1. 1 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You’; And ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Mt 4:3,6,8-9 Last week we considered changing stones to bread. What about jumping off the temple pinnacle? Is that a reassignment of God’s purpose? The Father did NOT send Jesus to demonstrate His eternal divinity. He sent Him to live as and demonstrate quintessential humanity as the perfect Adam, and to die for our sin. Satan wanted Jesus to test the faithfulness of God, by forcing God to prevent His suicide, to see if God keeps His word, from a verse Satan misinterpreted. Is that faith? It is just stupid. Faith doesn’t question God or create circumstances to prove God is faithful in its own novelties. Faith does what God says without question, like when Peter walked on water. It responds in faith because it believes. It does not create a dangerous situation to see if it CAN believe in God. There are religious groups that handle venomous snakes. They think they are exercising faith because of some scriptures that they are misapplying, just as Satan is here. It is interesting that they do exactly what Jesus would NOT do in our text because of some verse that Satan pulled out of context. In fact let’s look at the text he quoted.

2. 2 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked.

3. 3 For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.” Ps 91:1-13 Do any of you read this as, “Hey, let’s jump off a skyscraper and see if the angels really will keep us from stubbing our toe”? Was that the point of the 91 st Psalm? This Psalm says that when we make God our refuge, we may certainly know that ONLY what God wants to bring to our lives will come to pass, because those who submit to God’s will, are subject to NO OTHER WILL – not even their will! It says that no evil will befall us. That doesn’t mean only nice things can happen and that nothing that we don’t like ever will. Evil is what Satan does, or what evil men do in their will. But evil can NEVER befall those who have made the Lord their refuge, because God will only allow His purposes to be fulfilled in the lives of those who trust Him. Those who assert their will over God’s and try to redefine the purposes behind circumstances, may well need to harvest the consequences of their foolishness in order to learn to love and submit to God’s will.

4. 4 For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.” Ps 91:1-13 So what DOES it mean when God says “no evil will befall us? Joseph explained it best in Gen 50:20 when he said that what his brothers meant for evil, God used for Joseph’s good, as well as all the others. While he experienced hurt, it all was necessary to accomplish God’s good in the end. This doesn’t say anything about jumping off skyscrapers or daring rattlesnakes to bite. I guess those people are on their own but for the magnificent grace of God upon the foolish. So, for Jesus to have jumped from the temple pinnacle, or for men to try to pick up rattlesnakes to prove that they won’t get hurt, is NOT making God their refuge. It is why Jesus declined. He wouldn’t assert His own independent will by trying to force God to do what Jesus wanted.

5. 5 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You’; And ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Mt 4:3,6,8-9 What about the last test of Jesus? Where do we see EGOCENTRISM and the REASSIGNMENT of PURPOSE? EGOCENTRISM is found in the escape from the very purpose for which Jesus came. According to Satan, Jesus could avoid becoming sin and the separation from the Father – if – He would REASSIGN God’s purpose in sending Him, from dying for mankind – to worshipping Satan, to giving the glory that belongs exclusively to God, to a created and purely EVIL being who wanted to be like God! Let that simmer in your heads for a moment. Jesus was supposed to become egocentric, and then believe, “Wow, the Father wouldn’t want Me to become sin! I was mistaken. The Father didn’t send me to die for mankind. The Father sent me to worship Satan so that he would be satisfied and take his filthy fingers off of humanity.” Do you realize that when we disregard any statement of God; when we hold what He says in unbelief and do what we want and refuse to do what He wants, that we really are obeying Satan and following his will as though he were some kind of a loving, gentle and faithful god? When we believe him over our loving and faithful Creator, we are giving God’s glory to Satan, and in essence, worshipping him as he craves. In summary Jesus flew through the satanic testing of His humanity by remaining theocentric ALWAYS, never allowing Himself to entertain egocentric thoughts. This was something Jesus did that Adam and Eve did not do. And I want to finish this section with something I don’t think many Christians have considered.

6. 6 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand 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 will command His angels concerning You’; And ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’ ” Mt 4:3- 10 Jesus found refuge in the shelter, “IT IS WRITTEN”, so Satan tried to use even the phrase “it is written” against Jesus. Satan tried to give Jesus a “biblical” reason to do what Satan wanted! “It is written… so you can do what I’m saying.” Pretty clever!

7. 7 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Ge 3:4-5 Let’s hold Eve in a theocentric position, which provides her with strength and preserves clear human reasoning by maintaining the purposes of God for all created things with no human reassignment. How would she have answered Satan at her testing?

8. 8 “God said ‘Do not eat or I would die.’ There is absolutely NO room for further elaboration or contemplation. What God said is settled and the decision was made by Him, and I have no cause nor standing to consider it further.” Sadly, Eve did not remain theocentric. She switched her position to egocentrism, and that cost her and every one of us our lives, and consigned us to lives of misery if not for Jesus’ death and resurrection. One other thing Eve could have done which might have been helpful against the temptation of Satan would have been – “Hey Adam – come here. Tell me what you think about what this guy said.”

9. 9 My purpose in teaching today is to show you how rampant egocentrism is, and to show you how it can be overcome. The strength of egocentrism is in its ability to hide itself in “what is reasonable”. It is the hook that is hidden completely in the body of the bait. All we have to do is bite on it and the hook will immediately be identified as it does its work in our souls.

10. 10 I want each of you to know how and when to use this new wonderful tool in remaining theocentric, and avoiding every aspect of egocentrism. Since the enemy and our flesh are so clever, and since we are so easily fooled, let me give to you perhaps the powerful tool for remaining theocentric you will ever consider. If you go through life looking for egocentrism in your thoughts and choices, you might catch 10% if you are very diligent. Let me now teach you how to catch 100% of it. The instant you have lost your joy, your peace or your love, you are looking egocentrism right in the eyes. The smartest thing you can do in that moment is to go back to your Savior, tell Him you are in trouble, and ask Him to show you the fault, the open window where darkness is attacking you.

11. 11 It is so easy to reassign God’s purpose for things and substitute them with my purposes. Did Eve not fatally reassign the purpose of the Tree in the garden? Can you think of some common ways that we unknowingly practice egocentrism and reassign purpose for things God created for His? In each example, I want you to identify the root of egocentrism and, the purpose for which it is done.

12. 12 A parent won’t allow a child to make bad choices. For example, a parent constantly hounds a child to do his homework, or to practice for an event, or to study for a test or meet a deadline. Why? We don’t want to look like bad parents. We don’t want to deal with the consequences. We don’t want the kids to suffer. Your 10 year old comes home from school with a bloody nose and a fat lip. He told another kid he was stupid and a fight ensued. Should you get angry, call the police and press charges, support your child and teach him how to use the system to punish those who offend you? Or should you use a fairly innocuous situation to teach your son that it often causes problems when you speak without thinking of others, or try to assert your will on others?