Temptations and Trials Are God’s Gifts

Temptations and Trials Are God’s Gifts

Ephesians 3:3b

I thought we would start with what we’ve studied last time I was here and that sort of thing, so that we maintain continuity. We are in Ephesians, and we may actually be further than this verse, but I thought at least I’d start at Verse 4 and actually read Verse 3 as an introduction. It’s Ephesians 3 and if you go back to verse 2 you’ll get the movement of the sentence. Ephesians 3:2, “Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.”

“The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.” And the mystery you remember is the mystery of Christ. And what we have begun to see clearly is that Christ is not just -- and I mean that is a great thing -- but he is not just the expression of God in the years 6 BC to 29 AD. But in fact, he is the one in whom all of us were made and in whom all of us exist. And that’s part of the mystery. And you remember where he talks, he says, “How the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly,” one assumes that it was what he had written in Colossians that he is referring to, Colossians 1:26. He talks there about, “The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And so there he defines the mystery.

The mystery is that Christ is not simply the person that lived from 6 BC to 29 AD, but he is the person who is inside each of us. And you may say, “Well why does he connect that up with, 'How great among the Gentiles,'?" You see in verse 27, "To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Well because he’s saying, “The Gentiles are part of this blessing. They’re part of this mystery. Christ is in them and they are in Christ and they will not be lost because, 'they’re not in Christ'; because 'they don’t believe they’re in Christ.'” But they don’t have to get into Christ. They don’t have to get up into the same level as the Jews are with the benefits of their laws, and their tabernacle, and their sacrificial system. They do not have to jump up 'into' that system. They are already in that position.

And you remember, that is made clear in several verses by Paul. Colossians 1:15 first of all deals with the fact that every one of us were made inside Christ. “He,” Jesus, “Is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” Jesus was the first human being born of creation. “For in him all things were created.” Everything, you see! Every Gentile, and you and me, and Hitler [Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945, Austrian-born German politician, leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, the main cause of World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust, the torture and execution of millions] even, and Bin Laden [Osama Bin Laden, 1957 – 2011, Saudi Arabian, founder of al-Qaeda, the militant organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets]. “For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” And that’s the mystery that Paul is talking about.

The mystery is that every one of us were made inside Jesus, or we have used the verse often, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus," [Ephesians 2:10]. And each one of us were made in Jesus, and Jesus is in each one of us. And of course it makes a big difference. It takes away all that lying that people indulge in, and that we ourselves indulged in, where we thought we aren’t good enough for God to forgive us. We used that often to keep ourselves independent of him. But in a sense and in fact, there is no place, no way in which we can say that, because all of us were made inside Jesus. God put us into his Son and we are alive because of Jesus’ life pulsing through us. And we lose the advantage of that by refusing to believe that. But we will – well we've said ourselves, “You cannot – you’ll never be thrown out of Jesus." You may ignore him, but you’ll never be thrown out of him. You are created inside him.

And then you remember, in Romans Paul went further than that, because he said, “You’re not only created in Jesus but all that you have corrupted inside yourself has been destroyed in him.” Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” So that everyone has actually been put right in Christ. And of course that deals with the whole problem we have of, "How can I ever changed? How will I ever get any better? How can I avoid my sins?" Well, because you have been changed in Jesus, and he is inside you, and all you need to do is let him act inside you, and he will overcome those things for you.

And that’s what is finally said by Paul in Ephesians 2:4 you remember. He outlines all of what we’ve just said; he outlines it all in one sentence. “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And that’s the fact.

Well I haven’t my [white] board, but if I had it, I would put up "Fact." And I’d make the little engine [train engine], and I’d say [chuckling], “That’s the engine, and the next carriage is 'Faith,' and the last carriage is 'Feeling.' And the engine always needs to pull. The 'Fact' needs to govern the 'Faith', and that governs the 'Feelings'! And when it turns round the other way around and the 'Feeling' becomes the engine, and it drags the 'Faith' down after it, and that destroys the effect of the 'Facts'.”

And I’d mention to you again, I think we often get caught in that simple process. And I think the way we get caught is we say, “Well yes, I shouldn’t let my feelings affect whether I really believe that I am in Christ at God’s right hand, and whether I have been really raised above all my difficulties, and whether God has in Jesus met every problem in my life and has resolved it, and has made the crooked thing straight. I should not let that depend on my feelings. But I do need to think about it a bit! I mean, there are times when I’m really convinced that that’s the situation. But there are other times when I feel I really need to give myself a good brainwashing. And so those times, I want to live in the fact that I am at God’s right hand, and I want to rejoice in that, but I just need to check back on these questions I have in my mind, or these little bits of doubts, or this uncertainty, or this little issue that has come up that I need to think about."

And I think it’s very easy to say, “Yes, I’m not governed by my feelings.” But yet you are governed by thoughts, and questions, and reasoning’s, and doubts that keep you, at the 'critical moment', from dwelling on the fact that, "'God who is rich in mercy towards us, out of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses,' when we were in a worst mess than we are at this moment, he 'raised us up and made us sit with him in the heavenly places.' And that’s where I am."

"That’s where I am. What ever this car is like; whatever noise it’s making that it didn’t make before; whatever kind of rain is dripping down the back of my neck; whatever miserable things this buyer has just said to me about our beautiful jewelry, I am at God’s right hand." And it seems to me that we’re back to that little train. The engine is the fact, and the facts are there in Ephesians 2 and those verses. And if we fix our faith on those facts, the feelings will come along. But if we accept Satan’s trickery, and his very reasonable, “Hath God said you shall not eat of the...,” and it usually is that kind of thing. “And has God taken care of this too?” And you go like the engine driver; you go back to where the guard is and the caboose is at the end just to check, “Well I'd better just check.” And I think that’s where the trouble comes in.

I think we go back just to check and to think it through again, rather than settling on the fact, and staying with the fact, and making that upper most in our minds and our heads, even by repeating these verses. “Lord I thank you, that you, even when I was dead in my trespasses and sins, out of the great love with which you have loved me, made me alive together with Christ, and raised me up with him, and made me sit with him in the heavenly places -- with you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages you might show forth the riches of your grace and kindness towards me.” And if we would do that I think oft we would not dwell in the doldrums. And I think we end up in the doldrums not just because we’ve let our feelings take control, but often because we’ve let our minds deal with some of the – what we think are the questions.

I’m not recommending that you read this, because it’s seems to me to be a book that you read very slowly. And I’m just reading very slowly, and I’m not ready to go on further yet. Dr. Michael de Molinos [Miguel de Molinos, 1628 – 1696, Spanish mystic, the chief representative of the religious revival known as Quietism.]. When did he write it? 1685. And what happened to him? The judges and the Benedictines got him, and he died in prison, yes. So he’s in the whole tradition of Guyon [Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon, 1648 - 1717, French mystic and advocate of Quietism, but never called herself a Quietist], and Fenelon [François Fénelon, 1651 - 1715, French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer]. But he has just some great words and I’ll try to read just a little, and then I’ll explain it to you.

I’ll hold onto its old English. It’s translated by Douglas McFadden who lived, believe it or not, in Letchworth in Hertfordshire here. Yes, and he wrote this introduction in Letchworth, and wrote it probably in 1948, I think or so. No, it doesn’t say but probably reasonably recently. But this is Molinos, “Thou art to know then that temptation is thy great happiness.” Those things that happen to us that try to force you back, the train the other way around. They try to force you to concentrate on your feelings, or your events, or experiences. “Thou art to know then that temptation is thy great happiness. So that the more it besets thee, the more thou oughtest to rejoice in peace instead of being sad, and to thank God for the favor he does thee.” What is the favor God does you? Here it is, “I have put you in my Son. I’ve raised you up and made you sit with me. I want you to believe that, and to live in the reality of that. And to check out if you are, I’ll let something happen to you that makes you question it.” And I think that’s it.

That God has so arranged our lives here on this earth so that we will constantly -- and I think this is the error we make: we think, “Well we know it won’t be a flowery path. No, he didn’t promise me a rose garden. But it should be on the whole successful and victorious. And there will be dark moments but those will be dark moments.” And God says, “No, no I’m going to bring a lot of things to you,” and he thinks of Marty Overby, "No pain, no gain." And he says, “If there’s no pain there’s no gain." "You’re untried if you believe it all with nothing contradicting the facts that I’ve given you. You’re untried, and so I’m telling you I’ve done this. You are at my right hand; you’re with me, and I have overcome these things that are making your life difficult. But, I need you to believe that, and I will continue to bring things to you and try you.”

“In all these temptations and odious thoughts the remedy that is to work is to despise them with a stayed neglect because nothing more afflicts the proud devil than to see that he is slighted and despised, as are all things else that he suggests to us, and therefore thou art to tarry with them as one that perceives him not, and to posses thyself in thy peace without repining.” And I thought this was the useful phrase, “And without multiplying reasons and answers.” "Without multiplying reasons and answers."

That’s where I got the 'thinking thing' from. I thought, it’s often not just our feelings but, “Well we’ll reason this out. Well we’ll work it out. Well I’ll persuade myself somehow that this is true. Maybe if I could look at it a different way, I’d see that it’s true.” God says, “I told you it’s true. Just believe me. Don’t play around; don’t play mental games with yourself; just believe me and get going.”

[Resumes reading] “And without multiplying reasons and answers seeing nothing is more dangerous than to vie,” (and of course it’s Old English,) “Than to vie in reasons with him who is ready to deceive thee." "Nothing is more dangerous than to vie,” (to 'vie' is to fight). “Nothing is more dangerous than to fight in reasons with him who is ready to deceive thee.”

And of course it does make you think back to the Garden of Eden, “Hath God said?” And you remember the way we used to say, “Satan’s first approach to Eve and to Adam was in their minds, ‘Hath God said?' 'Has he said you shouldn’t eat of...?' 'Is there any tree of the gar...?' 'You say he loves you, but is there any tree of the Garden that he’s told you not to eat of it? If he has then how can he love you?'” So that’s why Molinos says, “Without multiplying reasons and answers seeing nothing is more dangerous than to vie in reasons with him who is ready to deceive thee. The saints in arriving at holiness passed through this doleful valley of temptation, and the greater saints they were, the greater temptations they grappled with. Nay, after the saints have attained to holiness and perfection, the Lord suffers them to be tempted with brisk temptations that their crown may be the greater and that the spirit of vain glory may be checked, or else hindered from entering in them, keeping them in that manner, secure, humble, and solicitous of their condition. Finally, thou art to know that the greatest temptation is to be without temptation.”

You see we have an utterly different attitude, which of course prepares us to be laid flat on our backs every time. We hate temptation. And we think we shouldn’t be anywhere near it, and we think we shouldn’t have to deal with it. And he says, “Finally thou art to know the greatest temptation...” And I’m sorry, I should say too, that temptation for him of course is not only tempting to do evil, but also trial; also trial. They are both -- both of them are just variations. I mean temptation really covers temptation to do evil, or incitement to do evil and trials that make life difficult, because they’re both checking you on the same thing: is your faith in God? Is your faith in what God has done to you in Jesus?

“Finally thou art to know that the greatest temptation is to be without temptation. Wherefore thou oughtest to be glad when it assaults thee.” And I went back to, "Greet it as pure joy when you enter into various trials." Because I have usually received that as, “Well that’s my job, that’s what I ought to do. I mean, it’s hard but I ought to be a stoic, and I ought to greet is with pure joy. Oh how do you greet it? But I ought to rejoice.” He’s pointing out, this is a gift; this is a gift to you. Temptation and trial is a gift from God, because it’s his way of strengthening you by testing: "Do you believe this?" He’s giving you another opportunity to fly up into the position that he’s given you at his right hand. So he’s almost driving you from the earth by it.

“Wherefore thou ought is to be glad when it assaults thee, and with resignation, peace and constancy resisted, because if thou wilt serve God and arrive at the sublime region of internal peace, thou must pass through that rugged path of temptation, put on that heavy armor, fight in that fierce and cruel war, and in that burning furnace, polish, purge, renew, and purify thyself.”

It seemed to me realistic. It seemed to me real. And I just lay it before you and ask you to think about it, and to see that there is a way to live in constant victory. And it certainly is not by giving a lot of attention to what he [Satan] is saying, but as Molinos says, “Neglect him; neglect him. And turn up and be filled with the facts that God has given you.”

Let us pray.