kinds of sinners isn’t unique. There are other lists like this in the New Testament, the last being Rev. 22:15. Scripture often lists specific sins as reason for eternal judgment. The lists are not exhaustive because when you compare them, each one is different than the other.

We aren’t surprised by the placement of the list within the text, because the Spirit of God is detailing those who will populate the new earth and city in v. 6 &7. It is logical that He would now give a list of those who aren’t going to be allowed to live in the second creation.

In v. 8 and after the list, which we will look at later, God describes the eternal abode of the eight. It is given two names; the Lake of Fire and it is the second death. The lake must be great and vast to house so many. The liquid burns with fire and sulfur. The first thought that comes to mind is the molten pools of an active volcano. The older translations use sulfur’s old name, brimstone. The first occupants of this fiery lake were the antichrist, those who took his mark and followed him, the false prophet (Rev. 19:20) and a thousand years later, the Devil (Rev. 20:10) Revelation 20 has told us that this lake is the final place for those in hell, that is those who died without Christ and were then immediately incarcerated in hell, the temporary place of punishment. Hell will be emptied and all of its occupants will be placed in the eternal Lake of Fire. Hell has many of the same components as the eternal Lake of Fire, even though the two places aren’t identical. The move will be somewhat like those in our system of justice who await trial in jail, but after sentence are sent to prison. Both jail and prison share common conditions, but they aren’t the same. One follows a trial as does the Lake of Fire.

Every unsaved person will finally end in the Lake of Fire after standing before God’s Great White Throne. (Rev. 20)They will be judged from the book of works. But it is because their names weren’t found in the Book of Life that they will be cast in the permanent place of punishment. Rev. 21:8 gives specific details of those who were placed there. Every chapter of Revelation dealing with eternity mentions the eternal places and the details of those who continue in the Lake of Fire. The last time it is mentioned is Rev. 22:15. While believers are enjoying the joy of the presence of their Lord in the New Jerusalem, those in the lake are “without” or apart; literally outside the presence of God and of His people. Those who sincerely wish to know if punishment for sin is eternal, need to look no further than the last chapters of Revelation.

John has used the term, the second death, to describe this lake. (Rev. 20:14) Now in our text he uses it again. What does he mean by such terminology? By one man’s disobedience death entered our world and passed upon every person. We die because sin is present in our world and in us. That death has two facets. The first death is physical, the immaterial part of humans separates from the material which is physical death. For the believer, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8) For the lost, “in hell, he lifted up his eyes being in torment.” (Luke 16:23) That separation, soul and spirit from body, is the first death. The second death is separation from God. The Apostle John uses the word death to speak of separation and he sees two separations. The first is separation of the immaterial soul and spirit from the body and the second is the eternal separation of a person from God and His Son. He calls the place of eternal separation the second death.

Let’s look at the list of eight kinds of sins because they will forever inhabit the Lake of Fire. They are the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars. Again, when comparing this list to others (Ro.1:28-32; I Cor. 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:2-5), we see that this list isn’t exhaustive. Other sins lead to the same destination. Let us not add to God’s Word and this list by making something personally obnoxious a sin. God has the keys to death and hell. No one should forcefully take them from Him by condemning when God hasn’t condemned.

The list of 8 are sins that originate in the heart, but burst into actions. Some are destructive to others, but while all actions may affect others, some in the list are not catastrophic to the physical or spiritual well being of others. God isn’t punishing people because they have harmed others. He is punishing them because they have disobeyed Him. They may have ignored Him, not thinking that they would ever stand before His authority, but He remains the God of the universe before whom all will stand. Those who seek Him will find Him. These didn’t.

The terminology for these people are God’s words. Sin isn’t defined by its affect on others. Those who live by the code that if it doesn’t harm anyone what’s its harmless, will one day be judged by God. All sin is against God. God has stated what He expects of human beings. He has clearly communicated that expectation. Even when man has tried to restrain that communication, God continues to make each person accountable for obeying it. People spend eternity in one of two places because of their relationship to Him and to His Word.

The 8 sins don’t surprise us except for one. The Bible reader well knows God’s attitude to seven on the list. God often tells us that murder, sexual immorality, idolatry, lying and sorcery oppose His nature and will. They offend Him. Every person makes a choice whether one will have God’s attitude to these sins, or if one will be warm, friendly, loving and loyal to one of them.

The New Birth includes a decision to oppose sin, even when it brings personal benefit or pleasure. Those living in the New Creation decided that sin is an enemy of God and therefore it is their enemy. They may have fallen into some sin, but they don’t stay in it. At salvation, one embraces God’s attitude to sin. The Holy Spirit indwells the saved person. He will not allow him or her to live in sin.

Imagine being known for one kind of sin; of being sexually immoral. Or to be known forever as a murderer, perhaps by an act that took only seconds. One does hundreds of thousands of actions during one’s life, how could one be known by only one descriptive word or two? It is because those in the Lake of Fire have lived as friends as companions, as lovers to their sin. They practiced their sin; they excused their sin.

Some sins are practiced over and over. A liar doesn’t lie once, but all throughout life, a liar gives himself permission to lie when he determines it is most useful or it’s the best for everyone. The liar unlike a murderer, lies often believing it is the best choice. God may want truth, but in this case, He is wrong. I have decided it is better to lie than to tell the truth. Do you see the rebellion in such thinking?

The issue underscoring all of these sins is God verses self. Each person lived their lives making decisions based on what they thought was good for themselves. Living with him or her brought financial and emotional benefit. God, nor His Word, was their authority. No one in this list committed these sins once or twice, but instead they lived using these sins to benefit themselves. Most probably thought they were bringing benefit to others by practicing these sins.

We know what idolatry is. In its foundation, idolatry is the loyalty, worship and pursuit of anything but the God of the Bible. One can commit idolatry by recreating Him, refashioning Him, ignoring Him and living to do what is determined best for oneself. Idolatry is the sin of America, not only of those people who worship monkeys, cows and stone images.

Sorcery is not necessarily the worship of Satan or spirits. It is the incorporation of drugs to make life have meaning. Drugs were used to bring about trances and insight into life so that one could live and worship beyond what would be known by an unaffected mind. Those who use drugs today to get clarity and understanding of aspects of life may one day hear that they were users of sorcery.

Unbelievers (faithless people) are those who would not make a commitment to God or His Word. They refused to trust in Him or what He did. Some of these people were given many opportunities to receive Christ, to believe in Him. Others never heard about Him, but God had communicated to them. Unbelievers are rejecters of whatever communication God has given them. In their hearts they have resisted and rejected God and His authority. An unbeliever may appear to be the same as an undecider, but that isn’t so. No one is an undecider. Either one receives or rejects the revelation God has communicated.

God definitely sees sins as some being worse than others. He calls the worst ones abomination, here in our verse translated detestable. Although disobeying God in any sin makes one guilty before God, there are sins God finds detestable or foul to His Purity. Those sins aren’t enumerated in v.8, but a concordance can provide a list of sins God calls abominable or detestable. They stink to high heaven.

The one sin that surprises me is the sin of cowardice. Matthew 25 and Luke 19 are helpful to understand this sin. In both of these passages the Lord Jesus is telling stories of servants who have been given a portion of their masters wealth so that they could do business for him while he was gone. In both stories (Matt. 25:14 ff and Luke 19:12 ff) In both stories there is an unfaithful servant that because of his cowardice he refuses to increase his master’s business. Both hold on to what they were given, while other servants did business in the name of their masters and increased the amount he had given them.

Living fearfully is pitiful, but it can be fatal. When one is fearful, one is afraid to trust for fear of being wrong. Present comfort is better than risk. Fear or cowardice freezes the person into self. Life is characterized by self protection. One’s own choices to keep the status quo and to provide security as one determines it becomes life. Cowardice becomes spiritual paralysis that keeps one in unbelief and which ultimately condemns one to the Lake of Fire. Cowardice freezes the soul prohibiting one from trusting God, and therefore from salvation.

The list of sinners have ignored and rejected God’s efforts to save them. Instead they have been independent of God and of His Word. This list is a warning to those without salvation and Christ. Now is the time to change the heart. Changing the heart will change one’s actions. Changing one’s heart and actions changes one’s destiny.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:8&9

Genuine faith allows God to be God, to think and do things that are unique to Him, and continues to trust Him. There are those who find that the revelation of God in Scripture is unacceptable. Their summary statement about His is, “if God would do a certain thing (such as send people to hell) then they couldn’t believe in Him. Their faith depends on how much He acts like they would act. They have specific moral expectations of Him, because they believe that their own morality is right on. If God’s justice differs from their own sense of justice, then something must be wrong with a god like that. These people want to believe in God and they like many things about the God of the Bible so instead of throwing out the Bible, they seek to find ways to reinterpret Scripture so that it presents a god that fits their expectations. They fear certain passages which offend their sense of rightness. They carefully choose pastors to whom they will listen and Bible verses that comfort them.

Some have said, I couldn’t believe in a god who would command Israel to kill women and children as He did when they entered Canaan. Others say that they couldn’t believe in a god who would send people to a fiery hell to suffer forever and ever. There are other mental or moral sensitivities held which make the god of the Bible unacceptable. They fear most giving the Bible freedom to describe God in its own way. They fear challenges to their implacable limitations of who God is, how He thinks, and what He does. They will not trust a god who is different from their own standards of justice and morality.

The preacher or teacher must be very careful to avoid pride, a sense that one knows it all. One’s own knowledge of the Bible has no authority. Only God’s Word itself has the authority or right to describe God accurately and to tell us what He has chosen to do. Ps. 25:9 promises that God will teach the humble person who He is and His way. (He… teaches the humble his way.) The person who is teachable is a humble person. Humility is essential for learning and it is God’s condition for his teachers.

Notice Isa. 55:8. These are God’s words. He spoke them. By these words He pulls back the veil to reveal a very important personal characteristic. This revelation is best learned in comparison. God compares “thoughts’ and “ways;” His thoughts and ways to those of people. The comparison is between His thoughts and ways and our own.

God is a thinker. Although learning is only a human activity, thinking and discernment, the use of wisdom is both human and divine. God weighs information and evidence and makes conclusions which then become His path or ways. When He made man on the sixth day of creation, he made him with the capacity to think and conclude. When sin entered into the world by Adam’s willful disobedience, man’s thought process became corrupt leading to opposing God and His thinking about things. When Adam lived in the Garden before sinning, all of his thoughts were in conformity to God’s. But even when man was thinking at his best, there in the Garden, it was true and has always been true, that God’s thoughts are above our thoughts and His ways above our ways. He thinks differently and He does differently than any person has ever thought or done. Even a sinless human being would think so vastly different from God. Even He would have to trust God when His ways were different than He would do. That is why when the Bible reveals God’s ways, we can’t understand. We wouldn’t think like that or do that act. When we come to this spiritual intersection, all we can do is make the choice, either to trust or mistrust Him, believe in Him or reject the God revealed in the Bible.

When God spoke in Isa. 55 on this subject, He said that the gap between His thoughts and ways and those of human beings, even at its best, are as far apart as earth and the extreme outer reaches of the universe. His justice, mercy, love, and purity are far more developed than are ours. His thoughts and ways are perfect and pure. We are minor copies of the thinking God, now so affected by sin that His image is difficult to find. Our thoughts about hell, death, justice—are flawed. If we were left to ourselves, if God didn’t reveal Himself in grace, we would never come up with the truth, the knowledge of who He is.

How far are the highest heavens from the earth? How far apart, how different are God’s ways and thoughts from our own? That answer is by knowing the expanse between the stellar heavens and the earth. And because of this great difference between God and man, God will do a thing, you or I wouldn’t do.

The reader of the Bible is often astounded because of the pathway or way God chooses. He does things that I and you wouldn’t do. But that sense of “wow” is healthy. The Bible freely and accurately reveals the thoughts and ways of our God.

What does God do that we would not? When Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the world. The cursed earth has to be coerced to produce crops and food for mankind. People have to invest so much labor, time and life to provide a living from this cursed ground. Thorns, thistles and a great array of diseases compete for the harvest. God did that, but you and I would not.

In Exodus 32 God commanded each man of the tribal family of Levi to take a sword and to kill 3000 of their kinsmen, including members of their own families, because of their loyalty to the golden calf. (v. 28) God did that, but you and I would not.

Because Job was righteous and because God wanted to illustrate that righteousness by grace to Satan, God allowed Satan to kill every one of Job’s adult children. God did that, but you and I would not.

When man became so corrupt that every thought and imagination of his heart was evil continually, God sent a worldwide flood which drowned every man, woman and child in the earth, except the eight on board the ark. God did that, but you and I would not.

Look at the cross. To save man, God sent His only, His beloved Son to become human and finite like us so that He would experience the torture, rejection and suffering due a criminal. All the while the Lord Jesus had done nothing to offend the law of God or man. He gave His Son up to the worst treatment. He stood aside while they abused Him, spat upon Him, tortured Him, and thought it was great fun to cause Him excruciating pain. God gave the greatest Gift for the lowest of men, and still they were unappreciative. They crucified Him. God did that, but you and I would not.

Lastly, notice Revelation 20:10. This is God’s last dealing with one of His greatest creations. Lucifer will be “thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Notice as well v. 15. “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” People who were deceived by, but not ignorant victims of the Devil, were equally cast into the same place to receive the same eternal punishment. Both the deceived and the deceiver share the same punishment. God will do that, but you and I would not.

The point is that God does things differently than we do and He does them because His ways and thoughts are as high above our own as the farthest star from the earth. God knows things we don’t know. His acts are from perfect love, mercy, and justice.

When one says that one couldn’t believe in a god who…. one is lifting one’s own thoughts and ways as a true measurement and then is bringing God to them to judge Him by them. We are saying that our morality and justice is reasonable and therefore it should be the criterion by which God should be judged. We determine whether God is moral, just, merciful, loving, and therefore, whether He is worthy to be trustworthy. We falsely believe our level of morality is so developed that God Himself should be judged by it. If God doesn’t act or think as I, then something must be off with Him. And if something is off with Him, He is not worthy of my trust or confidence. The end result will be a denial of the God revealed in Scripture and a search for a god that fits one’s own moral image. What arrogance; that the God of the Bible has to be judged by any human being. Who is the true Judge?

When reading Scripture, I want you to be very aware that God’s way of doing things is not the way that you would do them. But I also want you to not allow those differences to shake your confidence in God. He is perfection. He loves perfectly. He judges perfectly. He is just, without exception. He is merciful without question. Trust Him when you can understand what He does, but as well; give Him the right to be God, to do what is right, to act out of His nature which is higher and different than yours. Make your inquiries from humility, but don’t accuse God. Don’t bring Him to the court of your mind and demand proof that His ways have to be as yours to be worthy of your submission and obedience.

By way of introduction notice that v. 12 is divided into two phrases. Paul declared he knew whom he believed and secondly that he was persuaded that God was powerful enough to keep what he had committed to him in the past. This persuasion of God’s faithful keeping would be complete ending at “that Day.” God would stand guard over Paul’s valuable deposit until Christ returned.

The two clauses refer to the same act, the act of entrusting or trusting. The first act of trust is the motivation or foundation of trust; “I know whom I have believed or trusted;” and the other act is believing that which was at some time in the past is safe. God is keeping it safe.

Although both are acts of belief or faith, the first phrase is confidence placed in His person and the second act is faith placed in His ability to keep His promise. Both are faith expressions of Paul’s own spirit. He trusts. He believes. But the objects on which that faith rests are different. The first rests on God’s character, on God Himself. The second follows from faith in Who He is in that He is sufficient to guard or keep what Paul has invested with Him.

What does one have that is valuable? What is it that Paul committed to God? Our first thought might be that immaterial part of us, that spiritual life that will live eternally when we set aside the vessel it now occupies. Surely that is part of the answer, but Paul means much more, because God is going to keep Paul’s commitment “until that Day.” Paul was committing all that he was to God. That Day would be the events surrounding Christ’s second coming, particularly the resurrection and rewarding of the disciples of the Lord. In other words God was safely keeping Paul’s life until he was given his new body and until he enjoyed eternity future.

Paul committed all that he was, including his life and soul to God because He had come to know the kind of Person He was and because He knew He had the ability, enough power to keep it.

A definition of “keep” is seen in two pictures. The first is of a man who has worked to accumulate some rich treasure. He searches throughout the world to find a safe place to invest it, where it will be safe. He notices the places and people that others committed their lives, but he wisely sees the weakness of those so entrusted. Because he is afraid of losing his commitment, he trusts himself, but deep in his heart he is doubtful of his own power to keep it. He looks about for a reliable Person with trusted hands, and he deposits it there. That is about as good a description of what the New Testament means by ‘ faith’ as you will get anywhere.

You and I have one treasure; our lives. Each day, we accrue more of life by our works and our decisions. All of what we do and think becomes our life. The most precious of our possessions is our own individual being often called the soul in Scripture.

We cannot ‘keep’ it. There are dangers all round us. We are like people travelling in a land full of pickpockets, robbers and con men who wish to take our valuable commitment. On every side there are enemies that seek to rob us of the acts and time, that accrued treasure we call life. We cannot keep ourselves safe. One slip, one false step and we lose it all. The tug and desires of our heart becomes fiery sparks of temptation. They are sure to come together and make a blaze which will destroy our treasure. We shall certainly come to ruin if we seek to get through life, to do its work, to face its difficulties, to cope with its struggles, to master its temptations, in our own wisdom and with our poor, puny strength. So we must look for trusted hands and place our treasure where it is safe. Who is worthy of this trust and secondly who has power enough to keep my soul safe, to guard it, to see it as valuable.

Others see no value in my treasure. They would use me. After receiving the benefit of my energy and work, they would cast me aside. They see no real value in me, except to use me for their ends. My first issue with trust is being sure of the pure heart of the person with whom I leave so great a trust. Paul said that He had gotten to know God through Christ and that he believed in Him. He knew that He alone saw value in Paul’s soul. He had once believed in religion and in principle, but he had found them to be unworthy keepers. Their weakness was in who they were.

Paul declared that he had come to know Christ and he had found Him to be worthy of trust. He alone had given Himself for Paul. Surely that was proof enough that the Lord saw great value in his soul. Others used Paul, but he had found a pure love in Christ. He alone was worthy of Paul’s trust. Paul declared, “I know whom I have believed.”

What assurance. Assurance is the result of your understanding of God’s worthiness of your trust. Assurance is different from the faith that saves. It is faith, but it is faith’s outlook of God’s desire or power to keep safe one’s soul. Saving faith places one’s eternal soul in the hands of God, but assurance rests that it is safe in Him. Lacking assurance is like going back to the bank, getting out the safety deposit box again and making sure the treasure is still there. Assurance is the personal confidence one has in the safety of the deposit one made.

When the believer grows to know the Lord’s person and promises, one becomes sure of God’s guarding work. For some that confidence by understanding was soon after salvation, for other Christians, it was much later. Perhaps some struggle all their lives. Do you know whom you have believed? If you doubt that the Lord wishes to secure your soul forever, it is because you do not know “the whom” you are to believe. You have trusted your soul to a Being you do not know well. Paul, like we are to be, was sure, was assured that God was worthy of the investment of one’s life and soul.

Secondly, Paul had assurance, that God through Christ Jesus had enough power to keep safe his soul. By his many life experiences, Paul had looked the enemies of his soul, the enemies of Christ, in the face. He personally had felt their power, but He knew that the Lord Jesus had enough power, He was able to keep, Paul’s life and soul. Paul had confidence in God’s power of keeping not in his own power to keep his soul saved. You may never experiences the power of the enemy of your soul, as Paul did, but take his word for it. God is able to save to the uttermost.

What does it mean that God “keeps” that which is commited to Him, that is one’s soul? There are two pictures which describe our word, “keep.” I have used the first picture, which is a banker keeping a valuable asset for the depositor. The second picture is the trusted guard. Most westerns have a stagecoach with a driver and the security person riding shotgun. Together they were to keep or protect the passengers and the valuables the stages carried. The power of the bad guys made their keeping job impossible.

In Paul’s day each Roman administrator had learned that certain special men had the inclination and the power to guard that which was valuable to the leader. These trusted men had proved themselves by previous experiences. Whatever the Romans thought was valuable and which then was entrusted to these men was secure. Roman law declared that if a soldier didn’t keep what was in his charge, he could forfeit his own life.

2 Timothy 1:12 is a great statement of assurance. Paul proclaimed that God was trustworthy. He could be trusted to do the most powerful work, such as caring for, keeping one’s soul. Paul rested his soul in this truth. He didn’t pace about in his mind or heart wondering if God valued his soul as much as he did. He didn’t doubt that God had the inclination to keep it safe. He didn’t doubt God’s ability. He knew He had power enough to do what He said He would do.

Paul committed all that he was to Christ’s keeping. On the Damascus Road Paul transferred his soul from his own safe keeping to the bank of heaven, where God Himself guards and keeps His soul. Salvation is a transfer of ownership of one’s valuables into God’s safe keeping. There is only one valuable you have as far as God is concerned. Our Lord has said, “What will it profit a man and gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Perhaps that is where you need to begin. Do you agree that your soul is more important than anything? Is it more valuable than the sins you enjoy, more valuable than the freedom to live as you wish, than your social network which gives you your strokes? The Lord Jesus sees your soul. He became sin, that which He despises, to save your soul. The Father gave and sent His only Son for your soul. Do you see your soul as valuable as God does?

Once you see how valuable you are to God, you can commit your life to Him. He will keep it, He will keep all you are, your soul, safe. Satan, the world, the persuasion of false teachers, nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God. (Romans 8:39)

To be prepared for this lesson: please read the text through 113 and be prepared to discuss the questions from lesson 5.

Please read through page 155 for next week. You will need to average reading about six pages each day. June 15^th is off.

“The natural eye cannot easily tell the difference between these (six) building materials. Not even Paul was confident that he could always separate junk from gems. From our perspective, a believer might have nothing but an impressive pile of combustible material; but when torched, nuggets of gold might be found embedded in the straw. Conversely, what we thought was a gold brick …might be the end of a wooden beam. Only the fire can separate the real from the fake” Dr. Erwin Lutzer

“The good news is that at the Judgment Seat of Christ, every saved person will receive some sort of reward. The bad news is that at the Judgment Seat every saved person will fail to gain all of the rewards he could have.” Woodrow Kroll

“If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.1 Cor. 3:15 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” 2 Cor. 5:10

The wisest person, or so it seems to me, is the one who knows exactly what responsibility God takes in one’s life and trusts Him to do it, and one who knows exactly what one should do and does it with fervor. Paul reminds us that the outcome of the Judgment Seat of Christ is wholly up to each person. I determine whether the work God has for me to do is rewardable. Anxiety comes when I consider that I compete with only myself in this judgment. I will receive something, but how much I receive is up to me.

Each of us will fail to gain some rewards, but from the above Scripture, some of us will suffer greater loss than what we should have. John warns each believer that when our Savior returns, there will be some who are ashamed of their lives and works. He warns us to be careful or we may become part of that crowd who because of our lives, lack courage and confidence to approach Him. (1 Jn. 2:28) During one’s life, each believer controls how well he or she will perform at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Perhaps those will suffer most that have lived ignorant of or without concern for this judgment. One’s losses or gain is the responsibility of each believer.

In previous lessons we have learned God has preplanned good works opportunities for every believer. (Eph. 2:10) The believer doesn’t have to be anxious about opportunities for reward. No one needs to ask God for something to do for Him. Opportunities are not the problem, because He plans and provides them. We know that He has done this because of the kind of LORD He is. He wishes to reward believers. Scripture names Him Rewarder (Heb. 11:6) and the Lord delights in those who live in light of that truth; those who base and trust their lives to that truth.

When is God a rewarder? Not at salvation; no one is rewarded salvation because of the qualities or actions in life. Instead His nature and work as a rewarder is for those already saved. His name provides motivation for service and provides a great outlook for each day. Each one of us has life purpose because we are confident that He yet has work for us to do.

Rewarding is in His nature. He has provided every good work opportunity for each believer for maximum rewards. He has also made strength available by the indwelling Spirit to accomplish these works. But with all God has done, some of us will fail so fully in gaining what we could have, that we will be saved as if from a sudden fire with only a handful of valuables. We will have little that wasn’t consumed by the fire. An illustration of this sense of loss is viewed by the personal accounts of this spring’s flooding and tornadoes. One hears, “we have lost everything.” Often those words are said in tears.

Perhaps the idea of sadness and remorse in heaven is a new concept to some. There are two occasions when the Lord will wipe away all tears. (Rev. 7:17; 21:4) If heaven is a no tear zone; a tearless place of only joy, one statement that tears wil be wiped away would be understandable. But the presence of tears a second time and of their need to be wiped away a second time, seems to indicate that there will be specific events during this period before the second creation when tears and sadness will be our experience from time to time. From the second creation, from the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth onward, in the eternal state there will be no tears, ever. The Greek verb tense translated in the word “wipe” reveals that these tearful periods have time boundaries, with a beginning and ending. They are not continuous. We will not cry, then we will, but then, the crying and what caused it will be ended.

Last week we learned how one’s good works can be defective. (2 Cor. 5:10) We may judge a work good, but because of attitude or motive, a work can become defective and therefore, reward-less. The action with potential for good was worthless in God’s sight (the meaning of “bad” in 2 Cor. 5:10). Each good work has the potential of being wood, hay, stubble or gold, silver, precious stones. You control whether your works are good or bad by your attitude or motive.

There is another way that we can lose a reward. Our Lord, Himself, warned that He was coming soon. For some believers it has been very difficult to maintain confidence in Christ and His Word. The Lord wants us to hold on and to hold fast. Believers are to “hold fast” to what “they have” because not only is it possible, but others can “seize your crown” (reward). Rev. 3:11 By not holding fast believers jeopardize their rewards. An illustration might be of a believer who in his or her youth spent time in loving and sacrificial service, but in college his confidence in the Word of God and in God was shattered. From then on, he lived making the best decisions he could. He wasn’t more selfish than others he knew, but still his focus was to reach his objectives. “Holding fast” is the maintenance of confidence in who God is and what He has said He has done. It means to maintain good works, dependability, faithfulness, persistence and sustained loving service. How many Bible characters have started out well, but didn’t hold fast, so ended their lives poorly. Those who don’t end their lives well will lose opportunities for rewards and provide those missed opportunities for service to other believers. In that sense one’s potential reward was taken by others who were holding fast to sound doctrine and works of devotion and obedience. They were offered the opportunity, they did the good work and they will receive the reward. Hearing, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” depends on being faithful, not on the amount of works you do. (Mt. 25:21)

We have heard that the greatest ability is availability. How many times does God work to connect a good work to a believer that was intended to be done by another? We won’t know until eternity. But some believers have refused to witness, give, love His church, love one’ spouse, or a hundred other things because we were controlled by fear, resentment, anger, self will, or just lacked faith to do the good work available to them. These things control our works and not the Lord. God’s work still needs to be done. He offers that opportunity to another, because it was refused by the first believer. Often those who do God’s work lack the good doctrinal foundation, or good Scriptural knowledge, or have fewer innate abilities than the first. Would God use her or him to do that, we exclaim. But because they are available, God gave them added opportunities, which provided good works and the completion of the will of God, which provided rewards.

Living in heaven doesn’t mean that one will never be tears from remorse. Yet that remorse doesn’t last long. Our Savior and Lord will wipe away all tears including those for lost rewards. The believer will enter the eternal state leaving behind all regret and remorse. Yet, we must not ignore the fact that now we can stop and minimize greater remorse by changing focus and works. Yesterday’s opportunities are lost, but not today’s. Tomorrow’s opportunities will soon be opportunities in hand. By changing one’s connection to, one faith in, today’s works, one can improve the quality of works and the rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.