with Pastor Smith

With Pastor Smith.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Supremacy and Influence in the Life of the Christian

Matthew 4:8-11 "Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly 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 will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.' " Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him."

Here we see our Lords third and most terrible temptation. Jesus is tempted to doubt His Fathers love for Him, and to forsake the way of the cross. At the heart of this temptation is an invitation for Jesus to prescribe to a philosophy that many poorly thought out christians share with the father of all lies. It is the belief that the end justifies the means. The Fathers way, and the way the Devil both lead to the same results (Jesus obtaining universal sovereignty.) The temptation is for Jesus to think that as long as the end result reached was good it mattered not how He reached it. But God cares as much about the way we go about accomplishing something as what we accomplish. This is why the Lord rejected the ark returning to Jerusalem in a cart in 2 Samuel 6, and why God would not accept strange fire from Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10. If the action or system by which a result is brought about is corrupt, then the result will be corrupted as well. When we are tempted to use the tools of our enemy rather than the tools that God has given to us to accomplish our goals in this world, then we must recall that our Lord (who called us to take up out cross and follow Him) refused to use the tools of the Devil no matter what the cost. Evil my friends can never be overcome by evil, and God's rule can never be established through the means of the Devils devices. 

Is it worth it? Is the Devils offer of power in this world to do what is good and right or even to stop what is wrong from happening worth the sacrifice of your soul? No.

Mark 8:36 "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?"

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