Ankerberg Show

Guest (Male): Welcome to the John Ankerberg Show discipleship segment. Whether you've recently discovered your faith in Christ or have been a long-time follower, we aim to provide you with the tools and encouragement to strengthen your relationship with him. We are dedicated to equipping you to confidently share the hope that resides within you, as instructed in 1 Peter 3:15. Join us now for the John Ankerberg Show discipleship segment as we embark on this journey of spiritual growth and learning together.

Guest (Male): We are immersed in a world filled with temptation, whether it be at the market or the movies or workplace or the web. Temptation bombards us almost everywhere we look. Even after you become a follower of Jesus, sin remains a battle. Today you can hear how to find strength in your fight against sin as we look at what the Bible says about the nature of temptation and how Jesus overcame it and how you can as well. Join us for this session of the John Ankerberg Show.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. Today's discussion, our question is, how can we overcome temptation? Many of you, you are being tempted in many, many areas of your life, your daily life as you go to work, as you go to the store, as you are among friends, among family, there's temptations that are coming to you like an avalanche. How can you resist and overcome these temptations? And I'm John Ankerberg and my friends that are with me are Sunder and Shamala Krishnan. And Sunder, start us off here. We've got this question. How can a person who is following Jesus that has this avalanche of temptations coming over them, how can they resist temptation?

Sunder Krishnan: And I think it has to start with our own love for Jesus because any other motivation can then make it become legalistic. I just have to do good works. But if God's reputation is at stake, and people do, people look at us who are followers of Jesus and make conclusions about Jesus, especially in a country like India, you know. I remember a time when my brother-in-law Ravi tells the story many years ago of handing out invitations or people handing out invitations for him to speak and a policeman got this invitation. He says, oh, I'm not coming to that church.

He says, I am in the courts every week seeing these people take each other to court. And that's what a blow that is. And I'm sure people in a country like India and other places see that that how we live our lives directly impinges upon the reputation of Jesus. And so cultivating that love for the worth of Jesus and his glory and his honor through our personal life of worship long before we ever come up to a temptation is so foundational because that's the enduring motivation that I think that's the first thing that comes to my mind.

I'm thinking in Deuteronomy, for example, when Moses is leading the people into the promised land in the first four word chapters, he's reviewing the Ten Commandments and he says, if you keep these laws, you will become a wise and understanding people in the sight of all the nations and they will say which nation is so wise and understanding and what must their God be like, you know. So from the very beginning that is given to us as the biggest motivation. And then the second thing comes to me from Hebrews chapter 12 where we are told to run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus but setting aside the weight and the sin that so easily entangles us.

The Christian life is often compared to a race. And when we are fighting that race, imagine how silly it would be to compete in an athletic race with a heavy weight tied around your leg. Sin often drags us down and when it does, we miss out on the joy of fulfilling the potential that God has built into us. So I would say those are kind of the big strategic foundational motivations for wanting to live holy lives.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, I I think of the apostle Peter who warned us. He says, dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.

Sunder Krishnan: Right.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Okay.

Shamala Krishnan: Do you know when the apostle Paul says that there is no temptation that is not common to man. So the sense that I'm not alone in this, that it's part of the Christian life, that there are other people who are also struggling. But what I love is the fact he says, but he makes a way of escape. So when you are confronted with that temptation at that point to turn to Jesus and ask him to provide that way of escape. And I just want to tell you an incident that happened in our lives last In fact, it was June 24th of 2016.

Somebody from our church had given us tickets to a show, a musical. And so Sunder and I were looking forward to it. So we went for it. It was a two-hour musical and they had said that there would be no intermission. So we we couldn't leave in the middle. If we left, we we could come back in. And the musical, the story sounded like it was a really good human interest story. So we started to watch it, John. And the more we began to watch it, the more uncomfortable we began with the language, the jokes.

And of course, the name of Christ was taken, you know, out of context. We didn't know how to get out of there. Sunder was struggling with the fact, how do I tell the lady who so graciously gave us these very expensive tickets. I didn't want to disrupt other people's enjoyment by coming out in the dark and knocking into something. We were sitting there, but we did not want to be anymore in that place because we were feeling defiled by the

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yes.

Shamala Krishnan: And you know, John, out of the blue the fire alarm went off. Never been in a show where the fire alarm went off. The house lights came on, the stage lights came on and we knew he had made a way of escape. And we were able to leave. And I felt like God was saying, you know, if you want to honor me, I will go to bat for you. So it's that whole concept of the fact that if we have a desire to honor him, he is for us. He will fight for us. He will provide that way of escape for us as long as we look to him and ask him for that.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, I love that illustration. Let me give a word here to business men in some of the 200 countries that we're talking to right now. Many of you are living in societies where a bribe is almost part of the business that you have to do. And I know some of you are trying to live for the Lord and be honest in everything that you do. And because you are honest, you are not able to go up the ladder because as people go up the ladder, the money that is exchanged under the table or illegally gets more and more.

So they need a person in some of those positions that will be corrupt. And so then when they look at you and they know your testimony, here your testimony works against you in the sense that you are not given the raise. You are not able to go up a step in the business. I would like to say, do not give in to that. God is still going to take care of you. And Sunder, you are saying that we need to understand the nature of temptation. And you took us right back to scripture and you said that Satan is a liar.

And the verse Give us the verse.

Sunder Krishnan: Well, you know, in Jesus in John 8:34 says the devil was a liar from the beginning. And from the beginning takes us right back to Genesis chapter three. And it's very interesting that when Satan is first introduced to us, the opening words were, now the serpent was very crafty. It shows the craftiness or the cunning of the devil. And he does three things. The first thing he does is suggest that God didn't say something. Did God really say? So he attacks the word of God very subtly. Now Eve was clever enough to say, no, he did say that.

Then he comes right down and say, yeah, but you know what, God really said it because he's jealous. He doesn't want you to become like him. And he gives them a half truth. In the day that you eat, you will become like God. Now it's interesting that God said, I have made you in my image, but not in the way that the devil wants you to. And then finally, he tempted Eve with three things. He said when she saw the fruit was good to eat, the lust of the eye, it was good to taste the lust of the flesh.

And above all, it appealed to pride. It was desirable for making wisdom. So this is his fundamental tactic from the beginning. He will question God's word. He will impune God's character. And then this is the fundamental thing and it applies to that thing you just said about promotions not not being given to you. He said, you don't trust God for what is good. You can independently define what is good. John, the fundamental temptation, no matter what it is in in each of your societies in different places, the temptations are different. But the fundamental temptation is you can't trust God to give you what is good.

You have to do it for yourself. So applying it to that exhortation you gave, don't give in to that temptation. Satan's fundamental temptation is you cannot trust God to give you what is good for you unless you get that promotion. Your response, if you understand Satanism to say, no, I am going to trust God to give me what is really good for me by staying at this level. I think that's why it is so important to understand how the devil really works.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Now take that to the next part is that in the Garden of Eden, Satan gave three lies and tempted Eve and then he tried these same temptations with our Lord Jesus. And he shows us how to overcome these temptations. Talk about that.

Sunder Krishnan: Well, again, the same three thing, the lust of the flesh, he said, change these stones into bread. And then the lust of the eye, look at all the kingdoms I'm going to give you. And then pride, you're the son of God, do something miraculous. And what was interesting was amazingly he did this not as God. Jesus did this as a man. That was the whole point of the temptation stories. Sham said earlier on about how we can trust God to make a way. The reason God can make a way for us is that he became a man.

He doesn't just know about our temptations. He experienced them himself. And so he then uses the very word of God that Satan maligns. He Jesus uses the word, it is written, it is written, it is written. And interestingly, he doesn't quote Bible verses at random. He takes the very half truth of Satan and he completes it by quoting the full verses. In every case, Satan left out an important part of it.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, when he appealed to the lust of the flesh, he said, turn these stones into into bread.

Sunder Krishnan: He said, man shall not live by bread alone.

Dr. John Ankerberg: That's right. But on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And then we said, throw yourself off the top of the temple and God will save you and you will see how such an important person you are. It is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And the third one, the lust of the eyes, I'll give you all of these kingdoms. And he said, go Satan for it's written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Sunder Krishnan: Notice what is interesting. It says Satan also said it is written. We need to know that our enemy knows the word of God really well, which means we better really, really know God's word well because Satan will never come out with a flat out temptation. It always have a twist to it to make it look reasonable enough.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, I love Psalm 119:11. I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Or Romans 12:2, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, you've got to spend time in the scripture and you've got to think about it so that when it comes up, boom, you recognize it.

Shamala Krishnan: I was also thinking of a story that was told about a a person in his boss's office. And the phone rang and the boss asked him to pick up the phone and tell the person who was calling that he was not there. And the person said, I can't do that. And the boss was really upset. He said, why not? He said, today I might lie for you. Few days from now, I might lie to you. And he said, I don't want to do that. And so the boss actually realized that in saying, no, I won't lie for you, he was really saying, I will also not lie to you.

And you know, it takes me back to Daniel. When I think of temptation and when you read his story in the book of Daniel, here was a man who was tempted in so many ways and you know, Daniel did it very graciously. And he didn't sort of just belligerently say, no, I won't eat the food that's prepared here. He didn't say, I won't do that. He was very gracious. And he earned the respect of the people to the point where the people came to respect not only Daniel but his God.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah. We're going to take a break and when we come back, I'm going to ask Sunder and Shamala to give us some very practical applications of when they have faced temptation and they have actually called on scripture that has been put into their mind to rescue them from that. And then we're going to talk about the nature of temptation itself, how the devil uses his technique to trap us to go into sin. All right? And how we can understand what the trap that he's setting and how we can get out of it, how we can resist it.

Okay? So very practical information coming up next. Stick with us. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Join us next time for part two of our discipleship series, Follow Me, Experiencing the Joy of Walking with Jesus as Sunder and Shamala pick up where we left off this week. Thank you for joining us on our journey of discipleship. To deepen your understanding and grow in your faith, explore our extensive discipleship resources at jashow.org and engage in transformative courses at jabile.org. ATRI is dedicated to encouraging believers, defending the faith, and challenging the skeptics. Join us in this mission by subscribing to our YouTube channel for more in-depth teachings and practical guidance to deepen your faith.