The Thin Line Between Faith and Presumption — Kathryn Kuhlman

The Second Temptation in Jerusalem

Along with you, because we're discussing the fourth chapter of Matthew, and we're in the fifth verse of that fourth chapter. It's the second temptation of Jesus. Then the devil takes him. That is, immediately following the first temptation, the devil took him to the holy city.

That's Jerusalem. And I still contend that the enemy took Jesus to Jerusalem because he knew how sentimental Jesus was over Jerusalem. Oh, beloved, do you remember the incident how he wept when Jerusalem refused to hear him and turned from him?

Great tears of compassion and love flowed down the face of Jesus. He loved Jerusalem. He was very sentimental over the city, over the temple. Think of the time that Jesus spent in the temple of Jerusalem.

Satan's Misuse of Scripture

And the enemy knew that if he could take Jesus to the place where he was most sentimental, taking him into Jerusalem, and he saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. And here's the old scoundrels quoting Scripture.

They're quoting Scripture today. The devil is still quoting Scripture. He can quote it better than the greatest saint living in this very hour. He knows Scripture. He uses it. And he had the nerve to quote Scripture to Jesus.

And he was correct in quoting it. Here's what he quoted. He shall give his angel charge concerning thee, and in their hand they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Faith Versus Heroic Presumption

Now wherein was the temptation? Paul's endeavor to seduce Jesus from his position of unswerving loyalty to the will of God. Paul flings all the force of his subtle art against that which was the strength of his will of God, namely his perfect confidence in God.

The subject proposal is a direct attempt to try to force Jesus to act upon that principle of trust which has been ministered to by the selection of his particular place in the city of the great king, in the house devoted to his worship at its most awe-inspiring point.

Him by causing thyself to be cast from this great height. It was a suggestion that trust most perfectly expresses itself in bearing something unusual out of the common to be heroic. It was as if the enemy had said to Jesus, there's no necessity for you to cast thyself down.

It does not come in the ordinary line of duty, but so much the greater opportunity for a venture of faith in God most perfectly expresses itself in the doing of extraordinary things for God. The enemy suggested that the trust of Jesus should be put to the test and proven in the physical body.

The Misuse of Mark 16

We have substituted all the performing of some great heroic deed, that I may give you as an example. And it's so very often misused, especially among the brethren who are fanatical and have gone out into fanaticism.

Sure, it's scriptural. It's in the 16th chapter of Mark. They shall take up drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt. There have been those who have, thinking they were exercising faith and trust, they have deliberately harmed them or bite them because they had used the scripture.

That the Bible said, they shall take up serpent, and they shall drink any deadly thing, and it shall not hurt them. And they were bitten. And they've made a fool of themselves. And they have brought a reproach on the things of God.

When, beloved, that was not faith, that was not trust, that was presumption. That if I went to Macau as a missionary and was in the will of God in going there, and after doing everything in the world that I could to protect myself, if during the night I was bitten by a scorpion, I believed that God would undertake it on my behalf.

I believed that I could call on the mercy of God. I believed that I could go to a foreign country and plead for God's protection. If I did something ignorantly or innocently, because of my ignorance, because I was innocent in what I did, but because of my trust in Him, I believed that He would take care of me.

But if I deliberately did it to try to prove something to the whole world, I cannot ask His divine protection. In fact, in the same way, we come to praying for the sick. Somebody comes and said, Miss Kuhlman, we want this miraculous healing so that Godless members of our family can know the reality of the power of God.

Miracles Cannot Replace the Word of God

We want to prove to our family our faith, our trust in the power of God through this healing. That is not the right attitude. God does not have to prove Himself to any man, any woman. He does not have to prove Himself to your Godless husband through some miracle.

That Godless husband of yours has the Word of God. That's proof enough. That Godless husband of yours knows within himself there is a God. And upon the strength of that, he needs to have enough manhood, common sense, God, and to accept the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.

For it is written, and God has given proof of Himself to the inner man of that husband of yours. He doesn't have to have somebody to do some great heroic deed or give proof of His person and power by performing some great miracle.

I don't have to give some outward proof of my trust in the Lord by performing some heroic deed. No, beloved. My daily, consistent life is proof enough. What was the sin in that second temptation? It was the sin of presumption.

Satan's Appeal to the Son of God

Jesus, my Christ, my Savior, in my heavenly Father, the Son of God, is the challenge Satan makes the second time. It's the same argument used in the previous temptation, certainly with a different emphasis.

In the first, in all probability, it lay upon the word, art. If thou art the Son of God. Here it seems as though it must have been upon the word, God. If thou art the Son of God. The emphasis would be upon the nature of God.

In the first temptation, He has proved the fact of His relationship, but now the appeal is to that relationship. He is prepared to enlarge upon the goodness of God, and the cow stows upon such as put their trust in Him.

Oh, the cow stops its use of the weapon of the word. He now makes use of a self-same weapon. Behold the very sword of Christ in the hands of the devil. It flashes before us, and He says, It is written.

Jesus Answers With the Whole Counsel of Scripture

Endearing to appeal to the principle of trust, the devil made use of Scripture. Jesus had declared that man lived not by bread alone, but by words proceeding from the mouth of God, and in an attempt to urge him to a new exercise of trust, the devil pokes the word of God.

He now accepts Christ's definition of human life as something more than animal. He acknowledges that it is the spiritual life that needs to be strong for the exercise of trust, and moreover, that spiritual life is only strong as it feeds upon the word.

So he attempts to minister to Him in the realm of that very spiritual nature. It's a political Scripture. He shall give His angels charge over thee, lest thou happily dash thy foot against a stone. Or, he took that from the portion of the word of God, the psalm, that begins, He that dwelleth in a secret place the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

This the description of the perfect safety of the trusting soul. Oh, it's beautiful. You and I have clung to that portion of the word of God, our trust in Him. But there was a day when the devil himself used that which is very precious to our heart.

Turn now to the answer of Jesus. And what weapon did he use on the devil? What weapon? The word of God. And Jesus begins with, Again it is written. In the first temptation, Jesus said, it is written. In the second he said, Again it is written.

And in the use of the word again, we have a revelation of our Lord's perfect love. In person with Christ, the devil was a poor swordsman. Oh, believe me, when he attempted to use the sword of the Spirit, he was a mighty poor swordsman.

It would seem as though with quiet and yet mighty movement of his strong arm, Jesus had wrested the sword right from the hand of Satan. The force of the again lies in the fact that it is an answer to Satan.

Jesus does not deny the correctness of a Satanic question. Do it by saying, uh, it is to say, there must be. To prove a point. Please stop your machine at this point and turn your page.