Faith Lesson 14 Week 2
Mike Doyle · Aug 23, 2015
Faith, No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926512518132

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

The next lesson is back there. Those of you who I send out electronically, I didn't get a chance to do it. I'll do it today. It's two pages, but it's two pages because a big part of one question takes up maybe 20 percent of the page. So we got down to question four. Courtney's laughing faster than he goes. This is a good place to start because what we're talking about is faith as it relates to temptation and testing. So question four is what's wrong with the following statement?

If it weren't for the trials and suffering in my life, I would have no problem living a Christian life. What's wrong with that statement? Everything. Well, that's not an answer. Well, if we had no problems, we wouldn't need anyone, would we? Well, if it weren't for the trials and suffering in my life, I would have no problem living the Christian life. So what the statement says is that if we could just eliminate The trials and tribulation in your life, you would have a breeze and live in this Christian life, no problem, right? Wrong. You probably wouldn't even think about God.

Right. So that's one issue about it. Well, Christ lives in us. There you go. See, that's the answer. Who lives the Christian life? It's not I living, it's him living. Yeah, and that's the problem with the statement. It isn't, I'm not the one living the Christian life. It's Christ living his life through me.

Does that make sense? You alright with that? So to say that I could live the Christian life if I didn't have all these problems is to usurp the position that Christ has in you. In other words, if you're healthy you can be a Christian. What's that? If you're healthy you can be a Christian. If I'm healthy? Yeah. Most of you aren't very healthy and you're still Christians. I know, but that's what it says here, right? I could be one if I was healthy and everything was tipsy-turvy. Everything was perfect.

What's the big problem with trials and suffering? Who's having the trial and who's doing the suffering? You are and it brings you closer to God. Old man, new man. Old man, new man. A lot of trials come because of our inherent desire to operate independently from God. Sure. Sure. And it kind of brings us back to reality. I mean, I did it again just three minutes ago.

I prayed for all of those people on the list that the trial that God brought in their life, whatever it's going to be, that he would take it away so that they wouldn't grow. Thanks a lot Mike. So where does that put you in all this? I probably ought to sit down like somebody else that made me have Courtney stand up here. So we do have a tendency to try to get self to live the Christian life when in fact it's Christ living life.

So let's look at Galatians 2.20.

And the question 5 is how does Galatians 2.20 play into the previous question.

Galatians 2.20 I have been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in this flesh, in my body, I live how? By the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So, I have been crucified with Christ.

True? True? Anybody thinks it's true? Did you dare admit that it wasn't true in this class? I have been crucified with Christ, but nevertheless I'm living. I'm alive. Moving around. In this body. But it's no longer I who lives. So who are the I's? I have been crucified with Christ. Who's that I? The new man? I think so. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. Who I is that? The old man. The old man is not trying to live this life, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, that I is the new man.

It lives by faith. That life functions by faith only. in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So, the Lord Jesus is our life. He's our very life. Sometimes we look at him as he's a helper, he's a brother, he's a this, he's a that. No. He loves me. No. The greatest motive there is, is the life motive. It's life that lives through you and it's his life. The Spirit of God's job is to manifest the life of Christ through every believer. We don't live the Christian life, He lives it through us.

Doesn't that seem like I get to go take a nap? Yeah, it seems that way at first. But when you live under grace, and you live by faith, then what's How do you view statements like that or that viewpoint? How do you view one? Can you just believe God and let him do his thing? What do you think?

Scary question, right? I mean, yes. I mean, yeah. You don't sound too convinced. Well, it's yes, but I guess letting God do his thing, what does that look like? Yeah. Well, most of us aren't patient enough to let God do his thing. And we don't have enough faith in what he tells us. I mean, think about this.

Galatians 2.20 says, I've been crucified with Christ.

That means that I died. It means that I got separated from my sin nature, from the world system, from any and all law system, and from the total influence of our friend Bill Sadie. That's what it means. Because when we had a memorial service for Al, no one said, we've got to pray really hard for Al that he doesn't sneak back in. that he doesn't start living a nursery life again. Why? He's gone.

This means you're just as gone with this, positionally, as Al was. You see that? But I know how your mind thinks like my mind. You think, yeah, but, you know, sometimes the Lord needs my help. No, he doesn't. And it seems, well, to me, that it's like being patient And then it's like finding yourself in situations.

Like you probably didn't think, I'm going to work real hard so I can be a teacher at Holly Hills and this is what I'm going to do. I didn't. I don't know. I'm guessing you didn't. It's probably like a situation you find yourself in, like it comes about versus like it's something that you go and say, this is my goal.

And this is what I'm going to do. Well, Wanda came up to me before class and she said, what does the word reckon mean? She said, I'm from Texas. I reckon. So the answer was is that I said to her, I said, well, you're from Texas, right? She said, yeah, I reckon so. I said, your reckoning is because it's a fact. You didn't have to try to be from Texas or make it real.

It is real. I reckon myself indeed indebted unto sin. Why? Because it's real. Here's the issue though. The Spirit of God is very careful to work those doctrines and principles into our life so that reckoning becomes the result of what we know and rest in by faith.

So you don't have to try to reckon, you just say, wait, you know, I already am dead. So you can know something in your mind, you can adhere to it, you can believe it, you can rest in it, and the Spirit of God will get you to a point where you do reckon yourself dead unto sin and alive unto God. And it's automatic, because that's the way the life of the Lord Jesus is. He doesn't ever have to think about whether he died unto sin, does he? No. No. Well, if I'm united with him in his death, birth, and resurrection, At some point I won't have to think about it either, because it's just as true of me. It's like saying I live in the greater Denver, Colorado area.

I reckon that's so. Why? Because that's where I live. Yeah, it's a fact. It's a fact. And I've been persuaded about that. So does God have a purpose in our trials? Does He have an eternal purpose? Yes. Okay, yes isn't good enough. You said yes, you have to explain. That's how we grow. And then we're able to help others. That's what it says in the Bible. Okay, what's God's purpose?

What does he do everything for? To be transformed into the image of his son. Right here. What does he do everything for? For his glory. For his glory, right? And he does it to reveal his glory. and to share his glory and to be glorified. So if you understand that that's what he's up to, then you will realize that a trial or a tribulation that comes in your life fits under this heading. He's about the business to declare his glory. That's what he's up to. Now it may not seem that way when you open up the door and in rushes the trial, but if you understand that God is about the business of revealing his glory.

So what's that mean? So let's pick on Courtney. So God says, okay, I'm going to reveal my glory through Courtney. And I'm going to do it by Thursday. So how does he start? He brings a trial into Courtney's life. Yeah. Some issue. Like when he had his arm cut. And it's usually something that's very unique to him that he would struggle with. If God brought the same trial to me, I'd be like the water off a duck's back, but not to him. And so God brings that in his life, and Courtney begins to realize, God must be up to something about revealing his glory. How's he going to do it? How's he going to do it? Courtney's going to take a shower and put on some of that glowy stuff? How's he going to do it?

This goes back, I'm slow, back to your question of what a trial is. You said it's only to the new man. I think it's both. The trial reveals my dependency on the flesh or my dependency on the new man. It does. And that's why I say I think it depends on... I mean the trial is brought for both. To reveal the old man a lot of times and also to show my dependency on him or my need for the dependency on him rather than myself. Right. And I think through the trial it's...

Do you understand? He's in control. And do you rest? And that He has eternal purposes. And you're looking to Him through the trial rather than yourself. And I think that's how, again, kind of what Holly was saying, I think it comes to growing the grace and knowledge. That's what the trial is meant to do, is to grow you, which is a process. And that's the growing and the grace and the knowledge, and the knowledge of Him. Okay, so let's plug in some principles. The very first one is that to reveal His glory, it has to be through His Word. That's number one. Because you find out what's going on there. Well, His Word is Christ, right? That He's a personification of His Word.

But here I am, or here's Courtney, and he's searching in the Word. may be initially looking for an answer to what's going on, but he's finding out in the Word some issues about the glory of God and maybe at some point revealing where he has been more dependent on his old man than just resting by faith. And the Spirit of God makes it personal to Courtney, makes it personal to you and to me. So through the Word, by the Spirit of God, The revelation of the objective truth is made known to me, that God is about revealing His glory.

Courtney has a problem with anger, like a trigger. And so then there's like a situation, traffic, you know, whatever, where it would be an opportunity for Courtney to lose it. The Holy Spirit's like working in them to say, you know, this isn't whatever, you know, and then what it would become would be more of a peace and maybe Ingrid is sitting in the car going like, oh, Courtney didn't lose it this time. I wouldn't, I wouldn't. rest of totality of the veracity just on the fact that I felt peace.

Because it's got to come through the word. And Courtney will discover in this circumstance that he has this thing called personal faith. And he begins to realize that, wait a minute, I see this circumstance that has triggered, we were talking Wednesday night about, in the last couple of Wednesday nights in Romans 7, how the law triggers sin. So, sin is triggered. What do you do? Well, the word of God says that I've been crucified.

So, Courtney says, well, Lord, your word says, in Galatians 2.20, that I was crucified with your son. You know what? I believe you. And whatever is going on in my emotions or my old man or the anger or whatever the symptom is, that's not really me. So, who did that?

The Spirit of God will reveal God's glory to Courtney through his word. You get those three things right there? The Spirit of God will reveal God's glory through his word. Is it glorifying to God for me as a believer to say to him, you're right. I really was crucified with you. You've persuaded me that you're right. Does that give God glory?

I hope to shout it does. Because you're speaking to him. You're also speaking to him. So I talk to God all the time. I have a great relationship. I know, we've been meaning to talk to you about that. This might be kind of simple, but in the context of God, Corey, how would you define God? Okay. Yeah, I understand. I mean, to me it's like the essence of God. The definition I've hung my hat on for a long time is that it is the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes.

It's who He is. He's omnipotent, He's all-knowing, He's all-loving, and He doesn't possess those qualities. He is those qualities. And so in this process, of bringing a trial and tribulation into our life so that he might show us his glory. What is he showing us? He is showing us his attributes and they are knowable in the person of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3.18 Beholding as in a mirror the word, the glory of the Lord, I am transformed with unveiled face, I am transformed into his very image. Do you see how that fits with God declaring and manifesting His glory? If He can conform everybody in this room to the image of Christ, what's going to happen? We will be more and more manifesting the life of the Lord Jesus, which is His glory.

It's who He is. I can say, the glory of Donna. I can make a list of attributes that are intrinsic to her. The glory of God is infinite. Wrap your mind around the fact that the infinite, holy, omnipotent God has decided that you and I are to be the vehicles through which he is going to demonstrate his glory to the whole creation. Try that one on for size.

You don't think you're important? That's what he's doing. So when the trial comes in your life, you recognize that all the way over on the result end is that the God of the universe has determined that he's going to manifest his glory through you in that trial. Isn't that something?

And that would all be a part of what we're saying in the faith. Yeah, and what's our job in all of that? It's to trust him. Just to simply rest and believe in what he's doing and who he is. This is a focus on, what we talked about is focused on believers.

And if what you have up there on declaring his glory is a principle, it also applies to non-believers who have repeated trials coming at them. Is the same purpose is to do this? to declare His glory through non-believers to bring them to Him? Oh yeah, it can be for that.

Romans 1 says this, that God has revealed Himself to all men. And because He's done that in His creation and in their conscience, He expects some things from them. He expects them to be grateful, thankful, and He expects them to honor Him as God. You know, we say, well how can you look at the stars at night I was going to say in the smoke, but the stars at night in his creation and not know that there's a God.

And so that doesn't save you because the gospel of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and faith in him is what saves you. But he's always about revealing his glory. In a sinful world like this that's been delivered to vanity because of Adam's sin, you can still see his glory everywhere. Imagine what it's going to be like when all that's lifted off of the planet, during the millennium. That's going to be really cool.

It just seems like for non-believers that have trial after trial after trial, it hardens their heart. Yeah, it does. To God. Yeah, see, and the Spirit of God doesn't beat people up to get them to come to him. He woos them. He loves them, and so he's wooing them, just like he's doing us.

He's not beating Clare up so that Clare will get it. That's not what he does. He woos you. But he uses a trial sometimes, a lot of times, to get this principle moving. And as you realize, wow, God is going to take little old wonderful me and somehow manifest his glory through me and maybe he won't even let me know how he's doing it. But he's doing it. He's doing it.

I see more of God's glory being manifested through you in a thousand different ways that you don't even know is happening. I'm not talking about you. So you see how that principle works? So the next time a trial comes in your life, you should understand, well, what's God going to do? What's he doing here? What's the purpose?

He wants me to operate and to trust him by faith. We realize that the Spirit of God actually is going to share God's glory by conforming us or conforming us to Christ. He's not going to give you Christ's attributes. He's going to conform you to the very person of Christ so that you will manifest God's glory. And our whole role in this is personal faith. It's focused on what God has to say in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it sounds like when we have that faith, we're giving glory to God in Christ. Yeah. And that's it? That's the only way you can do it, is to believe Him. Well, what does that mean, giving glory to God? Isn't it kind of like recognizing that that is true, that that's the truth? Like just being satisfied in the truth. I know what you're thinking because you're a good Baptist, right? You put all of this stuff up and right at the bottom of it you say, if you do all this we'll give you glory. Otherwise we're not giving you glory. But if you don't do it, we might not give it to you. Does that include squirrels? I'm having a squirrel problem. Bruce is hitting me from across the room.

Again, it isn't that I make a decision to give God glory if he operates the way I want him to. That's not how that works. It's the fact that as his glory is manifested through me, I recognize what he's doing and I don't have any trouble. Because we're the reflectors of it. So it's not using the phrase, praise the Lord. That's right. We're reflectors of it. If people see Christ in you, it isn't because you got so cleaned up and so wonderful. It's because the Spirit of God is doing the job that he's been sent to do, which is to conform us to Christ, and they're seeing Christ through you. That's really cool.

Could you say that glorifying the Lord is as simple as just believing and acknowledging? My part in it, yes. Acknowledging and believing in His... his love for us, his grace for us, all of that? Not only that, but the scenario we just laid out, how he does it, that's what we believe. We believe specific about how he's doing things. We recognize, here comes this trial. Well, wait a minute, I know what trials are about. I've been down this road with the Lord before. I know what the end game is going to be. I know what the purpose is. So all through it, I'm trusting him. I'm believing him and I'm letting him because of my faith. I'm appropriating him for allowing the Spirit of God to do what he says he's going to do. My whole job is just to believe him. Just to trust him.

And that's reckoning. Is that how we started? Is that reckoning? Once you know and are settled down, I mean, reckoning is not a, oh, I've got to reckon. Reckoning is, okay. but does that mean that you can't like I have two granddaughters that are seriously ill and does that mean that you can't pray to God like you know I think I've learned a lesson you're trying to teach me and now could you is it okay if you pray that I don't know I understand if you recognize that God is doing everything to reveal his glory. So here comes granddaughter one who's sick. Why is she sick?

Because God, somehow, is going to reveal his glory through that circumstance. So that's how you pray. You know, Father, maybe she's going to get well, maybe not. Whatever you're doing here, I trust you that you're going to manifest your glory through this circumstance. And what are you doing? You're agreeing with what God's doing. And it could actually help somebody else. Mine? You know, like maybe an aunt or something. It could help. Or you.

My buddy Dennis that we prayed for that's going to have shoulder surgery tomorrow, you know, we were laughing about surgery last night. And he said, well, you know, I think about, they're going to put me to sleep, and they're going to do whatever they do, and when I wake up, wherever I wake up, it's going to be good. I'm either going to be home with the Lord, or I'm going to be back here. I said, well, one's better than the other. But isn't that right? I mean, if you're trusting in the Lord, in a circumstance that comes, you know, you don't end up in second place. You never do. You see that? In John 17, he's given that to us. In 22, the glory which you have given me, I have given to them, us.

That they may be one, just as we are one, I in them and you in me. That they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you love me. So that the glory is in Christ manifested. It goes back to the 2nd Corinthians. We're a reflection. We're the manifestation. That's the glory. It's just manifesting Him. And He's given that to us. He's told us. He's given us the glory. The glory which He has, He's given to us. And it's based on that unity.

How much difference is there in the manifestation of the glory of God through a believer and a really terrifically good citizen? Is there much difference in those two? What's the difference between a human being manifesting the glory and the unity with Christ to the world and sitting next to him as a really terrific guy? Is there a huge difference, a little bit of difference? Can you tell the difference?

I would say the biggest difference to me would be that that guy is working completely on his works and what I think of when I think of a trial. I used to think that if I fail that trial, then I failed God. And part of God's revealing His glory is that even if we do fail, His grace abounds. Well, and if you failed, you're the one that failed, it wasn't him. Well, that's what I'm saying, but still, because when you were saying this, I was thinking about, well, what if we fail? What if we don't pass this test or pass this trial? And God's glory is revealed just as much in that as it is, and even in the failure, we'll grow.

Yes, that's exactly right. And I think that, to me, is the difference. Here's the point. What you're saying, Mike, really sounds good, but the fact of the matter is that our human nature inevitably steps forward and says, no, I know a better outcome than you do, Lord. And it's only when you get to that point of enough trials and tribulations in your life that finally you get a little tweak where you might say, it's going to be neat to see how this works out. It's a struggle to wait and see how it works out. See, if you read John 17, what's very interesting about that is the manifestation of the glory of God through you proves to the world that God sent his son.

Why? Because he's still here in you and they see him. Do you see that? It isn't you imitating, you don't have the WWJD bracelet, it's him. And it proves to the world that the Father sent the Son. Pretty cool, I think. And you cannot emulate that. Imitate it. You can't do it. You can try, but it won't be the same because it won't be the same life. But again, it seems like it's not all people. Not all people are realizing that. Only the people that the Holy Spirit has prepared to see that. Yeah, it's interesting how I'll tell you where I think I saw it, and it just shows up and the world doesn't understand.

Remember in Charleston, that murder down there, those seven, was it seven people that were murdered? And the day after, or two days later, three days later, they had a bail hearing and the judge allowed five or six people from the church to speak at the veil hearing, which is rare. And every one of those people forgave him. And what was unique to me is I was watching all these talking heads trying to explain what that was.

They would say, you murdered my daughter. I'll never be able to hold her again. Tears running down their face, but I forgive you. And they weren't faking it. the glory of God was manifested there. And the world did not understand what was happening there. Some probably did. Not worldly people. Right, but I mean the people, the Holy Spirit was working out to say like, oh my gosh, what is this? So you see it once in a while. Yeah, that's awesome. So we've actually already answered question 7.

How would you define the process of sanctification? Well, let's answer it anyway. What is the process? What does sanctification mean? Set apart. Alright, we were set apart. Doesn't holy mean set apart too? So holy and sanctification are kind of the same. So sanctification is the process of conditionally setting us apart.

To do what? What is God setting us apart to do? For his purpose. And what is his purpose? For us to have trials. Look at Romans 8. Look at Romans 8, 28 and 29. To believe. To set us apart to have trials. Doesn't it always go back to his glory? I mean, it's got to be always his glory. Romans 8, 28, 29. Whoever has it, go ahead and read it. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Okay, purpose, here it comes.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. Oh, He foreknew you as believers in Christ to do what? To be conformed to the image of Christ. Why? To glorify himself. To glorify himself and to manifest his glory. There it is. That's what sanctification really is. That's really simple. That's what he's doing.

You might think you're a good guy and a swell dancer, but God takes every circumstance, every everything, and he works it towards his purpose. Would you say the world's view of the definition of glory and glorified is completely different? Oh, totally different. Oh, totally different. Well, they don't honor God as God. How could they? And to a non-believer, God being glorified would be almost something negative? You know, Donna and I like to walk a lot.

Some nights, in the evenings or in the mornings, there's this incredible cloud formation, sun, and we often say to each other, I'd like to see somebody in the world pull that one off. And then 40 seconds later, it's totally different. And it's manifesting God's glory all the time and nobody in the world can even get close to that. I mean, Walt Disney's a piker. Come on. It happens. Kind of like scuba diving sometimes. Kind of like scuba diving. The lights come back around. Yeah. Courtney thinks that there's a guy behind there going, release the shark.

Alright, are trials and temptations the same thing? So we're going to do a little Greek here. The word trial and the word temptation are used synonymously sometimes in scripture. So you can't tell the difference between the two, but often times trial and temptation are dramatically opposed to each other and they're used very differently from one another. So, Greek words. There's a word DAKIMAS. D-A-K-E-M-A-D-Z-O. DAKIMADZO. We should spell that again. Greek is D-A-K-E. D-A-K-E. M-A-D-Z-O. DAKIMADZO. And the second Greek word is PARADZO. P-I-E-R-A-D-Z-O. You got those two words?

Parazzo is used for words like temptation or tempt. When it's used in a negative sense, it is used to tempt one to failure. So next to Parazzo, put failure. So you could say that Parazzo is a solicitation to sin. So we'll look at it, we'll look at more of Perazzo in a minute. DocuMath is a testing or a trial looking towards approval. So put approval next to DocuMazzo. DocuMazzo is used for words to test or to prove. to prove it with a view towards approval. It's like if you take like ore and heat it up and boil out the impurities, you end up with the pure thing. You do this because you want the pure stuff to come out and all the impurities are boiled away. That's what dakimazo is.

Got the two words down? Now, not that you have to be a Greek scholar. But whenever you are reading something in the Word of God about trials and tribulation, you have to decide what is the word that is being used here. Is it perazzo? Is it a word? Or did this trial or tribulation come in my life in order to cause me to sin and to fail, in the negative sense? And if it did, what do you think the source of that sin is? Don't answer that because that's on the next set of questions. Well, isn't it you? What's that? Isn't it you that would fail? I'm sorry? Isn't it you that would fail?

So let's say, just maybe, here comes the parazzo into your life. And it's designed specifically so that you will succumb to it and you will fail and sin. But God, because he says in Romans 8.28 that he works all things together, intercepts it and turns it into a documento in order to use that very same circumstance to approve you. So there's never a time that you can say that God solicited me to sin. It doesn't mean that It started out as a solicitation to sin, but the source of that was not God.

And when you get to Romans 8.28 and he says he works all things together, the all things include the solicitation to sin.

You see that? Dramatically unclear? What do you think? Let's look at some verses. Question 9. Look at Matthew 4. 1-11. Okay, Matthew 4, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What word do you think that is? The second one? Oh no, the first one. It's perazzo, right?

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterwards he was hungry. Now, when the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. What's he trying to do? He's trying to get the Lord Jesus Christ to sin. He's tempting him to sin.

But he answered and said, it is written, men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Lord must have taken our course. Then the devil took him up to the holy city and said to him on the pinnacle of the temple, he said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone. Jesus said, it is written, Interesting how Jesus is answering him, isn't it? What's he using? The Word of God. It is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. What word do you think that is, tempt? The first one. Ah, it's peronso. Yeah. The second.

Again, the devil took him up on the exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him, All these things I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me. Was the devil lying to him or did he actually own those things and could have given them to him? Yes, he could have. Because of Adam's fall, he owned them. And Jesus said, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. The Lord Jesus was tempted to sin. Was he really?

Yeah. Because he's God. And God can't be tempted by evil. Oh, I love this. This is really good. You walked right into it. Well, that's why God brought me here. Amen. I'll think about this. Romans 8 once says there's no condemnation for them who are in Christ. Are you in Christ? Yes. Then why would the devil bother with you? Well, because I'm still... You're still what? In a condition here. I'm still in, you know, in the world.

So if you're living by faith and resting in your position, why would he mess with you? If he'll mess with the Lord Jesus in the garden, why won't he mess with you? But we're going to find out next week that really temptation doesn't come from him. No, it doesn't. Yeah, because that's right down here on number 10. So we're going to do number 10 and then all of next week will be over here. We'll be talking about that.

So, let's look at James 1.13. The question is, will the Lord tempt us? No. How do you know that? How do you know that? Because there is nothing evil in him. That's not why. Because it says so in his word, that's why. Well he cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

What does James 1.13 say? That's what it says. But many men say he's tempted, I am being tempted of the Lord. What's the word tempted there? Parazo or document? Parazo. So no man can say he's tempted or solicited to sin or failure by God, right? Right. I think there's a lot of people that think differently. Oh, I'm sure there are. I mean, I've been taught differently. Sure. I'm one. Sure. Sure.

So, for God cannot be tempted by evil. Wanda, you're right. God can't be tempted by evil. There's no solicitation. But we can't. Your old man can. Your physician in Christ can't. And he himself does not tempt Barazzo, anyone. And was Christ tempted then because he was human then? Yeah, that's why. So he was God, but he was human. But he set aside his glory And he's a man.

You think Satan knew who he was? Yeah. You think Satan knew what he was here to do? Yeah. I don't think he did. Oh, you don't? No, because why would Satan allow him to be crucified? Because he's dumb and won't give up. He's not dumb. Because he's smart and won't give up. You're very flexible.

When it says tempted by his own lust, that's the flesh, right? Yeah. What's the difference between the flesh and Satan or is there any difference? Well, sure. One's a person and the other's a nature. So here's the thing. What we're going to learn next week and spend the whole week on is where does temptation or solicitation or parado come from? You. It comes from me, it comes from my own sinful desires.

Because, look, Satan doesn't know your name, he doesn't know where you live, and he could care less because he isn't omnipresent. Well, somebody says, yeah, but he's got all these guys. Trust me, they don't have a meeting every morning and say, well, you're assigned Bob, and you're assigned you, and they go out there and solicit them to sin. No, you've got a sin nature. They don't have to mess with you. If we've learned that the sin nature, even though you've been crucified and separated from it, doesn't mean it stops operating. It still is attempting to manifest its nature through you. See that?

I heard a radio program and they were like wrapped up in the question of how, if God created us, how could we do evil things. But I guess it really comes down to God gave us initially, I mean the free will to choose him, or like Satan did, God didn't create evil, God created choice. And we, in our evil, or in our choice to choose ourselves over God, Well, God created Adam with a will.

Probably the only human being other than Christ that had free will. Well, the angels, right? Had free will. Free what? To choose God or themselves? What do we have a will for? What do we get to do with our will? Same thing. Depends on, we either believe what God has to say or we believe what other solicitation is. Those are the only two choices we have.

So when God told Adam, he gave him dominion, he said, you're the head of the race, and life begets like, and I'm going to give you a test, and if you fail the test, in dying you will surely die. You will be totally separated from me, spiritually and physically, eventually you will die. So everybody that comes from Adam is just like Adam, and you have a sin nature. Every human being that hit this planet except for the Lord Jesus Christ has a sin nature. So the potential for them to succumb to perazzo is built into every one of us. God didn't build us with a sin nature, we acquired a sin nature because we chose against him. And you can't say that, well if I was Adam I wouldn't have done it. Yes you would have, because you're just like him. There's no difference between you and Adam. None. You'd have gone for the same dance. Eve must have been a fox, right?

But the grace is, is that unlike the angels, who have the opportunity then to believe in Christ, they don't have that. They made their choice, right? And that's it. And their wills got locked. Yeah. God gave us, God had the grace to give us the opportunity to... You think you're special? In what way? Oh, that we can. Yeah. Oh, gosh, yeah. That's close. Well, wait just a minute. What's that first word? D-A-K-E. You said the other one is self. What's the other one? Akimazo? Yeah. It's a testing or attempting, but for approval. Approval. Let's close.

Father how we thank you for your word and how careful you are to administer your grace towards each one of us and that you have a purpose to manifest your glory but you know you've included us in that by uniting us to the Lord Jesus Christ and that the manifestation of the glory of your son is through each one of us. We thank you Father we pray in his precious name. Amen.