Matthew 4:5-7

SIN AS A VOLUNTARY ACT

‘Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city … Cast Thyself down: for it is written … Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’

Matthew 4:5

It is evident that ‘the tempter’ had no power to throw Christ down from the Temple, or to force Him to take the flight; but he plies his argument, and then says, ‘Cast Thyself down.’

I. Sin is voluntary.—There is no sin which is not voluntary. The circumstances, which connect themselves with the sin, will often seem, afterwards, to have necessitated you to do it. You will like to think it was so. But there was a point in that sin somewhere, when that sin hung in the balance, and your free-will held the scales. Those points—where the power to do, or the power to forbear, still lives—are sometimes very small. But they are the crises of every man’s moral history; and if you fell, there was a point where you did precipitate yourself!

II. Sin is presumptuous.—Every sin is ‘presumptuous.’ If it be not against light, it is not sin; and if that sin be done against light, it is ‘presumptuous.’ Nevertheless, though all ‘sins’ are ‘presumptuous,’ there are some which are, distinctively and characteristically, ‘sins of presumption.’ And of these this second temptation of our Lord was intended to be the type. Directly, it was to do that to which He had no proper call; indirectly, it was to expect a Divine interposition in His behalf, at a time, and in a way, in which He had no warrant to look for it.

III. Modern pinnacles.—Let me instance one or two cases as beacons. A young Christian stood on a very ‘pinnacle’ of holy joy. An inward call led him to some particular undertaking, which he thought a ‘mission.’ He left his present position, to go forth into that wider enterprise. That emotion of the heart may not have been of God. There is need for accepting caution, lest that higher flight be only a suggestion of the tempter, jealous of his joy, and anxious to destroy it. Take another, and rather different example. A Christian at the beginning of his career, thinks that his principles are now exceedingly strong. He can walk to the edge of the precipice, and not fall ever it. But I marvel if some very humbling experience does not soon teach him, that our Lord’s words are still true—that the way to heaven is a ‘narrow’ way, and the gate is very ‘strait!’

IV. Follow God’s teachings.—It is a dangerous tempting of the Most High, when we ever press too far any wish of our own. We then go into regions of which we know not the nature, and of which we cannot estimate the result; yet we venture there! Far better is it to follow the plain leadings of God’s will, than, going before, and perhaps contrary to His mind, to expose ourselves to the tremendous risk of praying to our own idol, and choosing our own altar.

—The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘Two persons marry. The one is a child of God, and the other is unconverted. The pious one makes the marriage, in the full hope and feeling that the worldly one will soon be brought to God. There are already kindliness and openness in the natural heart; and surely, under such influences,—as will now be brought to bear,—it must become religious! The one, perhaps, almost holds marriage as a “mission” to convert the other; and beguiles itself into the thought that it is a righteous work to marry that person. But, see the true character of that act in God’s sight,—its folly, its hopelessness, and its sin! It is an assumption, that you can command the infinitely sovereign operations of the Spirit of God. Nay, it is more. It is doing a thing,—in itself confessedly forbidden,—on the unwarrantable conclusion that God will bless you in a dubious road, and give you the highest dignity of reward,—when you deserve punishment,—in bestowing the Holy Ghost, the only Author of real conversion, in answer to your wishes and prayers. Therefore, it is not one in ten thousand of such marriages which ever proves a happy one! When the husband and wife are both unconverted,—and one becomes a Christian,—it often, very often happens, by God’s blessing, that the grace extends itself to the other. But you who marry out of the Lord,—and yet expect the Lord in your marriage,—you have “cast yourself down”; and you must take the consequences! You have “tempted the Lord your God”; and the grieved Spirit, so far from acting on your partner’s heart, will be diminished, and strained,—if not destroyed, and lost,—in your own bosom!’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

‘I WILL KEEP THEE’

It was a master-piece of Satan to take Christ to that temple. There was the spot which God loved best on the whole earth. At that very moment, the sacred light of Divine Presence was shining in its inner sanctuary.

I. Temptation in the unlikeliest place.—If there be a temptation which, to you, seems of all the unlikeliest,—if there be a place so very sacred, or a person so very good,—that you feel, ‘Here, at least, I am quite safe!’—if there be a contingency of evil which appears to you so remote, that it amounts to an impossibility,— there let the foot be steady, and the eye wary, and the heart braced for the conflict, with all its armour on; for never was the enemy so near, as when every circumstantial thing would tell you he was furthest!

II. The argument from Scripture.—Of all arguments, if it be not the best, a Scriptural one is always the worst. It is the bounden duty of every one, when he refers to God’s Word, to do it, not hastily, but cautiously; not lightly, but very measuredly and discriminatingly. Nothing is easier, nothing is more deceiving, nothing has done more evil in the world, than a plausible application of Divine words, and a misapprehension of the intention of the reasoning of the mind of God. In all your reference to Scripture, follow certain rules. Be slow to use the Bible in ordinary conversation; and never, unless your mind is in a reverent frame,—remembering that it is a very solemn thing to quote God. When you do refer to it, take care that your mind includes, not the text only, but also the context. Do not let a scriptural reason ever range as one amongst others; but give it its true dignity and ultimate position. And be sure that you repeat the verse accurately, and in its complete integrity.

III. God’s keeping.—God has undertaken to ‘keep’ us,—both in our bodies and in our souls. And without that ‘keeping,’ what safety or what peace could there be in the world? But He adds,—‘ in all thy ways.’ Observe that ‘ thy’, and that ‘ all.’ It must be ‘thy way’; thine own proper, appointed way of usefulness and holiness. And then, ‘ in all’:—that is, in every way of duty,—however many, however difficult, however dangerous, and however too much for you. The great question, therefore, to ask, at the entrance of everything, is,—‘Is this my way?’ If it be not, do not deceive yourself with any general and vague idea of God’s goodness. The promises are only to ‘thy way.’ But if it be ‘thy way,’ go down it,—whatever it may be,—without a fear; feeling sure, and singing as you go,—‘The Lord is my keeper; I will trust, and not be afraid. He is my defence upon my right-hand.’

—The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Jesus stands on the lofty pinnacle of the tower, or of the Temple-porch, presumably that on which every day a priest was stationed to watch, as the pale morning light passed over the hills of Judæa, far off to Hebron, to announce it as the signal for offering the morning sacrifice. If we might indulge our imagination, it would be just as the priest had quitted that station. The first direct temptation had been in the grey of breaking light, when to the faint and weary looker the stones of the wilderness seemed to take fantastic shapes, like the bread for which the faint body hungered. In the next temptation Jesus stands on the watch-post which the white-robed priest has just quitted. Fast the rosy morning light, deepening into crimson and edged with gold, is spreading over the land. In the priests’ court below Him the morning sacrifice had been offered. The massive Temple gates are slowly opening, and the blast of the priest’s silver trumpet is summoning Israel to begin a new day by appearing before the Lord. Now then let Him descend, heaven-borne, into the midst of the priests and people. What shouts of acclamation would greet His appearance! The goal can at once be reached, and that at the head of believing Israel. Unseen by those below, Jesus surveys the scene. By His side the Tempter, watching the features that mask the working of the spirit within. And now he has whispered it.’

(2) ‘To “a pinnacle,” or, as it might be translated, to “a point” in the roof, or gable,—“of the temple,” the great adversary now took up our Lord. On which side of the temple “the pinnacle” stood, it is not very easy to ascertain. On the east side was Herod’s portico,—looking down perpendicularly, at a dizzy height, into the vale of Kedron. Here, according to tradition, Simon Magus is said, in aftertime, to have cast himself down. The south side of the temple overhung one of the courts of the sacred edifice; and here, again, was the spot from which, Josephus relates, James the Just was thrown down. A fall from the eastern side, would be far the deepest; on the western, the more open to public gaze.’