Real Men Carry Their Crosses – Dealing with Temptation II: Lust of the Flesh (Matthew 4)
Carrying on from Dealing with Temptation I: Intro, we know that Jesus defeated temptation by humble obedience to His Father’s purpose and calling to Him. Where temptation told Him to serve and satisfy Himself, Jesus answered that He would only serve and satisfy the One He loved, the One Who loved Him. No offering in the world could push Jesus off the hill He would die on. Building on this, let’s look at the nature and source of each temptation in Matthew 4 (cf. Luke 4).
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle John described the offerings of the world:
“…all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16; italics and bold added)
Satan tempted Jesus in each of these areas – with food (to stir up lust of the flesh), with fame (to stir up the pride of life), and with wealth (to stir up lust of the eyes), and when we really look at our lives, we notice that we also are likewise tempted.
Before we get going, let’s carry into our discussion an understanding of what “lust” is. “Lust” is really just the longing for what is forbidden. Lust is a matter of the heart; it is the desire of the heart for what is forbidden. It isn’t the object we desire that is the problem; rather it is the consuming desire for some forbidden thing which excludes God and His purpose for us that is the problem. “Lust of the flesh” is the heart-longing for the things of the body that are forbidden. “Lust of the eyes” is the heart-longing for things we see that don’t belong to us or are otherwise forbidden. The “Pride of Life” is driven by lust for self-exaltation, which is forbidden. There are lots of different desires that come from the body and there are many things we desire as we perceive them with the eye. Think about what your body desires – food and drink, sleep and rest, sex and other kinds of pleasure or comfort. Think about what you see that you might desire – a piece of art for your home, the latest iphone or some other tool, the money to pay for the things you want, even a potential spouse. None of these things is evil or wrong in and of itself. The desires of the body are God-given, and the desire for quality and beauty is God-given; they are created into us. We must not dishonour God with the philosophy of the gnostics where anything spiritual is good and anything physical or material is evil. This just flat out isn’t true. But we must be careful to understand that the desires created into humanity have been corrupted by sin, and our corrupted, sinful desires seek to be satisfied apart from God’s design. Godly desire turns into sinful lust when we seek to satisfy that desire outside of God’s provision for it.
One more note on lust – the first and greatest commandment is to love God with everything you are (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37). Desiring God is the foremost desire created into humanity, and is the intention for the heart of Mankind. When we desire anything, even “good” (i.e. not obviously sinful) things, more than God, this is a desire that is lustful; it is a misplaced, forbidden desire. We are all guilty of lust. Thanks be to God for His Son, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)!
Temptation #1: Lust of the Flesh (Matthew 4:3-4)
When Jesus had been out in the wilderness for forty days and nights, Satan came to Him with a suggestion:
“If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” (Mt.4:3)
Jesus was hungry and physically weak, and Satan attacked at Jesus’ human weakness. It isn’t a sinful thing to be hungry or tired or weak, and it isn’t a sinful thing to provide food for the body. But here Satan tried to get Jesus to pick up the divine power He had set aside in becoming a man and provide for Himself in a way that God hadn’t ordained for Him. Satan wasn’t just saying, “Feed yourself because you need it”, he was saying, “Surely, God’s purposes are subservient to your body’s needs.” You can almost hear Satan saying, “After all, God gave you the need for food. Surely He doesn’t intend for you to actually starve!”
This is the same message we face daily when we are forced to choose between what God has said and what our bodies are saying. Just like with Jesus, you may be tempted to reject God with food being the excuse. For example, your body tells you that you’re hungry and need to eat right now. But you don’t have any food or any cash to buy food. So you walk into a grocery store and steal something. This is a bit of a contrived example, but I’ve seen people who were in no danger of starving pick food out of grocery store bulk bins to satisfy some sort of food desire. Even if you were really starving, stealing is against God’s Word, which really means it’s against God’s character, against the nature of the One whose image you bear. God is a giver, not a taker, and so His children are to be; like God is, so should those be who bear His image. So hunger doesn’t justify stealing. Bodily need never justifies rejection of God’s Word. Instead, God exhorts us to trust Him to provide for us. God says that He will supply all your need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Trust Him and satisfy your needs within the framework of God’s provision. This is the difficulty. When we don’t know God, we don’t trust Him. We see instead the heart using normal bodily needs to override the proper order.
Sex is probably the most familiar context for the word “lust” today, and sex is perhaps the greatest bodily tool of the heart for getting us to reject God. It is something our world calls a physical need, but is it really? Does your body need sex to survive? I hear men all over the place saying, “Yes!” But it really isn’t, is it? I’ll suggest sex comes from a natural urge, but just because there’s an urge to do something doesn’t make it a need. Let me also suggest humbly (I certainly know the power of the sexual struggle) that the man who says, “I need sex or I’ll die” is still really just the little boy who “needs” that toy for Christmas or he’ll just wither up and die. And furthermore, just like with food and all other desires of the body, there is a proper place to satisfy that desire. God says marriage to one woman (for men, and one man for women) is the appropriate context for sexual satisfaction. Our hearts say we should satisfy sexual desire whenever we want with whoever will consent, and it is here we are forced to choose between God’s Word to us and our own word to us. Here is an obvious situation where the heart uses a God-given bodily desire to draw us away from our Creator and our purpose, and to wreak havoc and destruction like we have little capacity to understand. And as we’ve discussed already, God is the One who has created these desires into us and has also provided the context for the fulfilment of these desires; He knows better than we do what we truly need (Matthew 6:8) and what we really don’t. We need to trust Him with it and take Him at His Word.
Return to Eden
Food and sex are just a couple of examples to illustrate how the heart hijacks God-given bodily desires. When we face temptations in these areas, we have opportunity to replay the scenario in the Garden of Eden where Satan said to Eve, “Surely God didn’t say…” and “God’s intention for you really isn’t good…” Temptation is really the suggestion that we believe the lies and reject God like Adam and Eve did. But understand what this is! When Adam believed Satan and did what Satan wanted, he gave over to Satan the authority over creation that God had given to Mankind. In Christ, we are given this authority back!
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…in all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention, which He[God] purposed in Him[Jesus Christ], with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth…In Him[Christ], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory…He [God] raised Him [Christ] from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:3, 9-10, 13-14, 20-23)
“For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17)
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:19-23)
When we are tempted, we have opportunity to relive the fall, or we have opportunity to live the restoration of Mankind, which God has given us in Christ! And let me say clearly, there is no restoration apart from Christ. If you are reading this and you are not in Christ, if you have not submitted your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I implore you, do it now!
Jesus’ Reply to Temptation of the Flesh
Jesus’ reply to Satan’s temptation tells us clearly what God has purposed for all humanity regarding provision for His body:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Mt.4:4)
Memorize this and use it in your fight against lusts of the flesh! Food is important to our physiology, but it doesn’t trump God’s Word to us. Sexuality is important to our identity as human beings, but it doesn’t trump God’s Word on its proper place. God is primary, and the physical part of our existence is subservient to Him. Jesus refused to step outside God’s purpose and path for Him, even when His very life appeared to be on the line. The fate of the whole world literally rested on Jesus’ decision in the face of temptation. It looked like the fate of the whole world may have rested on whether or not Jesus received the food He needed to stay alive; after all, if Jesus died before His time, where would redemption be? But Jesus never wavered. He knew what the real decision was. Instead of saying, “I need to protect myself and provide for myself or I will die”, He said, “I will trust My Father to take care of Me and provide for Me.” When we ignore what God has said about how we should live, when we give in to the demands our hearts make on behalf of our bodies and when we satisfy those desires outside of God’s provision for us, we declare that God is insufficient for us, that He hasn’t provided sufficiently for us, that He is wrong about what we need, that He is in fact a liar. No sir, biology never overrides theology. The life of faith is the life that embraces and receives the truth that God sustains us even in the face of circumstances that appear to be to the contrary. There are so many accounts of this truth in the lives of people around you, and in the writings of men and women throughout history (an amazing example is the account of Yun Kim in the book The Heavenly Man). To see this in our own lives is merely a matter of receiving this truth from God in Christ, and stepping out in faith.
When we believe God, that we live not merely on physical food but according to His sustaining Word, we come against temptation with a powerful weapon; when temptation says, “You, my friend, can’t trust God. You must take care of yourself,” you respond with faith and temptation is rebuffed. It will come again and again, so you must be vigilant, but the response is the same each time: “God has spoken. God has made me. He is sufficient.” As Asaph wrote:
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:25-26)
When temptation comes, we have the opportunity to relive the fall and submit ourselves to Satan, or we can live the restoration of all things by submitting ourselves to Jesus Christ.
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)
Whose slave are you?
hold Him higher,
jae
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