Trials and Suffering

Would you open your Bibles to James chapter 1? When we started out in this class, we said, in a believer's life, here are the things that occur in a believer's life, that there are trials. Under trials we listed tribulation and afflictions, there's testing, there's temptation, and there's suffering. Scripture has words that are used for each of these terminologies here. Today, what I want to do is specifically look at temptation. And oftentimes, temptation is synonymous with testing. But in this class, what we're going to do is we're going to Divorce the two, and make a distinction between testing and temptation, and the difference between the two.

So, in James chapter 1, it says this, in verse 13, it says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempts he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Do not err, my beloved brother." Hopefully we'll just get through one verse this morning, but it's critical that we understand verse 13.

And it says this, let no man say when he is tempted, the first part of the verse. Now, when you think of temptation, what first comes to your mind with respect to temptation? We're never tempted above that which we are able. Okay, we're never tempted above that which we are able. In 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

Because the Lord was tempted in the wilderness. Okay, and the Lord was tempted in the wilderness. And what kind of temptation was that? Okay. To deceive him, to go against him, to go against his word, his will. Okay. So was that in a good sense or a bad sense? With respect to the Lord? Bad sense. Or good? Bad sense. Okay. Because Satan was tempting him to sin. Okay. He was tempting him to sin.

Any other thoughts in your mind that come to your mind with respect to temptation? I mean, when you get tempted in your life, which is every single day, right? I mean, when you have discussions with your spouse, And you have disagreements, right? No. No, we don't have disagreements. Is there temptation that comes up, that arises? I'm right. I'm right. Somebody's honest in the class. Okay. Interesting.

In this particular verse, and I don't want to make this a Greek exercise, but we are going to have to understand the distinction between a couple of words with respect to temptation. And the one that's used here in the verse is pirazo. And the noun form is parasmas. Can you say parazo? Parazo. Parasmas. And think of parazo, parasmas, because we're going to look at this and in the predominant way which you find scriptures. So the thing is this, it's used two ways.

It's used in a good sense, which means to try or to test or to prove. So it's a testing or proving. And we're going to get to this other word, not today, but I want you to keep it in mind, but it has a similar usage as the verb dakimadzo and dakimasu is the noun form. So say dakimadzo, dakimadzo, dakimasu, dakimasu. And and so you have to remember is one starts with P, one starts with D. OK. And we'll we'll say whether the P is good or bad and the D is. We'll get to that.

It's also used in the bad sense, to tempt or to solicit to sin. So Jesus Christ in the wilderness, as Josiah said, it was a temptation, it was a solicitation to sin. So if I show you some examples here with respect to the good sense. Paul had a thorn in his side, and he called it a temptation. And he uses it, if you will, in a good sense. It was a proving or a testing. And Abraham offering up Isaac, it says that God tested, God tried Abraham, and it was used in a good sense. In a bad sense, now I've got more examples of the bad sense because this is where we're going to put our emphasis, as dakimadzo and dakimasu is used in a bad sense.

So you can see that In a bad sense, there are external sources of temptation, there are internal sources of temptation. The external sources of temptation are Satan, in this case Pharisees, the world, men, riches. There are various other sources of temptation that scripture documents, and there's internal sources of temptation. Scripture talks about the heart. that we're tempted in our heart, that this in nature, as we just read in James chapter 1, is a source of temptation and it's internal.

Just to get a feel for this, as opposed to looking up every one of these passages of scripture, I thought what I'd do is just kind of show them in summary form. With respect to temptation being used in a good sense, to test, to prove, to try, Paul said in Galatians 4 that in my temptation which was in my flesh, you despised not, nor received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Okay, so think about that, what was Paul's temptation? What was that temptation he's talking about in the flesh? That trying, or that, it was a handicap. And what was Paul's response to that? He wanted it removed. Badly? He asked three times. We get a thorn in the flesh, be it an illness, maybe a lifetime illness, temporary illness, what's our response? Yeah, Lord, take this away.

Paul had the same reaction, but God came to him and said, My grace is sufficient for you. And Paul, who felt that he had this terrible weakness, then what did he say? He gloried in it. And he said, when I am weak, then I am strong. because he believed God, that God's grace was sufficient for him in that trial. So it's used in a good sense here. Now, looking at it in a bad sense, how it's used in a bad sense to solicit the sin, with respect to external sources, as someone mentioned, that Satan is one of the external sources.

And in 1 Peter 4.12, it says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. Bob is going to be teaching on this in a couple of weeks. And I think when it talks about the fiery trial, that the source of that fiery trial is Satan.

But you'll have to tune in three weeks from now. And it may be others. How can we turn to Mark 5? I'm actually Mark, I think it's Mark 5, 14. Just for a second. Okay. Mark 7, 14. Turn over to Mark 7, 15? Yeah, just because you're setting the stage, and I just wonder how you, you know, put that verse in place in terms of the issues about these trials that come from the outcome. Okay, so here's the question.

In Mark 7.15, how would we classify this trial in a bad sense or is it better? External temptation in terms of its source. Talking about trials come from Satan or from the world system or alternatively from within, but yet 7.15 seems to Okay, let's start at 714.

And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand. So this is the Lord talking, right? And it says, there is nothing from outside of the man that enters into him that can defile him. But the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. OK? All right. So what is this talking about? Anybody want to take a guess at this?

Go to verse 23. Okay, we'll go to verse 23. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. And then verse 22, thefts, covetous, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. And verse 21, for from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, and murder. Alright, so back to verse 15, that there is nothing from outside of a man that enters into him that can defile him. putting in perspective the last couple of months of your teaching here, right? So if we interpret this as theft, murder, all these evil things, the bad things, it says that there's nothing that can enter into the heart of man that can defile him, that can deceive him.

So if all of these evil things, so going back to here, here comes trials, tribulation, affliction, and where would you categorize this? First of all, in verse 15, where would you categorize these things that we just read in here? Okay, they're external, but where would you categorize verse 15 and the ensuing verses? Would you say it's a trial, testing, temptation, or suffering? Okay. Temptation. A solicitation to sin. Okay.

The question says, there's nothing outside of a man that can defile him. Can that defile you? Are these things that are here as far as greed, malice, deceit, these are things that you're reacting to as far as your child, those things are coming at you, but that doesn't mean that you need to react in those ways. So those things that are coming out, not in.

Okay. So it's an excellent point being made, that these things are coming at you, but you have to react. to that. Just because they're coming at you doesn't mean that they're sin in terms of in your life. Right. Would you all agree to that? When does it become sin? When it dwells in your heart. When it dwells in your heart. Okay. And you act on it. And you... a hold of it and act on it. Okay, and when you act on it.

So, isn't it interesting? There is nothing outside of us that can defile us. And that's wonderful because the news these days is terrible. It's interesting how we always concern, like with our children, we're always concerned that the world's going to and it does influence him, but what this verse says, that's not the main issue. The main issue is what's inside the man.

And as Karen said, how you respond to that. Bob, you had... What I was going to make is which man is being appealed to, right? And again, it gets into the concept that is this really temptation or is it testing? And the idea of, I mean, you're going to dissect these verbs and nouns to see what they really mean in context. However, as you're going to, I'm sure, get into in James, the first 14 talks about when we're drawn away of our own lust, right? And that's the old man, is it not? I mean, he can always be drawn away. Exactly right. And that's where we're going. And we're going to be looking at verse 14.

Isn't there just a sense of victory in Mark 7.15 now? Oh. I mean, if you put it into Pauline epistles. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful news? Isn't that wonderful news? That there is nothing outside of us that can defile us. Nothing. That is good news.

And I think in the context of Mark 7, verse 1 says that the Pharisees were upset at the disciples because they weren't washing their hands according to the tradition they always did before they ate. And so Christ comes back and says, It's not this that makes you... Right.

And it goes on in terms of food also, that the Pharisees were coming at them, especially, you remember when Peter went down from Jerusalem to Antioch to visit Paul and was sitting at the table there and enjoying a ham hock dinner, bacon and eggs, whatever, right? And then came the Jewish leaders down from Jerusalem, and they walked into Antioch, and what did Peter do? He's sitting at the table with the Gentiles, enjoying his ham steak, and then what happened?

What did he do? He withdrew himself from the table. And what was he saying? He didn't say a word, but he was speaking loud and clear. What was he saying? That what those Gentiles were doing were wrong. Right? So the external things, in terms of like food, they were eating the wrong kind of food. And Peter knew that that was against these muckety-mucks that just came down from Jerusalem, right? And so he withdrew. And he's condemning these Gentiles now. And even Barnabas, right? He withdrew. And what did Paul do? he got in his face, right there.

So the thing is, was it external things like washing hands, eating ham hocks or bacon or whatever that defiles a man? No. Or, it's interesting even today, though from a medical point of view and with the flu epidemic that apparently was a few months ago, we were instructed to wash our hands because of the viruses or whatever the flu was to protect ourselves and even back in the Old Testament because of the fact that the Jewish people were disobedient to God, these other diseases came into force so that it really, don't we have to consider both sides of the coin? In the physical realm, which you're talking about, with respect to washing your hands, because there are things that are external that can make us sick, is what you're saying, physically. But in the spiritual realm...

This is a slide out of the subject, but truly, today, even Orthodox Jews still must eat kosher, must abstain from ham, and so on and so forth. that they are talking over in Palestine, a few of the other places where they're having all the explosions and the vehicles being blown up and so forth, and hanging a large carcass of pig tallow in the buses so that if they are blown up, a certain amount of that will get on the person that did the blowing up. And in Islam, people have even a stronger disdain toward hand. And therefore, even one drop would keep them from getting to be with Allah. And therefore, the Jews are willing to make that slight sacrifice to hang this large bag of pig blood inside so that it hopes it will get on.

That is interesting. Just going through some of these, like the world, when the Lord was talking about the parable of the sower and the seed, and the spreading of the seed, and some that fell on the rocky soil are those who, when they heard, received the word with joy. The question is, are these believers or not? We're not going to answer that. And these have no firm root, but they believe for a while, and in a time of temptation, they fall away.

So this is a time of temptation, if you will, a solicitation to sin. They fall away. men, but those who want to get rich, excuse me, men, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations, and this is Paul, which befell me by the lying in the weight of the Jews. And the Jews were always there to solicit Paul to sin. Riches, but those who want to get rich fall into temptation. and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction." So riches are, if you will, a source. Now these are external sources. But do they defile a man? They're just external sources of sin. They're temptations. Question. Is temptation sin? That's the key. Temptation is not sin.

James talks about various trials which we which we'll be going through in James chapter 1, verse 2. And what's interesting is this. In James chapter 1, verse 2, it uses the both words in pirasmas dakimas, or piradzo dakimadzo. Excuse me, counting all each other when you fall into... Not yet. It's when you get down to verse 12. Excuse me. Man's heart is an internal source of temptation. Man's sin nature is an internal source of temptation.

As we go through this, we're going to find out how God takes these solicitations to sin, which is temptation, and we're going to use temptation as at least in our class, as solicitation to sin. And we're going to see how God takes these temptations, which are evil, and turns them into something that is good. He turns it into what is called a documos, and or a proving of our faith.

As the passage goes on, it says this, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. Has God ever been tempted by man? Huh? Okay, we got some no's, we got some yes's. Okay, so the devil tempted Christ. Was Christ God? Okay, he was 100% God, 100% man. Any other?

There was a time, I don't know if it was on the Jews or in the wilderness, the Israelites, but where God said he was going to completely destroy them and Moses ran out. And in the wilderness, God said that the wilderness crowd tempted him for 40 years. And so, as you look at it, like for example, the passage we just mentioned prior, with respect to Abraham. It says, by faith Abraham, when he was tried, when being tested, he offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.

Pairadzo. We're going to be using this in a negative sense for this class, but here it's used in a positive sense, right? We said it could be used in a good sense or a bad sense. So it's used as testing, testing or approving. And the point is this. When it's used in a good sense to test to prove, Faith must be tested in order to prove its genuineness. If our faith is never tested, we would never know where our faith is. Faith has to be tested to prove its genuineness.

Lindy gave me this gold ring when we got married, a wedding band. And she bought it and she understood that she was buying a 14 karat gold ring, right? And there's a little stamp in here, it's after 42 years, it's almost worn off, but it says 14K. How do I know that this is 14K? Can I believe the guy who sold it? If he says it's 14K, for certainty I know it's 14K. What's the only way that I know it's 14K?

I have to test it. There is no other way. Right? And it's interesting. I can remember. As a young believer, after 33 years in your life rejecting Christ and then believing and trusting in Him, you kind of wonder, did I really trust Christ? Do I really believe? Do I really believe that if I should die tomorrow that I'm going to spend eternity in heaven? And there's that kind of doubt. But that faith has to be tested. And so when I started asking those questions, the Lord says, I'm going to give you a test.

So I was down at Cape Canaveral, and we were launching a spacecraft to the moon. And at the same time, Lindy was pregnant, and very much like Vicki. And I had to fly back to California. And I got on a plane. And we were climbing up through the clouds, and they were black. And we were climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing. And all of a sudden, boom, a big explosion. And I was sitting over the wing, and I looked out, and there's just a big ball of fire. And I looked out on the other side, and there was a big ball of fire out there. And the plane went like this.

Just going straight down. And I said, Lord, I don't know why you're taking me home at this point in time, but it's OK. But, but Lindy, you know the situation, you know, and I'm just going to leave it there with you. And I did. I just rested there with him. And then my thought came to the guy sitting next to me, who was a guy who I worked with. And so I nudged him, I said, Jan, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? And he was comatose. He was so frightened and he was holding on to the seat and he crushed the seat in front of him. There was no way you could communicate. I could hit him over the head. I couldn't communicate with him.

So, I said, well, Lord, I pray for Jen, and all of this happens so fast. And I look out the window, and we see this sunset. I said, Lord, I don't know just a much more beautiful setting to take me home. This is beautiful. Then all of a sudden the plane levels out. And I know that a jet can't level out unless it has power. And so I said, we've got power. And then About 10 seconds later, you hear the voice, this is your captain speaking. We've just run into some problems up there. And we got struck by lightning. And the lightning caused a flash of the exhaust fumes. And if you saw that, you happened to see that, that's what that was. We think the engines are OK.

But we're going to make an emergency landing just to check him out. But anyhow, all that to say that your faith has to be tested. God will test your faith. And he does that in the most different kind of ways. So, the question is this. Let me just show you the questions that I'm asking.

Will God ever tempt you in a bad sense, solicit you or tempt you to sin? Will God bring an experience into your life in order to drag you down? Isn't His desire to bless us? I mean, He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. He's seated us with Christ in the heavenlies. Does He want us to enjoy that and for us to experience the blessings which He's already blessed us with? Or does He want to drag us down into sin? Aren't they diametrically opposed in terms of who we are in Christ and what He's done and Him tempting us? And His gifts, aren't they always good? Scripture says they're good. Then, the next part of the passage of Scripture, it says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. And then it says, For God cannot be tempted with evil. Can God be tempted with evil?

Hold it. We just talked about the wilderness generation. Were they tempting God? How about Jesus in the 40 days and the 40 nights? Was he being tempted? Was he being solicited to sin? Was he really being tempted? Okay. What do you think? Question. Was he really being tempted? I can't think of a reference, but it says something that Christ was tempted in all ways. In Hebrews? I try to make a deal with him, it never works. I'm not that good, you know? He's God. I think tempting him would just, to me, make him laugh. Okay, so the thing is, so we don't make deals with God then, right?

Because... We try. Well, we just saw that the scripture tells us that The Father was tempted, Christ was tempted, the Holy Spirit was tempted. And as you go through all these passages of Scripture, you know, we talked about the wilderness crowd before, in Hebrews, they tempted God for 40 years.

Christ was tempted by Satan, right? Before he started his ministry, he went into the wilderness 40 days and 40 days, and he was tempted. He was solicited to sin. And he was solicited by Satan to go against God's very Word. How did Christ respond to every one of those temptations? He didn't yield by the word of God. And when Satan said to him, okay, you're hungry, haven't eaten for 40 days, God, why don't you turn this stone into bread? And what did Christ say? Man shall not live by bread alone.

And he always responded by the Word of God. I love the Pharisees in terms of, if you want to see the epitome of temptation, of solicitation to sin, you look at the Pharisees with respect to Christ. And they always came at him. And they were always coming at him to trick him, to trip him up. So that in Matthew 19, they thought they really had him this time.

And they said, you know, what do you think about divorce? And Christ said, what does it say from the beginning? Right? Use the scripture. Go back to the beginning. And the Pharisees came in and said, but hold it. Moses commanded a writ of divorcement. And what did Christ say? No, he didn't command it.

He allowed it because of the hardness of their heart. And so they were trying to trip him up when the Pharisees brought the woman taken into adultery in front of him. They thought they really had him this time. And they said, Lord, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

And scripture says that she should be what? Stoned. And the Lord said, that's right. And so he kind of bent down and he started writing in the sand. And then they said, well, Lord, what are you going to do? And so then he bent down again and he wrote in the sand.

And he said, let the first man who has not sinned cast the first stone. And they were all staring down in that sand. And it says that they departed one by one, the eldest to the youngest, when they looked down into the sand. my first Bible study with Dr. J. Vernon McGee I can remember him saying that he thought that what Christ wrote in the sand was the name of a woman or women who probably were in another town who were prostitutes and probably every one of these Pharisees frequented And they knew him by name. And they departed one by one. And the Lord says, you have a wonderful sense of humor. He says to this gal, Hey, where are the accusers? Where are those who are accusing you? And the woman said, there's no one here, Lord. And he says, neither do I accuse you. Go. Right? And sin no more. So, always testing him.

The Holy Spirit was tested, tempted by an innocent Safari. Jesus tempted him in the wilderness. Now we know that Jesus Christ, we have man and God. A static union. Was the man part tempted or was the godly part tempted? Because they were all things that man would desire from the world. Doug's question is this, when Christ was tempted in the wilderness, which part of Christ was being tempted? He was deity, he was humanity.

There was this hypostatic union, we have 100% deity, 100% humanity, and which part was being tempted? Both parts. I don't think there are two parts. Okay. I mean, the way I envision this scientifically is DNA from God is dominant. Okay. It means that the heavenly DNA does not allow genes of the human DNA to be expressed. Okay.

It's very scientific, but I mean, much of what your eye color is a dominant trait, so brown eyes are dominant. So if you've got the gene for brown eyes, just one gene or one allele for brown eyes, you have brown eyes. You need two sets of alleles for blue or green or whatever.

Did God, Christ, man, have human capabilities in terms of sin? I don't think so. Could Christ have sinned? If he could have sinned, then I think we need to readdress. And the point is this. Can you separate? Can you divide Jesus Christ? You can't. So I think when God was being tempted, Jesus Christ being God. Okay, we're going to finish here. So, when it says that God cannot be tempted with evil, yes, He can be tempted with evil. So, what does this mean? When it says, you know, God cannot be tempted with evil.

That's always bothered me. Probably because of what you just said. Wrong. And that's what I'm really touched by. He can't be tempted, but He was tempted. I am glad you are confused like this, because that's where I was trying to lead you. So I led you down the path, and that's great, and that's wonderful. And I did that purposefully, because this is confusing. So, what does it mean? Now, I will not do this to you all the time. But periodically, I'm going to have to show you the Greek. And here's what the Greek says in terms of this little phrase, for God cannot be tempted with evil.

This is what it says, that the subject is God, the verb is is, it's an essence verb, God is, and there's an adjective. This is called a predicate adjective. In an essence verb, this is an adjective. An adjective always describes the subject. It says, God is without temptation. And then there's an adverb. I translated this word, kakon, as an adverb. It could be translated as a noun. But if you translate it as an adverb, it says, God is without temptation evilly. What it's saying, this word is, this essence verb, it's just describing the very essence of God, who He is, His essential essence.

His essential essence is without temptation. There is nothing in God that He could tempt anyone. It's almost like what Bob was saying just a minute ago. It's not within Him. It's not part of His essence. He's without temptation. Now, we can tempt people, right? I mean, I could come at you with temptations. But he can't do that, and that's what it's saying. So, a better translation, then, would be that God cannot be tempted with evil, A better translation would be, and did I do it? Yeah, in this first line, the very essence and character of God is without temptation evilly. That's the point. Alright. So, to go on.

Therefore, and here's the conclusion, therefore he is not and cannot and cannot be the source of temptation for evil. It's impossible. It's impossible for him to solicit you or me or tempt you or me to sin. He cannot do it. It's not part of his essence. It's diametrically opposed to his essence. It's not part of his essence. So literally, the last part of the verse, when it says, And he himself does not tempt anyone? Literally, that is saying, and he himself is tempting no one.

It's a present tense, and in the present tense it's talking about that this is a fact, it's indicative mood, it's a fact. And that it's timeless. It's a timeless present tense. It's forever. And this is true forever. He is not, he cannot, he is not tempting no one. So it's something that is true for all time. Okay. Just to close.

Oftentimes, we as believers are angry with God. We blame God for the circumstances that we're in, and for some reason we think that God has solicited us to sin, and He's being capricious. Now, as you look in terms of who God is and what he's done. Would God, who is, as scripture tells us, all-giving, he's given us all things, he's made us accepted in the Beloved, in the Beloved One in Christ, Scripture says He is for us, He's not against us. He's the one who's working in all things in our life for the good. He desires to make His grace abound to us, that we have sufficiency in everything in life. He loves us with an everlasting love.

Would he want to bring us into any temptation or circumstance in life in order to drag us down, to drag us down into sin? And can you see that it's diametrically opposed to who he is, his essential essence and his character? So, if we're tempted, We are not tempted by God. We are tempted by the source that's within us. Nothing external. There's external sources of temptation, but this sin is not due to anything external.

It's due to something that's internal. And next week, that's what we're going to be looking at in terms of how solicitations to sin, how the old man or the sin nature responds to these solicitations to sin. And this is critical in understanding our response to trials and suffering. Critical.

There's no time for questions, sorry. Let's close. Father, again, we're thankful. We're just thankful for your Word. And thankful, Father, that the Holy Spirit has given us your Word. and has revealed you, and we are just thankful, Father, that we can just understand just even a portion of your essence and who you are, and that you are not a God who would ever So let's set us to sin or drag us down, but you are a God who wants to bless us and you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies and your purpose is for us to rest in those and to experience those and to and just to have them lavished upon us, and we just thank you for that. We pray now for the service to come. We pray for Vern, knowing that he's not feeling well, and just pray that our would be blessed and each of us would be edified in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.