Testing vs Temptation

Text:  Genesis 22:11-13:  11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."  12 He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."  and Mark 1.  13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.  INTRODUCTION: My dear Friends in Christ, The movie "Rent-a-Kid" starring Leslie Nielson has an opening segment that shows a dream sequence. [Video]  Little Molly is an orphan who just gets adopted. Her new family is extremely wealthy and has everything a child could want materialistically speaking. They even have their own merry-go-round in the house. The new parents tell Molly she can have anything or go anywhere in the house she pleases. She's just not allowed to go into this one room. It's off limits! Molly let's curiosity get the best of her and opens the door. On the other side she finds it is an exit to the outside with her new parents standing by a car waiting to take her back to the orphanage. Her parents are taunting her with phrases about how she just couldn't listen and do what she was told. It's back to the orphanage as she screams and then wakes up. Here we see both a temptation and a testing.  Over-all it’s a test, but opening that door when told not too is a temptation. But sometimes it is hard to distinguish between temptation and testing.  One way to distinguish the difference, for our purposes, is to note who’s doing the tempting or testing and the purpose of the tempting or testing.
I. First let us look at testing
	A. When God told Abraham to offer up his only son on Mt. Moriah as a sacrifice, He wasn’t tempting Abraham to sin, He was testing him. So God tests.
		1. And it’s for His purposes and for Abraham’s good.
			a. The first thing God tells Abraham to do is "Take your son," Isaac is the focal point. And that's the problem. Isaac was not only Abraham's pride and joy, Abraham had begun letting his love for Isaac push his love for God out of the center of his life. And if God was going to raise up a great nation through Abraham, then God had to remain the central focus in Abraham's life.  b. You could look at it like this: Many years ago some missionaries were going into a remote corner of Africa to work with a primitive tribe. The missionaries were uncertain about how they would be received, so they decided to give the tribe a gift as a sign of goodwill. As they flew over the area a bright, shiny new plow was parachuted down to the tribe. The plow would help the natives as they farmed. At least that was the missionaries’ intent. They were unprepared for what they found a few days later when they arrived at the encampment. The natives had never seen a plow before. They hadn’t a clue as to what this strange-looking instrument which had dropped out of the sky was used for. Not knowing what to do with it, they had put the plow on a pedestal and were worshiping it!  The plow was designed to help them farm. It was designed for use in the fields, not to be revered. But the members of that primitive tribe didn't know that, so the plow became an ornament, rather than a tool! God didn’t want Isaac to be an ornament, an idol.  He didn’t want to take second place. That would not be good for Abraham.
		2. .God was taking that Spirit-wrought faith which is reckoned as righteousness and putting it through the refining fire to show Abraham and all of us what it means to trust God’s promise.
			a. The harder the test got for Abraham, the more he focused on the promises of God. b. This text is really not about what you must do to strengthen your faith, but about what God has done so that your faith might be strengthened; c. The Lord puts our faith to the test and then he strengthens our faith in his promises and all this is done out of love.
	B. .And with testing there’s always comes a way out. God isn’t into breaking faith but building it.
		1.. For Isaac the way out was a ram caught in the thicket-- A substitute sacrifice.
			a. This is the Jesus-point. That’s where all of God’s testing of faith, in all the trials and pains and sufferings of this life are intended to bring us, to the Jesus-point. b. “God will provide,” faithful Abraham said. God did provide.
		2. The Lord who gave Abraham a strong faith strengthened that faith. The Lord further strengthens Abraham’s faith by providing a ram that he could use for the sacrifice.  He took the ram and offered it to the Lord in the place of his son Isaac.  He also called that very special place, “The Lord Provides.”
II. And we are brought to see that there is a vast difference between testing and temptation.
	A. God tempts no one. James is clear on that, and we need to be clear on that too (James 1:12-18). God does not dangle sin in front of our eyes and then dare us to disobey. That’s the work of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh.
		1. Temptation begins with desire, the heart unbuckled from God. The heart that does not “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”  The heart that is self-curved in on itself. Desire births sin, and sin matured gives birth to death. But don’t blame God for that. It’s in you.
				a. And the result is like what happened when they were renovating the Queen Mary. This gracious old vessel was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. Through four decades and a World War this ocean liner served its owners well. Then it was retired to Long Beach, California where it is anchored as a floating hotel and museum. During its conversion to its present status, its three massive smoke-stacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock these massive pieces of steel crumbled. Actually that is not quite true. There was nothing left to crumble. Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away. b. Is that not an analogy of what happens to some people's character? They give into temptation time and time again, until their inner moral fiber is eaten away.
		2. Subjected to temptation, we daily sin much.
				a. You are tempted. Some temptations you identify, fight tooth-and-nail, and still give in. b. Others come so naturally that you've sinned before you know it, or perhaps don't know it.
	B. And we are brought to realize that Jesus does not endure and resist temptation to set an example, to show us that it can be done. Too often this is how this text is preached: "Jesus did it, so can you."
		1. But born in sin and constantly plagued by the devil, the world and our sinful flesh, there is no way that we can resist temptation perfectly.
				a. If the point of Jesus' temptation is that we must perfectly imitate Him to be saved, then we will only find despair. We can't do it. b. That's why Jesus did it for us, and gives us the credit for His perfect work.
		2. He does this on the way to the cross, where He sheds His blood for us; and by His death our lives are won. Now, the Father looks upon His repentant people and says, "When I look upon you, I don't see your sins-the many times you gave into temptation and followed the devil's whispers. I don't see any of that because My Son has switched with you. He's taken your load of sin onto Himself, and He's given you the credit for His resistance to temptation. You're forgiven, because I see no sin on you."
III. So the answer to both testing and temptation is… Jesus.
	A. First there’s a parallel between what God does and with our OT text because what Abraham almost did in his offer of his only son on Mt. Moriah is exactly what God Himself would do on Mt. Calvary.
		1. And the parallel goes further.  Abraham saddles a donkey for the journey...Jesus rides a donkey toward Jerusalem and the cross. Abraham takes two men, his servants, with them...Jesus is placed between two men on Golgotha. Abraham laid the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac...the cross was laid upon Jesus for Him to carry. It was a three-day journey to Mt. Moriah...Jesus was in the tomb until the third day. Abraham bound his son to the wood upon the altar...God’s Son was bound to the altar of the cross. 2. And yet no angel called from heaven to put a stop to Jesus’ sacrifice. No ram was offered up as a substitute in place of Jesus. Instead, Jesus was offered up as the Lamb of God as the substitute for you. “Where is the lamb?” Isaac asked his father as they journeyed together. The answer is seen as Jesus bows His head and dies. He is the Lamb. He is the one who is sacrificed for Isaac, for you, and for every sinner
	B. And second in our Gospel Jesus is tempted. Jesus takes our humanity in its most weakened state – hungry, thirsty, alone, vulnerable – and faces the full blast of our temptation, He emerges victorious.
		1. He conquers in weakness, not strength. The secret power of the cross is revealed here.
				a. This Jesus conquers the devil’s might with strength hidden in weakness, in total reliance on the Word. b. God, who spared Abraham’s son, did not spare His own Son in order to save you.  So Jesus resists temptation for you, so that He might give you the credit for His work.
		2. The Gospel includes the joyous truth that Jesus gives you His righteousness even as He takes away your sin: so when God looks at you, He sees you as His holy child.
CONCLUSION:  There will be times when you must walk as Abraham did for those three days, trusting and obedient to God’s Word even when it seems to make no sense at all. He may be testing us to strengthen our faith.  There are times when we are like that little girl who did not resist temptation and her conscience kept on saying “it’s your fault.” But you know that in either case the Lord is with you. You know that He has delivered us. You know this because you know that Jesus resisted temptation for us.  And God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up at the cross for our redemption. He is the Lamb whom God provides to save, who took our place on the cross and for His sake we are forgiven all of our sins.  Amen.