Telling the Truth

Guest (Female): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe shares an encouraging message that will offer tools to help you defeat temptation—tools that Jesus himself used in his own life on earth. You don't want to miss this. Your generous support helps keep broadcasts like this one going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the biblical teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

So as thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Triumph over Temptation, an encouraging four-message series created by Stuart and Jill Briscoe to help you stand strong against temptation and grow in your faith in the process. Call today to request yours: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill.

Jill Briscoe: Turn in your Bibles if you would to Matthew chapter four. I don't know if you heard about the little girl who was asked if she believed in the devil, and she said, "Oh, yes. And when the devil comes knocking at my heart's door, I send Jesus to answer the door." That was a wise little girl. She knew that greater was he that was in her than he that was in the world, and she sent Jesus to send him away.

Well, that's a child's concept, but it's not so far from what we'll be thinking about. For Christ can give us the words to send the devil away. He can give us the words to rebuke the devil. And as I have been heavily into this study this week, I have learned a lot of things I needed to be reminded about all over again. I've learned some new things, and I'm excited about what I can give you perhaps to take away that will be tools to handle temptation, even as we see it lived out in the life of Jesus.

Flip Wilson theology says the devil made me do it, and I want to tell you, the devil cannot make you do anything. God won't make you do anything. He could if he wanted to, but he won't because he's given you free will. Which means that temptation is an environment daily that gives us choices. Temptation isn't only an opportunity to do evil. It's an opportunity to do good.

And Jesus wanted us to know that he was led of the Spirit, so the scriptures say, into temptation, and he came out of that experience full of the Spirit. And God's idea is that temptation should be a testing ground to strengthen us because his idea is that we'll win. We'll win. We have absolutely no excuse, for Christ has overcome the devil, and he lends us in the power of the Holy Spirit all that we need to do the same.

So the devil cannot make you do it. God will not make you make the right choices, but he gives you the tools and the ability to overcome. So the source is obviously the righteous, coming from Jesus himself. The method of the temptation seems to be the devil brought flashes of scenes before his eyes. There was a voice of some sort; we don't know, it's not described to us, but there was a direct confrontation by the personality called the devil or Satan or that great serpent as he has many titles in the Bible, the arch-enemy of the human race, the arch-enemy of God himself.

So the method seemed to be set in the framework of symbolic things the devil brought to him, to his mind, to his imagination, or suggestions that he brought. And it's not dissimilar to the way that the devil puts thoughts in our minds. He often does that, and then you get all guilty for thinking this awful thought. Well, you need to realize the source of it. Sometimes it is your own thought, your own fleshly thoughts, but sometimes he just puts a thought into your mind and you think, "How could I think such an awful thing as that?" Recognize where it's coming from. You're not; he's put it in your mind. And you cannot stop the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair.

And so we have to learn that Satan uses these methods, even as he used them with Jesus. The place of course was the desert, the place that Israel was specifically tempted in the desert for those 40 years or tested. And Jesus' answers all come from scripture, from that part of the Bible, from Deuteronomy between six and eight. When Israel was going through their worst temptations, Jesus takes scriptures from there and applies them to meet the devil's temptations.

And so what's happening is Israel was God's servant in the desert being tested; Israel God's servant failed the temptations and testing, if you remember. Now God's servant, the Son, is tested in another desert, in another time, in another age. This time, God's servant overcomes. So the place is the desert, a fitting place for this to happen. And the chief opposer of God comes to Jesus. Now, let's think a little bit about Satan today. I don't like to do this because I don't like to give him any attention. But if we can give him the attention that's needed in order for us to demythologize him a little bit and to get him in his right place, then that's what we need to do.

The origins of Satan are interesting according to scripture. According to scripture in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, which are windows through which we can view Satan's activity, according to these two passages of scripture, he was one of the highest-ranking angels. Some think a cherub, a guardian of the glory of God. The cherubs had a special function. They were nearest the throne, they were the highest rank of angels, and Lucifer was probably the highest of the cherubs. He had very close proximity to God himself and to the throne of God.

And his fall is described in very picturesque language in Ezekiel 28: "You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone adorned you. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God. You walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God and I expelled you, oh guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth. I made a spectacle of you before kings."

Now, when I say that this was a window, that's what I mean. This is addressed, this piece of scripture, as the one in Isaiah, to a king, an evil king. But as Jeffrey Grogan says, when Satan works his malign will through the rulers of this world, he reproduces his own wicked qualities in them so that they become virtual shadows of which he is the substance. And the language of the inspired writer of scripture goes beyond what the king of Tyre is doing. Incidentally, in the Ezekiel passage, the king of Tyre is setting himself up as God to be worshipped. That's how the whole passage begins.

And as God begins to deal with this king and say what will happen to him because there is no God but him and he won't have that happening, he won't share his glory with another, as God begins to through the prophet Ezekiel talk to him about this, the language goes beyond that and starts to talk about the one who is beyond the kings that set themselves up as God, Satan himself who is inspiring them. So at some point, Satan was thrown out of heaven. At some point, he allowed himself to become jealous of God and became this insatiable desire to be like God, to take his place, and even to have God worship him instead of him worship God, which is reflected in the third temptation when Satan throwing everything out the window that he's tried that hasn't worked says, "Bow down and worship me."

That's it. That's the heart of Satan. He doesn't even want you and me to worship him; he wants God to worship him. He wants to take his place. Satan never wanted to be Satan. Satan wants to be God. And because he is so jealous of God, and the essence of jealousy is "I want what you've got and I don't want you to have it either and I will deprive you of it at all means," then that's what he's about. He cannot stand it when God gets glory. He runs out of this sanctuary with his hands over his ears when we sing praises to God. He cannot bear it.

And because he cannot take on God, for reasons I will tell you in a minute—it's no contest—he gets at God by getting at his children and depriving God of the glory that he cannot deprive God of in heaven. He tried and failed. He will try it on earth. And so his job is to come around believers and stop us praising and worshipping God, tempt us into those places. It's a strange paradox, as Grogan says, that nothing makes a being less like God than the urge to be his equal.

But listen, a created being cannot rise to a level higher than that which he was created by God. Did you get that? The Bible teaches three orders of beings: Deity that stands alone, one uncreated Creator; secondly, Angels; and Satan is not the eternal equivalent of God. Get that. Satan is not the eternal equivalent of God, for a created being cannot rise to a level higher than that which he was created to be.

So there is Deity, so there are Angels, so there are humans created according to Hebrews a little lower than the angels, but for glorification. Now that gets to Satan. For God has it in mind to take ordinary human beings, invest them with the Holy Spirit, justify them, sanctify them, take them home to heaven. And anybody that starts glorifying God gets to Satan.

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth, sharing how you can handle temptation just as Jesus did. She'll be right back, but first, here's a note from Joseph, who listens on Sirius Radio. He says, "I listen to your broadcast every day driving home on Sirius XM. God bless you for the strength and guidance you've given me and all those wonderful people that choose to listen as well." Thank you, Joseph.

That's the kind of encouragement your support today will bring to more people around the world as you help share the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth so others can experience life in Christ. And we'd like to encourage you with a powerful resource to equip you to not only resist temptation but conquer it and grow in your faith as you do. It's called Triumph over Temptation. A four-message series created by Stuart and Jill Briscoe to empower you with biblical truth to help you stand firm in the face of daily temptations.

Filled with the Briscoes' trademark wisdom and understanding of scripture, this series will help you remember that every temptation to do wrong is also a chance to do right. We'll send you the Triumph over Temptation series as our thanks for your gift of support today to help continue the Briscoes' legacy through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, let's get back to Jill's teaching.

Jill Briscoe: And in Tim Warner's book Spiritual Darkness—it's a great little book and you might want to look at that—but he has this little thing in here. He says angels, God's angels that didn't fall and follow Satan in his fall, are God's staff to run the world. Isn't that nice? They're there for guidance, protection, deliverance, discernment. They are ministering spirits sent for us, to us. Guardian angels, we believe in it; it's scriptural. God uses his angels to carry out his purposes in the world.

Now when Lucifer, son of the morning, became Satan, father of the night, the angels he took with him became like disgruntled employees who wanted to get the boss. I think that is a great picture he brings to us. And yet God limits what those disgruntled employees, those demons, and what Satan himself can do. He's like a great big wounded bear, dying and knowing it. Ferocious—there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded to death animal. But he's on the end of a leash, and it's our Jesus Christ who has that authority and power to keep him and to allow him only what in God's strange permitted will is allowed.

Satan cannot take on God; there's no contest. God in Christ took him on and beat him. And Satan didn't chase Jesus around the wilderness and corner him behind a rock and tempt him. Jesus went looking for him into the desert and forced him onto the attack in order that he might overcome him once and for all. And when you go through the gospels after this, you see very little about Satan and demons, funnily enough. And when they appear, they're there; they left Jesus for a while, they came back here and there, and even in the Acts of the Apostles, with a word they're put in their place because the job has been done. Not only in the wilderness but of course on the cross. This should give you confidence as you face the temptations that will come to you.

Now the whole duty of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, and the whole one ambition and duty of Satan and his demons is to deprive God of having his rightful glory given to him by human beings. So let's look at the temptations. The first one: what did Satan try? He came to Jesus knowing he was starving after 40 days and 40 nights, having fasted and prayed preparing for the ministry that was ahead of him. And he said, "Why don't you, if you are the Son of God, look at those stones and use the powers that you have to satisfy your own needs?"

He did not get Jesus to doubt the power he had to turn the stones into bread. Jesus had the power, he knew it, the devil knew it. But the devil knew that Jesus had voluntarily laid his powers down in obedience to God. Remember, I've told you, he chose to be the second Adam, to be perfect man that never sinned, and to do it as Adam should have done it—not with miraculous powers, but in obedience to God's principles. And so he wouldn't do that.

More important to Jesus than bread even after 40 days of fasting was being obedient, and God had not chosen to provide the food to satisfy Jesus in the desert at that point. Therefore, if God had not provided it for him, he would not take it from any other source. Now the temptation was a very obvious one, but man is more than a fed animal, Jesus said. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Man is more than a fed animal.

And Satan often uses our God-given fleshly appetites for his own use, especially the sexual appetite, for example. And he comes and he says as a human being, you have the right to satisfy your own physical needs. Why would God have given you these physical needs if he didn't expect you to satisfy them? The fall of man. Satan has succeeded in part to get at his employer by getting at his children. But we are more than a fed animal, Jesus says. Our physical appetites are very important, but they must never be all important or the most important thing.

And the true source of man's strength lies in the word. It is written, it is written, it is written. Satan is always trying to lure us to any position outside the will of God, and Jesus rejects it and says I must remain in the sphere of divine government. Man is with God equal to all strain and superior to all temptations. There's no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful and powerful, and he will not let you be tempted above that ye are able. Why? Because he's overcome and he's living in you, and he gives you the power just as he gave his Son the power.

Let me read you something in finishing. When you hear the devil tell you things you almost want to hear, and you sense his nasty presence near, his whining in your ear, when he tells you satisfy your lust and paint the town brick red, send Jesus Christ to see him off and tell him what he said. For it's written in the Book of Books, recorded on its pages, that bread alone is not enough to fill one up for ages. For ages spent in other worlds where food is for the spirit are ages spent on feeding on the Son's eternal merit.

It's written in the Book of Books that Christ can satisfy, and we don't need the evil one to offer devil's pie to tickle sensual appetites or make us hunger still. For the more the devil feeds us, the more there is to fill. For it's written in the Book of Books that worship will transport us to sites of angels round God's throne, adoring him who bought us. The devil has no place in heaven, nor prophet, false or beast, but only blood-bought sinners sit with Jesus at that feast. Won't heaven be wonderful? There won't be a devil.

Let's pray. Jesus, you said man shall not live by bread alone. We don't need to, but by every word of God that proceeds from your mouth. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the victory you won. And even though the questions come, why do you still allow him to do as much damage as he's doing? We can leave those questions with you and not doubt your goodness and your character, but trust you as obedient, willing, humble servants.

And remember that a weak man with God is stronger than a strong man who stands alone. So when the devil comes—not if the devil comes—in the seasons of our temptations, may we send Jesus to the door to answer him. Teach us your word. Keep us close to your side. And I pray specifically for anyone listening to me who is at the moment faced with temptation totally inadequate to cope with. And I pray you will restore, forgive, and encourage through this message to reach out for the power that's available to a child of God. May we overcome in the name of Jesus. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.

Guest (Male): Jill will return in a moment to answer some questions about today's teaching. But first, a reminder: when you give a gift today to support the teaching ministry of Telling the Truth, we'll say thanks with an empowering resource created by Stuart and Jill Briscoe called Triumph over Temptation. We all face temptation every day, sometimes every minute of every day. While you may struggle with sinful desires and selfish motives, you must remember that every temptation to do wrong is also an opportunity to do right.

You are not powerless to resist wrong. You have God's power within you to bring you through even the toughest challenges. In their four-message series Triumph over Temptation, Stuart and Jill Briscoe equip you with powerful biblical truth to help you triumph over temptation and grow your faith in the process. Triumph over Temptation is our thanks for your generous gift of support today to help continue the Briscoes' legacy through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth.

So request your copy when you call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, let's listen as Jill answers some questions to give more insight into today's message.

Jill, what is the best way we can, as you say, keep Satan in his place?

Jill Briscoe: Well, of course, only God can keep Satan in his place. In his name, we can address Satan. But what I do is say, "Satan, get out of this situation, get out of this person's mind, get out of my mind, and go where Jesus tells you to go." I don't dare rebuke him myself. There is an instance in the Bible where Michael facing Satan face-to-face said, "I dare not rebuke you; the Lord will rebuke you." And so who am I? So I hide in his name, and I say to Satan, "Go where you need to go and get out of this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen."

Guest (Male): How do you fight temptation, Jill?

Jill Briscoe: Well, I try to look at the model that Jesus gave. Jesus again said, "The Lord rebuke you. The Father rebuke you" to Satan. He hid in his Father's name, and in the Father's name there's power. I look at Jesus fighting the temptation when he's hungry; he's been fasting for 40 days. That was a natural appetite that he had. There was nothing wrong with wanting food. It's just if God has given you permission to eat it all the time, and God had not given Jesus permission at that particular time to eat.

And so he said no and stayed hungry. Sometimes we think when we fight temptation and say no, God will take the hunger away from whatever it is that we're hungry for, whether it be food or sex or any God-given appetite. But sometimes he wants us to say no and stay hungry and do the will of God. How do we do that? Through the power of God. We don't have enough power. We need to hide in his name, if we address Satan and say the Lord rebuke you, and we need the power of the Holy Spirit to give us the ability to do without—do without sleep, do without food perhaps if we're fasting, etcetera. God will give us this. In fact, he has given us this in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Jill. We hope today's message has encouraged you. Before we go, remember that when you give today to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out around the world, we'll send you a copy of Triumph over Temptation. A four-message series from Stuart and Jill Briscoe that's sure to help you stand up to daily temptations and grow stronger in your faith as you do. So call now to give and remember to request Triumph over Temptation with our thanks. 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for being with us today on Telling the Truth. Come back tomorrow to hear a teaching from Stuart Briscoe on why God allows you to be tempted and how he's there to give you a way out.