sermonette: Temptations: Trials and Tests

God Tests Without Enticing To Sin
Ted E. Bowling
Given 14-Jun-03; Sermon #617s; 13 minutes

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A good Sabbath, everyone. If you would please turn to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. In the sermon on the Mount, Christ gives us here an outline, a model, a guide for our prayers, which we will find in verses 9 through 13. Many of us have learned this as the Lord's Prayer, but in fact, John 17 is the true Lord's Prayer. But we understand that these verses are our instructions on how to pray. Which is we always call it the model prayer. Now, Richard had given a sermon once and broke this down into sections. He said that God teaches us to approach God in the first section, how to, how to praise the Father, how to pray for His kingdom. Uh, submission, our daily needs, forgiveness, and guidance. And I would like to look at the verse 13, the last subject there. Verse 13. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Today I would like to focus on the word temptation. God does lead us into that God does lead us into temptation, but God does not tempt us. To sin The word temptation is from the Greek erasmus, which is spelled P E R, excuse me, P E I R A S M O M O S, and that in the strongs is 3986, which means a pudding to proof or test. This can also be referring to trials and tests. Webster's Collesion dictionary. Shows the meaning of this word, the two definitions to put to trial, to test or to make trial of. And the second definition is to entice to do wrong by promise or gain. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states about this word tempt for temptation. The words have a sinister connotation in the present day usage which has always been attached to them. Originally the words were of neutral content. With a sense of putting on to the proof, the testing of character or quality. God is putting us to, to proof and testing and developing our character for good. His goal for each one of us is to become mature, full of wisdom, and that we will not sway to the left or the right. Regardless of how things encounter our lives. I think that the, the good news Bible makes this verse 13 simple and easy to understand. That version states, do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the evil one. It is clear by the instruction that we are not to desire difficult tests or trials because he is, he is preparing us for the kingdom, and we are not to desire. A rough road and that it is our, it is our responsibility not to, to look for that route to go. Even in the prayer in the garden, Christ said, They just cut past from me even though he had a difficult trial in front of him. He still asks the prayer. Now turn to James please and in verse 113. Uh, James 1 and verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be, for God cannot be tempted by evil, which in other words means he is untemptable, nor does he tempt himself, anyone. Now temp here in the strongs is 3985, 1 number different than the other, and there is only a slight difference in this one. It is also test, but it also adds the word entice or ur. And we just see these two definitions in the Webster's definitions. And we do not see a contradiction here between verse 13 and Matthew. And or they are both verses 13 actually, and James and Matthew. God does not tempt or entice any man. But every man is tempted and is drawn away by his own lust. Man's own desires tempt him. His lust conceive and bring us to sin. It is in our human nature that causes us to sin, not God. But God's desire is for us not to sin. But to overcome our human nature and proclivities, which we will see in James verses 1 and 2. Which is just up the page here, my brother, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Now, why should we count it as various trials as joy? Because it produces godly character. And in verse 3, we see that it says it produces patience, and patience is one of the characteristics of God. When we have gone through difficult trials and tests, and we can see God in our lives, we can see him also working then to deliver us through those difficult times. And in that we can then see Christ working in each and every one of us. And at that point, then we have the opportunity to strengthen others. Through our service to each other, God is cultivating in each one of us his characteristics and character in us. So in Matthew 6:13, the first half of the verse. Which shows us that God is testing us to see us succeed. He wants us to prosper. He does not want to see us fail. But the second part of the verse says, but deliver us not into the, but deliver us not from the, but deliver us from the evil one. And as much as God wants to see us succeed, Satan the devil desires just the opposite. His goal is to see us fail. His only goal is to destroy us spiritually and for us to lose our faith and hope in Christ. We can see this again in the second definition of the word tempt, which is to entice to do wrong by promise or gain. Synonyms of the word tempt in this situation. In this context is baked, coax, draw out, entice, seduce, woo. To lure, to snare. Every day in the news we hear about, especially today, more and more of child molesters. These criminals will Drive around in their car and they will look for, for young people, and they will try to entice them, they will try to trick them. And usually what they will do is they will do something that is interesting to them. They may offer them candy, maybe a toy. They'll want to show them a puppy, something that caused them to forget all the warning signs that their parents have taught them about strangers. And these, these strangers become very good at what they do. buy them study their targets. And they do this so often by practice. And that's what Satan is doing to each and every one of us. He has had the span of the lifetime of man to to cultivate his craft. There are many attractions that draw us, some to money, some by food and drink, some by sex, alcohol, even drugs. For a great many, it's the entertainments of the world, books, movies. Music, theater, and even sports. In verse Peter 5:8, it says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, your adversary of the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour. Satan is daily trying to entice God's people. Whether to see that they will succumb to evil. And his ultimate goal is to destroy us. If you've ever watched the nature shows, you'll watch a lion. And he'll hunt his prey, and he will go after the weak ones. He will go after those that are easy targets. And so in this small prayer, this is our daily prayer that we must be seeking God daily. It is an exercise of humbling ourselves to God and acknowledging of our humanity, our needs, and our shortfallings. Prayer is an admission that we are not self-sufficient. Without God, we die. Each one of us, as we examine ourselves, we know our weaknesses. If we are examining ourselves, honestly, and we know the parts of our character that need work. We might honestly, we need to honestly evaluate ourselves to stay on the right path. David understood this principle in Psalms 1:41. Uh, verse 3 and 4, it says, he said, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the doors of my lips. Do not incline my heart to do any evil, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity. Do not let me eat of their delicacies. You see, David understood his weaknesses, and in this prayer, he is asking God not to permit him to be overcome by temptation. And David describes exactly what his needs are to God. So when we pray, we should tell God our needs, and it is good to be specific. To ask him in detail where we have work in our lives to be done. We realize that we are not informing of something that God doesn't know. Uh, he knows us better than we know ourselves, but we are confessing to him our understanding of our own needs and weaknesses. And as that, that we, our fellowship with our brethren, we need to be encouraged in each other as well. This is an opportunity as well in this prayer to be strengthening our relationships with our brethren through supporting them through prayer because each and every one of us and all of us are going through difficult trials and the snares because Satan is trying to trap each and every one of us, and there is no better way to show our concern and love for one another than our individual our individual daily petition to God before His throne. And we wouldn't we pray for others, and everyone is praying for you. This is very pleasing to God and delightful to him. It is very nice that we have the church website where the postings of those that are sick, those that perhaps have been in accidents. Those that have even had someone passed away, we have that information available to us so we can petition God. We can see who has the needs and we do need to make that known, so we will know what to pray about. We do need to share with our brethren so we can support each other. And we've seen this just in the last few weeks. Brian Nelson. Lost 80% of his cornea and then was taken to the church and God performed a miracle there. And I can even say that God performed a miracle in my life. It might have been because of my own faults and problems, but God did supply my need just this last few weeks, and I know that. The prayers of the church had gone up for that. So I'd like to conclude today in James 12 this whole section of James. So the first about 15 verses is on this subject subject of temptation. I'd like to read verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. The word temptation here is the same word in strongs as that in Matthew 6:13. So if we endure through faith and patience, the trials and tests, if we overcome the enticements and traps of Satan they place in our path every day, there will be a crown of life waiting for you.