I have been asked to share something with you of the work of God in the Dominican Republic, and I would like to do that, Lord willing, tomorrow night. Last night we spoke on the first temptation the Lord Jesus received in the wilderness from Satan, and it was the temptation to deny life. Every time a human being considers that material possessions are more important than the Word of God, they deny the very essence of true life. For God is the source of life, and the life that He gives us is eternal life, and we as His children are dependent on His Word. And to place anything above the Word of God is to deny the essence of that life which He has given to us. Tonight I would like to deal with the second temptation which is a temptation to spoil life. And as a preparation for our meditation tonight, please listen as I read to you one of the most tragic stories from the Bible. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord. Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign that same day, saying, This is the sign that which the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand... which he put forth against him dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king answered, and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me. that my hand may be restored to me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee. Neither will I eat bread, nor drink water in this place. For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Beth. Now there dwells an old prophet in Beth and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in battle, the words which he had spoken unto the king. Then they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the earth. So they saddled him the earth, and he rode thereon. and went after the man of God and found him, sitting under an oak, and he said unto him, Aren't thou the man of God that came us from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with me, nor go in with thee. Neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou cameest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, for as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but came us back, and hath eaten bread and drunk water in this place, of which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers. And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the axe, to it for the prophet for whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a line met him by the way, and slew him, and his carcass was cast in the way. And the axe stood by it, and the line also stood by the carcass. And behold, men passed by, and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the line standing by the carcass, and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the line, which hath torn him and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his son, saying, Saddle me the ass, and they saddled him. And he went and found his carcass, cast him the way. And the ass and the lion standing by the carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his own grave. and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother, and it came to pass after he had buried him, that he spake to his son, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre when the man of God is buried, lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. Now I have read you a long story tonight from the Old Testament. It is found in First Kings chapter thirteen, one of the most tragic stories in all of the Bible. The story of a man of God, a fearless and bold man of God, who came into Bethel where the The king Jeroboam had set up a false altar and a false priesthood. And this man of God, commissioned by the Lord, he proclaimed the word of God against the altar. And he gave a sign. The altar would be split, and the ashes would be spread abroad. And as he spoke and challenged the king, the altar was rent, and the ashes were spread abroad. In his fearless pronunciation of the word of God on that occasion, he caught the imagination of all the people. The king himself experienced the discipline of God and fled with the prophet to pray for him that his hand might be released and fall again by his son. Now this man of God had received the word of God, not just for the king, but for himself. And the word of God for himself was to eat no bread, drink no water in Bethel, and to return to Judah by a different road. And when the king invited him into the palace to refresh himself, he stood boldly for the word of God. He rejected the invitation, and in obedience to the word of God, he set out on a different road to return again to Judah. Why he stopped and sat under the oak is a great mystery. Perhaps as he started back, he began to think of all the privileges related to royalty. What it would be like to sit in the palace with the king and enjoy the food of the palace. So instead of going straight home, he sat down. And as he sat down and waited, there was sufficient time for the old prophet who lived in Bethel to find him. Now you may wonder, for the Bible is very clear, he lied to the man of God. He told him a clear and distinct lie. And because of that lie, the man of God stood up and returned with the old prophet to Bethel. That is not an excuse. The word of God, it never denies or contradicts itself. And that man of God had received the word of God. God does not change his mind or his word. And this man allowed himself to be deceived by the lie of the old prophet. Perhaps, I suggest, because he really wanted to go back and see something of Beth. And as he sat, no doubt, in that very simple home of the old prophet, he did the two things he was told not to do, eat bread and drink water in Beth. And as they ate together, The word of the Lord came not to the man of God, but to the old prophet with the warning, this man of God will never be buried with his parents or his grandparents. And he hurriedly prepared the animal for the return trip, giving him his own animal, to speed him on his way. But he hadn't gone far until he was overtaken by the line, and he was slain, and his body left in the road. Something supernatural about it, because the line did not touch him afterwards, nor did the line touch the animal he rode, but stood there quietly with the animal as the people went by. There seems to be a recognition that God was present in discipline, and the life of a man of God was spoiled. In this case, it was terminated. In many other cases in the Bible and in history, Lives have been spoiled, not brought to death immediately, but they linger on for years, a life that has been spoiled for the glory of God, no longer active in the service of God, but spoiled. Now with that in mind tonight, I take you to the second temptation of the Lord Jesus. Again, as we saw last night, to understand the temptations, we must go back. and remember the history of Israel. Please pardon the repetition, but Israel was the Son of God, the firstborn. So the Lord referred to Israel. Israel is my son, my firstborn. I will be a father to Israel. So the whole background of the temptation is Israel as the Son of God in the wilderness many centuries before. In the Old Testament, you find that in the promises of God to Israel is the promise of protection, of security. John gave out a beautiful hymn tonight, which we signed just before we began this meditation, which speaks of the security that we have because we are hiding in God. Now, God's blessing. always includes protection and care for those that belong to him. Let me take you to Deuteronomy chapter eleven, and we will find in this chapter that God has set before his people two things. Deuteronomy chapter eleven, and we read in verse twenty-six these words. Deuteronomy eleven, verse twenty-six. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods, which ye have not known. Going back to the man of God, his fall came about because of his disobedience to the will of God, which was revealed in the word of God given to him. This blessing that God sets before his people is related to their commitment to the word of God, to their obedience to the will of God. In that blessing, now you may wonder sometimes about the word blessing, just what it means. Well, it means many things when it's the blessing of God towards us. But in that blessing of God for his people is included always protection and care. I want to take you again to the book of Deuteronomy, this time chapter one. And in verse thirty-one, thirty-two and thirty-three, we find the following thoughts. Deuteronomy one, thirty-one. And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bear thee, as a man doth bear his son. In all the way that she went, until ye came into this place, yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out of place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way he should go, and in a cloud by day. Now, there are two basic thoughts here. The presence of God with his people, and that presence is seen as he searches out of place for his people in fire by night, in a cloud by day, for he is caring for them, protecting them. But the second thought is an awful thought. True of Israel, and perhaps true of many of God's people today, and it's found in verse thirty-two. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God. Israel, as the Son of God, did not really believe in the constant care and protection of God for his people. And yet Moses says, You've come all the way through this wilderness. You've seen his constant care, his constant protection. And yet you do not believe it. Then again in the book of Deuteronomy, and this time chapter thirty, pardon me, chapter thirty-two and verse ten, a further thought in connection with the care of God. Deuteronomy thirty-two and verse ten. He found him in a desert land. and in the waste-houling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings. takeeth them, beareth them up on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him. And there was no strange God with him. The contrast again of a waste, howling wilderness. But in the midst of it all is the presence of God, and he cares, and he protects, and he keeps his own. Now this thought is related primarily, I suggest to you in the Old Testament, to the tabernacle and the temple. For that was God's home, God's dwelling place amongst his people. And because of that, you have over and over again the thought, if you are in the tabernacle, in the temple, you will be especially protected by God. I'm going to take you now to the book of Psalms because in the Psalms this is seen so many times. Let's notice Psalm seventeen. I'd like you to notice a number of the Psalms this evening. We'll start with Psalm seventeen and verse eight. Verse eight of Psalm seventeen, keep me as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Now you're going to notice as we go through the Psalms that the thought of the wings of God is often related to the house of God. And the thought is, if you dwell under his wings, if you dwell under his shadow, that is, if you dwell in the house of God, there will be protection and care. Here it is very beautifully stated, the apple of the eye, which is an old quaint phrase that means that which is precious in your sight, that which you care for, that for which you have concern, that which you protect. Well, God's people, abiding under the shadow of his wings, are like the apple of the eye. Now let's pass on in the book of Psalms to Psalm thirty-six. And in Psalm thirty-six, verse seven, we read these words. How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house. Now here we have the two things brought together. The wings of God. and the house of God, safety under his wings, satisfaction from his presence in his tabernacle or his temple. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. Pass over to Psalm fifty-seven, verse one. Psalm fifty-seven and verse one. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. The thought is, there is security. There is protection, there is care, there is concern, there is love, but it is always linked to a place. And the place is under the wings of God, in the house of God. Another Psalm, Psalm sixty-one. And we'll read verse one of Psalm sixty-one. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayers. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle. That is the house of God. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the cover or in the covering or the shadow of thy wings. Verse four brings the two thoughts together again, the house of God and the wings of God. Now these are illustrations. God does not have a house made with stones. God does not have wings as we think of them today. But these are terms we understand. as the bird puts its young under its wings for protection, so God has his people round about them for care and security. And his house is the place of protection and care also. One other psalm, Psalm sixty-three and verse one. O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul First before thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. There's the temple or the tabernacle, the house of God. Now down to verse seven. Because thou hast been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. Now these are just a few illustrations. You may know by memory others, and we're going to Psalm ninety one in a moment, but many of the Psalms, many portions in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy, in the minor prophets. the thought of the wings of God and the house of God always speak of care and protection and security. Now come with me to Matthew chapter four. We have noticed the first temptation in which Satan sought a means for the Lord Jesus to deny life by placing material things in a superior position to the Word of God. Now tonight in the second temptation, the purpose is to spoil life. Matthew chapter four and verse five. Then the devil taketh him, the Lord Jesus, up into the holy city, and set of him on a pinnacle of the temple. Some of you may know that the word pinnacle is a word that comes in our English language from a Latin word which is spelled P-I-N-N-A. And that word in Latin means wing. So that in many translations in English and in Spanish, instead of the word pinnacle, the word wing is used. And thus you can read the verse, then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and set of him on the wing of the temple. Now, just what part of the temple this was, I really don't know. And in my readings, I understand it's very difficult to be sure just what part of the temple. It would be a high part of the temple, but not necessarily the highest part. We do speak today in our large cities of large buildings and the wings of the buildings. The temple had wings in that sense. And thus the Lord Jesus was placed on one of the high points of the temple, and the basic word is wing, on a wing of the temple. I'm sure already you catch the possible play of words. The house of God, the wings of God. And Satan takes the Lord Jesus, and he places him in the house of God, on a wing of the temple. Then he says to the Lord Jesus in verse six, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. Now may I suggest to you that Satan is not looking for what we call today a show, not something spectacular. That is not the basic purpose of this temptation, nor last night when we talked about turning stones into bread. It wasn't something spectacular, some type of show. There is a much deeper level to the temptation. The Lord Jesus then is on a high part or wing of the temple, and the challenges throw yourself down. Now the challenge is based on the Word of God, and you find that Satan quotes from Psalm ninety-one. I'll read from Matthew four, first of all, verse six. the middle of the verse, 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 dash thy foot against the stone. Now that comes from Psalm ninety-one. Perhaps many of you here tonight who know the Psalm are better or more familiar with the opening verses of the Psalm. This quotation comes from verses eleven and twelve of Psalm ninety-one. But most of us are not that familiar with the latter part of the psalm. It's the first part of the psalm that we know so well. And I would like to suggest to you tonight that it would be a precious psalm for the Lord Jesus. For he too knew the Old Testament. And the psalms were precious in his life as he lived in our world two thousand years ago. And Satan knew the Psalm. And the first part of Psalm ninety-one reads, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. Again the thought of security, of care and concern. My God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. Verse four is the favorite of many of us tonight. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shall thou trust his troops. shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. The reason for this, only with thine eye shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. The reason why it will not come to those who belong to God is because they are under the protection of the wings of God. They dwell in the security of the house of God. Now many have suggested the possible play of words between Psalm ninety one and Matthew four. Satan takes a few verses out of Psalm ninety-one, but he totally omits the first part of the Psalm. The verses which he quote, only have relevance when you fulfill the first part of the Psalm. When you dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, when you dwell under the wings of God, when God Himself is your shield and buckler, Then the angels of God are sent to protect you and to care for you so that no harm overcomes you. But Satan omits the first part. He does take the Lord Jesus to the wing of the temple. And he says to him, throw yourself on. And it has been suggested that the thought is, don't trust in God. Don't remain under the shadow of his wings. Go your own independent way, for you have the promise. He sent His angels to care for you, so that you will not dash your foot against the stone. But the Lord Jesus knew the whole song. He knew that the place of safety and security is not outside of the temple, not someplace outside from under the wings of God. but that the place of security is in the house of God and under the wings of God. So he answers Satan. And he says in Matthew chapter four and verse seven, Jesus said unto him, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Now we've referred many times to Deuteronomy. This also comes from Deuteronomy. This time chapter six, and verse sixteen. I will read it to you. Deuteronomy six and verse sixteen. It reads, Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God as ye tempted him in Massa. Now that is a negative way of stating the truth of the great commandment, which is also found in Deuteronomy chapter six and in verses four and five. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. That is the positive statement of the Great Commandment. The negative statement is, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. We all know, most of us tonight here are sitting beside our wives or husbands or relatives or close friends. We want to be with those that we love. I travel often and it's not any easier now after many years than it was long years ago to leave home and wife and children. You want to be with those that you love. Now, if we truly love God, It is our joy, our pleasure, our passion to remain in the house of God, which speaks of oneness with Him, of harmony with His will, of obedience to His word. We are not going to throw ourselves off the wing of the temple, trusting in the word of God, going our independent way, but trusting that He will fulfill His word. For the word that Satan quoted to the Lord Jesus was taken out of context. It is only fulfilled in the case of those who remain under the wings of God and in the place of security and protection. Here in Deuteronomy chapter six, the verse that the Lord Jesus quoted, the last part was not quoted by the Lord Jesus, but it reminds us of how Israel as the Son of God failed. For verse sixteen of Deuteronomy six says, "'She shall not tempt the Lord your God as she tempted him in Massa.'" Now you may remember the story. It's found in Exodus chapter seventeen. I'd like to read just one or two of the verses from this portion of the Word of God. Exodus seventeen, and I read verse two. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? Then down in verse seven, and he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? It's not an easy story to understand. You see, there was no water. Exodus seventeen states that the people were thirsty and they needed water. You also find that God did intervene and he supplied in an abundant way water. And yet the whole story is characterized by a wrong attitude on the part of Israel. And it was the wrong attitude which represented their tempting of God. What was the wrong attitude? They did not wait patiently on the Lord. There is no evidence of trust in God or confidence in God. Rather, there is complaining and murmuring, or as our King James Version says, chiding. And there they complained before the Lord. The Lord acted. but the place was remembered as the place where Israel tempted the Lord. Now both of us today, who are the children of God, we must stand with the Lord Jesus or we must stand with Israel. We have the opportunity of knowing the mind of God. We hold in our hands the word of God. There's one thing that he asked of us, trust me. Put your confidence in me. Love me with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. And when you love someone like that, you will not leave him. You will not leave her. God wants us to love him in that way as we abide in his presence. When you do that, you have the firm promise of God. of constant continuing care, concern, and protection. Let me take you back to the man of God. He was in a hostile country. Jeroboam had an army. But as this man obeyed the word of God, God was with him. He split the altar. He scattered the ashes. He paralyzed the king's arm. And that man of God fulfilled his mission, completed it, turned and started back a different way. And if he had gone on in obedience to the Word of God, he would have arrived home safe and secure. His life was spoiled because he moved out from under the wings of God. He moved away from the house of God. He moved away from the will of God. And as he made his own way independently, he was slain in the road by a lion. Perhaps many of us this evening bear wounds of similar experiences that have not cost our lives, but they've spoiled certain parts of our lives. We can look back and remember certain years, certain months that were lost. because we moved out from under the wings of God. We no longer loved Him with our whole heart and mind and all of our strength. We became independent. We did our own thing, our own will, and we bear in our lives the evidence that certain months or years were spoiled. The Lord Jesus received the same temptation but he would not tempt God. And the Lord Jesus would not yield to the invitation of Satan to throw himself from the wing of the temple. I conclude this evening, thanking you to the minor prophet Hosea, where in chapter fourteen is a very precious little thought. One of these gems that we come across so often in the word of God, Hosea, chapter fourteen and verse seven. I take this myself tonight, but I also leave it with any friend who perhaps, even now, knows something of what independence from God means. Someone who's been away for some time from the warmth of the presence of God. This was true of Israel. This is the whole subject of chapter fourteen of Hosea. You find in verse four that God says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the Jew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. But here's the phrase in verse seven, and please bear with me, Our King James translation is not the best in this verse. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. If you think about it carefully, it doesn't really make very much sense. If you are dwelling under his wings, there's no need to return. So you'll find in most other translations, And I've copied down just two to share with you tonight that the verse is translated this way. In the new international version, men will dwell again in his shape. You see, they've moved away. They've turned God's own people, Israel. Perhaps some of us. We've been away from that shape for some time. But the promise is men will dwell again in his shape. Or the new English Bible reads, Israel shall again dwell in his shadow, that people that have wandered so far away will again someday dwell under the shadow of the wings of God. So tonight, any dear Christian friend present who has been some distance from God, from obedience to his word, God does not always take a life as he did in the case of the man of God. He does not always call us home. Perhaps in the majority of cases he patiently waits until we turn and come back to dwell in the place of safety under his wings in the warmth of his home. For when Satan said to the Lord Jesus, throw yourself down, The temptation was to spoil true godly life. The Lord Jesus resisted and he stood fast. When the tempter came to Israel, the Son of God of olden times, with similar temptations, how often Israel wandered away, threw itself off the wing of the temple, so to speak, became independent, did its own will, only to bring into its own history a whole series of calamities. For dear Christian friends, there is no promise in the Word of God for security and safety and protection unless you remain in harmony with God and under His care and protection, or to use the language of the Psalm, under the wings of God, in the dwelling place of God. It would seem to me this evening appropriate that we sing hymn number, Five hundred and ninety-eight, which perhaps has come to the minds of some of you this evening already. A very beautiful hymn, Five hundred and ninety-eight. Under his wings I am safely abiding. Though the night deepens and tempests are wild, still I can trust him. I know he will keep me. He has redeemed me. and I am his child. Let us sing the last two verses of him number, five hundred and ninety-eight. Verse two, Under his wing, what a refuge in sorrow, How the heart yearningly turns to his wrath. often when earth has no balm for my healing there I find comfort and there his love can be heard. Under his wings my soul shall abide, safely abide for it was. Under his wing, oh, what precious enjoyment! There will I lie till my strife holds our oar. Shelter, protective, no one all can harm me. more. Under his wing, under his wing, through from his love can suffer. Under his wing, my soul shall abide, safely abide. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.