This is Robert Jeffress. In response to the horrific attack on Israel, I've written a brand new book called Are We Living in the End Times?
Go to ptv.org to order your copy. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So, would God put any one of us through the same type of test? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains that there's a big difference between testing and tempting. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Just before we begin today's message, I want to invite you to join us for an unforgettable vacation experience this coming June 15th through 22nd. It's the 2024 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.
From the deck of the ship, you'll take in the majestic shoreline of the Inside Passage, and we'll float into Glacier Bay to see the massive formations of ice. We're bringing our own entertainment and music. Michael O'Brien and Rebecca St. James will lead us in praise and worship. We'll also be bringing comedian Dennis Swanberg, who will keep us in stitches the whole week, and I'll be teaching from God's Word as well.
So be sure to go to ptv.org, check the itinerary, but most importantly, reserve your spot while there's still room. The title of our new teaching series in November is Prayers That Really Work. And as a pastor and Bible teacher, I find that most Christians struggle with their personal prayer life.
Most people, in fact, forget to pray until we face something urgent. Well, my daughter, Julia Jeffress Sadler, has written a brand new book, not for adults. This time, it's for children. As parents and grandparents, it's our duty to teach our families how to pray, and Julia's new book gives you a tool to do it. The book is called You Can Pray Big Things, and it's designed for the children and grandchildren in your life. I'm pleased to send you a copy when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. By the way, this new, fully-illustrated children's book would make a perfect Christmas gift for all the children in your life. Get ready to jot down our contact information just after today's study.
But right now, let's turn our attention to Matthew chapter 6, and the best lesson on prayer that's available today, the Lord's Prayer. I titled today's message The Truth About Testing. Well, today, we're talking about the subject of testing, so it's only logical that we would begin the message with a test. Okay, take out your papers, take out a pen, and there are three questions to this test. Please keep your eyes on your own paper, okay?
Very simple question. Question number one, who is responsible for the temptations that come into my life? Is it God, or is it Satan? Who's responsible for the temptations that come into my life? Is it God, or is it Satan? Question number two, who is responsible for the tests that come into my life? Who's responsible for the tests that come into my life? Is it God, or is it Satan? And then question number three, is it all right to ask God to spare me from difficult situations in life, even if those difficult situations strengthen my faith? Is it okay to ask God to keep me from going through difficulties in life, to spare me from all problems in life, even if those problems strengthen my faith?
I think the answer to all three questions will surprise you. We're going to find them in Matthew chapter 6, verse 13. If you would turn there as we look at the truth about testing. Matthew chapter 6, we're in the study of the Lord's Prayer, a series I've called Prayers That Really Work. Remember the background for this prayer? The disciples had hung around Jesus just long enough to be captivated by the kind of life He led. They saw the supernatural power that flowed through Him. They saw how He had peace of mind no matter what was happening around Him. They saw His intimacy with God, and they said, you know what?
We want some of that in our life. Now these weren't the smartest bulbs in the universe, these disciples. But even they were able to connect the dots between the kind of supernatural power Jesus experienced every day and His prayer life.
They put the two together. They realized that prayer was the channel through which the power of God flowed into Jesus' life. And so they said to Jesus, Jesus, teach us to pray the way you pray.
We want some of that power in our life. Teach us to pray the way you pray. And remember how Jesus responded? He said, okay, you want to know how to pray? Pray in this way. Now He didn't say pray this prayer. Nowhere did He instruct us to pray this prayer word for word.
These are not magical words, kind of like cocus pocus or abracadabra, that if you just say them, great things happen into your life. No, this is a pattern for how to pray. Remember Jesus said, when you pray, pray this way. First of all, don't come rushing to God with everything you want.
There's time for that later. First of all, focus on the glory of God. Our Father, Abba, Daddy, Papa, our Daddy who is in heaven. Remember that relationship you have with God, but also remember He's holy, hallowed, holy is your name. When you come to God, spend a few moments reflecting on how different God is than you are. And isn't that a good thing that God is different than you are or than I am? God, thank you that you are all powerful when I'm less than all powerful.
Thank you that you are all wise when I'm less than all wise. Thank you that you are faithful even when I'm faithless. Remember the holiness, the separateness of God. It only follows that if God is different than we are, then His priorities ought to take precedent over ours. And that's why He says, pray Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it's being done in heaven. That is, Father, just in the same way that one day you're going to rule over this entire world, I want you to take charge of my life.
Today I'm submitting every part of my life to your rule. That's how we begin to pray. But then it's fine to go into a list of things you're interested in, things you want from God. Jesus taught us to pray for our needs, and He mentions three of them beginning in verse 11. He said, first of all, we have a need for provision. That means food and shelter and clothing, money. We need those things. God knows that. Give us this day our daily bread.
Give us what we need. Secondly, we're to pray for a pardon from sins and forgive us of our debts, our sins, as we have forgiven our debtors. That's not just a one-time prayer of salvation for our forgiveness of sins.
It is a daily confessing, repenting, turning away from sin so that our family relationship with our Father stays intact. And then when we get to verse 13, the final need we all have is for protection. Look at verse 13, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Now, that raises the question. Does God ever tempt us? Doesn't it stand to reason that if Jesus said pray that God wouldn't lead you into temptation that maybe sometimes He does lead you into temptation? Why would you pray this prayer if it were not a possibility? How many of you would say, Pastor, God never tempts His children? That's clear in Scripture. God never tempts His children. Would you raise your hands? Come on, don't be bashful.
You all look like you're not sure. Raise your hands. God never tempts His children, okay? For those of you who raised your hands, listen to Matthew 4, verse 1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. That's the devil who tempted Jesus, no doubt about it, but who led Him into that place of temptation?
The Spirit of God. He led Jesus into a time of temptation. How many of you would say, well, that convinces me or, Pastor, I am absolutely positive that God does sometimes tempt us.
Would you raise your hand? Sure, God does sometimes tempt us, okay? I want you all to listen to James chapter 1, verses 13 and 14.
Listen to what James said. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Never say, I'm being tempted by God.
By the way, that word by, that preposition in the Greek language, is a preposition of indirect agency. In other words, James is saying, when you're tempted, don't say God tempted me, I'm being tempted by God. God is not directly tempting anyone. In fact, He's not even indirectly involved in your temptation.
He has zero to do with it. You know why temptation comes? He tells us here, here's the formula. Each one is tempted when he is carried away, that means drawn by an inward power, and enticed, that means hooked by his own lust. James said the reason we fall into sin is because of our corrupt desires on the inside and Satan who dangles the right bait in front of us on the outside.
Satan is a master fisherman. He knows exactly what bait will hook you. For some people it's sex. For some people it's prestige.
For some people it's money. He knows exactly the right bait to dangle in front of you. And when your corrupt desires see that bait and you snap at it, James says you're hooked. That's what the word enticed means.
It's a fishing term that's used for the hooking of a fish. That's how temptation comes. Our corrupt desires coupled with Satan's temptation. So how do you reconcile what James is saying here, that God has no part in our temptation with Jesus' clear instruction to pray, lead us not into temptation. Now folks, this isn't just theology or philosophy.
What I'm going to share with you affects your everyday life, so stay with me on this. The only way to understand this apparent contradiction in scripture is to understand the difference between temptation and testing. Now in English we have two different words. We have one word, temptation. If you look up temptation in Webster's dictionary, it means to entice to do evil.
That's what temptation is. It's an enticement to do evil. And it's true, God never entices anybody to do evil. He never uses evil. He never wants people to commit evil. God never is involved in tempting people. That's what Satan does.
He tempts people in order to destroy them. On the other hand, we have a word, test. And when we talk about testing, that always has a positive result in mind. It means a difficult circumstance that is used to strengthen our faith. And the Bible says God tests people all of the time. He tests His children not to destroy them, but to strengthen them. And that's why James 1-2 says, Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Now here's where it gets interesting. Even though we have two different words, temptation and test, in the Greek language there's only one word, pyrasmus. And that word sometimes means temptation, the enticement to do evil. And sometimes that same word means to test, to strengthen our faith. One word that has two meanings. And if that seems strange to you, we have that in the English language, don't we? For example, what does the word bank mean?
B-A-N-K, bank. What does it mean? Well, it depends the context in which you use it.
You can say I'm going to make a deposit in the bank, we understand that. But if we say the airplane's about to bank to the left, it means something completely different. Or if we talk about the river overflowed its bank, it means something else. The meaning of the word depends upon its context. Now this is true for the word pyrasmus, which is best translated a difficult situation. Sometimes that word pyrasmus can mean a temptation, an enticement to do evil. Sometimes it can mean a test, a difficult situation to strengthen our faith. In James 1, James uses that same word to mean both things. In James 1-2, he says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various pyrasmus, trials, difficult situations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But then down in James 1, 13-14, even though the English language changes to temptation, James uses the same Greek word. He said let nobody say when he is tempted, pyrasmus, same word. I am being tempted by God.
Now here's the important point. A difficult situation can be both a temptation and a test at the same time. When you go through a difficult situation, it can be both a temptation and a test at the same time.
Let's say the doctor tells you you have cancer. Is that a temptation or is it a test? Well, Satan's going to use that difficult situation to tempt you to deny God, to destroy your faith, to make you think, now if God really loves you, why in the world would he let you have cancer? So for Satan, it's a temptation. But at the same time, God is using that difficult situation in your life to test you, to strengthen your faith. Whether that difficult situation ends up being a temptation that destroys your faith or a test that strengthens your faith depends on your response to it. You see, a pyrasmus, a difficult situation is neither good nor bad. It's neither evil nor righteous. It depends upon your response to it.
Think about Job. You know, one day Satan came to God and said, look at your servant Job, look at all the good things he's done for you. No wonder he worships you, but let me have a round or two with him.
Let me touch him. Let me take away all of these blessings and he'll curse you. So God says, okay, you have at it.
God didn't directly cause these problems, but he gave Satan permission so he was ultimately responsible. Now, Job didn't know any of this. He's just sitting there one day minding his own business when all of a sudden he gets word that all of his cattle have been destroyed and then he gets another word that a freak windstorm collapsed the roof of his house and killed his ten children and then he starts looking at the boils on him and he loses his health, all of these things in a short period of time. He goes through this tremendous time of testing. Now, Satan is using this difficult situation to destroy Job's faith. Why not curse God and die, his wife says. At the same time, God is using this difficult situation to strengthen Job and because Job ended up trusting in God even though he didn't understand the answer to the why question, these difficult circumstances became a test rather than a temptation. Do you understand that? Difficult situations are neither good nor bad.
They're a temptation or a test depending upon our response to them. Several weeks ago, we had the director of Johnny Erickson taught his ministry worshipping with us. Johnny, you know, was in that freak diving accident 40 years ago. She's been in a wheelchair ever since and she was diagnosed with breast cancer and the director of her ministry told me the first words out of Johnny's mouth when she learned she had cancer were, I wonder what God's going to do through this in my life. See, that was a difficult situation but she had determined that it was going to be a test to strengthen her faith, not a temptation that destroyed her faith. So whenever we're praying this prayer, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. That word temptation could be translated, Lord, do not lead us into difficult situations but deliver us from evil. Now what exactly is Jesus telling us to pray for?
Two things, write them down. First of all, he said when you pray, pray for an exemption from problems. Lead us not into difficult situations. There is nothing wrong and everything right to ask God to keep you out of difficulties.
Lord, just protect me from difficult situations. Why? Because tests, although they have the possibility of great success, they also hold the possibility of failure, don't they? I mean, let's say you're taking a class in school and the teacher says, now at the end of the class, at the end of the semester, there's going to be a final exam but the final exam is optional. How many students do you think would voluntarily say, oh no, I want to take that final exam? There's one or two nerds in every class who say, oh boy, yeah, yeah, man, I can study and show how smart I am, you know.
Those are few and far between. Most people would opt if given a chance not to go through a final examination because they know although an exam has a chance to give success, it also has a chance to highlight failure as well. That reminds me of a story I was reading this week about a college sophomore who was really dreading his final exam in ornithology, the study of birds. The professor was tough. He was notoriously hard on this final exam but the student prepared the best he could. He walks into the classroom and to his dismay, there's no blue book on the table.
There's no multiple choice exam. Instead, for the final, the professor had put 25 pictures of birds around the classroom and not just pictures of birds but just pictures of birds' feet. And the final exam was to identify each of the 25 birds by looking at the feet. Well, this student was so frustrated. He slammed his book down. He said, Professor, there is no way anybody could do that.
No way you could identify a bird just by looking at the feet. The professor said, well, that's the final exam. The student said, well, I'm not going to do it. He said, if you don't do it, you're going to fail.
So the student stands up and walks out the door. He said, I'm finished with this class. The professor says, if you walk out that door, you have failed. He said, I'm not taking the exam. The professor said, okay, you failed.
Now tell me your name. The student stopped, pulled up his pants legs, took off his shoes and socks, held up his feet and said, you figure it out for yourself. Now, we don't like tests, do we? They may show how smart we are, but they may show how stupid we are as well. Jesus said, when you pray, ask God to spare you from testing.
Nothing wrong with that. You know why Jesus said it's okay to ask God to keep you from testing from difficult circumstances? Because that's how Jesus prayed himself.
Remember when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified? What did Jesus say to God? He said, God, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not go through this experience.
Let this cup pass from me. It wasn't just the physical torture Jesus dreaded, but the spiritual suffering of burying the sins of the entire world, of taking God's condemnation upon himself. He said, Father, I'd rather not go through this. Why did he say that? Because he knew this test could go either way. If indeed he were obedient to the Father, then there would be great victory. But if he refused to submit to the Father's will and gave in to Satan, it would be the greatest disaster in history. So he said, Father, if it's all the same to you, I would just prefer not to have to go through this test.
But then he quickly added, yet not my will, but your will be done. Jesus said in the same way we ought to daily ask God to protect us from difficult situations. Lead us not into difficulties. In his book, Prayer of the Great Adventure, David Jeremiah lists four specific exemptions we ought to ask God for. First of all, we ought to pray for an exemption from persecution. Second, we ought to pray for an exemption from danger. Thirdly, we ought to pray for an exemption from poverty. Fourth, David tells us we ought to pray for an exemption from fear.
Jesus said, when you pray every day, ask God to protect you from difficult circumstances, to keep you from difficulties. You know, I think as Christians, we've almost romanticized difficult situations. We think somehow they're just so wonderful, these wonderful tests that come into our life.
No, they're really not. They could strengthen us. They could destroy us. And so like Jesus, we should say, Lord, if it's all the same to you, please keep these things from happening to me. But we also know, like Jesus discovered, that sometimes God has a different plan for us.
Instead of sparing us, exempting us from problems, His plan is to take us through problems. And that's why Jesus added the second part of the prayer, deliver us from evil. That is a prayer for protection through problems, a protection through problems. If you're suffering today, remember, it's perfectly natural to ask God to remove your trials from you.
Even Jesus, when facing the cross, asked His Father to provide an alternative plan. What's most important is that we call out to God no matter what we feel today. In closing, I'll remind you that Pathway to Victory has prepared two unique tools to help you accelerate your growth in this area. I'm urging you to be proactive about cultivating a stronger prayer life by taking advantage of these two resources. First, my daughter Julia Jeffress-Sadler has just finished a new children's book on prayer.
It's called You Can Pray Big Things. As the parents to our three little grandchildren, Julia and her husband Ryan have made it their mission to teach their children how to pray. And now Julia has written a colorful storybook that's fully illustrated in order to help you do the same. The new book is again called You Can Pray Big Things. With Julia's new book, you can sit down with your child, your grandchild, or your nieces and nephews to engage them in a fun lesson on talking to God. Plus, Julia has penned one of the finest books I've ever read on prayer.
This one is for adults. Her bestselling book is titled Pray Big Things, the surprising life God has for you when you're bold enough to ask. The book is entertaining, it's personal, but most importantly, Julia helps us understand how to engage with God in prayer. And you're invited to request your copy of both resources, the book for kids and the one for you, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now here's David with all the details.
Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of You Can Pray Big Things. That's the brand new children's book by Julia Jeffress-Sadler. Plus, we'll also send her original bestselling book, Pray Big Things. To request both books, call 866-999-2965 or give online at ptv.org.
Now when your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you the Prayers That Really Work teaching series on CD and DVD, with every message, by the way, in its original uncut form. Again, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. You could also write to us, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Join us again tomorrow for Part 2 of the message, The Truth About Testing. That's Tuesday, here on Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
