Fighting and Killing Sin I: Temptation and Testing

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snider and with me for a number of podcasts will be Jeremy Walker. Jeremy's been on the podcast before and Jeremy is here in North Mississippi ministering to the church and we did a men's retreat which was really very helpful.

So we're glad to have Jeremy. We're going to kind of use him for double duty. We want him to do a number of podcasts with us on the themes of temptation and the mortification of sin, and we're going to be borrowing help from more than Jeremy.

We're going to be using some guidance from Owen, and this is the the Puritan paperback edition of his work on temptation and then the mortification of sin. So Jeremy, you are from Crawley, England. That's right.

And just just south of London. Correct. And you are the pastor of Maiden Bower Baptist Church. That's right. How many years you've been.

There? Almost... well, I was born and bred in the congregation, went away to university, came back, was eventually called as one of the elders. I've been serving there as an elder for nearly 20 years.

And your father was there for how many years? My dad was there for 43 years as one of the pastors. Yeah, wow. Owen.

Gives us so much good material on these topics that even doing it over a number of podcasts, we will only be able to hit kind of some of the key aspects. Not necessarily the most important aspects, but aspects that we feel that normal church attenders who are aware of the topics of temptation and of putting sin to death, these are things that Owen has given a great deal of thought to, and some of these things are things that in our day have not been given equal.

Treatment. Right, so the the versions that we're using are already slightly abridged and simplified, which is great for most of us. If anybody wants the extra nuance and detail of the originals, that's in volume 6 of Owen's Complete Works.

But even with this slightly simplified edition, there's language that we often use, there's concepts we think we understand, but yeah, we're zeroing in on some of those particular aspects where Owen's scriptural insights, his understanding of the spiritual nature of these battles gives us a glimpse into our own experience and the reality of these things at points where we might often just gloss over.

Well, as we get started,.

Defining Temptation and Distinguishing It from Testing

Jeremy, can you start us by giving us a good working definition of temptation, as well as distinguishing that between a very similar word in Scripture, testing.

Owen's text from which he really launches into this treatment is in Matthew chapter 26, where he says, Christ says to the disciples in Gethsemane, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. So Owen wants us to distinguish as we begin between a more general testing, which can come from God, and he says that God tests us to show us both what grace is in us and what virtue is in us, and that's the kind of putting pressure on something to reveal its true nature.

And God does that sometimes by asking something of us that is beyond our own strength, or by putting us through sufferings. And there's no intent in God to draw us into sin. So that's divine testing. It's the putting of a pressure upon us with a positive purpose.

And Owen says now that's very different from what happens when Satan assaults us. Satan's attempt is always to draw us into sin, to push us into sin. If we're on the righteous path, he wants to knock us off it one way or the other.

And Satan can do that. He can assault us directly, or he can use various means, and he is a master tempter. And Owen then has this little definition, that a temptation in general is anything that for any reason exerts a force or influence to seduce and draw the mind and heart of man from the obedience which God requires of him to any kind of sin.

So it's anything that has this ultimately satanic origin that comes to us with the intent of forcing us or drawing us away from the path of righteousness.

So two different sources, but also two very different goals between tempting and testing. Owen does talk particularly about this issue of entering into temptation, and he is going to clarify that this is not just the normal life in a fallen world with a fallen nature that is being, you know, daily transformed in the Christian into the image of Christ.

But there are perhaps seasons, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but there's also this entering in. And, you know, what things does he say there that you think are so helpful for us?

One of the points he makes is that even in these satanic temptations, we must remember that God is still in control. So there's a bounding here, and we are not obliged to sin simply because we are tempted.

If we're God's people, and we'll come on to this, if we're God's people, then we have resources by means of which, in dependence on the Spirit, we can watch and pray so that we do not enter into temptation.

But Owen wants us to understand that there's these particular times and seasons when we are under particular pressure. He says there's something specific in entering into temptation that is not the Saints' everyday work, something that befalls them particularly in reference to sin's seduction on one account or another.

And what he's saying here is there are times when the pressure builds, when there's an intensification of the battle against sin in the form of this temptation to do something which we shouldn't do, or not to do something which we ought to do.

And this is what he describes as entering into temptation. It's the point at which battle is really.

Joined. He also talks about temptation's hour. A season of extraordinary struggle with the wrong thoughts or desires. And he gives a good, balanced explanation, because obviously for the believer, we do love the Lord, and we do now hate sin.

I remember reading Rutherford, I believe it was one of his writings from prison, where he writes to a person who's struggling with this issue of, am I even a Christian? Because I can still sin. So if I can still act like I used to in some ways, then how can I say I'm a new man?

And Rutherford gave a list of things that would distinguish a believer and would distinguish an unbeliever. And one of the things that distinguished a believer, he said, was the fact that sin has gone from being your greatest darling that you guard, even against your God, to being your greatest grief.

It still can exist in a life. So he didn't say the believer never sins and the unbeliever always sins. But when the believer sins, it cannot be a thing that still is the delight.

Of our heart. It becomes our great grief. And there are aspects of that that will come out as well with regard to mortification. But often as believers, you might have someone who says, but surely if I were a Christian, I wouldn't feel like this.

If I were a Christian, I wouldn't be tempted. I wouldn't have this battle. And part of a proper response to that may be, actually, if you weren't a Christian, you might not have this battle. It's because your heart has been renewed and you now love what you used to hate and hate what you used to love.

When you were one of Satan's, he didn't bother with you. You were already in his grip and you were doing all of these things instinctively. Your appetite was all toward them. Yeah, maybe there was some occasional guilt or shame, but this was your nature.

But now you're wearing Christ's livery. Now you're on God's side and so Satan has turned his guns against you. And actually, the reality of the battle is one of the marks of a true child of God. And that's why these hours of temptation, this entering into temptation, is such a trial for us because it's the expression, really, of the new nature under the influence of the Holy Spirit when Satan comes roaring in against us.

So being a.

Believer, we want to take temptation seriously. Right. And what does Owen say about this hour of temptation that might aid us to avoid kind of an ignorant carelessness? You know, where we kind of find ourselves wandering into a season of extraordinary temptation and misinterpreting that.

If we sort of.

Recognizing the Hour of Temptation and Avoiding Carelessness

Upgrade some of Owen's illustrations and analogies at least slightly, you think of it almost as that the high noon analogy in the cowboy film, in the cowboy movie. We know that the bad guys in the black hats are out there on the hills and they're rustling cattle and they're shooting up the settlers and so forth, but there's a point at which the head honcho walks down the main street and the clock is striking 12 and he's got his hand over his holster and this is the point at which it's kind of do or die.

Everything is reaching a climax at this point. And even in terms of that movie analogy, that doesn't happen at the beginning of the film, that's happening toward the end. And Owen explains a little about how this pressure builds over time.

So for example he talks about what he calls long solicitations, where he talks about prevailing over other people to erode our responses of horror and pity. So if we now bring it right up to our own day, you're watching television, you're flicking through the channels and all of a sudden there's some pornographic scene that comes up.

That's momentary, but all of a sudden you've hit that hour of temptation. Right there and then, now lust is inflamed and you're now having to fight off any further pressure. Or it might be the Christian man or woman and there's a really attractive guy at school or college or a girl there and they want to be with you or they're making themselves available to you and week after week they're putting just spend some time with me, just come out with me and you know that you need to be separate from that relationship.

Perhaps you're at work and the boss wants you to fiddle the figures and everybody else in the office is doing it and they're saying, look, don't be the odd one out because then our numbers aren't going to add up.

Or you're away from home, you're on the road working and it's not the first night alone in the hotel, it's the sixth or the seventh and maybe again it's the stuff on the TV or it's the woman at the bar, it's the stuff in the minibar.

And I know we're sort of talking about some of the big things here, but it's that anger, it's that situation at home where in the morning, that was okay, but your wife or your children or your husband and you're just getting wound up and there's a time when all your buttons are being pushed.

These are the kinds of things Owen has in mind. Maybe it builds over a year or a month or a week or a day, an hour or just a minute, but there's this very suddenly or very slowly building pressure that brings you to this crunch point.

Now's the moment where I need to be ready. And Owen wants us to do two things. He wants us to see that coming and not to let the bad guy get so close that he can... Don't let the guy come up within ten yards of you and pull the gun on you.

Make sure he stays at a distance. But when that pressure builds, I want you to see it coming, I want you to be ready to defend against it and to be able to stand when that moment arrives.

In the text that you mentioned where Christ speaks to the disciples, he does give them a duty and they are to do these things so as not to enter into temptation, or we would say it in the positive way, to avoid it.

And Owen gives a statement there. He says, it is the great duty of all believers to use all diligence in the ways Christ has appointed. So we have tools that God has given us and we have means how to use those tools are explained in Scripture so that we will not fall, Owen goes on to say, so that we will not fall into temptation.

So we're going to be talking later about mortification. A very, you know, positive, a very active thing. It's not just that we are staying far away from or, you know, I think of it sometimes as an enemy is coming over the horizon, you know, of the soul and you notice at a distance you recognize what.

That is. Yeah, this is starting to build, this is happening. This is the enemy.

It doesn't matter how he dresses or what he's offering, hey, it looks different this time. So different color rope, same noose, you know. So we see it and the wise course, the course of love to our King is to immediately turn away from it, to reject it, and like you said, not to let the bad guy get close, not to let the enemy come to the front porch and have a conversation through a cracked door.

Right. So if that's one thing, then there's the mortification, the positive aspect. But as we're doing that, you know, and as a believer when we want to do that, I find that, you know, it's like you're going down, like you mentioned, you're going down a path of obedience and then there are all these other roads that look almost as good as the path of obedience.

And Owen mentions that there's a lot of mixture with temptation. He mixes, the enemy mixes a lot of good with the bad and so it just seems reasonable not to be so particular, you know. And, you know, and then there's all the false theological reasoning.

Well, God is a God of grace and maybe He doesn't care and well, there is good that will come out of this, etc. But as we see those things and we know our temptability, one of the temptations, I think, when we say to the enemy, so to speak, you know, I want nothing to do with that old life and those old ways, then the enemy whispers to us, you know, well, if you try really hard, you can avoid this.

And we turn our hope from Christ back toward ourselves and we say, okay, well, I'll get this book, I'll memorize my verses and I promise you, God, just give me a chance, I'll make you proud, you know.

And there's this misdirected hope toward ourself. So can you tell us what Owen says.

About giving any hope in your own heart? So there's a lot of things there in what you've just said that we could spend hours talking about. Some of those, you've hinted at the idea that we, I wish it weren't like this, I wish I didn't sin, I wish this didn't happen to me.

Well, if we're Christians, yes, we do, but actually there are means that God has provided. Then you've talked about the, you know, seeing the enemy gathering at a distance. So to use one of those illustrations, it's one thing for me to say, turn on a TV and all of a sudden there's something there that I don't want going into my eyes.

But let's say I've got, I don't know, in the States, what, 200 channels on some sort of satellite TV or something, and I know that there's 20 of those that have got pornography in them, and I'm just flicking through and I'm getting to that, and I keep, well, that's not entering into temptation.

You entered into temptation. You know, you can't pray and lead us not into temptation and then put yourself into temptation and say, well, the Lord didn't help me on that occasion. So there's that, those means that we use in order that we do not expose ourselves to those kind of situations.

And then, as you've mentioned again, there's the weapons that we think we use, and I've got all my texts, and I read a book on this, and I've got my accountability partners, and all this kind of stuff.

Now, some of those aren't illegitimate means, but Owen's point is that if you're trusting in yourself, if you think you're standing in your own strength, you will fall. That even in exhorting us to watch and pray, we have to understand that the sinfulness of sin, you know, there's a hatred here, but it's not enough, for example, to say, I'll look bad in front of my Christian friends if they find out.

Now, that might hold you back a little bit, but you're not going to stand against temptation if it's your own honor that you're concerned about. He talks about considerations of shame, and reproach, and honor, and loss, but he says that's fine with your public sins.

What about your heart battles? What about the things that no one else is ever going to see? Or you don't want to wound someone's conscience, or you want to preserve your own peace, or you think about the fact that sinning against God is a bad thing.

It is. I know that, but I still do it, and I can be persuaded of some of these things, and I might not want to trouble others, and I might want to preserve my reputation, but Owen says if this is as far as your battle goes, you are going to fall.

You're not going to last the course if you're relying on your own wit and wisdom, on your own strength and power. Yeah, he mentions a number of.

Things. You called attention to some that we cannot trust our hearts' motivations on their own, you know, because these motivations are not ultimately sufficient, and you mentioned some, you know, you don't want the embarrassment, you don't want to hurt someone around you, but again, like you said, the heart sins, what if you think, but nobody would know this, so the embarrassment is removed, and all your motivation for obedience is gone.

I'm with people that this wouldn't offend, so I'm going to go ahead and do it. While I wouldn't do it in front of certain people, but I'll do it in front of these kind of people, well now your motivation for obedience is gone, your motivation for watchfulness is gone.

He talks about, you know, publicly acceptable sins, and that kind of applies to that, you know, which group you're with. This group accepts this, I'll go ahead and do it, you know, and so... I'm with a.

Bunch of gossipy Christians, so that... Hey, they're all Christians, and we're all talking about the other guy, and yeah. Yeah, so, you know, a lot of these.

Motivations, while in themselves are not wicked, they are all inadequate, right, and so if it may work against one temptation type, it may work for a season, right, okay, and then we become quite confident that I've got this, you know, I wouldn't... I wouldn't do that, I'm not the kind of person that acts that way.

And typically.

That's when you go down, you know, because it's when you think you stand that you fall, and the danger of so many of these is that point of self-confidence, where you think, yeah, I think I've nailed this now.

If I use it... I remember, and I don't think it was this particular case, but I know a man who used to... he swore like a navvy when he was growing up. What's that? You got to tell us what a navvy is?

Like a... A navy man? No, like a... like a... an industrial worker of the... so he had a foul mouth, and then he was converted, and the Lord was pleased to take that away more or less overnight. He had no appetite for that kind of speech, and and grew and matured as a Christian, and then had children.

And he found in the first few years of being a father, with some of the particular pressures and frustrations, that there were words and phrases that he hadn't used for two decades that kind of bubbled up into his throat, and he was, you know, he had to fight that battle all over again.

Now he hadn't... he hadn't stopped because he was ashamed that people would hear him speak, you know, but there was another point then when that all came back, and he had to fight that battle all over again, and learn again in dependence upon Christ to watch and pray, lest he enter.

Into temptation. So on the motivational level, the heart level, we could say that those motivations which spring from a me-oriented, a me-centeredness, so what would people think of me? I don't want the bitter consequences of that sin, you know, I'm not going to steal from my boss, or I'm not going to cheat on this form, you know, just to please a co-worker, because I could lose my job, I could go to jail, you know, I could lose my family if I indulge certain sins.

The me-oriented, the grief that is all about me, you know, Judas's me-centered grief versus Peter's Christ-centered grief. Those things everyone feels, in some degree. You know, the worst man and the best natural man still has that same root that his motivations flow out of.

Even though it may look very different on the outside, that's the motivation. What about me? What will this do to me? And then there's the God-centered motives, which Christ gives us. I think one, other than the fact that these orbit God, and they're all growing out of a knowledge of who He is, what He's done for us, but one of the other evidences that it's a God-centered motivation is that it doesn't stay at the motivational level, but will result in the practical following out of Christ.

Directives. Right. So when it's all about me, there is going to come a point when the perceived pleasure of sin, to me, is greater than the perceived pain of sin to me. And if it's all about the pain that I feel versus the pleasure that I feel, that the point at which I think I'm going to get more pleasure than I would suffer pain, I will sin.

Because all those reference points are with regard to me. It's a failure to understand sin in its fundamental essence as against God. And so it's that outward looking, that upward looking, that has God and His honor and His pleasure, that holy fear of the Lord, that's got to be the great concern.

And so that's what sends us outside of ourselves and gives us those anchor points, those heart motivations that keep us with our eyes fixed upon the price. So our reference points then are not internal and therefore subjective, they're external and objective, and they're objective because they're rooted in the righteousness of God.

And so by asking, in effect, what does it look like for me to walk in obedience to my Heavenly Father? I'm watching and I'm praying lest I enter into temptation. I want to walk according to truth, according to righteousness, in paths of peace, so that I'm not... and you've said it before, you when we indulge in sin, sin promises everything and gives nothing.

Its pleasures, which are seemingly real, are really passing. And it leaves us with sourness, with bitterness, with grief, with shame. The relationship with God as our Father, there's again His fatherly displeasure, not that we come under judgment again, but that the relationship is distanced now and I need to repent.

I need to rely again upon the grace of God. But if I'm walking in obedience to my God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, if I'm keeping the word of Christ's patience, the command to persevere, that's my reference point.

That's what holds me fast.

Christ-Centered Motives and Walking in Obedience

Well, as the believer desires to express love to God in obedience, and positively and negatively, to avoid that which would displease our Father, we want to move from the motivational level and understanding this, you know, the environment we live in, and then those extraordinary seasons at times of temptation.

We want to move in our next podcast to look at what are the specific things a believer ought to be doing to avoid that which so grieves our King. We had a pastor here a few years ago who passed away with cancer, who described it in a very simple way for the young people of the church.

He said, you know, Christ has given you these robes of righteousness. Christ has washed you, and you don't want to walk over into the filth and the sewage of the old lies and sins again once you're dressed like this, you know.

I mean, when we have our rough-and-tumble, our play clothes, we don't mind rolling in the mud, but if, you know, if you wear your nice clothes, you say, I can't get over there. And so, you know, there are so many wonderful motivations to run from that which is empty toward the infinite fullness of Christ.

And, you know, and as you mentioned, there is the mercy of Christ to heal the wounded conscience when we sin, and there is grace to enable us to do exactly what we should do next, and we'll be talking about that in our next podcast.