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The Thorn in the Flesh.
“There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan to buffet me’’ (Cor. 12: 7).
AUL’S thorn in the flesh was unques
tionably some temptation. I do not
know what its character was, but it was
very persistent. He could not get rid
of it. He was just like ourselves in
this respect. There is not a soul that
is not at times the subject of tempta
tion. I have found but one man in my
life who claimed that he had gotten so
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religious that he was not tempted. He told me a
falsehood. Not long after that, we met and he
recalled the conversation, and said, “You told me
the truth. I was simply swept off my feet by fa
naticism.” If you find one of this kind, he is ei
ther a fanatic, a fool, or a liar.
Temptation is the common lot and the universal
experience of the believer. When the tempter comes
to us, if we have not this fact fixed in our minds,
we shall have discouragements and setbacks.
It has not been long since a woman came to me,
and said: “I do not believe I am converted.”
I said: “Why?”
“Because,” said she, “I have more temptations
than I had before.”
She was actually thinking of having her name
taken off the church-roll because she had more temp
tations than formerly.
Said I: “Satan had rather get you now T than to
have had you before. If he can get you now, he
will hurt the cause of Christ. When he had you
before, he simply hurt you.”
As a church member, you do not merely hurt
yourself when you fall; you hurt the cause of Jesus
Christ also.
The more I study the scriptures, the more I am
convinced that religion is the most practical, com
mon-sense thing on earth. If we can get that fixed
in our minds, it will help us more than anything else.
When the Bible makes a promise, it is just like
any other promise. Brother, just take God at his
word, and do what God says, and you may rest as
sured God will do what he says.
Satan tempts me more than before I was con
verted. Shall I go back where he will not bother
me? Not much. That is just a bit further from
hope than a man can afford to go. Tempting ground
for him is working ground with Christ.
Jesus Was Tempted.
Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was tempted. We
shall see a difference between sin and temptation.
Jesus was a man of temptation, and he becomes
our pattern as well as our Savior. If Jesus knew
temptation as an experience, how much more shall
we who are born in sin expect to have to deal with
it?
Let us read the temptation of Jesus: “And when
the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the
Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread.” But he answered and said: “It is writ
ten, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
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word that prcceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city,
and setteth him down on a pinnacle of the temple,
and saith unto him, 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
a stone. “Jesus said unto him: “It is written again,
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Again,
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high moun
tain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them, and he saith unto
him, “All these things will I give thee if thou wilt
fall down and worship me.” Then said Jesus unto
him: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written,
‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve.’ Then the devil leaveth
him, and behold angels came, and ministered unto
him.”
Jesus Whipped Satan.
Jesus whipped Satan by quoting Scripture. There
is something in that. If Jesus had to rely on the
Word of God to whip Satan how much more do w r e
need to rely on it! It is a sad fact that we do not
know the Word of God. We shall never know how
to live the victorious life until we know God’s
Word.
I want you to follow me in this matter of temp
tation. The temptation of Jesus came right after
his baptism. It seems to me that Satan invariably
adopts this way of discouraging Christians.
Last year, at the close of the Tabernacle Bible
Conference, a devout Christian, one who had got
ten a great blessing out of the Conference, and who,
I believe, received the Holy Ghost, came to me, and
said: “I have had more trouble since the Confer
ence than I had before. I have had a harder fight
with sin than I ever had before. I thought when
I was filled with the Holy Ghost, I would not have
any trouble living a holy life.”
What was the experience of Jesus? He was
filled with the Holy Ghost, and immediately af
terward, Satan took him, and carried him into the
mountain, and tempted him. Remember this: With
every spiritual ecstasy, there comes a corresponding
temptation. As we mount higher and higher in
Christian life, so Satan mounts higher and higher
to drag us down. We preachers call it the reaction.
Reaction in religion is nothing but Satan-action.
We go through a meeting, and get a hundred
people into the church. Everybody is on the moun
tain top. After the meeting is over, we wonder
what has become of the folks. “Why,” you say,
“that is just the natural consequence. It is just
the reaction.” Whenever we have a spiritual ec
stasy, then Satan comes to pull down and destroy
that which we have built up. If we understand
this part of his scheme, we will consult the Word
of God, and by relying on its promises, avoid much
of the discouragement that accompanies Christian
work.
Striking the Weak Point.
Satan struck Christ at the point of hunger, just
at the end of fasting. Satan came upon the scene
and said: “If you will do this and that and the
other, you will get something to eat.”
The lesson for us to get from this is, that Satan
always knows the weak spot in a person, and al
ways knows when the time comes to strike that
spot. He comes to us with a temptation along the
line of our appetites. He struck Jesus because he
was hungry. He strikes us along the line of strong
drink, or something else for which we hunger.
Satan never comes at a man at the point where
he is strongest. He never tempted me to curse. I
never cursed an oath in my life. He never tempts
me to steal, but he comes and tempts me along
The Golden Age for August 9,1906.
Le n G . Broughton
the line of my weakness. I do not believe a man
ever lived who was not weak at some point.
When Satan found that he could not tempt the
Lord Jesus through his appetite, he came to him
through his faith: “If you will climb up on that
pinnacle and jump off, you know it is written,
(Satan quotes Scripture, too. He knows more than
a great many church people) : “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 a stone.” You jump from that
pinnacle and you will not get hurt if you are the
Son of God.
( Thq meaning of what Satan said was simply
this: You do a| fool thing, and God will take you
up. Now, let me tell you something: You do a
fool thing, and God will let you reap a fool’s har
vest. I am reminded of an old saying I used to
think was in the Bible: “The Lord tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb.” There was never a big
ger lie. If you want to try it, put a shorn lamb and
one not shorn out some cold, winter night, and see
what happens. The shorn sheep will be dead in
the morning.
Thank God, he does take us up when we are in
the line’ of duty, and when we have a “thus saith
the Lord” back of us, we can do anything, but we
dare not tempt God.
There is a man with a large blood-vessel cut.
Standing by him is a surgeon who is ready to apply
his instruments and stop the flow of blood. The
fellow says: “Do not touch it.” Satan has him
on the pinnacle. He is going to jump off, and let
the Lord take care of him. He will bleed himself
to death, and he ought to.
We have no rig’ht to do a foolish thing and expect
God to take us up. As I have studied this subject
of temptation, there has come to me much new truth.
“You go up to the top of that pinnacle, and jump
off, and you shall not get hurt.” Why? Because
he shall give his angels charge concerning thee.
If he had said to the Master, go out and undertake
some seemingly impossible enterprise for the glory
of God, it would have been another story, but
jumping off the pinnacle was silly, and God does
not do silly things.
Faith goes to God, and says: “Lord God, grant
this thing that I may glorify thy name. lam going
to trust in thee.” Such faith as this God honors,
but he will not honor fool faith.
The Vital Spot of Pride.
Satan, seeing he could not break down Christ’s
faith, struck him at the point of pride: “If you
will just come up here on the mountain, and worship
me, I will give you the whole world.” How much
like Satan to-day! If he can’t get us at the point
of appetite or faith, he will get us at the point of
pride or possession. How many men who are not
rich are yielding to the temptation of wealth! How
many people to-day are worshipping the wealth
they have not, and never will have! Jesus said:
“Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” God’s
glory and his work shall be first in our life. As a
matter of fact, Jesus came to possess the world,
but he knew that the worship of Satan would not
give it.
If Jesus had to meet and conquer temptation,
what of us? “Well,” some people say, “Jesus
was the Son of God, and it was not hard for him
to resist temptation.” In this case of Jesus and
Satan I believe Jesus met and conquered him as a
man. The fight holds up to us the hope of a vic
torious life through the Holy Ghost. There is no
excuse for our parleying with sin.
Temptation, when properly met and considered,
is a means of grace. The Apostle James declares: