Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Stuart Briscoe shares a message from the powerful Triumph Over Temptation series. But first, 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.

Through the end of this week, when you give, 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 at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart Briscoe's message, "How Should I Handle Temptation?"

Stuart Briscoe: I did read a prayer that I thought was helpful the other day. This is how the prayer goes. "Dear Lord, so far today I've done all right. I have not gossiped. I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I'm really glad about that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to have to get up."

Now, that's more realistic. You see, he's going to have to get up, and when he gets up, he knows that he's going to face a whole lot of situations. He's going to meet a whole lot of people, and there are all kinds of things that are going to come his way. He's also realistic enough to go on to say this, that fully recognizing what he's going into, he concludes the prayer by saying, "So Lord, I'm really going to need your help today."

That's the realistic approach to temptation. We've got to simply face up to the fact that given the world is what it is, and given that we are what we are, there are all kinds of situations that are going to come our way. All these situations give us the opportunity to go wrong. Therefore, we need to be looking very, very carefully at the situations of our day, and we need to be relating them to the Lord.

That's the bad news. Here's the good news. Every temptation that comes your way, that is an opportunity to go wrong, also provides an opportunity to do right. I'm going to repeat that because that is probably the most important thing I'm going to say. Every opportunity that comes my way to go wrong presents me with a chance to do right.

It's perhaps because of this that Scripture has something that's really quite fascinating involved in it that you may not see in your English Bible. There's a Greek word, *peirasmos*. The Greek word *peirasmos* is sometimes translated temptation, but other times it is translated trial or testing. It's the same word. The reason for it, of course, is this. When you think about it, a specific set of circumstances that you confront during the course of your day will be a temptation if you handle that situation in such a way that you finish up going wrong.

On the other hand, that identical set of circumstances will prove to be a test or a trial that you pass if you embrace that situation and use it as an opportunity to do right. So when we think in terms of temptation, we would make a very serious mistake if we thought of it purely in terms of negatives. We need to accept it as the possibility to go wrong or as an opportunity to do right.

As you get up in the morning and you head out into the day, you may meet a person or a situation that is a potential seduction to evil. But remember that that potential seduction to evil is also, by very nature, a possible opportunity for strengthening you. You remember the story of Joseph. Joseph was a young man who was put in a situation where he was actually invited to do something totally wrong with an older woman.

This very seductive situation was presented to him, and he turned away from it stronger. This potential seduction actually, because it was handled appropriately, finished up being the means of strengthening him. It's ironic that he, the young man, was able to resist the seduction of an older woman, whereas King David, the older man, was incapable of responding appropriately to the seduction of a younger woman.

David was presented with a seductive opportunity, and he went wrong in it, whereas Joseph was presented with a similar situation, and he did right in it. Almost identical situations, but one serves to strengthen and the other serves to seduce. One turns out to be a temptation, and the other turns out to be a test. A temptation which one fell into, a test which the other one passed.

Let's face it. We will get up in the morning and we will go into all kinds of situations, and some of them will serve to simply exhibit our human weakness. And yet that particular situation, when handled properly, can be a means of exhibiting God's power. It all depends how the situation is addressed. So I'm not going to just talk about temptation as the solicitation to evil. I'm going to talk about situations that may turn out to be a solicitation to evil but could be a means of leading you to righteousness and truth.

In actual fact, one of the ways in which we can identify that we are growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus is by the way that we are increasingly, effectively handling temptation. Temptation is going to be here. It's not going to go away. You've got the inbuilt problems within. They're probably not going to go away. But the way in which we will demonstrate our increasing spiritual maturity is the way in which we carefully handle temptation.

Now, let me turn your attention to a couple of verses in Scripture in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 10. If you're not familiar with your way around the Bible, don't worry about it. I promise to read it accurately. This particular passage recounts some of the things that happened to the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness, coming out of Egypt on the way to the Promised Land.

There were all kinds of bad things that happened, and they handled them very, very poorly indeed. In verse 11, the writer says, "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Now, we'll return to these verses towards the end of my talk. But right now, I want you to notice that there is a very realistic statement here, and it is this: that you have simply got to face up to the fact that this world of ours abounds in temptations. But in the middle of it is a faithful God who is totally committed to giving the means to live well in the midst of very tempting circumstances. That in essence is what Paul is saying here.

There are four things that I want to identify for you on this subject of testing or temptation. The first one is this: that testing or temptation is permitted by the Lord. Temptation or testing is permitted by the Lord. This stands to reason. If we operate on the premise that it is a world that was created by God and that he's neither lost interest nor control over it, we have really no alternative but to accept the fact that his divine sovereignty in some way is operative.

That being the case, we have divine sovereignty operating in a world in which temptation abounds. We come, therefore, to the conclusion that God in some way permits it, and we'll explore this in just a moment. The second thing to remember is this: that whilst temptation or testing on the one hand is permitted by the Lord, it is promoted by Satan.

What that reminds us of, of course, is a fundamental statement of Scripture, and that is that God and Satan are locked in mortal combat, and that the battlefield in which they are locked in mortal combat is the souls of men and women. In other words, you, my dear friends, are a battlefield. And whilst God is permitting temptation to come your way, it is Satan who is promoting these things. And we need to keep those two things in tension and in balance.

The third thing to notice is that temptation or testing is produced by a variety of factors. There are external circumstances, and there are internal circumstances. And when they collide, the collision is potentially explosive. And with all that in mind, the fourth thing is that temptation or testing is profitable if handled properly.

Guest (Male): That's Stuart Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. He's headed right back to God's word for more on what to do when you face temptation. But before we dive back in, here's a note from Christine, who says, "I love how you are all so grounded in the word of the Lord and teach it so simply to us."

Thanks, Christine. 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 what's 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. This special offer ends this week, so request your copy today when you call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, once again, here's Stuart Briscoe.

Stuart Briscoe: All right, let's look at the first of those things now. Temptation or testing is permitted by the Lord. I direct your attention to the Epistle of James. It's an epistle that we don't tend to turn to as frequently, perhaps, as we ought, but let me read to you a few verses from the first chapter, commencing with verse two.

This is what James said. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." Now, the word trials here is *peirasmoi*. So he could be, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials, testings, or temptations of many kinds." You say, "Hold it a minute. I'm supposed to count it great pure joy when I find myself in the midst of trials and temptations and testings."

You say, "You've got to be kidding, right?" No, dead serious, because the Scriptures are. But it goes on to explain why. "Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask of God, who gives generously."

Now, we don't have time to explore the whole of this. The point, however, I think is quite clear. That it is saying that we should recognize under the sovereignty of God that we are exposed very often to tempting circumstances, but that God permits this situation to obtain because he knows that handled right, these temptations, these testings, these trials will work out to develop and mature us so that we will become, as he says quite frankly, mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Now, a similar idea occurs in Romans chapter five, where the Apostle Paul says that we rejoice in our sufferings. He doesn't exactly use the word temptation here, but the same idea obtains. We rejoice in our sufferings, and then he explains why. The reason that we do so is because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces confidence, and confidence does not disappoint us because God pours out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the Apostle Paul is saying we have got to come to terms with the fact that God allows these kind of circumstances to confront us in our daily lives because in his benevolent purposes, handled right, they will serve to help us grow and mature in our experience. Now, we've got to decide whether we believe that or not.

Number of years ago, I was down a gold mine in Johannesburg, South Africa. It's a really fascinating area. There is a reef in which the gold is found, and this reef is only one meter wide. But whilst it is one meter wide, it is hundreds of feet deep and stretches over scores of miles. So there's one slice of real estate that has got all kinds of gold dust in it.

I was talking to one of the men who works in the gold mine and I said, "What does gold look like when you find it in the ground?" He said, "I don't know, I've never seen any." And I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, it's just infinitesimal little fragments." But he did take me to the great grinding machines that were literally just chewing out this one meter of rock.

And then they showed me where they took all this rock and put it through great grinders. And then they ground it smaller and smaller till in the end it was dust. And then they mixed it with chemicals and it became paste. And then they put it in the great furnaces and it was refined and eventually it was poured out and became ingots of gold.

And the reason it became pure gold in the end was that it went through all the grinding and all the beating and all the heat and all the purifying. That's the idea of Scripture. That we are going to grow and mature as people as we are exposed to temptations or trials and testings, and we come through them in such a way that God is able to work positively in our lives.

The encouraging thing in Romans chapter five is this. He goes on to say that while all this is happening, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Which in a sense means that whilst we're going through the testing and the temptation and the trials, the Spirit of God is whispering constantly, "I love you. I love you."

And we whisper constantly, "You've got to be kidding. You've got to be kidding. But if you really loved me, you'd get me out of this." And God says, "No, because I really love you, I'm allowing you to stay in this thing. Because I love you so much, I want you to grow up. I love you so much that I want you to be purified and matured."

And so we see this theme in Scripture. One other passage in Second Corinthians. The Apostle Paul is talking here about something that he designates his thorn in the flesh. That's an inadequate statement. The word translated thorn here is the word for cross, and it really is, it's like a stake that was driven through the center of his life and was giving him desperate problems.

He says that three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, quote, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," end quote. And then here's Paul's commentary on this. "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me."

When would a man or a woman be interested in God's power resting on them? Well, the answer to that is when they realize how weak they are. It is only when we are aware of our weakness that we really are interested in deriving from his strength. It is only when we recognize how vulnerable we are that we turn to him in order that we might be protected by him. It is only in the area of trial and temptation and testing that we turn to discover the grace of God in a unique way.

And so God permits these things to come into our lives. Now, the second thing is that whilst these things are permitted by God, they are promoted by Satan. And the reason for this is made very, very clear in Scripture. Scripture teaches that the enemy of our souls is totally committed to thwarting the outworking of the purposes of God.

That God has a plan for our world and Satan lives in constitutional, unrelenting opposition to all God's purposes. Now, unfortunately, men and women get caught in this battle. We find ourselves in the middle of this great cosmic spiritual conflict. This showed up very powerfully one day when Jesus was talking to his disciples.

He said to them, "Satan has desired to have you that he might sift you like wheat." Now, this picture of sifting you like wheat is not dissimilar to the picture I just painted for you of grinding up rock to purify the gold. When you're harvesting in the Middle East in primitive days, or in the first century, you would simply beat up on that wheat to get rid of the chaff and finish up with the kernel of grain in it.

So Satan has desired to have you that he might beat up on you, Jesus says. But then turning his attention to Peter, he said, "But I have prayed for you. And I have prayed for you that your faith doesn't fall, that your faith doesn't falter. And that when you are converted, when you come through this whole thing, you will strengthen your brothers."

Now, this is very fascinating. Satan is totally committed to destroying Peter. He's going to wreck this character. Why? Because God's purposes for Peter is that he will be the rock. But Satan's purposes are that he will be ground up and chewed up and spat out. But in this cosmic conflict, Peter is caught.

But Jesus prays for him and he says, "Now when you come through this thing, you'll come through in such a position that you can strengthen your brethren." Why? Because he himself has been strengthened in the situation. So Satan is diametrically opposed to the whole thing. And God, in his infinite sovereign wisdom, permits this because he knows that handled right, testing and trial and temptation will simply serve to help us grow and mature and be strengthened in order that we might strengthen others.

Revelation chapter 12 talks about Satan as being the one who deceives the whole world. Deception is part of his stock in trade. Let me tell you a story you've probably heard it. It's about a man and a woman and a snake and a tree. Does that ring a bell? A man, a woman, a snake, and a tree.

It was just a tree among many trees. In fact, there were lots and lots of trees. In fact, there were lots of trees were in a place that God had made called Paradise and he'd put this man and woman in there and it was a wonderful, wonderful place. You just try to imagine the most glorious place to live, and that was it. And God had made this place because he loved these people and he wanted these people to love him in return.

Now, you can't make somebody love you. So if you're going to make somebody who is capable of loving, you've got to give them a will to choose to love. But it's pointless giving them a will if they don't have a choice. So you've got to give them a choice. So God says, "I've got to get these people so that they would want to love me. That means I've got to give them a will. That means I've got to give them a choice, but I'll make it as easy as possible for them."

"This is what I'll do. I'll give them the whole of paradise to enjoy and I'll give them one tree that they will not touch. That's easy, isn't it? No problem. Anybody in their right mind would say, 'God, this is wonderful. If you want me to prove that I love you, that's easy. All I'll do is I will not do what you don't want me to do and I will do what you do want me to do.' And so I'll enjoy paradise and I won't even go within a hundred meters of that stupid tree."

That's how it's supposed to work. In actual fact, that is not how it worked. The old snake came along and he had a different line. He said, "Can you believe that God would be so mean as to deprive you of the privilege of tasting the fruit of that tree? Can you believe that God would be so mean, so ugly as to do that? What is the matter with this God?"

The incredible thing about it was that they believed him. This man and this woman believed him. And then they said, "They're right. They're right. How could God be so mean and so ugly and deprive us and rob us of what it really means to know the fullness of life? And we would know it if we had that tree." And so they ate of the tree, and he deceived them. They were suckered into it. Can you believe they were suckered into it? Of course you can because it happens every single day.

Guest (Male): That's Stuart Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. We hope today's message has encouraged you. Before we go, remember that through the end of this week, when you give 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.

We all face temptation every day, sometimes every moment of every day. While you might 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 today to help more people experience abundant life in Christ through the unchanging truth of God's word.

Simply request your copy when you call today and give a gift to help keep Telling the Truth going around the world. But the offer ends this week, so call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. We hope you'll join us again as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's word. Experience life next time on Telling the Truth.