Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 689
Delivered on Sunday Morning, May 6, 1866, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge over You,’ and, ‘in their hands they shall bear You up, lest at any time You dash Your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Matthew 4:5-7.
THE clearest and most important exposition of the Revelation of God in the inspired Book is the Revelation of God in the renewed man. Every Christian will discover, in proportion to his advances in Divine knowledge, that the very things which are written in these hallowed pages are written in his own experience. We never fully understand Divine Truth until we have experienced it. The diamond of Divine promise never glistens so brightly as when it is placed in the setting of personal trial and experience. And the gold of sacred Truth is not valued until it has been tried “so as by fire.” Holy Scripture is full of narratives of temptations. Expect, therefore, Christian, that your life will be as abundantly garnished with them as is a rose with thorns.
Provision is made in the Word of God for the assaults of Satan from all quarters and in all fashions—believe, therefore, most confidently that the wise provisions of forethought are not made in vain—but will be needed in your own proper person. You will have to do battle with those spiritual foes which have beset and buffeted other saints in days gone by, and you will be wise to array yourself in those pieces of heavenly armor which proved to be so great a safeguard to them in their seasons of warfare.
This remark, that the Word of God is written out again in the life of the Christian, is emphatically true in that part of it which concerns the life of Jesus. Every Christian is the image of Christ in proportion as he is a Christian—in proportion as the Spirit sanctifies us—spirit, soul, and body. As the Spirit makes us like the Master we are conformed to Him. And this not only in the holiness and spirituality which sanctification produces, but also in our experience of conflict, sorrow, agony, and triumph. In all points Jesus was made like unto His brethren, and now it remains that in all things His brethren should be made like He.
The Savior’s public life begins and ends with temptation. It commences in the wilderness in a close contest with Satanic craft. It ends in Gethsemane in a dreadful affray with the powers of darkness. There are a few bright spots between, but the gloom of the desert deepens into the midnight darkness of the Cross—as if to show us that we, also, must begin with trial and must reckon upon ending with it. The victory of our Lord was won upon Golgotha in blood and wounds amid the blasphemous exultation of His foes—and the victory of the Believer will not be cheaply bought. Our crown is not to be won without wrestling and overcoming. We must fight if we would reign, and through the same conflicts which brought the Savior to His crown, must we obtain the palm branch of everlasting victory. Be it so, O Master! Only let us be prepared for it and by Your Grace may we be strengthened so that we may be more than conquerors through Him who has loved us.
I shall, this morning, first of all take you, dear Friends, to look at the temptation itself as we have felt it. And then, secondly, I shall offer a few considerations deduced.
I. First we are to VIEW THE TEMPTATION ITSELF. The landscape is colored by the glass through which the observer looks—but still the landscape is really seen. And so in giving you, this morning, much of that which I have myself been made to endure, I may color our Lord’s trial—but you will see it notwithstanding—and the Holy Spirit will show you what is really of Jesus, and what is only mine.
Our trials are sent us on purpose to make us comprehend our Lord’s trials and especially is it so with ministers of the Gospel. Martin Luther was a mighty master in the art of consolation because there was scarcely a temptation, except that of covetousness, which he had not experienced. Melancthon bears witness of Luther that he was sometimes so tempted of the devil that he appeared to be at the point of death—the sap and strength of his life seemed to be dried up—and his soul was full of heaviness. After such seasons he would so preach that each of his hearers thought that he was speaking concerning him alone and wondered from where his knowledge was derived. He learned the art of spiritual navigation from having himself done business upon deep waters of spiritual tribulation. Luther’s remark stands true that prayer, meditation, and temptation are the three best instructors of the Gospel minister—and since I have been much of late in the last school—I cannot do other than use what I have learned.