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4 » Iff iIIML JHIi iMiKI ||H| |fc |, A | 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 P 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 1 fesEj BraffiMr 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: