Sermon 2

Matthew 4:2-4. And when he had fasted forty days, and forty nights, he was afterwards hungry. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And he answered and said, It is written, Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

In these words there are three branches: First, the occasion. Secondly, the temptation itself. Thirdly, Christ's answer.

First, the occasion of the first temptation; in the second verse, When he had fasted forty days, and forty nights, he was afterwards hungry. Where take notice, 1. Of his fasting. 2. Of his hunger.

And something I shall speak of them conjunctly; something distinctly and apart.

1. Conjunctly. In every part of our Lord's humiliation, there is an emission of some beams of his Godhead; that whenever he is seen to be true man, he might be known to be true God also. Is Christ hungry? There was a fast of forty days continuance preceding, to show how as God he could sustain his human nature. The verity of his human nature is seen, because he submitted to all our sinless infirmities. The power of his divine nature was manifested, because it enabled him to continue forty days and nights without eating or drinking anything; the utmost that an ordinary man can fast being but nine days usually. Thus his divinity and humanity are expressed in most, or all of his actions; (John 1:14) The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten Son of God. There was a veil of flesh, yet the glory of his divine nature was seen, and might be seen, by all that had an eye and heart to see it. He lay in the manger at Bethlehem, but a star appeared to conduct the wise men to him; and angels proclaimed his birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:13-14). He grew up from a child, at the ordinary rate of other children; but when he was but 12 years old, he disputed with the doctors (Luke 2:42). He submitted to baptism, but then owned by a voice from heaven to be God's Beloved Son. He was deceived in the fig tree, when hungry; which shows the infirmity of human ignorance; but suddenly blasted, this manifested the glory of a divine power (Matthew 21:19). Here, tempted by Satan; but ministered to, and attended upon, by a multitude of glorious angels (Matthew 4:11). Finally crucified through weakness, but living by the power of God (2 Corinthians 13:4). He hung dying on the cross; but then the rocks were rent, the graves opened, and the sun darkened. All along you may have these intermixtures: he needed to humble himself to purchase our mercies; but also, to give a discovery of a divine glory to assure our faith. Therefore, when there were any evidences of human frailty, lest the world should be offended, and stumble at it, he was pleased at the same time to give some notable demonstration of the divine power. As on the other side, when holy men are honored by God, something falls out to humble them (2 Corinthians 12:7).

2. Distinctly and apart. Where observe,

1. That he fasted forty days, and forty nights; so did Moses when he received the law (Exodus 34:28). And at the restoring of the law Elijah did the like (1 Kings 19:8). Now what these two great prophets had done, Christ the great prophet and doctor of the Christian Church, did also. For the number of forty days, curiosity may make itself work enough; but it is dangerous to make conclusions where no certainty appears. However this is not amiss, that forty days were the usual time allotted for repentance: as to the Ninevites (Jonah 3:4), so the prophet Ezekiel was to bear the sins of the people for forty days: and the flood was forty days in coming on the old world (Genesis 7:17). This was the time given for their repentance, and therefore for their humiliation; yet the forty days fast in Lent is ill grounded on this example, for this fast of Christ cannot be imitated by us, more than other his miracles.

2. At the end of the forty days he was hungry, sorely assaulted with faintness and hunger, as any other man at any time is for want of meat. God's providence permitted it, that he might be more capable of Satan's temptations; for Satan fits his temptations to men's present case and condition. When Christ was hungry, he tempts him to provide bread, in such a way as the tempter does prescribe. He works upon what he finds: when men are full, he tempts them to be proud, and forget God; when they are destitute, to distrust God: if he sees men covetous, he fits them with a wedge of gold, as he did Achan: if discontented, and plotting the destruction of another, he finds out occasions. When Judas had a mind to sell his master, he presently sends him a chapman. Thus he does work upon our dispositions, or our condition; most upon our dispositions, but here only upon Christ's condition. He observes which way the tree leans, and then thrusts it forward.

Secondly, the temptation itself; Verse 3. Where two things are observable. 1. The intimation of his address: And when the tempter came to him. 2. The proposal of the temptation: If you are the Son of God, etc.

1. For the address to the temptation: And when the tempter came to him. There two things must be explained: 1. In what manner the tempter came to Christ. 2. How he is said to come then to him.

1. How he came to him. Whether the temptations of Christ are to be understood by way of vision, or historically; as things visibly acted and done. This latter I incline to; and I handle here, because it is said [Greek text], The tempter came to him. Christ imports some local motion, and accession of the tempter to Christ, under a visible and external form and shape. As afterwards when the Lord bids him be gone, then the devil leaves him, verse 11. A retiring of Satan out of his presence, not the ceasing of a vision only. Indeed all along, he takes him, and sets him on a pinnacle of the temple. And takes him to a high mountain. All which show some external appearance of Satan, and not a word that intimates a vision. Neither can it be conceived how any act of adoration could be demanded by Satan of Christ [fall down and worship me] unless the object to be worshipped were set before him in some visible shape. The coming of the angels to Christ when the devil left him, verse 11, all understand historically, and of some external coming; why is not the coming and going of the devil thus to be understood also? And if all had been done in vision, and not by converse, how could Christ be hungry, or the devil take that occasion to tempt him? How could answers and replies be tossed to and fro, and Scriptures alleged? So that from the whole view of the frame of the text, here was some external congress between Christ and the devil. If you think it below Christ, you forget the wonderful condescension of the Son of God; it is no more unworthy of him than Crucifixion, Passion, and burial was. It is true in the writing of the prophets, many things historically related were only done in vision; but not in the Gospels, which are a history of the life and death of Christ; where things are plainly set down as they were done. To men the grievousness of Christ's temptations would be much lessened, if we should think it only a piece of fantasy and imaginary, rather than real. And if his temptations be lessened, so will his victory, so will our comfort. In short, such as was Christ's journey into the wilderness, such was his fast, such his temptation; all real: for all are delivered to us in the same style and thread of discourse. Indeed further, if these things had been only in vision and ecstasy, there would have been no danger to Christ in the second temptation, when he was tempted to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Surely then he was truly tempted, and not in vision only: indeed it seems not so credible and agreeable to the dignity and holiness of Christ, that Satan should tempt by internal false suggestions, and the injection of species into his fancy or understanding: that Christ should seem to be here and there, when all the while he was in the desert. For either Christ took notice of these false images in his fancy, or not; if not, there is no temptation; if so, there will be an error in the mind of Christ, that he should think himself to be on the pinnacle of the temple, or top of a high mountain, when he was in the desert. It is hard to think these suggestions could be made, without some error or sin; but an external suggestion makes the sin to be in the tempter only, not in the person tempted. Our first parents lost not their innocency by the external suggestion, but internal admission of it, dwelling upon it in their minds. To a man void of sin, the tempter has no way of tempting, but externally.

2. How is this access to Christ said to be after his fasting, when in Luke 4:2, it is said, Being forty days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing; and when they were ended, he afterward hungered?

I answer 1. Some conceive that the devil tempted Christ all the forty days, but then he tempted him invisibly, as he does other men, striving to inject sinful suggestions; but he could find nothing in him to work upon (John 14:30). But at forty days' end he takes another course, and appears visibly in the shape of an angel of light. He says he came to him most solemnly and industriously to tempt him. This opinion is probable.

2. It may be answered, Luke's speech must be understood, Being forty days in the wilderness, and in those days he did eat nothing, and was tempted; that is, those days being ended. There is by a prolepsis, some little inversion of the order. But because of Mark 1:13, where it is said, He was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, take the former answer.

2. The proposal of the temptation: If you be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Certainly every temptation of the devil tends to sin: now where is the sin of this? If Christ had turned stones into bread, and declared himself by this miracle to be the Son of God; there seems to be no such evil in this. Like miracles he did upon other occasions; as turning water into wine at a marriage feast, multiplying the loaves in the distribution for feeding the multitude. Here was no curiosity, the fact seemed to be necessary to supply his hunger. Here is no superfluity urged, into bread, not dainties, or occasions of wantonness, but bread for his necessary sustenance? I answer, notwithstanding all this fair appearance, yet this first assault which is presented by Satan, was very sore and grievous.

1. Because manifold sins are implied in it, and there are many temptations combined in this one assault.

1. In that Christ, who was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to fast, and so to be tempted, must now break his fast and work a miracle at Satan's direction: the contest between God, and the devil, is, who shall be sovereign; therefore it was not fitting that Christ should follow the devil's advice, and do anything at his command and suggestion.

2. That Christ should doubt of that voice that he heard from heaven at his baptism, You are my beloved son; and the devil comes, If you be the son of God. That it should anew be put to trial by some extraordinary work, whether it were true or no, or he should believe it, yes or no. No temptation so sore, no dart so poisonous, as that which tends to the questioning of the grounds of faith; as this did the love of God, so lately spoken of him. Therefore this is one of the sharpest arrows that could come out of Satan's bow.

3. It tended to weaken his confidence in the care and love of God's fatherly providence: being now afflicted with hunger in a desert place, where no supply of food could be had, Satan would draw him to suspect and doubt of his Father's providence; as if it were incompatible to be the Son of God, and to be left destitute of means to supply his hunger, and therefore must take some extraordinary course of his own to furnish himself.

4. It tended to put him upon an action of vain-glory, by working a miracle before the devil, to show his power. As all needless actions are but a vain ostentation.

2. Because it was in itself a puzzling and perplexing proposal, not without inconveniences on both sides, whichever of the extremes our Lord should choose; whether he did, or did not what the tempter suggested. If he did, he might seem to doubt of the truth of the oracle, by which he was declared to be the Son of God, or to distrust God's providence, or to give way to a vain ostentation of his own power. If he did not, he seemed to be wanting, in not providing necessary food for his sustentation, when it was in his own power so to do; and it seemed to be unreasonable to hide that, which it concerned all to know, to wit, that he was the Son of God. And it seems grievous to hear others suspicious concerning ourselves, when it is in our power easily to refute them, such provocations can hardly be borne by the most modest spirits. This temptation was again put upon Christ on the cross (Matthew 27:40). If you be the son of God, come down from the cross. But all is to be done at God's direction, and as it becomes our obedience to him, and respect to his glory. Satan and his instruments will be satisfied with no proofs of principles of faith, but such as he and they will prescribe, and which cannot be given without intrenching upon our obedience to God, and those counsels which he has wisely laid for his own glory. And if God's children be surprised with such a disposition, it argues so far the influence of Satan upon them: namely, when they will not believe but upon their own terms; as Thomas (John 20:25). Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. If we will not accept of the graces of faith as offered by God, but will interpose conditions of our own prescribing, we make a snare to ourselves. God may in condescension to a weak believer, grant what was his fault to seek, as he does afterwards to Thomas (verse 27); but there is no reason he should grant it to the devil, he being a malicious and incorrigible spirit, coming temptingly to ask it.

3. This temptation was cunning and plausible, it seemed only to tend to Christ's good, his refection when hungry, and his honor and glory, that this might be a full demonstration of his being the Son of God. There is an open solicitation to evil, and a covert; explicit, and implicit; direct, and indirect. This last here. It was not an open, direct, explicit solicitation to sin; but covert, implicit and indirect; which sort of temptations are more dangerous. There was no need of declaring Christ's power, by turning stones into bread before the devil, and at his instance and suit: it was neither necessary, nor profitable; not necessary for Christ's honor and glory, it being sufficiently evidenced before by that voice from heaven, or might be evident to him without new proof. Nor was it necessary for Christ's refection, because he might be sustained by the same divine power, by which until now he had been supported for forty days. Nor was it profitable, none being present but the devil, who asked not this proof for satisfaction but cavil; and that he might boast and gain advantage, if Christ had done any thing at his instance and direction. And in this peculiar dispensation, all was to be done, by the direction of the holy, and not the impure Spirit. I come now to the third branch.

Thirdly, Christ's answer: verse 4. And he answered and said, It is written, Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Christ's answer is not made to that part of the proposal, If you be the son of God; but to the urgent necessity of his refection. The former was clear and evident, the force of the temptation lay not there; but the latter, which Satan sought to make most advantage of, is clearly refuted. Christ's answer is taken out of Deuteronomy 8:3. And this answer is not given for the tempter's sake, but ours; that we may know how to answer in like cases, and repel such kind of temptations. In the place quoted, Moses speaks of manna, and shows how God gave his people manna from heaven, to teach them, that though bread be the ordinary means of sustaining man, yet God can feed him by other means, which he is pleased to make use of to that purpose. His bare word, or nothing; all comes from his divine power and virtue, whatever he is pleased to give for the sustentation of man, ordinary or extraordinary. The tempter had said, that either he must die for hunger, or turn stones into bread: Christ shows that there is a middle between both these extremes. There are other ways which the wisdom of God has found out, or has appointed by his word, or decreed to such an end, and makes use of, in the course of his providence. And the instance is fitly chosen, for he that provided forty years for a huge multitude in the desert, he will not be wanting to his own Son, who had now fasted but forty days. In the words there is

1. A concession or grant, that ordinarily man lives by bread, and therefore must labor for it, and use it when it may be had.

2. There is a restriction of the grant, that it is not by bread only; but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The business is to explain, how a man can live by the word of God, or what is meant by it.

1. Some take word, for the word of precept; and expound it thus, if you be faithful to your duty, God will provide for you. For in every command of God, general or particular, there is a promise expressed or implied of all things necessary (Deuteronomy 28:5): "Blessed shall be your basket and your store." And (Matthew 6:33): "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Now we may lean upon this word of God, keep ourselves from indirect means, and in a fair way of providence refer the issue to God.

2. Some take the word, for the word of promise, which indeed is the livelihood of the saints (Psalm 119:111): "Your testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever, they are the rejoicing of my heart." God's people in a time of want can make a feast to themselves out of the promises, and when seemingly starved in the creature, fetch not only peace and grace and righteousness, but food and clothing out of the covenant.

3. Rather I think it is taken for his providential word, or commanded blessing: for as God made all things by his word, so he upholds all things by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3). His powerful word does all in the world (Psalm 147:15): "He sends forth his commandment on the earth, his word runs very swiftly, he gives snow like wool." And then in verse 18: "He sends out his word and melts them." As the word of creation made all things, so the word of providence sustains all things. This word is spoken of (Psalm 107:20): "He sent his word, and his word healed them, and delivered them from all their destructions." It is dictum factum with God, if he speak but the word it is all done (Matthew 8:8): "Speak but the word and your servant shall be whole." So (Luke 4:36): "What a word is this? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out." So of Joseph it is said (Psalm 105:19): "until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him." That is his power and influence on the hearts of the parties concerned for his deliverance. Well then the power of sustaining life is not in bread but in the word of God, not in the means, but in God's commanded blessing; which may be conveyed to us by means, or without means as God pleases. There is a powerful commanding word which God uses for health, strength, sustentation, or any effect wherein the good of his people is concerned. He is the great commander of the world. If he say to anything go, and it goes: come, and it comes.

Thus you have the history of the first temptation. Now for the observations.

1. Observe, that God may leave his children and servants to great straits; for Christ himself was sorely hungry: so God suffers his people to hunger in the wilderness before he gave them manna. Therefore it is said (Psalm 102:23): "He weakens the strength of the people in the way." He has sundry trials with which to exercise our faith, and sometimes by sharp necessities: Paul and his companions had continued fourteen days and had taken nothing (Acts 27:33). Many times God's children are thus tried, trading is dead and there are many mouths to be fed, and little supply comes in; yet this is to be borne, none of us more poor than Christ, or more destitute than was Christ.

Secondly, that the Devil makes an advantage of our necessities, when Christ was hungry, then the tempter came to him: so to us. Three sorts of temptations he then uses to us, the same he did to Christ. 1. Either he tempts us to unlawful means to satisfy our hunger, so he did to Christ, who was to be governed by the Spirit, to work a miracle to provide for his bodily wants at Satan's direction: so us, poverty has a train of sinful temptations (Proverbs 30:9): "Lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." Necessities are urging, but we must not go to the Devil for a direction how to supply ourselves, lest he draw us to put our hand to our neighbor's goods, or to defraud our brother, or betray the peace of our conscience or to do some unworthy thing, that we may live the more comfortably. You cannot plead necessity, it is to relieve your charge, to maintain life, God is able to maintain it in his own way. No necessity can make any sin warrantable; it is necessary you should not sin, it is not necessary you should borrow more than you can pay, or use any fraudulent means to get your sustenance. If others be unmerciful, you must not be unrighteous.

2. To question our adoption, as he did the filiation of Christ, "If you be the Son of God." It is no wonder to find Satan calling in question the adoption and regeneration of God's children, for he calls in question the filiation and sonship of the Son of God, though so plainly attested but a little before (Hebrews 12:5): "You have forgotten the exhortation, which speaks to you as children, my Son, etc." Certainly whatever moves us to question our interest in God's fatherly love, bare afflictions should not; for to be without afflictions is a sign of bastards. God has no illegitimate children, but God has degenerate children who are left to a larger discipline.

3. To draw us to a diffidence and distrust of God's providence: this he sought to breed in Christ, or at least to do something that might seem to countenance it, if he should upon his motion work a miracle. Certainly it is Satan's usual temptation to work in us a disesteem of God's goodness and care, and to make us pore altogether upon our wants. A sense of our wants may be a means to humble us, to quicken us to prayer, but it should not be a temptation to beget in us unthankfulness, or murmuring against God's providence, or any disquietness or unsettledness in our minds. And though they may be very pinching, yet we should still remember that God is good to them that are of a clean heart (Psalm 73:1). God has in himself all-sufficiency, who knows both what we want, and what is fittest for us, and is engaged by his general providence as a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19). Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as to a faithful Creator; but more especially as related to us as a Father (Matthew 6:32). Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. And by his faithful promise (Hebrews 13:5): He has said I will never leave you, nor forsake you. And he will give us every good thing while we fear him (Psalm 34:9-10). O fear the Lord you his saints: For there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger: But they that seek the Lord, shall not want any good thing. And walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). For the Lord God is a Sun and a shield, the Lord will give grace and glory: No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And seek it of him by prayer (Matthew 7:11). Ask, and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.

But you will say, you preach only to the poor and destitute. I answer, I speak as my subject leads me: It will put the point generally — Satan makes an advantage of our condition. Christ had power to do what was suggested; every condition has its snares, a full condition most of all (Psalm 69:22). Let their table be a snare, their welfare for a trap. He hides his snares, and gins to catch our souls; in all the comforts men enjoy they are apt to grow proud, to forget God, to become merciless to others who want what they enjoy; to live in vain pleasures, and to forget eternity: to live in sinful security, in the neglect of Christian duties, to be enslaved to sensual satisfactions, to be flat, and cold in prayer. This glut and fullness of worldly comforts, is much more dangerous than our hunger.

Thirdly observe, In tempting, Satan pretends to help the tempted party to a better condition, as here he seems careful to have bread provided for Christ at his need, indeed pretends respect to his glory, and to have him manifest himself to be the Son of God, by such a miracle as he prescribes. This seeming tenderness, counselling Christ to support his life and health, was the snare laid for him. Thus he dealt with our first parents, he seeks to weaken the reputation of God's love and kindness to man, and to breed in the woman's mind a good opinion of himself. That his suggestions might make the greater impression upon her, he manages all his discourse with her, that all the advice which he seems to give her, proceeded of his love, and good affection towards her and her husband; pretending a more than ordinary desire and care of man's good (Genesis 3:5), as if he could direct him how to become a match for God himself. So still he deals with us; for alas, otherwise in vain is the snare laid in the sight of any bird (Proverbs 1:17). He covers the snare laid for man's destruction with a fair pretense of love, to advance man to a greater happiness, and so pretends the good of those whom he means wholly to destroy. He entices the covetous with dishonest gain, which at length proves a real loss: The sensual with vain pleasures, which at length prove the greatest pain to body and soul: The ambitious with honors, which really tend to their disgrace. Always trust God, but disbelieve the Devil, who promotes man's destruction under a pretense of his good and happiness. How can Satan and his instruments, put us upon anything that is really good for us?

Fourthly, that Satan's first temptations are more plausible, he does not at first dash come with fall down and worship me; but only pretends a respect to Christ's refreshment, and a demonstration of his Sonship. Few or none are so desperate at first, as to leap into Hell at the first dash, therefore the Devil begins with the least temptations. First men begin with less evils, play about the brink of Hell: a man at first takes a liking to company, afterwards he does a little enlarge himself, into some haunts and merry meetings with his companions, then enters into a confederacy in evil, till he has brought utter ruin upon himself, and what was honest friendship at first, proves wicked company and sure destruction at last. At first a man plays for recreation, then ventures a shilling or two, afterwards by the witchery of gaming, off goes all sense of thrift, honesty, and credit. At first a man dispenses with himself in some duty, then his dispensation grows into a settled toleration, and God is cast out of his closet, and his heart grows dead, dry, and sapless: there is no stop in sin, it is of a multiplying nature, and we go on from one degree to another; and a little lust sets open the door for a greater, as the lesser sticks set the greater on fire.

Fifthly, there is no way to defeat Satan's temptations, but by a sound belief of God's all-sufficiency, and the nothingness of the creature.

1. A sound belief of, and a dependence on God's all-sufficiency (Genesis 17:1): I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be you perfect. We need not warp, nor run to our shifts; he is enough to help, to defend or reward us; he can help us without means, though there be no supply in the view of sense, or full heaps in our own keeping. God knows when we know not (2 Peter 2:9): The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, etc.; or by contrary means, curing the eyes with spittle and clay. He can make a little means go far. As he blessed the pulse to the captive children (Daniel 1:15), and made the widow's barrel of meal, and cruse of oil to hold out (1 Kings 17:14), and his filling and feeding five thousand with a few barley loaves, and a few fishes (Matthew 14:21). On the other side he can make abundance unprofitable (Luke 12:15): A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. No means can avail unless God gives his blessing; therefore we should not distrust his providence, nor attempt anything without God's warrant, lest we offend him, and provoke him to withdraw his blessing.

2. The nothingness of the creature: Not by bread alone. It is nothing by way of comparison with God, nothing by way of exclusion of God, nothing in opposition to God. It should be nothing in our esteem, so far as it would be something separate from God, or in co-ordination with God (Isaiah 40:17): All nations before him are as nothing, less than nothing and vanity (Job 6:21): Now you are nothing. All friends cannot help, our foes cannot hurt us, not the greatest of either kind (Isaiah 34:12): All her princes shall be nothing. In regard of the effects which the world promises to its deluded lovers, all is as nothing: not only that it can do nothing to our needy souls, to relieve us from the burden of sin; nothing towards the quiet, and true peace of our wounded consciences; nothing to our acceptance with God, nothing for strength against corruptions and temptations; nothing at the hour of death; but it can do nothing for us during life, nothing to relieve and satisfy us in the world without God. Therefore God is still to be owned and trusted.