Introduction: In 1910 the boll weevil wiped out most of the cotton crop in the south forcing southern farmers to diversify by planting peanuts and other new crops. The change brought prosperity to the region. Growers in Enterprise, Alabama, were so grateful to the destructive beetle for ending their one-crop dependency that they eventually erected a monument to him in their town square in 1919. Time has a way of putting things into the right perspective.

Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in us, but God tests us to bring out the best in us.

I. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEMPTATION AND TESTING (TRIALS).

A. A TEST or TRIAL: Is a God given opportunity for you to practice and thereby test your spiritual relationship the Lord. (James 1:2-5, 12)
1. It is an opportunity to honor Christ in your life. (1 Peter 1:7)
2. It is an opportunity to prove your convictions to yourself. (Rom. 5:1-5)
3. A trial can cause one to be tempted and but is not the cause of the temptation. The cause of temptation stems from our old carnal nature when it is not being controlled.
B. A Temptation does not originate with God.

James 1:13-15 explains:

"Let no man say when he is 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. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

1. Temptation can be a solicitation for you to disobey God and gratify your fleshly desires.
2. When you yield to temptation you inevitably will experience its destructive consequences.

C. The temptation to sin comes as an appeal to your self-centered feelings and fleshly desires which can entice you to sin.
It can come from two sources:

1. Carnal nature. James 1:14-15
2. Satan. 1 Peter 5:8. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

D. Your response to temptation determines whether you will stand firm in your faith and please God or fall into temptation (commit the act) and please yourself.

A. God allows all believers to be tested. (He does not test the lost. They stand proved as failed because they have not believed. There is nothing to test them for. Job said, "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 23:10).

B. God's tests are designed to strengthen your commitment to obey no matter what the cost (Rom. 15:3-4).

1. Christ was tested. He was tempted by Satan. Luke 4:1-13. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)
a. The testing of Christ was to proved who He was. There was no possibility of His failure, because He was God...totally righteous.

b. Christ could not sin, because God has no sin nature. The test therefore on proved this truth.

c. There is absolutely nothing wrong with testing something to prove what it is.

ILLUS: I am a rock hound. I'd like to find a large lump of gold someday. Mostly I look for fossils. But if I come across a chunk of gold I need to know how to determine that it is truly gold. When you find a rock you need to test it to see what it is. To test Gold. When heated in charcoal it fuses into a golden button. It is soft on hardness scale #2, it has a specific gravity of 19.3.
Pyrite FeS2 is also yellow in color, but has a hardness of 6-6.5 and a specific gravity of 5. Because it will fracture in a conical pattern and is brittle.

2. We should all be students and seeking to learn. It has been said that:

"A trial is but a short lived matter if it is dealt with, and when overcome gives a life time of benefit." (Amen!)

ILLUS: A man told of visiting an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. Because the season was unusually dry, some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water. The man giving the tour then took him to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly. He said, "These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks. You see, when they were young, I frequently kept the water from them.

C. God promises to rescue His children from temptation with are greater that they can bear. 1 Cor. 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 ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

The child of God does not have to sin. God Himself says He provides the means to overcome or escape the temptation which means that if a believer sins he does so willingly and in defiance of God. The phrase "the Devil made me do it" is untrue. Sin is always a willful act and for the believer one of knowingly disobeying God.

A. Satan's very nature is to tempt. One of his names is the "tempter." "Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread" (Matt. 4:3).
1. Satan is called a "tempter" and in the garden of Eden, Satan disguised as a serpent came to tempt Eve. In the Book of Job Satan tried to tempt Job to curse God and he used every means available, even Job's wife. Satan also tempted the Lord Jesus in Matt. 4

2. Jesus in Luke 22:31, said Satan desired to have Peter and sift him as wheat. We must also recognize that Satan knows and exploits our weaknesses. Peter that very day denied Christ three times.

3. He seeks to devour people: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

4. Satan works within churches to turn members away from God into sin and thus destroy or make the church not effective for Christ. His tools are apathy, false teachings, and appeals to pleasure.

a. 2 Cor. 2:11. Paul taught that we must forgive one another and if we fail to forgive we give Satan an advantage over us. If one member of the church holds a grudge or is unforgiving it affects the whole church.

b. 2 Cor. 11:3, Paul concerned for the Corinthians and desiring them to be kept from false doctrine says: False doctrine will lead a congregation away from God and in doing so lose the blessing and power of God.

c. Look at all the false "Christian" churches today! Many people have been misled. Many of these churches appear to be outwardly very successful. But God will not bless error or use false teachers or teaching to carry on His work. I think it would come as a great surprise to many in "Christendom" if we saw these churches as God sees them. d. A good example is found in Revelation 2-3 when the Lord Jesus spoke to seven churches in Asia and has serious warns for five of them to turn from sin and false teaching. It is the same today. Most of those that Christ addressed looked good on the outside, but were not pleasing God. I believe on reason today for so many preachers falling into personal sin and others leading their congregations in error is that the Lord Jesus warned such churches that He would remove their God called pastor if they did not repent. Many failed to repent and the Lord took His pastor from them and they then called a "hireling" or false preacher. God's men love the Lord and follow Him and they do not compromise God's word or misled their flocks.

ILLUS: I have several books in my library addressing dealing with the Devil. Several misquoting the Bible conclude that all you need do is rebuke Satan and he will flee. My friend you are no match for Satan and if you think you can just verbally rebuke him and he will flee you are mistaken. I watch one to the TV con artist preachers supposedly rebuking Satan. How utterly silly this foolish man appeared.

1. James 4:7 says to "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from thee.

a. Note the verse three parts. It has two instructions which cause the third result:
b. First: Submit yourself to God.
c. Second:Resist the Devil.
d. Third: The devil will flee.
e. The only way to overcome Satan and his tempting is to be living for God, filled with the Spirit and relying totally on God's power. If you think you can resist the devil you are a prime candidate for a fall.

2. Jesus prayed just prior to going to the cross, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31). Note that Jesus referred to Satan as the ruler of this world. On the Cross Satan was defeated. Only God can handle the Devil and He can only handle him through you if you are living for the Lord and totally dependent on Him.

Many people read Ephesian 5:18 which says "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."

However, many fail to read the whole paragraph which set the context of the statement:

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:18-21).

C. God provides the means to overcome any temptation as 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us and gives us God's way of overcoming and escaping Satan's attacks. We are not to rely on our own wisdom, but totally rely on God. Temptation is common to us all, but for the believer God it is actively present every moment of every day providing the means to escape the present temptation. Note what the verse says:

1. God's presence is continuous and he is aware of every temptation and trial that comes your way.
2. God at the moment of temptation proves the means to escape so that you do not have to succumb to it.
3. The principle is simple: You do not have to sin. When temptation comes from our carnal nature or from the Devil....God provides the escape.
4. If we sin then we do so willingly with full knowledge, because when we are tempted God lets us know it is a solicitation to do wrong. The believer does not blindly sin without knowing what he is doing.

A. Eve was tempted by Satan: Genesis 3:6 This is the first time the Bible mentions temptation. (In Hermeneutics this is referred to as Law of First Occurrence.) 1 John 2:16 describes the sources of temptation:
1. Lust of the flesh = Eve saw the tree was good for food.
2. Lust of the eyes = She saw it was a delight to the eyes.
3. Pride of life = She forgot who Almighty God is and thought she could be a god herself.

B. IT WAS FAILURE AT THREE LEVELS:
1. Feeling: gratifying the flesh was more important that obeying God.
2. Doing: Eve listened to Satan and took the fruit knowing that God said not too.
3. Heart: Because she yielded to temptation, it effected her heart. Pleasing herself was more important than pleasing God. She willingly rejected God and it plunged her heart into to deeper sin. When God confronted her and Adam they both tried to hide their sin showing they were unrepentant.

C. David in 2 Sam. 11:2, shows the progression of yielding to temptation.
1. First, he was not obeying God and serving God as he was supposed too. He was supposed to be leading Israel's army against the enemies of God, but he was idle lounging in the palace doing nothing.
2. Second when he saw Bathsheba bathing he saw she was beautiful. It appealed the lust of the eyes and he continue to look instead of turning away.

3. Next, he inquired who she was, and then he had her brought to him.
4. His failure to turn away to the temptation ended in adultery, deceit and murder.

Let's look at verses that tell us how we can stand against temptations.

A. Learn where temptation comes from. God does not tempt you. "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. (James 1:13)

B. Understand that the intent of Temptation is to please yourself instead of obeying God's instruction to flee destructive sin.

C. Realize that the seeking of self-gratification of the flesh characterizes the unsaved. It is to be avoided in favor of living a healthy, happy, abundant and fruitful life in Christ (Eph. 2:1-4).

D. Accept that testing and suffering are common to all who follow Christ. ". . . and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Rom. 8:17). 2 Timothy 3:12 says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." E. Admit that those who remain faithful in trials (test or temptations) prove the reality of their faith.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." (James 1:12)

F. You will never face any temptation or trial that you cannot, through Christ overcome.

" The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished" (2 Peter 2:9).

G. Your trials are used by God to develop Christ like character in your life and are to be received with JOY! My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (James 1:2)

H. No matter how difficult the trial or how prolonged it may be Christ is able to see you through it and deliver you from it. The Word of God tells us to seek God help to overcome and forgiveness when we fail.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. (1 John 5:4)

"For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18).

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:15-16).

ILLUS: Alexander MacLaren, in a sermon entitled "Faith Tested and Crowned," distinguished between being tempted and being tested or tried. He said that, "the former word conveys the idea of appealing to the worst part of man, with the wish that he may yield and do the wrong. The latter means an appeal to the better part of man, with the desire that he should stand. Temptation says, `Do this pleasant thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is wrong.' Trial or proving says, `Do this right and noble thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is painful.'
The one is a sweet, beguiling melody, breathing soft indulgence and relaxation over the soul; the other is a pealing trumpet-call to high achievements."

Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in us; God tests us to bring out the best in us.

I will welcome happiness, for it enlarges my heart; yet,
I will endure sadness, for it opens my soul.
I will acknowledge rewards, for they are my due; yet,
I will welcome obstacles, for they are my challenge.

ILLUS: An example of the Holy Spirit's guidance can be seen in a statement by J. Wilbur Chapman. He said, "My life is governed by this rule: Anything that dims my vision of Christ or takes away my taste for Bible study or cramps my prayer life or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it."
Chapmen is gone, but his works survive. His manuscript "Temptation" is one of the best on the subject.

Another commentator, Bonhoeffer gives this vivid description of our tendency to turn off the warnings, when sin alluringly winks at us, needs to be declared to every generation:

"In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery over the flesh. All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames.

It makes no difference whether it is fleshy desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money, or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature.

Joy in God is...extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature. At this moment, God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil.

Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. And now his falsehood is added to this proof of strength. The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness.

We must constantly ask ourselves, "Is there everything within me rises up against the Word of God.

My friend do not think you can overcome your fleshly nature. You cannot. That is God's business. He does it by letting you come to Him and seek His faithful help and He never refuses when asked.

He helps you overcome by giving you pure instruction in the Bible. He gives principles to learn that apply in all circumstances.

God to allows trials and temptation to teach us to learn how to live Godly lives and win others to Christ.

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