The Difference Between Trials and Temptations

Oscar Wilde is a famous Irish playwright from the late 1800s. Not too many people remember his plays, although some of his plays are still done today. What people remember Oscar Wilde for is all kinds of witty sayings that he did and got written down. And, you know, you can go on today and type in Oscar Wilde sayings, and you'll get all these witty things that he would say. One of his most famous ones is, I can resist anything except temptation.

Now, it's interesting when we look at the word, tempt, where the word temptation comes from. If you go back to Old English, back a couple hundred years ago, tempt meant to try something, to see if it would weather what it was supposed to do, or to, it was to test something. This Thursday, I had a little time off, and it's something I wanted to do. They had a temporary display at the Frist Art Museum, and it was the armor from the 15th and 16th centuries, you know, that the knights used to wear.

And I told Kim, the last time I went to something like that was actually the museum attached to Napoleon's tomb in Paris. And went through a just incredible museum about the 15th and 16th centuries in the armor. So, she said she'd go if I took her out to dinner. So we went, and we looked at all this armor, okay? And there was a time when they would tempt the armor. They would have to test it to see if it could withstand.

There was one piece that did extremely well. There were two big dents in it that were obviously caused by bullets. You know, they shot round bullets back then, and it didn't go through the armor. It did take long before they just made guns more and more powerful until the armor was useless. That's why armor disappeared, because they could just shoot right through it.

But it was interesting. There was one that took the testing, and maybe it was on the battlefield, I don't know, but they were too dense, and it didn't go through the armor. But over time, and when we say tempt, or temptation today, the English language basically means to try to entice you, to allure you, to do something wrong, or to make a bad decision.

You're being tempted to do something wrong. What's interesting is that we're going to look at the way the word translated, tempt, is translated and used in the New Testament, and it can have both of these meanings. It's a very broad word. So we tend to use it one way today. Hundreds of years ago, they used the word a little bit different in English. We're going to look at how the Greek uses that word, or what that word means in the Greek. So we look at the modern English word.

Temptation means when we desire, we're drawn towards something. We're pulled towards something that we think isn't good. We think it isn't right, but we want to do it anyways. We're tempted. We want to do it. This morning when I walked into services in Murfreesboro, there was a big tray of donuts, and I was tempted. But I looked at that temptation, and fortunately there were other people that had had the same temptation I had, because there was this lemon-filled doughnut, and everybody had carved off a little piece.

So I carved off a little piece and ate it and felt like I had beat temptation, just like other people had. So my wife said after services she went back to get a donut, and the only one was another doughnut was there, but people would carve little pieces off, and all that was left was a little piece. So that's all she got, too, because other people fought temptation. But we use that word temptation. We mean that we're pulled towards something.

We somehow want to do something, and yet we know that it's wrong. It's emotional, it's mental, it's physical, and we're in conflict. Temptation pulls us into a conflict with something what we want to do but don't want to do. And temptation is quite different from person to person, and this is a problem we have sometimes. We look at people and we say, why are they tempted to do that? I don't understand. But other people can look at you and say, we don't understand your temptations.

I mean, if I had cocaine up here and I said, anyone here wants some cocaine, right? Nobody here, I don't think, is going to be tempted to run up and get some cocaine.

And you would be surprised if someone did. And you'd say, what's wrong with them? Why are they tempted? Because I'm not. You wouldn't have any temptation at all. There would be no pull to run up and get some cocaine. But all of us are tempted to do all kinds of things at all kinds of levels. We're going to talk about that today. I mean, some people are just tempted and drawn towards. Remember, temptation, when you look at that, means to be drawn towards something. You're actually pulled towards it. Some people are pulled towards a need for wealth, a need for status.

And sometimes they will do all kinds of things, including make bad decisions and sin to receive wealth and status.

Others can be pulled towards alcohol in ways that some people just don't understand because they don't have an alcohol addiction. People can be pulled towards the wrong use of sex, pornography, and gluttony.

You know, I have a little pull towards gluttony. It's not huge, but there's a little bit. I love to eat. I'm a foodie.

I have a relative who basically eats to exist. He could eat the same breakfast every day, same lunch every day, same dinner every day for the rest of his life and be absolutely happy.

Not change the menu, not change the portions and be happy.

I don't understand that.

He probably doesn't understand why I want to sit down and eat an entire pizza, you know?

There are internal issues we have that we can be tempted in ways that other people may not even see. Some people are tempted towards hatred, towards other people all the time. Some envy and desire for personal power. Pride is a huge temptation. Huge temptation. Dishonesty is a temptation. Coveting is a temptation.

All of us are tempted. All of us are pulled towards different things, and all of us sin.

Why is it that when you were baptized and you received God's Spirit, that you didn't stop being tempted?

Well, I have God's Spirit and I should never be tempted again. I mean, why am I still tempted? Why do I still have these pulls?

We're going to talk about that. Where does temptation come from? Where does temptation come from? Where does this conflict come from? Does God tempt us?

Well, it depends on what you mean by the word, tempt, how it's being used in the Bible. Does Satan tempt us?

We need to...where does it come from? What eventually draws us to commit the sin?

James, chapter 1.

James does something here that's a little unusual for him. This is something Paul usually does. He actually takes a process and breaks it down, an internal process, and breaks it down in a remarkable way.

James, chapter 1, verse 2. He says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

When bad things happen to you, feel joy. Now, we're going to have to come back and look at the rest of that, because why in the world would he say that? But let's skip down to verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures tribulation. Tribulation here, trials up there in chapter 2, or verse 2, are basically the same word. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations. It doesn't make sense.

So he's using that word in different ways to fit the context. And we're going to explain why. When you actually understand it, when you see the way the Bible uses this word, you're going to understand something about trials and temptations. Why they're connected, but not always the same. It has to do with how God relates to you and how Satan relates to you.

So this is important for us to understand. But he says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So blessed is the man who endures temptation, who doesn't commit the sin, because he'll receive a gift of blessing from God. But notice what he says next. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.

I don't know. The Old Testament says Abraham was tempted by God.

He says, no man is tempted by God?

God gives us trials. The Bible talks about God giving us trials. God giving us choices between good and evil. So what do you mean he doesn't tempt us? He goes on. He says, What's the Lord has promised to those who love him? I'm sorry, I am tempted. No one say I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Well, wait a minute. There's other places that says he does.

But each one is tempted. And here's where he's talking about this. And here's what we're going to see. There is an outside force that causes temptation. There's an outside force that causes trials. You know, the reason they translate that trials in verse 2 is trials can be caused from a lot of things.

You lose your job. It had nothing to do with you, the company. Just shut down. And suddenly you have all kinds of financial difficulty. Is that God? Is that Satan? What's happening to me? Why am I in this trial? You get sick. Why am I having this trial? Why am I having this difficulty? Why am I having this health issue? Every day we go through difficulties of life, trials of life.

But he's talking here about the temptation, the pull, to do evil.

One trial may cause another person to feel pulled towards evil. Another trial may not. Why?

Why?

One person can lose a job and go nine months without a job, with all that discouragement and all that worry and come out of it stronger. Another person can start doing all kinds of behavior that's actually detrimental, even sin. That person may start abusing alcohol. That person may give up on life and just watch television 12 hours a day. I mean, I've seen people without work break up a marriage.

Was that God's outcome? Is that what God wanted? And yet it's a trial. It says, He tempts no one. And here's what He means by this form of temptation. He's using the word tempt here in the Greek word, but it's translated tempt. It's translated tempt in the way we use the word temptation today. Look what He says.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away. A force pulls him out. Okay? Something pulls you towards a place, towards a thing. Drawn away by his own desires and enticed. He's pulled and then drawn away. And he's enticed. Now that is a fascinating word in Greek, enticed. It literally means the casting of a lure.

You cast it out and you catch somebody. Okay? Does God ever send out a lure to capture you to sin?

Because I tell you what, if He did, we'd lose every time. You don't think God knows us well enough? He could cause us the sin any time He wanted. He'd just cast that lure out there. We'd grab it because He knows who we are. And it'd be custom made for every one of us. So God doesn't do that. He's enticing anybody. Yet He can allow and cause trials in our lives.

Testing us, tempting us. But He never entices us. This is what James is trying to make here. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. He said, the process is you're being drawn to something and you give into it, and that lure, you grab it, and it conceives inside your mind. You process it. You commit the sin. Man, that's Pauline. I'm proud of James for that. James is so pragmatic. And then to break something down this intense is amazing.

I don't think James needs to be proud of him. I mean, I hope someday James is proud of me, but I doubt it.

But it's just amazing working through of the mind of people. And then He says, do not be deceived, my beloved brother. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from a body. And when he comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there's no variation or shadow or turning, of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. So He says, when we are struggling with this pull, it's pulling us in a certain direction. God will help us through. And when He does help us through, it is because of His power. He will make us the first fruits. God has a purpose for everything that happens in your life. I don't mean He causes every purpose, but He works it out for His purpose. And that purpose, that purpose is to have you become first fruits, to be at the resurrection that we just celebrated, to be at one with God, like we're going to celebrate earlier this week.

Now, God can't be tempted, and yet God can tempt us, but God never entices us to do evil. How do we work that out? There's a simple scientific experiment we could do.

If I had up here a large magnet and a large piece of iron, what would happen?

That iron would be drawn right to the magnet, right? I could lay that down, put the magnet here. If it's strong enough, it'll pick a block of iron right up off. It'll shake a little bit as it's attracted. The word is used.

It's attracted, and then it just flies through the air and it hits the magnet.

That's the way we are when we deal with the internal issue of being tempted. We are actually attracted to what we know we should not do.

We're going to use iron here today as a spiritual analogy. Inside all of us is spiritual iron. And the more spiritual iron we have, the closer we get to that magnet, the stronger the pull becomes until, unless someone breaks it, someone literally has to break the connection. You can't stop it. There's actually a physical place, and you can get iron and a magnet closer and closer and closer. And there's a point that unless you have some external force holding back the iron, it'll go to the magnet. You can't stop it. It just goes there.

That's the way we are spiritually. There is an invisible force, a spiritual force, that attracts us to sin. And there is inside of us a spiritual component that is attracted to the magnetic force of the sin.

And so it just pulls us in.

Now, this is the point James is making. This is what happens in your mind. And he said, that can't happen to God. God can never be pulled towards sin.

You know, in Corinthians, it says that in ancient Israel, tempted the Lord. Does that mean God was about the sin? Oh, they got me so mad. They got me so mad. I think I'm just going to blow up the universe. Is that what's happening? He's being tested by them. But he's not pulled anywhere. That's what you have to understand about God. You can tempt him. You can try him all you want. You can test him all you want until he just shakes his head. But you can never motivate him to do bad. Nobody can motivate him because there's nothing there to pull him towards it. There's nothing inside of him to pull him towards that force. Because there's no iron in his character. In fact, he is pure gold. We're going to talk about that in a minute. So let's look at the difference between the way Satan tempts us and God tempts us. First of all, Satan is called the tempter in the Bible. It is his desire to cause you to be pulled into destruction. That's his reason. That's his motivation. Everything he does has a purpose. It is to motivate you and me to be drawn into destruction.

So the magnet out there is Satan. There's a spiritual force that's constantly drawing us towards something. Let's look at how the word is used a couple of places by Paul here. Just interesting little examples. First Thessalonians 3. First Thessalonians 3.

Paul had written a letter to Thessalonica, the church in Thessalonica, because he was concerned about them. He was concerned something was happening to them. So he writes this letter, and he says in verse, well, let's start in verse 3, middle of a sentence, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. In other words, he was worried about people were getting discouraged, what they were going through. They were getting discouraged because they, you know, what Paul was going through. And, you know, it's like, well, God isn't taking care of us. The church is having problems.

He says, verse 4, for in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened. And you know, he says, I told you when I was there, Paul said, that he was going to have some trouble. So why should that discourage them? God, you know, Satan was going to come after him. But then he says, for this reason, when I could no longer endure it, there's one of this Paul always throws in his emotional response to things. He says, I couldn't stand it anymore. I sent to know your faith, lest by the means that tempter, by some means the tempter had tempted you, and that our labor might be in vain. He said, I couldn't stand anymore. I was worried that you as a congregation had been tempted to what?

How was Satan going to get to them? The magnet, they solved these problems. They solved this great leader of God being persecuted in Paul. He said, that tempter is just going to pull you right out of the truth. He's going to just pull you out. You're going to be drawn out of the truth. He says, I was worried that the tempter would tempt you. He wasn't going to tempt them to steal or lie or cheat or commit adultery. He was going to tempt them to leave the truth because of the things they were seeing and the things that were bothering them. 1 Corinthians 7.

So we know who has the magnet. We know who has the magnet. We know the iron is inside of us because of our corrupted human nature. And part of us is not even corrupted human nature. Satan is real good at using parts of us that God gave to us that aren't evil at all. How many children have gotten in trouble, and I'll have to raise my hand on this one, because you were just curious.

You're just curious enough and dumb enough to do whatever it was, right? How behind the barn smoking or whatever. We tried to make our own cigarettes, which was really stupid. I wonder if we didn't kill each other, especially since we didn't have any tobacco. I think we stuffed it with grass or something. I can't remember what it was.

You know, like six or seven years old, newspaper and grass. Of course, you know what that does? It's a wonder we didn't blow our faces off.

We do stuff. We do stupid things. That's curiosity. But see, the magnet out there is drawing us always towards destruction.

He'll always use even the good things God gave us to draw us towards destruction.

1 Corinthians 7. This is an example of something that God has given that's good. He's talking about marriage here and the sexual relationship within marriage. He says in verse 5, He was telling the Christians in the church there that, you know, you could end up committing adultery unless you have a good relationship within your marriage, because Satan knows how to play that card. He knows how to bring the magnet out on that one.

And so, they're told, this is a good thing, but He'll turn it into something else. Remember, that's our first thing here in understanding Satan. Satan tempts you because he entices you to sin.

He's actually wanting you to sin. He's sending out a lure. He's casting out. Now, if you've ever been fishing and you watch that fish coming around that lure and you're pulling it through the water, waiting for it to hit, and he hits that thing, that's the way Satan is. He's trolling for us all the time, and that magnet just pulls us in. It just pulls us in. Now, if that's what Satan's purpose is, it's pretty obvious, why would God let us have a trial? Is God trolling us? Is God wanting us to sin? Let's go back to James 1 and read now verses 2, 3, and 4. We skipped 3 and 4 here, but I want to go back there. James 1.

My brother encountered all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, and let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

God is using the troubles and difficulties of life and even the pull of Satan to do something important in your life. Remember I said God has no iron, spiritual iron. There can be no pool on Him. Let's compare God's character, God's nature, to gold. You know what's interesting about gold?

It has, I think there may be a tiny bit, it's almost unmeasurable. So for practical purposes, it has no magnetic pull. You can take a gold coin, and you could take a solid gold coin, and you could take a magnet, and nothing would happen. In fact, in some coin shops, the first thing they do is if you bring in a coin just to see if it's real or not, if it's gold, they put it down and they put a magnet over it. If the magnet influences it, then it's at best part gold. It's got to have alloys in it that it's not pure gold.

Now, you're not going to go get jewelry or a coin that's 100% gold. It's too soft. You have to see the old cowboy movies. A guy would take a gold coin and bite on it. You think what they're doing? If he can make a dent in it, it means it's real gold. It's that soft. They put a tiny bit of alloy in there. The alloy sometimes can be attracted, and so it'll maybe the coin will move a little bit because of the alloy. But pure gold has zero, for practical purposes, magnetic pull. So God's nature is 100% gold. There is no attraction at all. As long as you and I are physical, we have a spiritual iron in us, and God is changing that so that it becomes spiritual gold at the resurrection. And we have to go through that change. And that's why sometimes He gives us trials. Why? So that it's the testing of our faith. It's so that we can grow. It's so that we can learn.

So that we can learn. Let's compare God-tempting, Satan-tempting. God-testing for English, modern English, God-testing for a learning process, Satan-tempting. Adam and Eve. God said, don't eat that tree. You can eat all this other stuff? Let's name the animals? This is great, and we get to interact with each other. Just don't eat that tree. He told them it's not good to eat that tree. You'll die if you eat that tree. Terrible things will happen if you eat the fruit of that tree. Period. He told them the truth, but He didn't take away their free will. But He told them everything they needed to know. What did Satan do? Genesis 3. We know this story, but we have to rehearse this every once in a while because God says, do this and you'll be happy, and things will be good. Do this and you'll be unhappy and things will be bad. That's God's tempting of us. It's a test so we can learn.

What did Satan do? Verse 1, Now the serpent was more cunning, of course, Satan, than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? This is like salesmanship 101. First thing you do is ask them a question so they're agreeing with you.

Nice car, isn't it? Oh yeah, it sure is. You should see this baby run. You want to take it for a ride? I can't afford it. Can't hurt to take it for a ride.

The moment you shake your head and say, I mean, nice car, is it? Nah, I hate that car. I wouldn't even man, I wouldn't even spit on that car. Okay, he's not going to try to sell you that car. Okay. The moment you say yes, so he's playing the game with her here. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden or trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor you shall touch it lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that that day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. There's always a little grain of truth in there. You only know good right now, you'll know good and evil. He doesn't fill in the blank. Once you know good and evil, you're not like God, and you're going to live a horrible life. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, the tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate it. She also gave it to her husband with her and he ate. At the core, at the core of this magnet are lies. Everything Satan does is based on lies. And the reason why is he's not concerned with you. He's concerned with destroying you. There's no concern between Satan and us. There's no love of Satan of us.

God, on the other hand, says, I made you with free will, so guess what? I now will give you a test.

This or this. Whichever way you choose, I'll just give you more tests. Satan entices. He pulls. He lies. He sends out the right Lord to catch you.

And you feel that when the time comes. You're pulled. You're sort of drawn. You're drawn to lose your temper and say something horrible to that person. You're drawn towards the person at work you shouldn't be drawn towards. You're drawn towards, you know what?

I could have a better job if I just work on the Sabbath. You're drawn towards it. You're sort of pulled. Yeah. He knows where your weak spot is. He just pulls you. And we can come up with every excuse we can think of to be there. A couple that says, you know, I've actually had this. I've sat down with a couple. You know, we've been, we're not married, but we have been sleeping with each other. But we ask God to take away the desire so that we would no longer be attracted to each other. I said, oh, wow, that work. Obviously not very good. I mean, God, I want you to make me, what, a celibate? What were you asking God to do to you? So what's happened? Well, she's pregnant. And sometimes you can come to the conclusion, no, it is God's will. It's God's will that I not pay my taxes because some of it may be spent on the military. Well, the Bible says pay your taxes.

It's God's will that I work on the Sabbath because I'll make more money and pay more tithes. And all that is, is those are the lies. It's always pulling us this way. And there reaches the point. You can, it's there. Everybody's so surprised sometimes when it's there. I don't know what happened. I worked with her. She seemed nice. We, once we went out for a couple of drinks after work and talked, we just get along so well. And my wife was out of town. I don't know how I ended up in a motel with her. It's just boom. Well, I can tell you how you got there. You've been moving that way for months. All you knew was the part where you're pulled in. We played with all this out here and then it poses. And how did he get her? How did Satan get her? Well, it was good for food.

He appealed to a physical desire. You know, the desire for food of itself is not sin, is it? This is where he's so good. You can twist that around. Twist that around. Pleasant to the eyes.

He appeals to our desire to possess things. People become obsessed all the time with something. Sometimes I've become obsessed with something I'd like to own, and then a year later glad I didn't buy it because I realized, you know what? I didn't have enough money for that. I'm glad I didn't buy it because I really wouldn't have wanted it anyway.

Oh, I wish I could have that. I wish I could have that. I wish I could have that. Two weeks later, two days later, you're thinking, you know, I wouldn't want that anyways. But we become obsessed because why? We're being pulled. Now, that isn't necessarily sin yet, right? Oh, I would really like that. Now, you work it out. Maybe it is something you could buy. It's not sin. The magnet's gone. But the magnet is there because you can convince yourself to do all kinds of things to have it when you shouldn't have it. It's called covening. So you're actually sinning now. When owning the thing may not be a sin. That's not the sin. The sin is giving into this process. Where now maybe you don't have enough money for your shoes for your kids. Well, then you shouldn't have bought it, right?

And desire to make one wise and appeal to intellect. This is where we get a lot of pride in life. A lot of pride in life because we want to feel that we're smarter. That we're smarter and better than anybody else.

1 John 2. Let's look at a New Testament explanation of the same thing. 1 John 2. You've probably heard this in sermons before, this connection between these two things. But we need to make these connections. We need to not ignore some of these things that become common for us. 1 John 2. Let's go to verse 15. John says, Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That's an important statement right there. That's a whole sermon right there. What does it mean to love the world? For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. There's the magnet. Sometimes it's not the things, sometimes it's not even the action. It's why and how we're pulled until we end up in a sin. Because we let that iron in us, we let it be pulled towards it. Instead of recognizing, I shouldn't want that this much, or that's not right, or that thought isn't good, or treating this person this way is not right. I should not do this. What does God want me to do? Instead, we just follow the pull. We follow because we're drawn, which is what James said. We're drawn towards it.

I mentioned about the armor at the Prist Art Museum. I don't necessarily recommend it. You have to be truly a person who likes looking at 16th and 17th century armor to go watch it. If you are, or if you go look at it, it's pretty neat. In Old English, they called it testing the metal.

Then they talked about a person testing your metal. In other words, if you were a knight in armor, they tested not only the metal of the armor, the metal of the person. Their courage, their perseverance was tested. You had to test the metal of the person. That's what God is doing with us. He's testing our metal to see how much of its iron, how much of it is iron, how much of it is gold.

Different motivation, isn't it? Different reason for interacting with us. Different purpose, different outcome, not our destruction, but that we get real life and real life the way he intends it to be. That's what God is doing. So let's look at three ways we can better resist temptation then, as we sort of wrap this up here and head towards the end. Three ways that we can better resist temptation. First of all, realize that the test itself isn't the sin. Remember the process we read in James, right? You see it, you feel a tug, and then you go through this whole process. The lore, you know, you're enticed by it. You want to go there. You move closer, you move closer, and then he says, and then it's conceived, and once it's deep in there, and it's all you can think about, boom, that's where you end up. That magnet just pulls you in. Feeling the pull doesn't mean you've sinned yet, because I've had people say that. Well, I thought about it, and I sort of wanted it, and I felt drawn towards it, so I thought, well, I've already sinned. I might as well go all the way. No! Resisting the pull, that's the test that God wants you to win. There's where God is.

No, no, no, no, don't do that. That won't work. Think this through. Come on. So what we have to do is recognize what temptation is and recognize at that point that God is involved, that this test doesn't have to become a failure because I have not sinned yet.

I'm just being pulled because there's still iron in me. And the problem is, you and I are going to have iron in us in this spiritual analogy until we're changed. There's still some iron in us all the time. That's why we keep being pulled by these magnets. And it would be nice if it was one magnet, you know, we had one sinned overcome. But it's not. It's multiple magnets, and Satan's a master at all of them. He can set this one down and pick up another one. Right? He's a master at all of them. That's why Jesus said, or it says in Hebrews, he was tempted like us, but never sinned. He was tempted like us. Physically, he was a physical human being. But what was his inside character? See, he could feel the pull being physical, but he wasn't going there. But he could feel it, which is good for us. That's why he says on the day of Atonement, when he talks about Jesus as a high priest, he says he knows what we go through, exactly what we're going through. But he never went there. He always stopped. That's what we have to understand. If he never sinned, but he felt the pull, what does that mean? He could see, I don't go there, but he felt the pull, which helps us understand. He understands. He felt the pull, but he never went. He never kept getting closer and closer.

That's what's so interesting about Satan's temptation of Jesus when he took him out into the desert. That was a massive universal battle taking place. I don't think we can understand what's actually taking place there. It says, all things were created through God created all things through Jesus Christ, Paul said, which means that Jesus Christ created Satan and Jesus Christ has his creation, testing him and challenging him and trying to make him sin. How? You're human now. You can feel this. You can feel my magnet. You're hungry. You're starving to death. You can feel that. I know you feel that. And you have the power to change that stone into bread.

Just let me see you do it.

Think about that. He felt that. He knew what it feels like to be starving to death. I've never, you know, I've never known what it was like to feel like you're starving to death.

I've read words, absolutely horrible, absolutely horrible.

And what is he getting with? Never felt that way before. I know. And he's like, he's got a big magnet. I can do this. I can send you out of lore. You can't. I am enticing you. You can't pass this one up.

And of course he felt hungry. Of course he felt agony. Of course he felt weakness. But he never went. That's gold. But the physical body, he felt iron. Okay? If you understand the analogy, he felt what it's like to be iron. But he wasn't. He was gold.

Think about that. Jesus, that's what it says. He knows. He knows exactly. I said we never sinned. No, but he knows what the pull, he knows the feeling of the pull of the draw. Just never, he wasn't going there. That's remarkable.

So realize that the test itself isn't the sin. It's what we do with it. Second is submit to God's purpose. Remember, He's taking your inferior spiritual metal and turning it into something else.

He's the goldsmith. You know what's interesting about smithing gold? It is a long, hard process. You could go pan for gold if you want, get little nuggets, but it still is impure. Or a lot of us got a lot of gold is from gold mines where they go in and they blow it up and they hack out pieces of it and they bring out pieces of rock. Then they have to chop that rock down and break it up. I mean, it's a beating process. So I guess the first thing God has to do is beat us. You have to beat this stuff up so it can be used. Then you have to melt the gold, take the gold out of the rock and you have to melt it down. At such high temperature, it melts the gold. It turns it liquid. And as it turns it liquid, all the other elements are in there raised to the rise to the top. It's called dross and they scrape it off. And they keep this heat up until they scrape it off. They scrape the heat and they dip it out. And every time they dip it out, it's more and more and more pure. Now, they don't do this today, but the old goldsmiths, you knew when the gold was pure, when you couldn't see any more dross, and when you looked into this molten vat of gold, you saw your own reflection. So that's what God does. He chisels you out. He melts you down. He scrapes off all the dross over the course of a lifetime until he can see his own reflection in there. That's you. That's me. That's a whole different thing than, let me throw this lure out there and let me get you so close to the, this magnet that when you get sucked in, I destroy you. Totally different approach. Both are a little uncomfortable, right? One is destruction, one is not. We have to understand what this Christian life is. When you finally have it all melted down and all the dross taken off, you pour it into molds so that you get exactly what you want. Now, in the modern world, they do put a little bit of copper. They put different things in there, just a little bit. That's why if you see a coin that's a gold coin, like the U.S. has a number of gold coins, it's legal tender, but it's sold by the house. So it might be a $50 gold coin, but right now if you want to buy one, it probably costs you, let's see, $1,750. And you'll see on it, 0.999% pure gold. It can't be pure gold. You could bend it.

But God doesn't have that problem. He's making pure gold that can't be bent.

I said this in Murfreesboro this morning, and the song leader, you know Mike Gravy, so you can imagine him saying this. He said, oh no, all the women are now going to run home, get a magnet, and run it over their jewelry, and say, honey, you told me it was gold. You know, I'm sure 18-karat gold probably has some magnet. I don't know. It'd be interesting. Probably has some magnetic attraction, because it's not pure.

But we have to submit to the discipline of God's smelting process. So that's our second point. Submit to this smelting process. Understand that when you have difficulties in life, it's not because God is punishing you. Sometimes it's, God, scrape off some more dross. Just don't give up on me. Keep working with me. Keep making me into what you want me to be. When you pour me into that mold, I will be exactly what you want. Because God doesn't do bad work. We will be exactly what we should be. That's what He wants to do with every one of us.

And the last point of these three points is that we must identify what triggers temptation. What triggers temptation? It can be something that's not, like I said, sin at all. It can be an act of desperation. And we do something we shouldn't do.

We do something dishonest. You'll see a child... Go back to children, because we're just big children, that won't lie. But they get scared because they did something they probably shouldn't have done, and now they're accused and they lie. Well, they never lied before. Well, that's what desperation does. Desperation pulls you right up to the magnet. Boom! You're there. Because no one will ever figure out, I ate the chocolate cookie, even though my face is covered with chocolate. Right?

If I just say, no, I didn't eat it, then where did that chocolate on your face come from? Ugh. Right.

But we're like that. We can sin sometimes just because out of desperation.

We have to understand the triggers. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 10 and show you what I mean.

And verse 13, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. That pull, God will make a way out. God will make a way out. And what we do is think, no, no, I can get closer. I'm strong enough.

I can get closer. I'm strong enough. Just one more beer won't hurt me. Just one more beer won't hurt me. I can handle my beer. Eight beers won't hurt me.

We just get closer and closer, and we don't see the way out. Years and years ago, I mean, I can't even remember what feast site it was. It was so long ago. Early in my ministry, I'm walking through the lobby of a large hotel at the feast, and this young man comes, I say young man, I was a young man, but he was younger than me. I guess he was in his 20s. He comes running out of the bar, and he comes up to me, and he has this desperate desperation look in his face. He says, will you take me home? He says, I'm staying at a motel just down two miles from here, or whatever it was. He says, would you take me home? Sure. So, I went out and got in the car. I mean, I didn't know him. I had seen him there, so he was in the church. And what it was, was he had got with a group of guys. It was the World Series that was going on. You know how the World Series usually goes on during the feast many times? And a bunch of guys said, let's go in to the bar here and watch the game. He says, everybody ordered a beer. Everybody's eating peanuts and talking and laughing. And he had his seltzer water, whatever it was. And he says, I'm not an alcoholic. I haven't had a drink in a long, long time. He said, but all of a sudden, they're laughing. They're talking. Nobody is abusing their alcohol. But he said, I wanted a drink so bad. But he said, if I had one beer, they would have had to eventually carry me home. And he says, I can't be in that room. And of course, they didn't understand. When he guys saved me, home with the game still on, right? They didn't get it. He ran out of the room. So I took him home. He said, I'm okay now. I'm okay. I just had to get over that hump. The temptation, which nobody else in that room would have even understood, right? That temptation, that magnet was so strong, he knew he couldn't stay in the room.

He knew what would trigger it. The fact that everybody else had a beer.

That's all it took. And he understood it. And God gave him an out. He just happened to be me. He could have been the next guy behind me. I just happened to be the guy walking by at the time. And he'd see me give a sermon or some sermonette or something, and he come running out. Would you help me? Take me home. How is he's out? God gives us an out. We'll run right past it. Oh, I'm okay. I can do that. Just half a beer. Just one beer. See? We can do it. Whatever it is. And you can fill in that blank however you want. One donut. You know, I talked about donuts already. Two donuts. Three donuts. Three donuts. If I would have eaten that donut, my sermon would have lasted 15 minutes this morning because I had to talk so fast. Actually, I did a BT program here.

The last one I did, usually before I go up, I drink a couple sips of coffee. And I was really tired. I wasn't paying attention. I drank like five minutes before I went on camera. I drank an entire cup of coffee. I got about 10 minutes into that, and that jolt of caffeine hit me.

Poor teleprompter girl couldn't even keep up with me. And every once in a while, I started to sort of stumble over words, and I kept fixing it. And then I evened out after the jolt went down. But I knew what was happening. I thought, oh man, you know what I mean. That caffeine sometimes, usually I don't feel that, but man, it hit me.

And later I went up to the director. I said, why didn't you yell, cut? It's like you're going to let me stand up. He said, no, no, no, you were doing fine. He said, you just sounded energetic. And he said, yeah, a couple times you sort of stumbled over a word, but you fixed it immediately. He said, we're thinking this is good stuff. Yeah, good stuff. I'm on my eyes. I'm rolling around in my head. I'm not sure where I am. The teleprompter girl said, you know, you're an expert at ad lib. I said, yeah, caffeine will do that to you. You know, you just, because I wasn't even on the teleprompter. So it worked out fine. So if I would have had a whole donut, they would have had a 15 minute sermon and no one would have understood because I would have been speaking in tongues.

We have to identify the triggers. That's why I won't eat a donut before I speak. That probably would make me feel sick, a whole donut. I might occasionally have a donut, but not very often because I know what it does. That much sugar jolts my body or too much caffeine jolts my body. Am I sinning? Not necessarily. Of course, if I get up here and jabber, I'm sure not representing God very well, am I? See, that could be a sin. But we have to learn those triggers. Here's a perfect example. Joseph.

Joseph is a young man who is sold into slavery, went from a really good life to a really bad life, ends up as a slave in the court of an Egyptian official. And this woman, all I can say is, I imagine she was beautiful.

And the Egyptians were experts at things like perfume. Joseph, he had never met a woman who smelled like that before. And she has all this food and wine and everything he wants. All you have to do is be with me.

Now, there's a thousand reasons most guys his age would have figured out, God, thank you. He did not. He knew it's not what God wanted. And he ran away.

And what happened because he ran away? He was punished and put in jail. He said, well, what good is it in resisting temptation? Well, what good is it to being melted down and having your dross? Remo. God had a big plan for him and he was going to be actually one of the most powerful men in the world. Because Egypt at that time was at one of the, they had different peaks and valleys of power, but it was one of his peaks of power. He became one of the most powerful men in the world. And God had to prepare him for that as a man who would obey him even if he gave him power. And how did he do that? He stripped him down and put him in jail, put him in prison. That's what he did. Stripped him down and put him in prison to prepare him for that. That's how God does trials. That's how God does testing. That's how God does temptation.

David, he already was a king. He already was the one with the most powerful men in the world. He didn't run away, did he? He didn't run away. So what did God do to him? This is what I find fascinating. God had Nathan approach him and David said, yes, I'm absolutely worthless. I'm a sinner. He didn't ask for anything. He simply said, just do whatever you're going to do. Do it with mercy. God said, all good. I can still work with this clump of gold, but the rest of your life, your family, and your kingdom will not have peace.

Yes, I will continue my work with you, but the price you will pay is very heavy for what you have done. That's how God deals with temptations and times that we fail with. But notice in both of them what happened. God ended up pouring into two golden vessels, or two vessels, the exact gold that he wanted. You take that gold out of that vessel and you have the exact shape you wanted. He had two men. That's exactly what he wanted. And they have future importance in the kingdom of God.

Now, there's other people in the Bible who failed and failed. They never came back. They gave in to one temptation or another and they never came back.

Because they just got on that magnet and couldn't get off of it. What I find interesting of those two men, one failed, one did not, God fixed it.

One failed, one did not, and God fixed it because of their willingness to understand. And you see them change. They both were changed by what God dealt with them. And both of them had tests that lasted for a long, long time. David, for the rest of his life, and David never turned against God. He accepted it. He also learned to run away. He never committed those sins again, ever. He had learned to run away. Interesting. Because sometimes people say, well, I've given in to this or that or the other. God can't save me. Let me save David. But you can't hold on to it. We can't say, oh, God saved me so I could just stay the way I am. I can just stay the way I am because God didn't throw me away. But the fact that God didn't throw him away was the motivation for David because he understood the gravity of what he was facing. So remember, the test itself isn't sin. It's the test. Satan sees it as a way to make you sin. God sees it as a way to get a little more dross out of your life. Two different motivations, two different ways what he's trying to do here.

Accept that, and you can go to God and say, boy, I'm struggling with this. I need help.

And he'll say, yeah, I know you are. That's a good first move, kid.

That's a good first move here. Secondly, you have to submit to God's purpose to replace your inferior iron with gold. Once you have a total, once you and I, and I look forward to this, when we're changed, our character will be solid spiritual gold, and it means you couldn't be tempted by Satan. Well, you could even stand to be around him. It would be impossible. It will be impossible for us to sin because there is no iron in gold. There's no magnetic force. We will have been changed, and it will not be possible for us to sin. Can you imagine that? Actually, it's very hard, huh? But that is what God's doing. We trust in His work. We trust in His work. And then you and I must learn to identify what triggers temptation, and we have to run away. Run away. Get out of there, whatever it is. I remember my dad telling me one time he was a church elder, and he went visiting with the pastor, and they'd been visiting real late into the night. And I mean, it was, I think, midnight or something. And they were in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia, and they went through this little town, and there was one little restaurant open. And he said they went in, and they sat down, and they're looking at the menu. It's like midnight. It's the only place for miles that they've seen. And they're looking at the menu, and suddenly this music starts, and they look, and this girl comes out, and she starts to do a strip.

And dad said he looked up in like in the second of what? And he said the pastor stood up and yelled, Flee fornication, and ran out of the restaurant.

He said, you know, it was sort of a dive. He looked at that, well, I guess this is a dive. You know, he put his gun up and just walked out. He didn't yell Flee fornication to walk out, but he said everybody there knew what this man thought. And he said, I was sort of proud to walk out with him, you know, and run away. Why do we try to fight Satan on our own? Why? Why?

Satan is the temperature. He wants us to have character of iron because he can manipulate it. He can lie to us. He can lead us to our own destruction. You cannot be changed into the kingdom of God with character of iron. Now, we'll always have a little as long as we're physical. Yes, but that goes. Remember, Jesus had some iron in him because he had a physical body, but he never sinned.

He wants us to be controlled by that magnetic pull because it is a real force. It's something you can think. It's something you can feel. That's the big thing. That magnetic force, when you're tempted, you can feel the pull towards it. God, though, is the refiner of character. He's the refiner of gold. He takes us and melts us down and makes us into what our greatest potential could ever be because there is true happiness, there's true value, there's true reason to live. That's when you've been refined by God. So remember, submit to God, submit to the smelting process. It says, resist the devil and he will flee against you. James said that. And understand that God is never going to try to make you sin, ever. He wouldn't do that to us. He'll give us tests and trials and always give us a way to get through it. Sometimes we can't see that door for a long time, can we? But he'll give you a way to get through it because he has a purpose for you and a reason for you. And that reason is about these Holy Days that we're going through right now. These trumpets, David Tillman, these tabernacles, that eighth day, that last great day, what that really means.