St Mary's

Today Sermon from Rev'd Julie

22nd February 2026

An overweight businessman decided it was time to shed some excess pounds. He took his new diet seriously, even changing his driving route to avoid his favourite bakery. One morning, however, he showed up at work with a gigantic coffee cake. Everyone in the office scolded him, but his smile remained nonetheless. “This is a special coffee cake,” he explained. “I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window was a host of goodies. I felt it was no accident, so I prayed, ‘Lord, if you want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let there be a parking spot open right in front.’ And sure enough, the eighth time around the block, there it was!” (Salt for Sermons)

This is a modern day story of temptation. We smile about that man and his cake: first because it is funny and secondly because we can relate to it. We have all been that man in one way or another. His response is a very human response to temptation; twisting the prohibition until he finds a reason to break it and even twisting the reason until it works for him. Twisting it until he finds a way to convince himself that what he is doing is actually ok, it’s no big deal and on top of that, well, it was God’s will wasn’t it?

Unfortunately we can all do the same with great skill and more unfortunately it is a skill that we have picked up from the Father of Lies. He has been twisting the truth for centuries, getting into people’s heads and convincing them that temptation is not temptation and sin is not sin. And he twists our relationship with the Lord in the process. Just like the man on a diet making it the Lord’s will that he should have a coffee cake.

Eve was on a diet too. I wouldn’t mind her diet: you can eat anything you want except for one fruit. Just as the man twisted his prohibition until he got what he wanted, so the snake twisted God’s prohibition until he got what he wanted. He subtly changed what God said about eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil until he got Eve to give in.

The snake is a master of temptation; he uses the truth to get Eve to do what he wants. He caused her to see the temptation as something desirable and harmless. She saw that “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” so “she took some and ate it.”

Eve had not been created when God told Adam “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” The Bible does not say that God told Eve not to eat the fruit himself; he may have done, but it is possible that she heard the command second hand from Adam. This could be why the snake targets Eve rather than Adam. It is going to be easier to cause Eve to doubt what God said because she herself did not hear God say it.

That is basically what the snake does; he subtly casts doubt on what God said: “did God really say?” Then he twists what God actually did say. “Did G

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od really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?” Eve notices that and contradicts him and tells him no, “God did say” but she is confused enough to twist what God said herself saying God said they must not touch it. God did not say that they must not touch the tree. The snake is already getting Eve to think differently about God’s prohibition. Worse, he is getting Eve to add to and alter God’s word.

Having brought doubt into Eve’s mind the serpent then starts to malign God’s character: “God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The serpent is insinuating that God is keeping Adam and Eve from something good, something that they should be allowed to have. He is suggesting that they can’t trust God to give them what is best for them. Sadly Eve, and Adam, failed the test, they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the rest is history.

The devil used similar tricks when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He used doubt “If you are the Son of God.” He tried to get Jesus to doubt who he was and as with Eve he distorts what God said. At Jesus’ baptism the heaven’s opened and God said “This is my Son”. The devil says “If you are the Son of God.” He is trying to get Jesus to doubt who he is and what he can do: “If you are the Son of God you can turn these stones into bread.” “If you are the Son of God you can throw yourself from the highest point of the temple and God will command his angels concerning you.” If you are the Son of God I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour”. In effect, the devil is saying “if you don’t do these things, you cannot be the Son of God.”

And in case doubt is not enough, the devil, when he says, “If you are the Son of God” is at the same time saying to Jesus: “since you are the Son of God”. Insinuating that as Jesus is the Son of God he can do and have all these things. He is trying to tempt Jesus to use his supernatural powers as the Son of God for his own benefit. This time, rather than casting doubt on the character of God as he did with Eve, the devil is casting doubt on the character and identity of Jesus himself. The devil is trying to persuade Jesus to bypass the cross, to get what will be his anyway but without suffering. He wants to prevent Jesus saving work on the cross. Whereas Adam and Eve failed the test of temptation Jesus didn’t. He saw through the lies and pitfalls of temptation and resisted them.

Temptation is often subtle and not obvious. Our Enemy doesn’t wave what we can’t have in front of our faces and tell us to go ahead and take it. That sort of temptation is easier to resist. What is harder to resist is the subtle twisting of the truth, the mind games and questioning that the Enemy uses.

The Enemy is an expert at temptation: he doesn’t use it directly but indirectly. He gradually distorts the truth, he adds doubt, he manipulates our thinking, and he uses and twists our desires against us until we give in. And he is a master at it.

The Enemy uses doubt: “Did God really say?”, “If you are the Son of God”. In other words, “are you sure that what you believe is right?” He uses the truth but distorts it slightly making us doubt our own understanding of the situation. “Did God really say: “You must not eat the fruit from the tree.”? He tries to get us to doubt our understanding of ourselves: “If you are a child of God” or in other words, are you who you think you are. He even dares to manipulate the word of God. He asks Eve: “Did God really say?” “Are those the words God used? Is that what God really meant?”

When he is tempting Jesus to throw himself from the highest point of the temple the devil quotes Scripture, from Psalm 91: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Once again he is distorting what God said. This quote has nothing to do with throwing yourself from a great height, but about the level of care that God has for us.

The Enemy uses our own desires against us as he did with Eve. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” He tried the same thing with Jesus, tempting him to turn stones into bread when he had been without food for forty days.

The Enemy even tries to distort our understanding of the character of God, trying to get us to doubt that God wants the best for us and instead try to get us to believe God is against us: “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” “You can’t trust God.”

Jesus was able to resist temptation and not give in to the enemies tricks. And the method he used to resist temptation and defeat the devil was the word of God. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered with words from Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

When the devil tried: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down”, Jesus responded with Deuteronomy 6:16: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Finally when the devil said: “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me” Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” And it was at this point that the devil gave up and left; realising that he couldn’t win. Jesus defeated the devil because he knew the word of God, and through God’s word he knew God and God’s character. The devil stood no chance against that knowledge.

The word of God is available to all of us and will give us the tools to resist temptation and defeat the enemy. Knowing the word of God as best we can helps us to know what is right and what is wrong, to know God and his character, to know what is true. It helps us when doubt creeps in. Doubt is not a sin in itself because doubt should cause us to dig deeper into God’s word, to pray and ask God for guidance, to find the truth. When we deal properly with doubt it should make us stronger in the Lord, which in turn makes us stronger against temptation.

Reading and studying God’s word as much as we can is so important so that we can stand on the truth and defeat the enemy’s lies. We need to reflect on how to apply God’s word to our own lives so that we are prepared when temptation comes along, because it will. Every day. We can know the truth and so see the lies that the enemy tries to spread; see the traps that he lays for us.

As we learnt from Eve’s experience we need to hear God’s voice, via his word, for ourselves and not second hand from someone else. It is so important to refer everything back to God as Adam and Eve found out. They could very easily have gone back to God and asked him the snake’s question: “Did you really say?” But they didn’t and they sinned. Jesus shows us by his example that referring to what God said and by using scripture it is possible to resist temptation and remain strong.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”(Hebrews 4:12)

There is power in the word of God and it is available for us to use. It will take a bit, or even a lot, of work but it is worth it. It will keep us out of trouble and walking in the path of righteousness. It will

give us a firm foundation to stand on when we are tempted, when the devil tries to confuse us and lead us into sin. It will make us less like Adam and Eve and more like Jesus.

Studying the Bible is not a chore handed to us by a hard taskmaster, it is a gift given to us by our loving Father. A gift that will help us to know and understand God better: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A gift that will show us the truth. A gift that will give us all that we need to live kingdom lives. A gift that will help us resist temptation and keep us from sin. Amen.