Why Does God Allow Temptation in the Life of the Believer?: Standing Your Ground

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at greg.harvest.org. Again, it's greg.harvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out healthy, growing Christians are sometimes the favorite targets of our spiritual adversary. If you are indeed growing as a Christian, if you are progressing in the Christian life, you're going to come into the cross hairs of the devil. Why? Because now you have become a bona fide threat to his kingdom.

If you find yourself constantly being harassed and tempted, that may be an indication you're on the right track. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Again you hear of the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. Our spiritual adversary is a formidable foe, and he knows if he can take down a believer who is actively living out his faith.

He scores a big win for his kingdom of darkness. Not only is the believer's life affected, but many others around him as well. Today on A New Beginning, in one of the year's messages requested the most by our listeners, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us learn how to stand our ground and resist the temptations that seem to surround us constantly.

This is the day, the day when life begins. The title of the message is, Why Does God Allow Temptation in the Life of the Believer? We are going to turn to two scriptures. We are going to go to Luke 4 and James 1.

Luke 4 and James 1. So turn there if you would. Quick poll before we get started. How many of you have ever been tempted to sin? Raise your hand up. Ok. How many of you have given in to the temptation to sin? Raise your hand up.

Ok. How many of you have resisted the temptation to sin? Raise your hand. Interesting.

Not quite as many hands. I don't understand them. Maybe you are the ones that really need to be here. But listen.

Here is what you need to know. Everyone gets tempted. It is not a sin to be tempted. It is only a sin when you give in to it.

But everyone faces it. Even pastors of course. I heard a story about a minister that went to make a hospital call and he couldn't find a parking spot and he circled around and around and finally he double parked. And he put one of his little cards under the windshield wiper in case an officer came along. He said, Dear officer, I am late for an appointment to minister to somebody. And so I circled the block ten times.

I couldn't find his face. And then the minister wrote, Forgive us our trespasses. So the minister went and made his visit and came back out and saw a parking ticket under his windshield wiper.

He was a little surprised by that. But he noticed the officer wrote something extra on the ticket. And the officer wrote these words, Dear Reverend, I have circled this block for ten years.

If I don't give you a ticket I will get fired. And then the officer wrote, Lead us not into temptation. So I guess that officer read his Bible too.

So that is what I want to talk about. Why does God allow temptation? Now this is a part of our series What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know. We have already seen the importance of studying the Bible if we want to grow spiritually. We have seen the importance of a prayer life if we want to grow spiritually. We have seen the importance of being a vital part of a church if we want to grow spiritually. And now we are going to talk about why temptation comes. It doesn't make sense. Why would God allow us to be tempted? What possible good could come out of it?

Well here is what you need to know. If you are indeed growing as a Christian, if you are progressing in the Christian life you are going to come into the cross hairs of the devil. Why? Because now you have become a bona fide threat to His kingdom. If you find yourself constantly being harassed and tempted that may be an indication you are on the right track. If you can't remember the last time you were tempted maybe you are not worth tempting. Ever think about that?

See so here is what we need to understand. Everyone will be tempted and even Jesus was tempted. And that is what we are looking at here in Luke chapter 4. Our Lord is beginning His public ministry at the age of 30. He has gone down to the Jordan River. He has been baptized by His cousin John. And the Holy Spirit as you recall came upon Christ in the form of a dove and the Father actually spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. What an epic moment. We see the Trinity in action here.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So what happens next? We read that immediately after that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What? After a moment like that?

Yes. After a moment like that. After the dove came the devil. After the blessing came the temptation. Now why was Jesus tempted?

Now let's get technical. In a literal sense God cannot be tempted. He is not temptable. He doesn't have a sinful nature. In fact we are even told in Scripture, James 1.3, God cannot be tempted with evil neither does He Himself tempt any man. So when we talk about the temptation of Christ He was tempted in one sense but in another sense He did not have the vulnerability to give in to the temptation. Having said that I would add Jesus did feel the pressure and the presence of temptation.

Now why would He go through that? So He would be able to help us to understand that He has walked in our shoes. So we would understand that we serve a God that knows what it is like to face temptation. And He sympathizes with us. In fact Hebrews 4.15 speaking of Christ says, this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses for he faced all the same temptations we do yet he did not sin.

So let us come boldly to the throne of grace of our gracious God that will receive His mercy and find grace to help us when we need it. So you can't say, oh God doesn't know what it is like to live in the 21st century. God doesn't know what it is like to face temptation. Actually God does know what it is like and He faced it. But here is another reason why I believe Jesus was tempted. He occupied ground that we can occupy.

Let me restate that. Jesus faced this so we will see how we should face it. He gives us a template to follow for the next time we come under temptation. So He is giving us an example to follow us. Now nobody likes being tempted.

It is a horrible thing to have to go through. But there is some value that can come from it. It has been said one Christian who has been tempted is worth more than a thousand who haven't been. Another person said Christians are a lot like tea bags.

You don't know what they are made of until you put them in hot water. Maybe you are in the hot water of temptation right now. And you are thinking why is God allowing this in my life. Because it can make you stronger. It can cause you to be more dependent upon God and see His abundant resources that are at your disposal. It sort of toughens you up as a follower of Christ.

And listen to this statement. And this is our first text here. James 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved to receive the crown of life whom the Lord has promised to those who love Him. So right off the bat we see some important things about temptation. Number one it can be endured. It can be resisted.

More on that later. Number two there is a reward for the person who endures temptation because the promise is we will receive the crown of life. And thirdly you will be a happy person if you resist temptation's pull because it says blessed is the man or literally happy is the man who resists or endures temptation.

Now here is what we are going to look at in the verses before us here in Luke 4. We are going to look at six things about temptation. Number one. We are going to look at where temptation comes from. Where temptation comes from.

Number two. We are going to look at when temptation comes. When temptation comes.

Number three. How does temptation come. How does temptation come. Number four. Who does temptation come to. Who does it come to. Five. Where is the best place to be when it comes. And lastly number six.

What is the primary weapon we should use to resist it. How does that sound. Ok. You ready. Ok. Let's read Luke 4. And we are going to read verses 1 to 13. 1. Now Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing, and afterwards, when they had ended, he was hungry.

2. And the devil said to him, If, and by the way this could be translated since, so it wasn't a question of if Jesus was the Son of God. Satan was effectively affirming it.

It could be translated since. Since you are the Son of God, says the devil, why don't you command the stone to become bread? Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, underline that phrase, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

3. Then the devil took him up to a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said, All this authority I will give to you, and their glory. For this has been delivered to me, and I can give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if you will worship before me, all of this will be yours.

4. Jesus answered and said, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, underline that phrase again, You shall worship the Lord God, in Him only shall you serve. Then Satan brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said, Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written. Notice the devil's quote in Scripture now. For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you to keep you, and in your hands will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone. Jesus answered and said, It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment, right after a quick look at the way A New Beginning touches the lives of listeners. Wow, stories like that really move me. I think of this young lady as a little girl hearing our program, and then she obviously made some bad choices in life, becoming an addict by her own admission, but coming back to the Lord. You know, the Bible says if you train a child in the way that they should go, they'll come back to it, they'll return to it. And that's what happened with this young lady, and that's why it's so important to, when you're driving around with your kids in your car, great to listen to contemporary Christian music, great to listen to Christian radio, and can I just say, really great to listen to A New Beginning, because the Word of God will not return void. So we're so thankful that our ministry has touched her back in her childhood into this present day, and that's why we do what we do. And we couldn't do what we do without the support of our listeners. Thanks so much for praying for us and for investing so this work can continue.

You can make a generous year-end gift today at harvest.org. Well, today Pastor Greg is beginning to offer six observations on how to resist temptation, based on the Lord's response to temptation recorded in Luke chapter 4. Let's continue.

Okay, so let's deal with issue number one. Where does temptation come from? Where does it come from? Well, we play a key role in our own temptation. Satan needs our cooperation in this area. Where there is no desire on our part, there is no temptation. It's been said, it takes two to make a successful temptation, and you are one of the two, okay. So it's very easy to blame everything on the devil, or blame everything on someone who may be tempted you, or whatever it is you're facing.

But the reality is you have to cooperate with it. James 1 14 says, everyone is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and is enticed. And when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it's full grown brings forth death. Now in this simple verse, or these two verses I should say, we have the five steps of temptation.

Right there in James 1 14 to 16. First of all, we have the temptation itself. Everyone is tempted.

Again, reminding us that everyone faces it. 1 Corinthians 10 13 says, there is no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. You're not the only person that's had those crazy thoughts.

No, you're not losing your mind. You're not the only person that's been under that pressure. You're not the only person that has faced the temptation that you face. It's common to man. We all face it. So we need to understand that. And everyone is tempted. But there's always a way out.

Number two, let's say you're drawn. You're attracted to that thing. You're tempted.

Now you're under its power. Verse 14, drawn away by your own desires, you see. Your own desires. This is the whole thing of try this sample. Take the test drive.

Go ahead and buy it and you can return it if you want. This is the strategy of that. Because you know, I'm pretty good with resisting dessert. I like dessert, but I don't crave dessert. Now you put hot bread in front of me and I collapse. I love hot bread.

And especially with butter on it. But you know, dessert I'll say, and I don't want dessert. So after we're maybe in a restaurant and we're eating, someone will say, you want to get dessert? No, I don't want it. And someone will say, oh, I want it. And okay, bring the dessert with four forks, right? So everyone will start eating and I'll say to myself, I'm not going to eat any of that dessert. I'm just, it's a matter of principle. I'm not having any. And then someone says, it's really good. Greg, try it.

Okay, I'll try a little bit. All I need is that taste. And now it's like I'm a shark that smelled blood.

Okay. And this is the thing, my wife, you know, she likes to eat things in a long leisurely way. So she'll take a bite and even sort of hold the bite while she talks like this. And the moment she turned away, I'm like, you know, I eat most of it. And she comes like, where did the food go?

I don't know. But here's the thing. If it's that little taste that gets me, or maybe it's that test drive, you never planned on buying that car.

Oh, but now that you have that new car smell and you've experienced it, now you say to yourself, I must have it. Well, that's temptation. You say, I won't do this thing. I won't give into this temptation, but I'm going to take it for a little mental test drive. I would never act on that lustful thought, but I'll go ahead and just play it through in my mind just for fun, sort of a little fantasy. There's no harm there.

I would never actually reach out and kill a person, but I'll just sort of entertain the thought of beating them many times or whatever it is. But the idea is you take it mentally. You see, you're already getting pulled in. Step number three, you're almost hooked. Verse 14 of James 1, you're drawn away by your own desires and enticed. Now this is becoming problematic.

It's sort of like the hooks end and you're getting reeled in. There's still a way out. And remember friends, there's always a way out. There's always a way out. Again, 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there's no temptation that you face.

That's not common to man. But God who is faithful will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And listen to this, sometimes the way of escape is as simple as the door.

It's just the door. You know, maybe you're being tempted. You're laying down on a bed with your girlfriend. You're saying, I'm facing sexual temptation in this hotel room we just booked.

And we're laying here. And I don't know why this is happening. Number one, because you're an idiot.

Number two, you plant it and you set yourself up. Well how do I resist it? In your case, you need to get out of there as quickly as you can. Simple as that.

You don't need to lay there and say, God give me strength. No shut up with that. Just get out. Get out. Like when Potiphar's wife, the original cougar, this older woman, hit on young Joseph.

She pulled him down on the bed and effectively said, have sexual relations with me. And he ran. Sometimes that's just the best thing to do. Just run. But see at this point, we have a problem. You know, you're almost hooked. You're enticed. You're thinking. You're processing. You're considering. And that brings you to step number four.

The hook is set. Desire is conceived. It gives birth to sin. So you act on it. I'm just going to do it.

And you do it. And maybe there's a little bit of fun. But it short lived. It short lived. And maybe there's not even a little bit of fun.

Maybe it's just miserable from the get go. But whatever little momentary pleasure you have, now sin sets in. The deadness of sin sets in.

You know what I'm talking about? And the guilt sets in if your conscience is working. So now you have a problem. Now you're separated from God in fellowship. And then the effects of sin set in. Verse 15, and sin when it's full grown brings forth death. It gets big and it becomes potent. You know we have a couple rabbits.

Or grandkids do I should say. And one is named Fuzzy and cute little rabbit. Really like that rabbit. And they went out and bought another rabbit that was even smaller than Fuzzy.

You could hold this rabbit in the palm of your hand. I think his name was Martin. So there's Fuzzy who is full grown. Martin is this tiny little rabbit. I don't know what happened but Martin just grew like a weed. Next thing you know Martin is bigger than Fuzzy.

And he's kind of not cute anymore. Fuzzy is kind of dark brown and Martin is I don't know kind of weird like he came in from the field or something. And then the thing is Martin is kind of aggressive. It's like Fuzzy would let you pet him. And now that Martin is around him Martin is a bad influence on Fuzzy. And he's taking Fuzzy back to his wild rabbit ways you know. And Fuzzy is in the little rabbit. You can pet anymore.

And they're both kind of wild. And Martin gets bigger and bigger. And then one day Martin just dies. We don't know why he died. We said bye.

Okay so that was the end of Martin you know. What can you do? That sin you know it starts off cute. It's so cute. Just pet the little sin.

Look at it. Then it gets bigger. Whoa it's getting big.

Then it's really big. But the problem is the sin is not going to die. You're going to die. It's going to have its way with you.

So don't even start with the thought. You have to resist it at the get-go. So having said all of that everyone is going to be tempted. And everyone is going to face it at some point in their life. And so here we find Jesus facing temptation.

And you know I think it's very easy for us to place the blame on others. Again quoting James 1-3. Let no man say when he is tempted I'm tempted by God. Don't blame it on God.

We do that sometimes. God it's your fault. Adam did that. I mean I don't know who Adam blamed. It was either God or his wife. But after he gave in to sin he said, Lord it's the woman you gave me. So either the emphasis is on woman or the emphasis is on you. In other words either Adam said, it's the woman you gave me.

Or it's the woman you gave me. Either way you look at it Adam is shifting blame. He's not taking responsibility. It's not my fault God. It's your fault. It's her fault. And then of course Eve says, well the serpent tricked me so she blames the devil.

No one is accepting responsibility for their actions here. But that's what it is. It's something that we're all going to face. From one of the year's most requested messages, Pastor Greg Laurie is highlighting important insights on temptation and how we can avoid it. And there's more we can learn from Jesus' temptation in Luke 4 as this message continues here on A New Beginning. And be listening for the next several weeks as we highlight our Best of collection for 2021.

And then we're so excited about making a wonderful video resource available for you and your family. Have you heard of the television series called The Chosen? It's the first multi-season series about the life of Christ. And it's also the highest crowd-funded TV series or film project of all time. It's a series that portrays Christ through the eyes of those who met him and walked with him. And it's powerful.

The cinematography is stunning and the acting is really first-rate. And how accurate is it to what we read in Scripture? Well the show has biblical scholars from a variety of denominations reviewing scripts to ensure historical and biblical accuracy. The Chosen helps you see what it's like to live life side by side with Jesus as he encounters needy people who need a touch of the Master's hand. Pastor Greg says this is the best portrayal of the life of Christ he's ever seen on film.

And we want to make season one of the critically acclaimed series called The Chosen available to you on DVD. It's our thank you gift for your donation right now. That's an investment in changed lives through a new beginning and through our large evangelistic events.

We heard this from someone who just attended SoCal Harvest a few weeks ago. I listened with my heart instead of my ears and it became clear I need Jesus in my life. Not tomorrow, not five minutes from now, but right now. Well your investment helps people have a moment of decision like that. So we hope you'll make a donation today. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call anytime around the clock at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Well next time Pastor Greg has a lot more to share with his six observations about temptation and how we can resist.

More from one of the top 10 most requested messages of the year. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at harvest.org.