FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
APPETITE—THE FIRST TEST OF SINLESS MAN IN EDEN AND THE INCARNATE ‘SON OF MAN’ IN THE WILDERNESS OF TEMPTATION
Read and compare Gen. 3:1-24 and Matt. 4:1-11, KJV.
“Christ paid a dear price for man’s redemption. In the wilderness of temptation He suffered the keenest pangs of hunger; and while He was emaciated with fasting [40 days/nights without food and water], Satan was at hand with manifold temptations to assail the Son of God, to take advantage of His WEAKNESS and overcome Him, and thus THWART the plan of salvation.
But Christ was STEADFAST. He OVERCAME in behalf of the race, that He might RESCUE them for the DEGRADATION of the Fall. Christ’s experience is for our benefit. HIS EXAMPLE IN OVERCOMING APPETITE POINTS OUT THE WAY [‘This is the way, walk ye in it.’] FOR THOSE WOULD BE HIS FOLLOWERS AND FINALLY SIT WITH HIM ON HIS THRONE.
“Christ suffered hunger in the fullest sense. Mankind generally has all that is needed to sustain life. And yes, like our first parents, they desire that which God would WITHHOLD because it is not best for them.
Christ suffered hunger for NECESSARY FOOD and resisted the temptation of Satan upon the point of APPETITE. INDULGENCE [self-pleasing] of intemperate appetite CREATES in fallen man UNNATURAL desires for the things which will EVENTUALLY prove his ruin.
“Man came from the hand of God PERFECT in every faculty of mind and body, in perfect soundness, therefore in PERFECT HEALTH. It took more than TWO THOUSAND YEARS of indulgence of appetite and lustful passions to create such a state of things in the human organism as would lessen VITAL force.
“Through successive generation the TENDENCY was more swiftly downward [Evolution teaches the exact opposite, contradicting the actual condition of mankind and the earth today, “as it was in the days of Noah”!].
Indulgence of appetite and passion COMBINED led to EXCESS, VIOLENCE, DEBAUCHERY AND ABOMINATION of every kind, weakened the energies and brought upon the race DISEASE of every type, until the vigor and glory of the FIRST GENERATION from Adam, man began to show signs of DECAY.
Successive generations AFTER the Flood degenerated MORE rapidly.” – E. G. White, Vol. 4, Testimonies for the Church, p. 29.
(To be continued). Review Genesis 6, 7 and Matt. 24: 37-39. Then, let all “examine himself and prove whether we are really in the faith” “of Jesus,” our Example.
Bless all, NMF
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APPETITE—THE FIRST TEST OF SINLESS MAN IN EDEN AND THE INCARNATE ‘SON OF MAN’ IN THE WILDERNESS OF TEMPTATION
