Temptation

INTRODUCTION

A. We’ve been studying topic of Satan, because there are so many misconceptions…

Secular culture: has written him off as myth, a cartoon character
Also Christians: many unbiblical ideas of who Satan is
EXAMPLES
Bible has much to say about him (5 weeks worth). Person we meet there much more sobering. Certainly worth our consideration.
Revelation 12:9-11
^“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
"Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
11 "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.”
If you haven’t been here in past weeks, we have already discussed the reality of spiritual evil beings (Satan), and his weapons: Accusation and the World System

B. This morning focus on the representation of Satan referred to in this passage: “the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world”

The Deceiver. The Serpent.
1. Satan deceives people. Gets us believing things that are not true. Chasing mirages.
Bible gives special attention to this work of the evil one:
2 Cor 11:3 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
2 Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Rom 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator
John 8:44 "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
Saw this in some detail last week (world system), but there are other ways he deceives us. Also deceives us through TEMPTATION.

TEMPTATION

Realize: at heart of temptation is a lie, and when we give in to temptation, what we have really done is bought a lie.

EXAMPLES: speeding ticket story
We find areas that we fail in for years and years. Like beating head against a wall.
Serious problem for all of us - evil one can really use temptation to get us to collapse in defeat, sense of failure, alienation from God

Biblical Understanding of Temptation:

1. Experiencing temptation is not a sin.

Some of us feel guilt simply because we feel drawn and attracted by certain attitudes and behaviors. Open ourselves up to accusation
Christ was severely tempted – “in all ways” (Was Christ tempted by gossip, lust, lying to avoid responsibility, materialism,…)
We will always face temptation. In fact, if we’re not sensing a battle here, something is gravely wrong.

2. God allows us to be tempted. Why??

Because we don’t grow when all our needs are met. We don’t grow closer to God when everything is going well. The only way we can learn the truly important spiritual lessons and become mature spiritually is by entering into periods where our needs go unmet, sometimes for long periods of time. One of those lessons is how to endure temptation. A lesson we will have to struggle at over and over again in our lives.
Reveals to us where we are really at spiritually. God knows – he sees the heart. But trials and temptations help us to discern our spiritual condition. We deceive ourselves, and can be deceived by the evil one.
One of principal ways we learn about grace. Unless you have experienced real, often repeated failure, grace is a bland doctrine. To learn to actually appropriate grace, to count true the promises of God about our security and righteousness in Christ, we must undergo trials and temptations.
To learn the power of God. In many cases, to overcome temptation requires the power of God.

Sources of Temptation:
Our flesh (James 1:13-15) this is where most of our temptations come from
the world system that we discussed last week (1 John 2:15-17)
the Devil (the source we are focusing on this morning)
Characterization of devil on shoulder
Central feature of his character: 1^st time we meet him, he is deceiving and using temptation…

Genesis 3

READ Gen 3:1-7

The serpent:

The sight of a snake would send most of us running, let alone a talking snake! Doesn’t seem like it would be too tough to figure out something is wrong. And Satan probably could have chosen a less suspicious creature to speak through than a snake! A bunny rabbit maybe? Platypus?
However, the author explains: “serpent was more crafty, more intelligent, advanced than all other animals.” Probably was one of the most beautiful creatures. Apparently this wasn’t surprising to Eve. Apparently the thing that was surprising was that the serpent could have meant harm.
Need to mention here this tactic of the evil one: counterfeiting. Deception through counterfeits. Serpent was craftiest, most intelligent creature, but led Eve astray.
Satan appears as an angel of light, a messenger of God.
Continual problem in early church (Galatians, Colossians, Corinthians, 1 John,…)
For instance, what would be more effective in drawing our attention away from walking with Christ than RELIGION? (Ritual, ecstatic spiritual experience, legalism)
1 Tim 4:1 Paul states that these prohibitions are not inspired by God, but “doctrines of demons.”
(2 Cor. 11:13-15) For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Be careful! What seems ‘of God’ may be leading you directly away from Christ!

BACK TO GENESIS 3: Lets examine his strategy:

If I were going to try to get Eve to eat the apple, go for sensual appeal: “how pretty, how tasty it must be!” Not Satan.

3 Steps of Temptation

1. Satan questions the Word of God. Begins with a question: “Didn’t God say…?” Seems harmless.

Compare what God actually said with Satan’s statements:

God’s Truth

Satan’s Deception

“And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden”

28 And God blessed them… Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

Gen 2:16-17 "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat”

"Indeed, has God said, `You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

Forests of trees to enjoy. Only one prohibition! God has not changed – a God who loves freedom. Loves to see people enjoy his creation. (Gal 5:1) But Satan gets the focus off of God’s permissiveness, freedom, and puts spotlight on God’s rules. Tries to portray God as an overbearing slave driver.

**Satan questions the word of God: “What has God said?” he knows something many of us do not know: that our strength lies in our ability to stand in the truth of God’s word.
Strength not in rigid self-control.
Strength not in isolating ourselves from all evil influence.
Is it really so bad to sleep with this woman I’m not married to? I’m not even sure the Bible says anything specifically about that. Pretty restrictive!
Do you think God would be really upset if you did this thing? Does he have a right to get upset at you for not following his rules?
Once we are off the word, temptation begins to exert great power in our lives: Lust of flesh, eyes, boastful Pride of life. Yes those had their effect on Eve - AFTER the word of God had been undercut. (Gen 3:6)
c. Notice the Woman’s response (Gen 3:2-3):
Close. “Touch it”? God never said anything about not touching it. She distorts God’s word by adding restrictions God didn’t ask for. More strict than God intended.
And Satan must have seized upon this. Her lack of understanding of God’s words got her in real trouble. (Adam’s fault?) He probably touched the fruit – and nothing terrible happened.
Compare to Christ under temptation: “It is written” “it is written”… Uses the word of God as his sword. (not willpower, not intellectual debate)
“Satan withdrew until a more opportune time” Not when Christ was weaker – was already starving, tired,… No, when his grasp of scripture might be loosening! Even in a most vulnerable state, Christ able to dispatch Satan because of his grip on God’s truth.

2. He denies God’s word

God’s Truth	Satan’s Deception
“from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."	"You surely shall not die!”

“You will not die! That is simply not true.” Touching the fruit brought no horrible results. Maybe he is right.

3. Then He lies

“You will be like God! God is afraid this will happen. God told you that so that you can’t have what he has. Can you believe a guy like that? Here’s a better explanation for what you heard…” Replaces the word with a lie. Portrays God as one wanting to keep the better stuff from us. God is fearful of us getting too much knowledge, power.

God’s Truth	Satan’s Deception
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." ²⁷ And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.	"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

The Result:
Eve distrusts the character of God. That’s why temptation washes over her like a torrent. Looks at fruit & must have it. Look for excuses to give in. Like a boxer punch-drunk and ready to crash to the canvas, its only a matter of time now.
But don’t miss what happened before!! Satan didn’t.

Temptation claims God can’t be trusted. “I know God claims to have a provision for me, but there is this other thing here, and I can have it now!” Power of temptation is distrust of God. “I’m not sure I can trust you God. I might as well take care of it on my own.” “Feel as though I am taking a big risk by passing this opportunity up and waiting for God.”

Satan’s great one-two punch: failure in temptation followed by accusation
Yes he wants you to fail and give in. But he knows maybe better than we do that that sin cannot harm our standing with God, since it is based on Christ’s work on the cross. What Satan really wants is a foothold for accusing us, and when we give in to temptation, the voice that was saying, “Its OK, go ahead”, now starts screaming, “I can’t believe you did that! And you call yourself a Christian!!??”

WRONG RESPONSES

Promises & sheer willpower
Blaming God (James 1:13-15)
“Don’t be deceived!”, says James

OVERCOMING TEMPTATION

The role of the word is clear. We’ve already said a lot about this.

Rev12:11 How did they overcome the serpent and his deception?

1. “By the Blood of the Lamb.” (see accusation teaching) The shed blood of Christ reveals the true character of God.
One thing Satan cannot argue with – the fact that God shed his own blood for me. Hard to cast that in a selfish light. Hard to make up lies that make us doubt God’s love we see on the cross. Rock solid evidence of God’s character. (Rom 5:7,8)
2. “By the Word of their testimony.”
Remember what God has done for you. God is good! There is no variation or shifting shadow. Rock solid, unchanging.
Think about your salvation. What did God owe you?
Build a library of experiences, memories that demonstrate God’s faithfulnes.
The Word of God has proven true in your own life, your experience. This sends the evil one into a rage.

3. Also - FLEE! (1 Tim 6:10-11; 2 Tim 2:22; 1 Cor 10:14)

Resist and replace
Not a matter of resisting, but replacing. Not “I will not”, but “I will do this!”

Our questions today:

Will I trust God to meet my needs?
Will I Cling to the truth in the face of my own delusion?