Dennis Tuuri

1 Thessalonians 3:4-5. We’ll read verses 4 and 5. “For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and ye know. For this cause, when I could no longer forebear, I said to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain.”

Temptation. As we continue going through the book of First Thessalonians, two weeks ago we talked about strengthening the elect, which was one of the chief reasons why Paul says in this chapter that he sent Timothy to the Thessalonians after being departed from them for a while.

And verse 5 gives us another reason for Paul sending Timothy to them. The occasion here was he said he could no longer forbear. He wanted to know about their faith lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. So Paul took action to discern their faith and to see if they had fallen into temptation. He sent Timothy to them. This is another reason given for the sending of Timothy to the Thessalonians.

And indeed, of course, if Timothy brought a good report about these people, Paul was concerned that his labor amongst the Thessalonians in developing the church there would have been in vain. Much like the labor of a woman who labors to bring forth a child and yet no child comes forward. That’s what Paul is afraid might have happened here as a result of temptation in their lives. We rejoice in the great object lesson God has given us in this church last week of Pam Forester laboring not in vain but to bring forth a wonderful baby girl with the beautiful name of Bethany Rose.

So Paul is worried that the Thessalonian church might be still born, as it were, as a result of temptation. And I think it’s important that we take that. I’m going to essentially—we’re just going to do an overview of temptation, particularly in the New Testament, today. It’s very important that we think about this. Paul is concerned about a church that he himself had planted, about the temptation that might come upon them.

And I think that we have to be very careful to recognize the temptations that come into our lives. And so, first thing I want to mention briefly—and we’re going to try to go through the first portions of this outline. I know it looks long and a little intimidating, but we’re going to go through the first portion very quickly. There’s a lot of verses listed there for you. You can look up those later if you have a desire to.

But the first point I want to make is that temptation is very pervasive. Always has and always will be. And that is particularly true today in our culture. The scriptures teach us in 1 Timothy 6:9 that they who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Well, that alone tells us that temptation is pervasive because most people want to be rich. And so the scriptures tell us that when you do that, when you desire to be rich in that way, you fall into temptation.

Indeed, the inspired history of the church in the old covenant and the new covenant communities tell us that the church is constantly beset by temptations. I’ve listed some references from Hebrews 11 that show that one of the distinguishing features of the men of the Old Testament church that are listed there is that they came under various temptations and trials. First Peter 1:6 says, “You have—you’re now you are now in heaviness through manifold temptations.”

And then later in that book in chapter 4 he says, “Don’t think it’s strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you.” He wanted them to recognize that temptation is an ordinary part of the Christian life. It is pervasive. Indeed, our Savior gave us in his model prayer—the Lord’s Prayer—one of the petitions, the sixth petition in the Lord’s Prayer. And I’ve listed the references: Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4. Indeed, we pray to God that he lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And that word evil could mean the evil one as well—the tempter that’s described also in the passage we read from First Thessalonians. So one of the constant things we’re supposed to be praying to God about on a regular basis is to not be led into temptation that would cause us to fall.

Now, I’m going to be referencing today several quotes by a man named Thomas Watson who lived in the 1600s. His book, The Body of Divinity, particularly that portion of that book that is an extended commentary on the Lord’s Prayer. And he has probably—I don’t know—at least probably 40 or 50 pages on the sixth petition: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” And it is an excellent source of information relative to temptation and the deliverance that we pray for there.

And if you have that book, I’d greatly encourage you to read that section at some point in time in your Christian walk. It’s a wonderful book. I’ve referenced it before. I’ll also be quoting a couple of places from Jay Adams’s book that he has on the book of James as well. I won’t mention those specifically each time, but just so you’ll know, those two reference works are excellent on this topic.

Not only is temptation pervasive in the life of the Christian, but James 1:2 tells us that there are diverse temptations. He says, “Consider it joy when you fall into diverse temptations.” Temptations come in a lot of different colors and shades and varieties. And so our lives are filled with temptation. And they don’t all look the same. In fact, they look very different one from another. And it’s important for us to realize that.

Later in the first chapter of the book of James, he tells us, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he’s tried, he shall receive the crown of life, the victor’s crown, as it were, that we receive from King Jesus.” And so that verse tells us clearly that all Christians must endure temptation because we all are to achieve that crown of life. So some temptation is common to all men. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that all temptations that overtake us are common to men. These are pervasive in all of our lives.

I won’t belabor the point, but the point is that temptation is constantly present. The scriptures tell us that is particularly true. As we just—a brief moment’s contemplation reminds us of—we in this particular culture, a culture that has gone totally libertine, kicked out all the stops in terms of moral depravity, etc. Temptations abound. In terms of our culture, many times in the history of the church, while temptations are always a part of it, the Christian culture would produce a lot of restrictions on some of the more overt temptations to sin that might beset us.

But we live in a culture in which none of those restrictions are left in place and where various temptations abound around us. And also very much like Paul’s time writing to the Thessalonians, we live in a day that is increasingly seeing Christians—orthodox Bible-believing worldview Christians—as a minority in a culture and something to be sort of scorned and made fun of. And so temptation is pervasive.

This scripture, though, however, in 1 Thessalonians 3 tells us not only that temptation will come to the church, it tells us that there is one who is identified as the tempter. And so the second point of the outline is the terribleness of the tempter.

The scriptures record in the gospels two sets of temptations for our Savior. The Jews were constantly throwing temptation and testing up before Jesus Christ. And indeed, later, as we mentioned before, the Jews were constantly also tempting Paul. In Acts 20:19, he says that he was “with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying and weight of the Jews.” So the Jewish nation were the source of temptation that probably was manifesting itself in the Thessalonian church as well. We talked about that earlier in chapter 2—that the Jewish church were causing temptations to the Thessalonians.

But the scriptures tell us specifically in verse 5 of 1 Thessalonians 3 that the source of the temptation was not ultimately the Jewish people, but rather it was the tempter. And indeed, the identity of this tempter is pointed out for us in Matthew 4:3. There we read the account of our Savior being led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And as in verse three it says, “And when the tempter came to him, he said, ‘If thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’” And so we don’t have to wonder.

The particular word tempter here—the particular form of the Greek word that’s used—is only used in Matthew 4:3 and in this verse. And so Paul is clearly referencing the devil, Satan, the great adversary of the believer when he talks about temptation and the tempter to the Thessalonians. And I’ve listed some other verses there for you. In addition to the Jewish people, the leaders of the Jewish nation, it was the devil who was the great tempter of Jesus, our Savior.

He was tempted 40 days, of course, by the devil. And indeed, as the devil and Jews tempted Jesus, so also the devil and the Jewish community tempted Paul. So also the devil tempts men. In 1 Corinthians 7:5, we read that not to stay apart from one another in terms of the conjugal relationship of marriage, lest Satan tempt you in terms of your incontinency. Specific reference to Satan tempting individual believers.

1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” We have a terrible tempter who brings temptations into our lives. He walks about. He is very diligent in what he does. He wastes no time.

Watson said that he who would have us idle is himself always busy. This lion is ever hunting after his prey and his prey is you. He wants you. That’s what First Peter tells us. And he’s been walking about doing this for a long, long time. And because of that, he is a very experienced and wily adversary. As Watson said, he may not know the hearts of men, but he may feel their pulses. He knows man. He has been working, tempting man for 6,000 years. He has had a lot of practice and he is our adversary.

The scriptures tell us in Zechariah 3:1 that he accuses believers. Says that Satan was standing on the right hand of Joshua the high priest to resist him. Satan our adversary. When we read stories such as Haman’s attempt to destroy the Jewish nation, that is a picture of a real man, but a man who is motivated by Satan. And that’s what Satan wants to do. He wants to devour Christians from off the face of the earth.

Matthew 13:39 identifies him as the enemy that sews tears in the field that is God’s kingdom. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The devil is wily and subtle. And Watson in his commentary on the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer lists 23 or 24 subtleties of the devil, every one of which would be helpful for you to think through and recognize. He is so wily. He is so powerful. He is so determined and he is so diligent in his task that we must put on the whole armor of God to be able to resist him.

Revelation 12:9 says he is a great dragon, the old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world. Says that he was cast into the earth and the angels were cast out with him. In verse 12 of that chapter it says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil has come down among you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” We have an adversary who is experienced. We have an adversary who is diligent. We have an adversary who is tremendously powerful and we have an adversary who has great malice and wrath to be expended against believers in Jesus Christ. And he brings temptations and those temptations are deadly to us.

But of course, we have complicity in temptation as well. And that’s the third point. James 1, a verse that probably most of you are familiar with, verses 13 and 14: “Let no man say when he’s tempted, ‘I am tempted of God.’ For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.”

We have a terrible adversary external to us, but we also have an adversary in terms of our own nature that goes so often toward complicity in temptation and jumps at the chance to commit sin and jumps at the opportunities that Satan throws before us. Our own complicity in temptation is clearly attested to in the scriptures.

David in 2 Samuel 11—certainly the devil was tempting and desirous of destroying David. But what did David do? He was in the evening. He was at the time he rose from his bed and he walked up on the roof of the king’s house and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And so James says that process began. David was tempted when he was drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

And by the end of that process, James says, is death. And the end of the process for David being enticed by his own lust, acting on that lust, and failing to control his own complicity in temptation. The end of that was adultery, was the death of an innocent man, the murder of that man by David. It was his God’s judgment upon his own children and death and destruction. David never really regained the purity that he had prior to that incident.

Ahab in First Kings 21:2 ends up murdering Naboth. As Watson said, he would swim to Naboth’s vineyard in blood. But it begins with him just looking at the field and saying, “Yeah, I’d like that.” And letting that lust or desire for somebody else’s property take root in his heart and begin to act on it then and start talking to people about how he likes this piece of property, but Naboth won’t sell it to him.

And of course, Jezebel has a good idea there. We’ll just get some false witnesses to come against him. And so Ahab as well—the end of that process is death. Achan—a small wedge of gold is all he was needed for Satan to put before him and his own complicity in temptation takes Achan in Joshua 7:4 into destruction. And not only Achan, but all the children of Israel.

So the scriptures tell us quite explicitly that we have complicity in temptation. Hosea 13:9, God says, “Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. Thou hast destroyed thyself.” Yes, there’s an adversary, but it is our complicity that destroys us.

Our Savior tells us in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 that it’s what comes from within the man that defiles us. From the heart of men—not from external temptations by the devil, but from the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, evil lie, blasphemy, pride, foolishness—all from within ourselves and our own complicity in temptation.

The scriptures tell us that we have an adversary without and we have an adversary within—strong, strong desires to be yielding to temptation and destruction.

And then fourth, the scriptures tell us that there is great danger in this temptation. This is not a small matter. Remember, Paul was worried lest the Thessalonians—lest his labor have been in vain, lest they be stillborn, lest they be removed from the faith as it were, and demonstrate that they were never elected and be cast into hell.

In Luke 8:13, in the context of the four soils that received the word of God, we read that there are those that rock which when they hear receive the word with joy, but these have no root. Which for a while believe, and in a time of temptation fall away.

Temptation brings with it great danger to us. Tremendous risk to be cut off from the visible church, to be cast into hell, and to slide down the slope to destruction.

Pretty bleak picture so far today. What a pile of bad news for us—an enemy who’s incredibly powerful, our own complicity in doing these things. And all these things are going to add up to us being sucked off from the faith and thrown down the chute to hell. Pretty bad news.

But very importantly, the scriptures in the Old and New Testament use a single Hebrew word and a single Greek word for temptation. But that same word is used and translated in some places as to try or trial. God has purpose in temptation.

The other side of this coin is that God brings trials upon men. Hebrews 11:17 says that by faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac. Now the word tried there is the exact same word tempted. Abraham is tried by God. He is not tempted by God. God does not bring something into Abraham’s life to cause him to fall away from the faith. But God brings temptation or trial into Abraham’s life for a purpose—to perfect him and to help him to move toward obedience and to completeness and wholeness.

In John 6:6, we read of Jesus that he said to Philip asking about bread. “For the purpose to prove him.” Same word—temptation, try. And so what is a temptation from one perspective, from one side of the coin, is a trial sent by God on the other side of the coin.

Again, Watson says that temptation then is a touchstone to try what is in the heart. The root word of the New Testament word for temptation means to pierce—to pierce meaning to essay, to try, to scratch the surface, to pierce through and see what is there. And if what is there is evil then you fall into temptation. But if what is there is good and proper you move to more completeness and fullness.

God’s purpose in trials is to bring us to completeness. Said his that is—Satan’s evil purpose then stands in subordination to the divine purpose of perfecting apostleship. Satan’s evil purpose stands in subordination to God’s divine purpose of perfecting apostleship.

Jay Adams in his book A Thirst for Wholeness—kind of a commentary on some portions of the book of James—says the following: “From God’s perspective the event is an opportunity. This is when you find yourself in tempted. From God’s perspective the event is an opportunity designed for your good. A trial that can strengthen. From Satan’s perspective, the event has potential for evil that will weaken you. In every trial, you should remember the double possibility.

Some Christians never gain the two-fold perspective. They construe every event only as a temptation and miss the opportunity for inner growth. Seeing only temptation defeats and discourages and in part accounts for their failure to overcome. The first step, therefore, is to discover the full potential for good that exists in every event, even if at first the situation seems like a temptation. So-called positive thinkers see only the good side of the possibilities, the potentials in the trial. Because they do it is possible for them to treat a trial too lightly, unaware of the dangers in it, and thus fall into one of the many traps Satan sets along the way. Failure to recognize both possibilities is dangerous.”

If you get nothing else out of today’s talk than to train yourselves to respond to every temptation to sin—to see, as James tells us to do—to consider it all a joy when you encounter various trials (same word as temptations)—if you get nothing else out of it than to recognize that every time you’re tempted to sin, this is a trial sent by God to perfect you, in the words of James to lead you to wholeness, endurance which takes us to wholeness—then my job will have been successful today.

If you just train yourself when temptation comes to recognize from God’s perspective this is a trial that will bring me to completeness. Now, the defeatist says it’s a temptation and he’s always just trying not to fall into it, but he doesn’t see the positive side of the coin. The optimist, on the other hand, as Adams says, doesn’t take the temptation seriously. He treats it too lightly.

We’ve got to recognize the real dangers of temptation. But beyond that, we have to see that God’s purpose in bringing trials into our lives is victory—victory and completeness in Jesus Christ.

The Lord’s prayer says, “Lead us not into temptation. Don’t cause us to fall into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Now, the evil or deliver us from evil. Some people think it means evil one explicitly. Calvin says it doesn’t make any difference—evil or evil one. The point is the end result of that petition in the life of the believer is victory over all manifestations of evil in the world. That’s what God has in mind for us through temptations. God tries us. He tries our sincerity. He tries our love. He tries our courage.

In Revelation 2:10, he says, “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” Same thing James talked about—when Satan brings temptations and touches you. God’s purpose is to bring you to wholeness, to increase your love, your sincerity, your courage, your usefulness for the kingdom. That’s God’s purpose in bringing these things into our lives.

Very important. Temptation when seen from this perspective is a trial. And as a result of that, it is proper for us then—imaging God as we are called to do—to engage in proper testing ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us, “To examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves.” Same word—tempt yourself, try yourself. Self-evaluation is a proper application of understanding what God’s purpose in trials is.

Revelation 2:2, the church is commended for testing those—trying those which say there are prophets and are not. Say they are apostles and are not. “And you found them liars.” It is a proper application of an understanding of testing and trials to also be evaluating and properly testing ourselves and those whom God brings into our paths. That is an important part of who we are.

On the other hand, the scriptures have many verses that talk about the illegitimate testing of God. And some you may not understand that. But if you think of that in terms of tempting God, that’s not really the point. But when we expect things from God and lay out things that we want instead of going to his providence, we’re testing God. Then we’re evaluating God to see whether or not he is good or bad. We’re piercing him. And the Bible says that’s terrible sin. That is ungodly testing, improper testing or trying.

So fourthly then, recognize that in spite of all the negatives, God brings these testings into our lives to be trials.

Now, how do we then go about applying ourselves to this knowledge? The scriptures give us. How do we go about and this is where I want to spend most of our time. How do we turn dangerous temptations into productive trials?

1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape you may be able to bear it.”

Very important verse to memorize and fully grasp what it says. Today is Earth Day, I guess. I think it’s today. I guess that Earth Day thing has come of age. Today’s the 21st Earth Day. And our culture—the culture in which we swim, so to speak—believes that the environment determines everything. And so there’s no understanding that we are able and equipped by God to avoid temptations that come to us through our environment.

Man’s natural bent tendency, a sinful tendency, is to not accept responsibility when he falls into and gives into temptations, but rather to blame somebody else, to blame something else, to blame God. But usually we’re not that bold. So we’ll blame what he’s given us instead. Whether it’s Eve, whether it’s Adam, whether it’s that lousy serpent that God had brought into the world, into the garden. We’re always blaming somebody else.

But 1 Corinthians 10:13 says explicitly that God does not allow us to be tempted above, beyond what we’re able to endure. He always provides the means of escape. Now, it’s important on one hand to recognize we can escape temptation. But it’s also important to recognize that he gives us certain means to accomplish that end. It is not automatic. He provides the means. He provides the tools in the scriptures and you must make use of those tools or you will fall and your fall will be great.

Now, the first means of course is God’s law, his word. We’ve talked about how God is sovereign in temptations—rather trials—for the believer. His purpose is victory and his means to that victory is his word. What did our Lord give us as an example in terms of resisting the temptation of the devil and instead going through that correctly? He quoted the word of God and he quoted explicitly the law of God. He quoted Deuteronomy—Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 8. And so the law of God is the primary means he has given us to accomplish that deliverance from temptation and instead positively turning those temptations into trials that bring us to completeness.

And we’re going to look at some things now that the word of God instructs us to do in terms of temptation.

First, the word tells us that we turn dangerous temptations into productive trials by watching and considering. This comes from Matthew 26:41. In the garden, with Jesus. The disciples are there and he tells them, “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.”

So the first thing we must do is to be diligent in terms of watching and considering—being aware that temptations are a normative part of life and being aware that the tempter will tempt us in very many ways. As we said before, he is very experienced.

Again, to quote from Watson: “If he that is the devil cannot tempt to lust, he will tempt to pride. If temptation to covetousness does not prevail, he’ll tempt to profuseness. If he cannot frighten men to despair, he’ll see if he cannot draw them to presumption. If he can’t make them profane, he’ll see if he cannot make them formalist. If he can’t make them vicious, he’ll try to tempt them to be erroneous. He will turn them to leave off ordinances and then he will tempt them to pretend and he will indeed himself pretend revelations.”

God the serpent will. The testing comes from many different perspectives in many ways. And so the first way to avoid temptation and rather to turn temptation into its God-ordained purpose—to bring you through trials to completeness—is to watch it, to watch out and to consider yourself.

When we correct someone else, we’re working with other people in a sin in their lives. The scripture says to be very careful that we don’t fall into temptation. In what way? Well, we could fall ourselves in the way that we’re counseling them to avoid. If you’re counseling somebody in terms of money or in terms of lust, then you have to be very careful that you don’t fall into those same temptations since you’re dealing with that sin and you’re focusing on it.

But the other side of the coin is if you’re counseling somebody in terms of them spending too much money, then your tendency to become can become too tight with your money instead of using it for God’s purpose. You can always have to watch yourself. You don’t flip into the other side of that temptation.

So very important that we recognize the first role here. The scriptures tell us is to watch it. Remember the watchman who watches the city in the Old Testament. In a very real sense, we have a city to watch in ourselves and we have to constantly be on the alert for where the temptation is coming from so we can see it coming and deal with it correctly before it walks up to us, comes in through the front gate when we’re asleep and steals us.

Now, the scriptures say it’s important to recognize then that we are indeed watchmen. But remember, if God doesn’t watch, if God doesn’t keep the house, you watch in vain.

And so, secondly, Jesus said to watch, but he also said to his disciples to pray. To pray—as we said, the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, which is a model for us to be praying these kinds of things all the time—tells us to pray relative to temptation. After all, we must recognize a reliance upon a force greater than us.

Satan is—according to the scriptures—is called the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world. Our Savior himself referred to him as the strong man. That’s a very powerful term. The great dragon is this who with his tail swept down the third part of the stars. You know, Luther’s song, “A Mighty Fortress.” “His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal.”

Sometimes, you know, you sing these songs, you sort of forget what you’re singing. And I’ve known people to sing this song and I’ve talked to them about it. “On earth is not his equal.” They think they’re singing about the Savior there. They’re not. They’re singing about Satan there. That’s what Luther is saying. He’s describing Satan here as a terrible adversary for us.

And if we don’t pray to God and go to the only source of trying to defeat him and rely on God and his deliverance, then we’re foolish. The scriptures say in 2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, to reserve the unjust under the day of judgment.” God knows how. We don’t know how. We pray, he rescues us.

Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15 talks about how our Savior has been tempted in all things and is able to succor them who are tempted. And the word means to give aid to. And so when we pray, we cry out to Christ to give us aid in temptation, that we may go through the trial correctly and may be found more complete.

We pray that Christ’s power would enable us. And Watson in his book again says that Christ’s power enables him, his love inclines him and his faithfulness engages him to succor tempted souls.

Watson also compared the two names of Satan and our Savior to show how—while for instance the Savior is called the—Satan rather is called Apollyon the destroyer. Jesus is called the Savior. While Satan is the strong man, Jesus is El Gibore, the Mighty God. While Satan is the accuser, Jesus is the Advocate. While Satan is the tempter, Jesus is the Comforter. While Satan is the prince of darkness, our Lord is the Son of Righteousness. While Satan is the old serpent, Jesus is the brazen serpent that heals.

Satan’s names terrify us and they should, but Christ’s names succor us and they should as well.

Old Testament case law—if a man forced a virgin and in the case laws and she cried out, she was innocent of the attack and the man was found guilty. In the same way, when Satan comes upon us to accost us and to cause us to fail, if we cry not out to God, if we don’t go to the source of the one and the power of the one who is able to assist us, then we like the woman who fails to pray in the Old Testament are guilty in God’s sight for not crying out to the one who can assist us.

Prayer protects us against the sin of presumption—presumption and overconfidence without sufficient ground. And if we think we can simply apply what God has given us without relying upon the power of the Holy Spirit, without crying upon God to take us through these trials, then we are presumptuous. We must watch. Consider. We must pray and we must be diligent.

We must rise again from the garden. Luke 22:46 Jesus said unto them, “Why sleep ye? Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation.” Sloth is a terrible way to prepare for temptation. Sloth prepares us for destruction. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Satan sews most of his seed, as Watson said, in a person that lies asleep.

Remember we said that while men slept, the enemy comes in and sews the tares in terms of the kingdom. Sloth must be driven out of our lives. We must have diligence. We must rise and be wakeful. We must be wakeful. We must work hard at this effort to resist temptation and instead turn temptations into productive trials.

Along this line, we must remember that it is when we are alone that it is most difficult to rise to the occasion with temptation. Remember, Eve was alone. And so, it’s very important that Christians remain convocated together in groups to assist one another. It is important, as Watson said, to confide your temptations to some good friends.

This is a means of diligence of avoiding the temptations that may beset you and you may fall to. If you’ve got a good friend, talk to them about it. Have them pray for you. Have them give you counsel from God’s word. Watson said, “If a spark be caught in the fat of the house—that is the roof. It is not wisdom to conceal it. It may set the house on fire and it may be very foolish of you to keep the temptation hidden under your breast because of your foolish pride and as a result of that fail to get help, prayer and support from friends of yours to be able to help you put the fire out.”

Confess your sins one to another. The scriptures tell us reveal your temptations so that others may pray and help guard you. They may be diligent as you’re being diligent as well.

We must be diligent to avoid the occasion of sin. I knew when I cut my finger this week, I thought there must be an illustration there. Many of them probably in terms of stupidity. In case you don’t know, I’d gotten back from Salem on Thursday. I was feeling pretty good about things and I went to mow my lawn on a riding lawnmower. It’s got this extension chute out the side where grass clogs up occasionally.

So, I was diligently taking my foot off the pedal so the blade would stop and then taking the grass out. And then I got in a hurry and I thought there’s no way my hand can get down that chute into the blade. So I started to take the grass out with the blade still going.

Well, there was a piece of bailing wire, fairly thick bailing wire sticking out of that grass. So I grabbed it to pull it out and then the blade caught the bailing wire down inside as it was going around. It wrapped that bailing wire around my finger, my little finger, just like that, and started to pull my hand down that chute. And of course, I went like this. And then I was finally had the presence of mind to turn off the blade—finally, which I should have done at the beginning of this whole story.

Well, anyway, I thought I’d cut it off. I didn’t because I didn’t even—they thought I’d cut the tendon, but even the tendon was just kind of wrapped around the bone. It cut deep, many stitches.

Now, what’s the illustration? Well, diligence, to rise up, to be wakeful and be diligent means to avoid the occasion of sin. Now, I knew it’d be a stupid thing to put my hand down into the blade. Right? And you know, it’s stupid to fall into sin, but so frequently we get close to what we shouldn’t be doing. And God doesn’t want us close to what we shouldn’t be doing. He didn’t want my hand in that extension chute where it was close enough to where something could happen and I’m only inches away from chopping off my hand.

God was exceedingly gracious to me that I didn’t lose that finger. I didn’t lose my whole hand. Whole thing could have gone down in there with that thing pulled on me.

Watson said that if somebody had a body made of gunpowder, he would not come near the least spark of fire lest he should blow up. That is a real good picture. As is that chute—that part of the diligence to avoid temptation and turn temptations into productive trials is to not get close to an area. Don’t play around the edges of sin. Get away from it. The way that Joseph ran from the woman who was seducing him.

Fourth perspective. Recognize the source and the goal, the blessings and cursing that come about in the temptations and trials that mark our lives. The book of James chapter 1 is very important along this regard. We, let’s turn to James one and your scriptures now over here for a couple of minutes.

The very first thing James writes to these people about is the trials besetting them. Verse two: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.” Your translation may say trials. Remember there is only one Greek word—it’s the same word for trial or temptation. It’s a matter of perspective and it’s a matter of what comes as a result of or into your life.

“That my brother count it all joy.” The idea here is that we should recognize the source of what happens in our lives. We are not Arminians. We don’t believe that somehow God isn’t in control of all things. We don’t believe that Satan is as powerful as God. No way. Satan, as Vos said, is under the subordination to God the Father. He went to God to petition whether he could touch Job. And God said, “Go ahead. I want to try Job. I want to improve Job. I want to make him into a more polished diamond.” “Sure, go ahead. Do your thing.”

And when we count it all joy, it’s because we see a temptation and we should train ourselves to see temptations as an opportunity to grow, as an opportunity to move in terms of this text.

Verse three: “Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience or endurance, but let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” And then he talks about asking for wisdom. But you see, he set it up for us already in those first three verses there. Count it joy. Why? Because God brings us into your life to bring patience, endurance into your life for the purpose of perfecting you and making you a sharp sword in his hand then to work against the evil one. And he uses the evil one to bring about that sharpening in your lives.

And so recognize the source of these things—that God indeed has brought this into our. When we should, as I said, we should see every problem that comes our way as a tremendous opportunity from God that we may be perfected in holiness and that we may be a more beautiful multifaceted diamond in God’s hands.

Recognize the source. Recognize the goals of each of these things. The book of James points out that as we’ve read before—that the one who in verse 12, the man that endures temptation when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life. He puts the goal of it out there. Then you respond correctly to the temptations and trials that come upon your life.

But what does he say in verse 15 and verse 14? “But every man when he’s tempted is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.”

He gives you the eschatology. I love it. You know, Robert always says, I want to lay out for me in this particular situation what’s the blessings? What’s the cursings? Let’s put that in front of ourselves. And that’s what God is always doing. And that’s what he does here.

And when you want to turn dangerous temptations and productive trials, remember those pictures from the book of James. The end of falling into temptation is death. And the end of seeing it as a trial and moving on into holiness and righteousness is the crown of life. Remember the source, God. Remember the purpose to bring in perfection. Remember the goal, blessing versus cursing.

And that’s a very important part of responding to temptations correctly—that they be seen as productive trials.

Short accounts. James goes on to say, as we just read in verse 13 and 14, when man is tempted, he’s drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. There is a process here. Starts with being drawn and enticed into your own lust. Then it brings forth sin. And when sin brings forth its product, we have death.

It’s really funny because he uses birth analogy here—birthing process—to describe what you’re birthing is death itself. And so there’s a process here that must be arrested early on, as early as possible. I said short counts. I think I changed that in my outline that I given you. By means of a quick knockout.

There was the big fight Friday night. You know, I didn’t see it or anything, but I heard about it. What you want to do in a fight like that is get a quick knockout so that you don’t have to worry then about the decision. And neither one of those guys pulled it off.

But that’s what we should want to do in terms of a temptation—if God is willing to make it a short trial period for us, we should want to knock it out quick.

Adams quotes from Augustine along this line, this picture of trying to struggle in this way. Augustine says, “I know that you have not yet understood me. Give me your attention that you may understand. Suppose Aviretus tempts a man and he is conquered in any single temptation. For sometimes even a good wrestler and fighter may get roughly handled.”

Aviretus then has got the better of a man, good wrestler though he be, and he has done some injurious act or there has been a passing desire. It has not brought the man to fornication nor reach to adultery. For when this does take place, the man must at all events be kept back from the criminal act. But he has seen a woman to lust after her. He has let his thoughts dwell on her with more pleasure than he was right. He has allowed the attack. Excellent combatant though he be, he has been wounded, but he has not consented to it—in other words, to the outward deed. He has beaten back his emotional desire higher. He has chastised it with a bitterness of grief. He has beaten it back and has prevailed.

Still, the very fact that he has slipped has a ground for saying, “Forgive us our debts.”

The point is at every point during that—at every point during the process that James described—you should be working as hard as you can to achieve that knockout early on in the bout. You don’t want to let yourself get sucked off into the process before you try to pull yourself back. Much tougher down there.

Now, I’ve probably told many of you this before. I have had in the past problems with claustrophobia. And I used to have a real problem riding planes. And I had this nice training ground experience that God gave me going back and forth from Seattle. Yeah, a couple year and a half ago, we started the church up there. And many of you may remember that when I came back, the last time we came back and we were in position over Portland circling around for 45 minutes.

And you know, the reason I was going on these—if they were nice short hops and we have to worry about spending a lot of time in the air and only be there 20 minutes. Well, here I am, you know, three times already, then we can’t land. We got to go back to Seattle. So God kept me in this pressure cooker a long time.

Now, I’m as I’m sitting there, if I let myself start thinking, “Boy, it’s kind of close in here, isn’t it? You know, boy, I wonder if the air is going to keep working.” If I let my thoughts wander like that, I’m in deep water. I get down there far enough and I lose ability to control myself anymore. I really do. So I have to be very, very diligent to try for that knockout early, not let myself think about that stuff.

The next day when they flew me back, I was not on the nice big jet. I was on one of these little Horizon Air numbers where you got to bend over, you know, to walk down the aisle. It’s like you’re flying in a big casket, you know. But see, consider it joy because I went through that. Now God was perfecting me and getting…