The Three Temptations Everyone Faces — Eve to Jesus Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody, and I guess this is program number four for today, so before it starts getting any worse outside, we'll get out of here. Okay, for those of you watching and joining us on television, of course, this is just an informal Bible study. I like to emphasize that. I don't want anybody to think that we're something that we're not. We're just an informal study. We are non-denominational. I do not adhere to any particular denomination's line. If they agree with me, fine, but if they don't, it's not going to shake me up because I'm not trying to get people to see what I see. All I maintain is, get in the book. And I always have to tell my classes once in a while, years ago, a lady was visiting with some of our class people, and she was from a very legalistic denomination, and of course I was stressing my teaching on grace, and on the way out I could see she was quite hot under the collar. I mean she showed it on her whole facial expression, and she said, I don't agree with a word you said. And I said, that's fine. I said, I'm not here to try to twist people's arms, but she said, I'll give you credit for one thing. She said, before this evening was over, I made up my mind I was going to start studying my Bible. I said, lady, then I've accomplished everything that I came to do, just to get you into the book. And whether you agree with me or not, that's beside the point. But if I can tantalize you to search the scriptures, then I feel like I've done what the Lord wants me to do. So anyway, we just like to get folk interested in the book, and fortunately we're hearing a lot of comments that out of fact people who never had any interest before have had their appetites whetted. All right, now if you'll come back with me to I Corinthians chapter 10, and the verse we left with at the end of the program, verse 13. And again I constantly remind folk the situation in Corinth. They were in the midst of abject idolatry, paganism. It was a bustling double seaport city, a seaport on the east and a seaport on the west, and it was a commercial city. It had a lot of commercial activity. There was a large community of Jews, and into this ungodly city comes the apostle Paul with no fanfare, no advance men, and he just comes in and starts preaching the gospel as we'll see it in a few weeks anyway in chapter 15, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and how that he was buried, and he rose again according to the Scriptures. That was the only gospel that Paul knew, and out of that came pagans, multitudes of them, and literally as we saw back in the book of Acts, he turned the Roman Empire upside down. All right, now then to these Corinthians who are plagued with all these temptations and all these problems and testings, he says in verse 13, "...but there has no temptation, there has been no testing, taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." Well, while we were having a break and a cup of coffee, I happened to think of a verse back here in Hebrews. So turn with me a minute to Hebrews chapter 4, because it goes along this same line. As believers, we are going to face temptation every day. We all do. We'll never leave it until we leave this life. But we do have these promises, and this is what we have to learn to hang on to. Hebrews 4, verses 14, 15, and 16. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, now remember when Christ presented His own blood as we studied it back in John chapter 20, fulfilling the priesthood of Melchizedek, the High Priest of all. So then He is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession because we have someone that is constantly aware of our moment by moment existence. Now verse 15. Hebrews 4, verses 15, 16. For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched. Now that's the negative. Let's read it from the positive approach. For we have a high priest who can be touched. You see the difference? We have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Why? Because He was in all points, every point of temptation you can dream of, He was in all points tempted or tested like we are. But where we fall and fail, He didn't. He was without sin. Now then, since He was sinless, since He was perfect, but since He tasted every situation that we have to come up against, oh, look at the invitation. Therefore, come, what's the next word, boldly. We don't have to shrink to come into the presence of God. We can come into the very throne room at any time of the day or night, boldly, and come into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in that time of need. I mean, the door is always open. You know, a lot of times you'll read of new executives and presidents or football coaches, pro football coaches, and they call it, they have an open door policy. Oh, what do they mean? That means that their employees or their football players can come into their office any time. It's an open door policy. Well, hey, they're not the beginners of all that. God instituted it. The Lord has an open door policy. We can come into the throne room any time. All right, so what are the points in which He was tested like as we are? Well, keep on going to the right in your Bible and come all the way back to 1 John 2, starting verse 15. Now, for those of you who have been with me since Genesis, you're going to say, well, you've said this before. Of course I have. But I don't make apology for that anymore. I used to. I thought if I've said something once, that should be enough. But you know, the more books I read, and especially the big ones, you know what I'm realizing? They repeat, and they repeat, and they repeat. That's why they can make such a big book. See? Well, I'm not going to apologize for repeating. So here we come to 1 John 2, and I have taught it maybe two or three times in the last five years, but it's about time we hit it again. Verse 15, "...love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man love the world and the things in it, then the love of the Father is not in him." In other words, our priorities are upside down. Verse 16, "...for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, that's not of the Father, but is of the world." And here's why we shouldn't get taken up in it. The next verse, "...for the world," this whole world system, "...is going to pass away. And when it leaves, the desires for it will pass as well. But, "...he that doeth the will of God abideth..." How long? Forever! How many times haven't you heard me say, even on the program, young people, why gamble your eternity for 15 or 20 years of the fast lane here? It's not worth it. It's not worth it. And a lot of times I have to tell people, look at the lives of some of our famous people, entertainers and what have you. Oh, they're living high on the hog. How long? Just a few years. And then the flush of beauty wears off, and they're just cast away. They're no longer important. And how many of them end up committing suicide? How many end up in the Betty Ford facility, alcohol treatment and what have you? Well this says it all. See, the things of this world, they pass just like a blade of grass that comes up in the morning, you cut it off in the afternoon. But, he says, the things that are eternal are going to last forever and ever. All right, now let's go all the way back, like we did, I think, once before at least, all the way back to Genesis, and poor old Eve is going to be the first to face these areas of temptation that are common to all men. As John listed them, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Those are the three areas of temptation that every human being is going to have to face, and not just once, but almost every day. All right, Eve was the first. Notice back in Genesis chapter 3, and starting at verse 6, Satan, of course, has already approached her, and he's holding this conversation and tantalizing her, and after all, there was something more to be gained if she would just listen to him and eat of this forbidden tree. Now you want to remember, Eve's already got it pretty good. I've always said, she's got the best husband that was ever made, isn't that right? I mean, the guy was sinless, he was perfect, what more could you ask for? They were living in all the beauty of paradise, they had no sickness, no death, no disease, no insects, no thorns, I mean, they had it pretty good. But she wasn't satisfied, and Satan detects that, and so he comes now and says, Yeah, Eve, there's something better, all right. Verse 6, "...so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye." In other words, it was a beautiful-appearing fruit, it wasn't an apple, I think it was some form of a grape-type fruit, but it was beautiful, and it just appealed to the eye. "...and that it was a tree to be desired to make one wise." And so there's the pride aspect, my living, she had everything else, but now if she could just be as wise as God, that appealed to her pride. "...so she took the fruit thereof, and did eat." Now she wouldn't have eaten if she was stuffed full after a Thanksgiving meal, so what must she have been, a little bit hungry. And so the natural appetite was in high gear, she's a little bit hungry. The eye says, Have you ever seen anything so beautiful to eat? And then Satan on top of that says, She'll be wise as God. Those are the three areas that mankind is still confronted with. The lust of the eye, the pride of life, and the lust of the flesh. Now the word lust of the flesh doesn't always mean bad. We can desire a lot of things that in a proper amount are certainly good for us. All right, now then when Jesus told Paul that He had tasted every temptation as was common to man, of course we see them in the temptations back in Matthew. So now if you'll come on up to Matthew, and he's been out in the wilderness those forty days fasting, and of course it was a perfect setup for the temptations. And sure enough the devil comes along realizing that he's been out there in the desert, and that he's hungry. And so in verse 3, after fasting the forty days in the desert, Matthew 4, verse 3, the tempter came to him and said, If, that's a strong word isn't it, If, Matthew 4, verse 3. And oh Satan says, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Well if he's hungry, what does the thought of bread do? Boy, it just sends those taste buds going crazy. And so now he is to be tempted with this whole concept of satisfying his hunger. And so what does Jesus answer? Verse 4, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Now what's the lesson? In spite of our physical appetites, whatever they are, what do we have to temper them with? The spiritual things that are far more important. You know I've tried to stress, not only to my own kids, but to other people, and to myself, my wife, is that we have to keep our priorities straight. See this is what happens to so many people. They mean well, but they got their priorities upside down. And when you get your priorities upside down, you're headed for trouble. Alright, so now Jesus is saying, listen Satan, there is something more important than feeding the physical. The most important is to feed on the spiritual. Verse 5, Satan doesn't give up. Now he comes back and he takes him up into the Holy City, puts him on the pinnacle of the temple with all of the temple crowds down below. And remember the temple pinnacle wasn't as high as some of our size skyscrapers today, so it was no problem seeing someone up there on the pinnacle of the temple, that was easily within eyesight. Alright, so he sets him on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said unto him, if, again there's that word, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against the stone. Now the way I like to interpret this, and you may not all agree with me, we've already seen the first temptation, the lust of the flesh, hunger. I think the next one here is the lust of the eye, whether it's ours or someone else's. In this case it's someone else's, because what is Satan setting? Oh, a great showmanship event. And I can just see him out like a Madison Avenue advertiser, now look, my, if we could just send you sailing off of here, not with a bungee rope, but we can just send you sailing off the tip of this temple, and then at the last moment have angels just sweep down and pick you up and spare you from hitting the ground. Look what it would do to that crowd of people. Can you imagine it? My, what a show that would have been. And old Satan says, just imagine if you could do that, what we could do to those people down there on the temple pavement. And then Jesus said in verse 7, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. I'm not going to do it. I don't care what you tempt me with, I'm not going to do it. All right, but that's the second one. Now comes the third one, which was, of course, the pride of life. Now I don't suppose anybody really can understand this next temptation like politicians or maybe military commanders. Someone who can get to the place of controlling massive numbers of people. Power just literally grabs them. All right, that is what true pride is all about, to get control over other people. That's why some of your notorious emperors have come, like Napoleon and a Stalin and a Hitler or whatever. They get so power hungry because they can control masses of people. All right, now look what Satan does with Jesus. Verse 8, and again the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world. Now remember, Jesus and Satan are both spiritual, even though Christ is here in the flesh, He's also here in the spiritual. And so from the spiritual concept, Satan could let Jesus look all the way back to Nebuchadnezzar, maybe even all the way back to David's great kingdom, and he could show him forward and see all the great empires that would yet be coming down through human history. And he says to Jesus, just think, if you'll fall down and worship me, you can have control over all these nations. They'll be bowing at your feet because they're yours. Quite a temptation, wasn't it? But you see, isn't that amazing? Satan must not have known. I think there are a lot of things Satan doesn't know, I really have to believe that. I don't believe Satan understood that one day these same nations will be under Christ's rulership when he rules and reigns, and they're going to come as a result of his sovereignty. But see, Satan is naive enough to offer them to Jesus if he would fall down and worship him. Now, you see, the whole idea of all this is to show you and I that Satan is doing the same thing to us. He is constantly bombarding us with desires of the flesh, our appetites. He is constantly bombarding us with things that appeal to the eye. If he didn't, television would die overnight, because the only thing that keeps television going is the commercials. Isn't that right? See, and now they're coming up with the infomercials, in fact they're squeezing me off the air in a couple of places, because these half hour infomercials can generate much, much more income than a poor little old ministry like ours. But you see, it's appealing to people's seeing these things, and then they say, I want it. And then the next great temptation is to get to the place of preeminence and power over people, whether it's a small number or great, that's beside the point. But these are the three areas, as I've taught for 20 years, that every human being is faced with temptations. Whether we're a believer or a non-believer, that's beside the point. There are still the three categories of temptation, but what's our hope? Now come back to I Corinthians again. This is our hope. This is our comfort, that even though before the day is over I'm going to be confronted with something within these three areas, the Lord is going to show me that way of escape. Now we have to look for it. God isn't going to put that way of escape right smack dab in front of us. Here again we become people of choice, and when we're confronted with a temptation and we know it's about to get us, we look for that way of escape because God has provided it. All right, back to I Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 14 now. So he says, "...wherefore, because of that ability to find a way of escape, wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." Now don't sit up and say, well that doesn't appeal to us, we don't worship idols today. Oh no, oh no. You know I imagine most idols in America sit in that little part of the house we call the garage. Isn't that right? That automobile just simply becomes their idol. You know I was showing somebody my cattle a while back, and I am, I'm proud of them, I love them. They're almost second to my wife, and she sometimes thinks that they're taking first place. No they're not. But I was showing them to somebody, and the guy says, hey Les look out, they're not your idol are they? Well they could be, absolutely they could be. And the same way with any of you, whatever it may be, it may be your garden, it may be your kids, it may be your grandkids, it may be your business, it may be your job. And it can become an idol. And so Paul's admonition is, look out, don't let something become your idol. But let everything put the Lord first and foremost. Then verse 15. Now in spite of the fact that these Corinthians were carnal, they still had a lot of problems living the Christian life, how does he approach them? As what kind of people? Betty, come on, wise men, see? And so he says, I speak to you as wise men. Listen to and take advantage or judge what I say. Fair enough? And it's just as applicable to us today as it was to the Corinthians then. Well now I guess I should have a little more time, but we'll chew up these last three or four minutes with the rest of this chapter 10, and then I guess we'll be ready for chapter 11 in our next taping experience. Now then he says in verse 16, and again, the best way I can put it is he shifts gears. Like one commentary I read one time, Paul does not write the book of Corinthians with a real continuity. And I'm beginning to see it. All of a sudden he's talking about something and boom, he's off on another thought. Well the Holy Spirit is doing it for a purpose, I know, but here is a good example. Here he's just been talking about resisting temptations and fleeing from idolatry and all these things, and then all of a sudden in 16 he takes us to the Lord's communion table. Well, he just shifts gears. All right, verse 16, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? So he's talking about the Lord's table. Now verse 17, the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Now before we go any further, I've got to remind you, where is the first instance of presenting the cup, the wine, the grape juice, whatever your particular church uses. Where is the first instance of practicing the wine and the broken bread? Huh? Yeah, yeah, the Lord's upper room experience. You remember? In the upper room, and he said, take this cup and this is my blood which will be shed for you. Now he hadn't died yet, it was still future, and he said, this is my body which is broken. But you see what I've always stressed to people when we look at those verses back there in the Gospels, even though Jesus did those two things, did he give any explanation? Did he institute it as something that somebody was supposed to? No. No, it's just dropped like a hot potato. You don't see anything more of that cup and bread. Now of course the very, very first instance was way back there when Abraham met Melchizedek, you remember, and they brought to Melchizedek what? Bread and wine. So you see, way back there already, we already had a picture of the Lord's table. But when Jesus talked about it in the Matthew account, he merely said, this is the cup of the New Testament, or something to that effect, and this is my body which is broken. But no explanation. There was no criteria for how to practice it until here. Now Paul tells us what it's all about, and how it is to be practiced in the local church. Okay, now let's go on for whatever minute or two we've got left. So he says, "...the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread." Now with this I'm going to wind up the half hour, we haven't got time to go any further anyway. You remember in Jesus' earthly ministry, and he told them, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you cannot partake with me? What did many of his followers do? Well, they about upchucked, and they left. They could not comprehend eating his flesh and drinking, but you see, they were so ignorant. That isn't what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about a spiritual communion of his shed blood and his broken body. Time's gone. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.