And we're going to be laying a foundation today. We're going to be doing that by kind of trying to take a quick survey of the whole of Scripture and lay that foundation for you. So, those of you here that are old enough to remember the old Yellow Pages commercials where it says, let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages, well, we're going to be letting our fingers do some walking through the Scripture pages today. So, before we do that, let's open with a word of prayer. Father, again, we come before you. We come before you and we come before your Word, and we see it is the Holy Word of a holy God, and it is the infinite Word of an infinite God. And Father, I stand before you as a finite and fallen man, utterly unable to understand, or to rightly handle, or even to tell of your word. Father, for that reason, I come completely dependent upon the person and the power of your spirit in this moment. Lord, I pray for your grace. I pray, Father, that your spirit would superintend over the preaching of your word. Father, I pray that your spirit would not only superintend over the preaching of your word, but also in the hearing of your word, Lord. that you would be at work in the hearts of the preacher and the listeners both, that you'd be renewing our mind by your word, that you would be transforming our hearts by your truth. Father, that you would be more and more making your people into the image of Christ. Father, we ask this in his name. Amen. I want to open by just reading two passages. You don't need to turn to them. I just want you to listen and compare. First is Psalm 78, 41. And again and again, they tempted God and pained the Holy One of Israel. Now compare that to James 1, 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. Now, these two passages, we have five different uses of the word tempt. Do each of them mean the same thing? For that matter, what do we mean when we use the word? What do we mean by the word tempt or temptation when we use it in our common everyday vernacular? You know, I'm tempted to have seconds on dessert. Do we have the same thing in mind? Now this is important for us because temptation is an ever-present reality for each of us. It is with us day in and day out. So it's important we know what it is and how we live to the glory of Christ in the midst of a sin-cursed and fallen world. First, just what does the Bible mean when it uses the word temptation? That's the first question before us. And the answer really has to be, well, it depends. As we see in the two verses mentioned, James says that God cannot be tempted by evil, and the Psalm writer says that they tempted God. Now, obviously, these two can't mean the same thing. They can't be talking about the same thing, and they don't. James is clear. He is speaking of being enticed to evil, and that's the most common usage of the word in our language and our vocabulary today. That when the word temptation is mentioned, what the person has in mind is an enticement or an inducement or a persuasion to sin. That's what's conveyed by the term temptation. However, there's a second usage in Scripture, one that's obsolete in our usage today, and that's the idea of testing. Not an inducement to sin, but a testing, primarily which in view is a testing of our faith. And when the word is used of God in the scriptures, it is used in this sense. It is a testing of our faith, which aims at our spiritual good. Now, to make this even more complex, many times when the writers of scriptures use the word, they have both uses in mind. So they're seeking to convey a truth regarding both uses. So let's begin to unravel this, and let's start at the beginning. And all I want to do today is lay a foundation for you on the source and the pattern of testing, and the source and the pattern of temptation. What is the source of our testing? What is the source of our temptation? Well, the short answer to that is really pretty simple. God is the source of our testing of our faith. Always. And Satan is the source of our temptation. And we see the pattern for that set in the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. Turn over to Genesis 1. Let's look first at the source and the pattern of our testing. Genesis 1, verses 26 to 28. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Then look over to chapter 2, verse 3. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all of His work which God had created and made. And now jump to verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. What we see in these passages is the pattern of active obligation placed upon man by God. In each of these, God places an obligation upon mankind. He gives them certain commands, certain things they are to do or they are not to do. And God's purpose behind each of these is for the good of man and for his own glory. And what we see in scriptures is that God puts these tests before us for the purpose of improving, reproving, or approving us in our faith. His aim is always, always and without exception, our good. In the context of Genesis 1 and 2, man is created in the image of God. He is given great blessing, the greatest of which is to be an image-bearer of God. And as an image-bearer of God, man is to be a living, accurate, visible representation of God's character. That's what it means for us to be an image-bearer. Man is created male and female. Man is given the obligation to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Man is given the obligation to labor and subdue and rule over the creation. Man is given the obligation to sanctify the seventh day and rest. And he does all of this as God's vice-regent, as the governor that God put on earth in his image to act on his behalf. That is our obligation before our holy creator as his image bearers. Now, he also, though, gives one prohibition. Don't eat from a particular tree. Seems pretty simple, doesn't it? But all of these obligations, all those that were stated in the positive of what man was to do, and this one that were stated in the negative of what man is not to do, are given as a test. It's a test that is given before man is allowed to have access to the tree of life. And here's the test. All of these point to answering one question. Will man obey God for his own good and God's glory? That's the test. Will man obey God for his own good and God's glory? Now, each of the creation ordinances, each of those positive things that man was told to do, does practical good to man if he obeys. Right? Pretty obvious. In marriage, there's companionship. In multiplying, we have the creation of the family. In his labor, there's the provision of food. In his exercise of dominion, they're serving his purpose before God. In the Sabbath, there is special communion with his creator, and there is rest. In all of those, work by man's obedience will bring some practical good to man if he obeys, and man understands that. Adam and Eve can see the benefit of that. However, the prohibition of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is different. It's different in the sense that it's not readily apparent to man what is the benefit to him. Because you see, man does not understand what the benefit to him is of not having the experiential knowledge of evil. Consider the state Adam or Eve are in at this point. They were created sinless. That is their condition. They haven't experienced evil. They don't know what evil is. They are naive of it. And this is for their good. God wants them to be naive of the experience of evil. And so they don't understand this prohibition. They don't understand the benefit of it. Man doesn't understand that having the experiential knowledge of evil will corrupt his very being. He doesn't get that. Man doesn't understand the danger the experiential knowledge of evil represents to him. And to Adam, this tree is like any other tree. There is nothing that sets it apart other than this fact. God said, don't eat of it. Like every other tree in the garden, it had the pronouncement of very good over it. There's nothing by the way it looks, there's nothing by where it's placed, there's absolutely nothing that sets it apart from every other tree that God said they could eat of other than this thing. God said, don't eat from this tree, because in the day you eat from it, you shall surely die. And this represents the purest test of faith. Will man obey and submit his will to God simply because God said so? God didn't draw him a picture. God didn't explain it to him. God didn't give him the reasoning and all the background information. God simply said, don't eat from this tree, because in the day you eat of it, you will die. And here's the test to Adam's faith. Will he submit his will to the will of God simply because God said so? Well, we know how that one turned out, don't we? Right? Adam failed the test. And that puts us where we are today, in a sin-cursed and fallen world. But we have to ask ourselves another question now. Does this active obligation to obey God and submit our will to Him that we will be living, accurate, visible representations of His character as image-bearers remain after the Fall? Okay? Adam was acting as our federal head. As the head over all of mankind, he was acting in our place. When he fell, we fell. When he failed, we failed. Does the obligation remain, or did God say, well, folks, you blew that. Forget it. Well, turn over to Genesis 3. Let's see what God says. Genesis 3, verses 16 to 19. In his pronunciation of the curse, here's what he tells the woman and man. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat from it, Cursed is the ground because of you, in total you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The active obligation remains. the man and the woman are still obligated to multiply. Okay? There's still marriage, there's still childbirth, but now it's going to be painful. Now there's going to be gender role confusion in the marriage. There's going to be strife and discord in marriage in place of harmony. They are still commanded and under the obligation to labor and to exercise dominion and to sanctify the seventh day and rest. But now their very survival will depend upon this toilsome and difficult and burdensome labor. The work that used to be a joy is now toilsome. The obligation remains. All of creation has been brought under the curse. Think about this for a moment. Even if Adam and Eve were able to go forth from the garden and never sin again, which, let me be clear, that's not the case. They were not able to do that. But let's just say they were. Even if they were able to go forth from the garden and never sin again. Faithfulness to God as his image bearer has now become much more difficult because of their past sin. Because of the way that all of creation has been corrupted by their sin. even apart from further acts of sin, faithfulness to God as an image-bearer is difficult. Do we not find that true? Don't you find just working out your salvation in fear and trembling in a fallen world is an exercise in frustration, even apart from sin? So, the obligation remains, but does God still test His people? Does he still test us? Sure does. A few examples from Scripture. Exodus 20, 20. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of him may remain with you, so that you may not sin. Remember what we said about purposes of God's testing of his people. It is always and ever for their good. Why did God come and test them here? So that you may not sin. See, God is at work in the lives of His people to improve, reprove, and approve them in their faith. Deuteronomy 8.16, In the wilderness He fed you manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you, and that He might test you to do good for you in the end. Why did He test them? To do good for them in the end. John 6, 4 through 6. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus, therefore, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, where are we to buy bread that these may eat? And this he was saying, to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Do you see what he was doing here? He was stretching Philip's faith. He was putting this dilemma before Philip and saying, Philip, what are we to do here? To test his faith. To stretch him in that faith. To grow him in that faith. To teach him something about who Jesus was. We even see in 2 Corinthians 13.5 that we are to test ourselves. Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith. Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you failed the test. So even the testing of ourselves, the examination of ourselves is for our own good. Yes, the test remains. God still tests His people. In fact, He continually tests us, and we are continually being tested in this life. Do you realize that's every minute of every day? It's a test. Will I submit my will to the will of God in this moment and in this thing? Every moment, every decision you make is a test. When you wake up in the morning, will I live this day to the glory of Christ? When I go to work, will I labor as unto Christ instead of as unto men? How will I relate to my wife? Will I relate to her as God has called me to relate to her with sacrificial love and understanding? Or is it going to be heavy-handed and abusive, which was the effect of the fall? How I relate to my children. Will I bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Will I teach them when we sit and when we walk along the way, as God has called me to do? Will I submit my will to God's will, and will I do those things that He has commanded me to do? Or am I going to go my own way and do my own thing? That is the test that's before each and every one of us each and every day. And ultimately, every last one of those tests is by God's design, and it is for the purpose of our good. Even though the immediate source of that testing may be ourselves, as we are faithful to test ourselves, the source of that testing may be my wife, may be my children, You ever grow impatient with your kids when they're misbehaving? It's a test. How are you going to respond to that? Are you going to respond to them as God called you to respond to them? Or are you going to respond to them because their misbehavior is an inconvenience to you and it upsets you and you're going to respond in anger? It's a test. You might be tested by your brothers and sisters sitting in this room around you. Ever have anybody in this room test your patience a little bit? Okay. But for that matter, have you have anybody in this room ever test your faith by their example of godliness and faithfulness, that it was an encouragement and an exhortation to you to carry on? Have you ever had any of them test your faith by bringing the word of God to bear upon your heart? We're also just tested by the circumstances of life in a fallen world. Not as a result of anybody's sin, not as a result of any purposeful act on the part of another person, but just trying to live out our lives to the glory of Christ in a fallen world. But wait, it gets even harder. Let's add to all of that now. Let's add all of that now. The infirmity of life in this world. Let's add sickness to that. Make it a little harder. And any of those things I've already mentioned, if you're sick and not at your best, let's add injury. Let's add weakness of mind and body. Those of you that are getting a little gray on top, Can't quite do the things you used to be able to do in your youth. Is that frustrating sometimes? Does it make life harder for you? Let's add weakness of mind. Let's add persecution as the source of the circumstances of our testing. Does that make it even more difficult? And yet, what do the scriptures tell us about these things? All things are for good for those who love God. God is the source of every one of these, and he intends every one of them for the improving, reproving, and approving of your faith. It is for your good. He puts all of this into our path for our spiritual good, and we are to continue on in these things. The scriptures exhort us to not grow weary in doing good. Do not lose heart in these things. The active obligation to press on remains. Each day is a test of our faith. And here's the question before us. Will we submit our will to God's will? Today, will I strive to be a living, accurate, visible representation of the character of God before a lost and dying world? Will I do that today? Will we press on and be faithful to Christ and seek his glory? Will we trust him in his provision for us and in the grace that he supplies us? Will we glory in the goodness of our God and the blessedness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ? Will we? Or, or, like Adam and Eve, Will we trust in our own weak and fallible understanding, wisdom, and desires? That's the question that's before us. But wait, it gets even harder. For you see, in the garden, not only was the pattern of testing sent, but likewise, so was the pattern of temptation, this inducement to evil. Turn back to Genesis 3. Read verses 1 through 7. Now a serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you surely shall not die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the women saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Now, to this point, we have only considered the difficulties of life in a fallen world apart from the consequences of our own further acts of sin or the fact that we have an enemy out there who is trying to incite us to sin. Now let us consider Satan, the tempter, and his efforts to lead us into sin. Now we can see from this passage here that the Bible describes for us that Satan is a very smooth conversationalist. It tells us he is crafty. He's crafty. It means shrewd. It means he's a smooth talker. He's subtle. His conversation is scintillating conversation that is so captivating of our attention. And that's how he came to Eve. Did you see how he approached her? Indeed, did God say? I mean, is that what he really meant? Oh, you surely shall not die. Don't be so literal. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You see, God knows that when you eat of the fruit, you will be like God. Implication is, that's a good thing. You should aspire to that. You will not die. You will know so much more. Implication, acquisition of any and all knowledge is good for you. You'll be so much more enlightened. You'll be wise, according to whose definition? What's the further implication here? Oh, God's trying to keep you from your full potential. God's holding you back from true enjoyment and happiness with all these silly rules. But we need to take note that this was a very engaging conversation for Eve. Notice, she took no effort to break it off. She was caught up in it. And that's how subtle Satan is. He comes in very subtly. He comes in masquerading evil as good. He comes in seeming so harmless. What did he say to you? It will make you wise. It will make you like God. But what was the reality? All it made her was dead. Now keep in mind again, this is pre-fall. At this point, Eve is a sinless person. Sin has not entered into the picture yet. It's coming soon, but that's not Eve's condition at this point. And what we have to understand is, is in the finiteness of her intellect as a creature, and in the mutability of her character as a creature, was something that responded to Satan's lies. Because how did she respond to this? She didn't say, get behind me Satan, walk away. What did she do? She considered in her own heart what was being said to her. She considered this enticement to evil. And what was the conclusion she drew? She saw that it was good for food. Now here is the limitations of our faulty intellect. Was it true that the fruit of this tree was good for food? Absolutely! God said it was very good! Was it a delight to the eyes? Was it pleasant to look upon? Of course it was! Everything in the garden was perfect! But here's the problem, then she considered that it would cause her to know good and evil, and did she really understand what it meant to experientially know evil? No, she did not. She considered these things, she weighed it in her heart, and she no longer simply took God at his word. but questioned and doubted, and then she came to a decision. Here is where she exercised her own free will according to her own finite intellect and the desires of her heart rather than the express command of God, and she took and ate and gave it to her husband also. And there's great warning for us here. Here's the warning. As sinless people, their intellect was not up to the challenge of discerning Satan's lies. As sinless people, the resolve of their character was not sufficient to resist Satan's persuasions. Beloved, as fallen creatures who are sinners already, how much less capable are we to discern Satan's lies and resist the devil apart from the grace of God, the operation of his spirit, and his word at work in us. We're in a worse condition than they were. And we need to be aware of this because Satan hasn't changed his tactics. This is exactly how He comes at us today. We see evidence of this in the Scriptures. Turn over to Matthew 4, verses 1 through 11. Because what you're going to see here is a repeat of the very same strategy in the temptation of Christ. Matthew 4, 1-11, that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, ìIt is written, ìMan shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.î Then the devil took him into the holy city, and he had him stand in the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, ìIf you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ìHe will give his angels charge concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.î Jesus said to him, On the other hand, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things will I give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began to minister to him. You see here, Satan uses the exact same enticements to evil he used with Eve. For Eve, the second was the fruit, was a delight to the eyes. For our Lord, he took him to the pinnacle of the temple and spread the world out before his eyes and tempted him to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple and have the angels rescue him. For Eve, the third was simply a lie, that she would be wise. That was a lie. Did eating of the fruit of the true knowledge of good and evil make her wise? No, it made her dead. For likewise, for I was Satan would give them kingdoms he didn't possess." This is the exact same pattern of temptation that Satan brings to each of us. He still works exactly this way. And the Apostle John actually describes this for us in a little better detail. In 1 John 2.16, he says, for all that is in the world, listen carefully, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And who's the ruler of this world? The tempter himself. You see, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, those are the devices of Satan. Those are the enticements that he uses. The lust of the flesh is an enticement that appeals to the physical gratifications of our flesh. sex, drugs, booze, food, laziness. Yes, you heard me right, laziness. All of those are temptations that appeal to the gratifications of our flesh, of physical urges and physical desires. Then there's the lust of the eyes, all those enticements that appeal to our senses or our desires in any way. pornography, materialism, greed, any sight, sound, smell that makes me feel good and promotes the idea I have to feel good and anything that doesn't make me feel good must be bad and has to be avoided. And then there's those that appeal to that boastful pride of life. Our desire to be first in all things. Any desire that I would be exalted before men. Anything that puts me and my interests first, contrary to what Philippians 2 says in considering the needs of others as more important than yourself. Anything that puts me first ahead of you or anything that exalts my name instead of the name of Christ. That's the boastful pride of life. You see, nothing's changed. This is just how he comes after you and me right now. I want you to think of your own sin. Think of your own besetting sin. Those sins you fight with, you are at war with, day in and day out. Think of those temptations that Satan brings to so easily ensnare you. They're gonna fall into one of those three categories. They're either a lust of the flesh, a lust of the eyes, or the boast of a prior life. Oh, but wait! Wait! It gets even worse! Turn over to James, chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. You see, we not only have just the frustrations of life in a fallen world, We not only have the limitations that brings to us as a hindrance to our living as image bearers of God, we not only have an enemy out there enticing us to sin, causing us to stumble as we seek to live as an image bearer, we have an enemy within too. James 1, 14 and 15. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. You see, this is the liability we have that Adam and Eve didn't. As fallen sinners, As part of that remaining sin that remains in us as redeemed sinner are these lusts that are resident within each of us. We have an enemy within. You remember how he took note that Adam and Eve were sinless, and the finiteness of their intellect wasn't sufficient to discern Satan's subtleties, and the resolve of their character wasn't sufficient to resist him. Now we, as fallen sinners, not only are we subject to that same finiteness and mutability of character that they were, but we have inherent in our fallen nature lusts that directly correspond to the devices used by our enemy to entice us. Do you ever wonder why it's so effective? Well, that's a pattern of our temptation. Okay. You know, if this wasn't such a serious, such a serious matter, we can make one of those good news, bad news jokes out of it. You know, I got some good news. I got some bad news. Well, here's the bad news. It is really bad. I mean, you can look at this and say, wow, the deck is like completely stacked against us and we're hopeless. But here's part of the good news, just part of it. We've pretty much summed up the bad news today in one message. It's going to take seven to cover the good news, okay? So in that we see the abundance of God's grace. But what do we do about practical application? How do we make practical application of the bad news? What am I supposed to do with this? Well, the first is this. And the first practical application is for anybody here who does not yet know Christ. And that's this. I want you to get a handle on how bad the news is. What I want you to see is, is that you are in a hopeless condition apart from Jesus Christ. You're right, the deck is totally stacked against you. You're in bondage to sin. You're in bondage to those lusts from within. You have an enemy coming at you from without. He's got your number. He knows how to do you in a heartbeat, and you will fall to it every time. And apart from Christ, there is no hope. I mean, were you catching the words of what we sang this morning? Were you listening to Psalm 94? Turn back over to Psalm 94. We read that this morning. Turn over to the very last verse of Psalm 94. Those of you who are apart from Christ, Psalm 94, verse 23, the psalm writer is talking about you. and God will bring back your wickedness upon you, and God will destroy you in your evil, the Lord our God will destroy you. That's what His judgment is. That's what awaits all those who are apart from Christ. That is the consequences of your sin. Apart from Jesus Christ, you have no hope. That's exactly what Paul said to the Ephesians in chapter 2. If I can find the verse now, we'll have it made. Verse 11, Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, were called in circumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That's your condition. Without God, apart from Christ, no hope. Your only hope is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is your only hope. Your only hope for redemption, your only hope for deliverance and salvation is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the same God who stands now as your judge is also a God who is merciful. It is also a God who loves to save sinners. It is a God who has purposed in His own heart, according to the kind intention of His will, to save for Himself a people, and in so doing, He sent His Son to be the atonement for their sins. We sang today about the nail prints in His hand. Why did God do that? He did that because He is a loving and merciful God and His love and His mercy is our only hope. That is our only deliverance from our sin. The only way, our only salvation from all this bad news is repentance and trust in Christ. There's no other way. We're lost without it. So the application of the bad news for any person apart from Christ is flee to Christ. Repent of your sin. Trust in Christ. He's your hope. He's your rock. He's your fortress. He's your refuge. There is no other. The Scriptures are clear. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. None. Go to Christ. Go to Christ. And you can go to Christ with the confidence of His own promise that He will in no way turn back anyone who comes to Him. I don't care how bad you think your sin is. It's not bad enough that He will refuse you. That's His promise. Now, what about application for those of us who are in Christ, who know Christ, who have come to Him, who are hoping in Christ and what He has done. who know the comfort of His grace, what can we take away from the bad news? Well, I have one point of application regarding testing and one point for temptation. Here it is for testing. Turn to James chapter 1. You may already be there. James 1 chapter 2. Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. That word trials there, from which our testing comes, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Nothing. Testing produces endurance, and endurance has its complete result, and our perfecting as saints and being carried to glory. Remember what we said. God's purpose behind our testing is always for our good. It's for improving, approving, and reproving us in our faith. Testing is how we grow. This is how Christ grows us. This is how He makes us like Him. Do you realize a life without testing is a life that has no glory at the end? Understand, we are a work in progress. I am, you are. I mean, can we say amen that we are not what we were before Christ? Amen. And we are not yet what we are going to be. Okay? It's a work in progress. Yes, it's a difficult work. It's a hard work. What did we say at the beginning? It's now toilsome and difficult and arduous. But here's where I want you to take note from this passage. Testing does, in fact, produce endurance. And endurance does, in fact, yield the result of rendering us complete, lacking in nothing. It's not that it might. Look at what James said. It does. God's testing of your faith is for your good, and it will produce in you the good that God intends for you. So how do we respond to that? Well, just what James says. Rejoice! Consider it all joy! God's doing a good work in you. and carry on, persevere. Don't grow weary in doing good. It is God who is at work in you to will and to work for His good pleasure. This is God's work. It has a good purpose behind it. Psalm 119.68, God is good and does good. It's motivated by God's love for you. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. But we must not grow weary in doing good. We must not grow weary in our pursuit of intimate communion with Christ. We must not grow weary in the regular and consistent use of the means of grace. He has given you certain means by which He brings His grace to you. And we must be faithful. So, here's the question. Will I submit my will to the will of God in the use of the means of grace that He has ordained that I might be made like Him? Will I submit myself to the will of God in loving and preferring others? Will I submit my will to the will of God in loving and living and serving in the local church with the brothers and sisters that God has blessed us with to share this pilgrimage? Will I? Will you? Take a look around you. Seriously, that's not a rhetorical statement. I want you actually to take a look around you at the people in this room. Do you realize that the people in this room are the people that God has given you? The Sovereign Creator of Heaven and Earth has brought these people here for your good and His glory. This is who he's giving you to show the pilgrimage with. So rejoice in that. Press on. You know, the scriptures use words like rejoice and persevere. Another way to say it is simply this. Praise God and press on. He is doing a good work in his people. But what's our point of application for temptation? 1 Peter 5, 8. It's simply this. Remember, temptation seeks to destroy you. All that God does is for your good. All that your enemy Satan does is for your destruction. 1 Peter 5, 8. Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Don't let it be you. The devil is ever set against God. He is always set against God's purposes in everything. And as that pertains to you, brothers and sisters, Satan seeks to destroy you. And he does so by coming with incitement to sin that is specifically targeted to the infirmities of our character, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. He brings that temptation that will resonate with that lust that's within so sin can be conceived. That's his strategy. God spells it out for us in Scripture so we know. But you see, even in this we have hope. What's our hope? Christ has won the victory over death. He has put death to death. Sin no longer has dominion. Death is no longer victorious over us. Now, we may not know how the battles of today are going to go, but we do know how this warfare ends, don't we? Total, complete victory. You see, that's why when Paul wraps up the letter to the 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 16, verses 13 and 14, keep in mind, 16 comes right after 15, right? Well, what's in 1 Corinthians 15? Paul proclaims Christ winning the victory in the resurrection. So he comes to verse 16 and verse 13 in his closing instructions to the church in Corinth. Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. That's Paul's closing instructions to the Corinthians. Now, this morning, in our prayer meeting, we prayed for our nation, didn't we not? And one of the things we acknowledged was just the course of utter depravity our nation is on. And this is new to us. We can be disheartened by this, but there's really no need to be, because there is nothing new under the sun. Okay? Paul's writing to the church in Corinth here, and I'll tell you what, there's some ways that our culture doesn't hold a candle to the culture they lived in when it comes to depravity. There is nothing new here. Nothing new. And yet when the gospel of Jesus Christ invaded Corinth, what happened? People were saved. People were saved. Paul gives us a list of the sins. Sins that he said will keep you out of heaven. You know, sins that are issues we deal with today. Things like homosexuality. But what did he say? And such were some of you. This is what you used to be. And because of this, you were under the judgment of God. But now, but now, you're a new creature in Christ. So as we are just dealing with what we see in the world around us today, we don't need to lose heart. Paul wrote these commands to people that are our brothers and sisters. We don't know their names. We don't know what their faces look like. One day we're going to share eternity with them in glory. But here's what's important for us now. They faced the same testing and temptation that we do with the same enemy that we have. So Paul's instruction to them is spot on for us. And what did he tell them to do? Be alert. Be watchful. Guard your heart. Keep it diligently. You know what he's saying here? He's saying, don't be like Eve. Don't consider the temptation when it comes. You know, at the end of each day, We have to ask ourselves. Remember 2 Corinthians 13, 5, test yourselves. Examine your own heart. We need to begin each day, look in the mirror and ask the question, will I submit my will to the will of God this day? And at the end of every day, we need to end that day with that examination of our own heart. And here's what we need to be asking ourselves. We need to look in that mirror, we need to say, heart, where have you been today? Heart, what have you delighted in today? Heart, what's been your first love today? And if the answer to that question is anything other than the person and work of Jesus Christ, we need to repent. We need to examine our hearts closely. We need to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. And God's promise to us is that if we are, His Spirit will give witness and testimony of that to us, and then we are to stand firm in that faith. We are to embrace the truth of the gospel with all of our hearts, and we are to be firmly fixed there. It is the gospel that is our hope. Don't make the great exchange of the truth for the lie. Cling to the Word of God. And what does he say? Be courageous, be strong, temper that boldness with a motive of self-sacrificing love in all that you do. Even though at this point the news is bad, we can take courage. Why? Because the war is won. We each have many battles to fight before the end. This day has battles ahead of us yet. Tomorrow is going to bring even more. The warfare is a real warfare. But we know this warfare ends in total, complete victory. And as bad as the news has been up to this point, the good news is this. The good news is God's faithfulness to us as His people. God's faithfulness to Himself, His character in His Word. The good news is God's provision for us in His Son. The good news is God's way of escape that He has provided for us. And the good news is God's reward for a well-fought fight. And it's going to take at least seven sermons to explain all that. Let's pray. Father, again, our hope is Christ. Our rejoicing is in Christ. Father, we are lost. We are hopeless without Christ. Yet, Father, in Christ we see your great love, we see your mercy, we see your grace, and in that, Father, we rejoice. Lord, we pray that from the truths of your word we would take hope, We would be encouraged. We pray, Father, that you would strengthen us. We pray, Father, that you would fill us with the boldness of the gospel, knowing that the war is won. And we pray, Father, that you would cause us to be faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in his name. Amen.