THE GOD-MAN LIVING

MESSAGE SIX

A WORD OF DEFINITION

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OUTLINE

3. The devil’s first stratagem in tempting the first God-man to ignore His human status of being a man—Matt. 4:3-4:
   1. In His anointing the first God-man, God declared that He was His beloved Son—Matt. 3:17.
   2. Based upon God’s declaration that the first God-man was His beloved Son, the devil exercised his first stratagem, tempting the first God-man to ignore that He was a man.
   3. But the first God-man defeated His tempter by standing firmly in His position of a man and answering him by saying, “Man shall not live...,” insisting to indicate that He was a man—Matt. 4:4.
4. The devil’s second stratagem in tempting the first God-man to assume His divinity of being the Son of God—Matt. 4:5-7:
   1. Again, it was based upon what God declared the first God-man was.
   2. The devil exercised his second stratagem, tempting the first God-man to assume His divinity by having a miracle of protection by the angels.
   3. But the first God-man overcame His subtle tempter by saying, “You shall not test the Lord your God,” indicating strongly that He was a man before God who should not test the Lord His God.
   4. God in His eternal economy wanted to have a man as one of His creatures to deal with His enemy Satan, another creature, but the enemy tempted the first God-man to assume His divinity as the Creator of all things. By this subtle way, Satan mixed up the levels of God as the Creator and Satan himself as a creature.
5. The devil’s third stratagem in seducing the first God-man to love the glory of the kingdoms of the world, worshipping him as God and serving him as his subordinate—Matt. 4:8-11; Luke 4:5-8:
   1. It should have been that in the preadamic age, God appointed the archangel to be the head of the preadamic age (Ezek. 28:13-14), and the authority and glory of the kingdoms of the earth should have been given to him. After he rebelled against God and became God’s enemy, Satan, he was judged by God (Isa. 14:12-15), but the full execution of God’s judgment upon him will not be completed until the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:7-10). Hence, until that time he has authority over the kingdoms of the earth.
   2. In his subtle temptation of the Lord, he offered the earthly kingdoms and their glory to the first God-man as a bait to hook Him so that He would worship him as God and serve him as his subordinate.
   3. But the first God-man saw through the evil tempter’s devilish device and conquered him by chasing him away and telling him in a shaming way that as a man before God He would worship God and serve Him only.