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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July 1924
crucial question that confronted the Saviour. Would he take the Divine way to the throne by way of the cross? The three-fold temptation was really an appeal to take a short cut to the throne and escape the cross. In its three-fold character it was essentially the same as that of the first man. 1 John 2:13; Gen. 3:6. It summarized all temp tation from then till now. The first Adam and the second Adam were representative men. Their respective tempta tions were world-wide and age-long. Satan begins on the lowest plane, the physical. “ If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” This cast a doubt upon His Sonship. Forty days before He had heard His Father say “ Thou art my beloved Son.” Was the voice an hallucination? Why not put it to the proof? It touched also His claim to Creatorship. Was He the Jehovah who fed Israel with manna in the wilder ness? He had fasted for forty days and was famishing. He must eat or die. The act was right enough in itself. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Take care of yourself. You have the right and the power. Make this round conical stone into a loaf of bread. Temptation by want is most common. Men are frequently departing from the path of rectitude and excusing themselves by saying “ I must live.” Satan having attempted to remove the Saviour from His position of loyalty to the will of God next flings himself against the Saviour’s confidence in God by suggesting a mighty deed of faith in God. It might have been a proposal to further His Messiahship. The Jews expected a Messiah who would give them a sign. Indeed there was an old tra dition that the Messiah would come floating down from heaven. “ What better sign than this? Descend from the pinnacle of the temple to the street below. There is no risk for the angels will bear you up. As you come slowly down to earth amid the wondering crowd, they will acclaim your power and accept you as the Messiah.” Jesus had repelled the former attack by the strength of His trust and while the sense of victory is strong and fresh, Satan suggests an extreme exercise of it, in other words an act of presumption rather than of faith. To the first temptation Jesus replied “ It is written.” To Satan’s misquotation of Scripture in the second temptation, He replied “ It is written again.” The word “ again” suggests that a proper use must be made of God’s Word. Heresies and vagaries of all kinds rest on mutilated and misquoted Scriptures wrested from their context. The antidote is always the Scripture wisely se lected, properly quoted and reverently applied. In the third and last temptation Satan abandons all disguise and defin itely asks for the homage of Christ. It was an offer of universal dominion. Rome ruled the world at that time and Satan ruled Rome. It mattered little to Satan what man be put on the throne of the world. He could make Jesus, Caesar as easily as any other. “ Acknowledge my sover eignty and the world is yours. It will give the opportunity you are asking. You can reform its evils and shape its destinies.” Other men had made this bargain with Satan and he had made his offer good. What shall it profit a man to gain the world if he lose his soul? In Psalm 2:8-9 the nations of the earth are promised to the Divinely appointed King who shall ask .them of God. This asking includes the pathway to the cross. In repelling this attack the Master exercised His own authority. “ Get thee hence, Satan.” This is not challenge but command as He uses for the third time the sword of the Spirit, “ It is written.” Satan had offered the kingdoms of the world for a single act of homage. Christ seems to say in reply “ I will accept these kingdoms only from my Father’s hand and after thine eviction.” Rev. 11:15 vindicates the Sav-
listen. John told them that Jesus, the Son of God, was coming. He showed them how to be ready for the Saviour by giving up their sins. To show that they intended .to do this, and to live in a way pleasing to God, the people who were ready, were baptized with water. As water makes thé body clean, it was a sort of sign or picture of what the people wished to have done in their hearts that needed to be clean. One day Jesus himself came to John and asked to be bap tized. Now Jesus had never sinned in His life, for He was the Son of God from heaven. He did not need to have His heart made clean, since it had never been touched by sin. John was surprised and said- to Jesus, “ I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John did not feel he was worthy to baptize Jesus. Jesus told John it was all right and Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. Now, as he was coming up out of the water something very beautiful happened. The heavens opened, and God s Spirit came down and rested upon Jesus, in the form of a dove. We can not see His Spirit, but at this time when Jesus was baptized, it was in the form of a dove, so people could see and know that He was God’s son. Then some thing more wonderful happened. A voice spoke from the open heavens saying, “ Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” What a wonderful day it was when the Heavenly Father’s voice said, “ This is my beloved Son,” and the Holy Spirit pointed out the Saviour, too. Although we were not there, we hear the voice in the Bible, and we know who Jesus is. God tells us in His Word that He does not want a single person to be lost, and so He sent His Son down here to be God’s lamb to take away our sins, and this is done when we believe on Him,-—that is take Him as our Saviour. Believing on Jesus takes away our sin, and makes our heart clean. Then when we have taken Jesus as our Saviour, we are baptized, which shows we believe in Jesus, and our sins are forgiven. This is well pleasing to Jesus. Our memory verse tells us that God the Father was well pleased with Jesus. Is He well pleased with you? Prayer.
JULY 27, 1924 THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS
Golden Text: “ In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are -tempted.” He brews 2:18. Lesson Text: Matt. 4:1-11. Devotional Reading: Psalm 124.
Everyone Will Be SIN As he yields himself to obey Rom. 6:16 V ICTOR OVER ANQUISHED BY
The annointing of the Spirit was the preparation of Jesus for temptation. “ Straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness.” Mark 1:12 R. V. This reveals a Di vine necessity for the temptation. It took place by the de terminate counsel and foreknowledge of LESSON God. As a man he needed the discipline EXPOSITION of the struggle. As the Saviour he must F. W. Farr be tested for his work. As the Head of the Church he must be tempted in all points like as we are. As the Redeemer he must meet the great adversary of God and man. An untempted Christ could be no help for tried and tempted ones. It was the
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