And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
— Luke 22:46
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
— 1 Peter 5:8
Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
— Psalm 119:4-5
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
— Psalm 119:35-37
What Temptation Is, by John Owen. The following contains Chapter One of his work, ‘Of Temptation: The Nature And Power Of It; The Danger Of Entering Into It; And The Means Of Preventing That Danger:with A Resolution Of Various Cases Belonging To It.” 1658.
Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
— Revelation 3:10
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.
— Matthew 26:41 a, b
Introduction
These words of our Savior are repeated with very little alteration in three evangelists. However, whereas Matthew and Mark have recorded them as written above, Luke reports them in this way: “Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation” Luk 22:46. So, the whole of His caution seems to have been: Arise, watch, and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation.
Solomon tells us of some that lie “upon the top of a mast…in the midst of the sea” Pro 23:34—that is, men overborne by security in the mouth of destruction. If ever poor souls lay down on the top of a mast in the midst of the sea, these disciples with our Savior in the garden did so. Their Master, at a little distance from them, was offering “up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears” Heb 5:7. He was then taking into His hand and beginning to taste that cup which was filled with the curse and wrath due to their sins. On the other hand, the Jews, armed for His and their destruction, were but a little more distant from them. Our Savior had a little before informed them that that night He should be betrayed, and be delivered up to be slain. They saw that He was “sorrowful and very heavy” Mat 26:37; nay, He told them plainly that His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” v. 38. He therefore entreated them to tarry and watch with Him, because now He was dying, and that for them.
In this condition, leaving them but a little space, like men forsaken of all love towards Him or care of themselves, they fall fast asleep ! Even the best of saints, being left to themselves, will quickly appear to be less than men—to be nothing ! All our own strength is weakness, and all our wisdom folly. Peter is one of them who, but a little before, had with so much self-confidence affirmed that though all men forsook Him, yet he never would so do. Our Savior earnestly discusses the matter in particular with him: “He saith unto Peter, Could you not watch with me one hour?” Mat 26:40—as if He should have said, “Are you he, Peter, who just now boasted of your resolution never to forsake Me? Is it likely that you should hold to this, when you cannot watch with Me one hour? Is this your dying for Me, to be dead in security when I am dying for you?” And indeed, it would be hard for us to believe that Peter should make so high a promise, and be immediately so careless and remiss in the pursuit of it, except that we find the root of the same treachery abiding and working in our own hearts, and see the fruit of it brought forth every day when the most noble engagements unto obedience quickly end in deplorable negligence Rom 7:18.
In this estate, our Savior admonishes them of their condition, their weakness, their danger, and stirs them up to a prevention of that ruin which lay at the door. He says, Arise, watch, and pray.
I shall not insist on the particular matter aimed at here by our Savior in this caution to those then present with Him. The great temptation that was coming on them, from the scandal of the cross, was doubtless in His eye. But I shall consider the words as containing a general direction to all the disciples of Christ in their following Him throughout all generations. There are three things in the words:
The evil cautioned against: temptation;
The means of its prevalence: by our entering into it;
The way of preventing it: to watch and pray.
The first point is considered in this chapter: what temptation is. The second point will be considered in chapters 2, 3, and 4. The third point will be considered in chapters 5, 6, and 7.
It is not in my thoughts to handle the common-place of temptations, but only the danger of them in general, with the means of preventing that danger. However, so that we may know what we affirm and whereof we speak, some concerns regarding the general nature of temptation may be laid down first.
Temptation’s General Nature: As a Trial
Temptation has both a general and a special nature, and its special nature has both active and passive aspects.
First, the general nature of tempting and temptation lies among things indifferent; to try, to experiment, to prove, to pierce a vessel so that the liquor that is in it may be known, is as much as is signified by it. So God is said to tempt sometimes. And we are commanded as our duty to tempt, try, or search ourselves in order to know what is in us; and to pray that God would do so also. So temptation is like a knife, which may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.
Secondly, temptation, in its special nature as it denotes any evil, is considered either a actively, as it leads to evil, or b passively, as it has an evil and suffering in it. In this way, temptation is taken for affliction Jam 1:2; for in this passive sense, we are to “count it all joy when we fall into…temptations.” In the other active sense, we are to “enter not into it.”
Again, actively considered, temptation denotes one of two things:
Temptation can denote the general nature and result of temptation, which is trial; in this way “God did tempt Abraham” Gen 22:1. He also proves or tempts by false prophets Deu 13:3.
Or, in the tempter, there is a design for the bringing about of the special goal of temptation, namely, a leading into evil; so it is said that God does not tempt any man with a design for sin as such Jam 1:13. See the next section,
3. Temptation’s Special Nature: To Evil.
Now, as to God’s tempting of anyone, two things are to be considered: a The purpose for which He does it; b The way by which He does it.
a. Why God tempts men
For the first, His general purposes are two —
1. To show man what is in him
God tests man in order to show unto man what is in him, that is, the man himself; and that either as to his grace or to his corruption. I speak not now of temptation as it may have a place and bear a part in judicial hardening.6 Grace and corruption lie deep in the heart; men oftentimes deceive themselves in the search after the one or the other of them. When we give vent to the soul to try what grace is there, corruption comes out; and when we search for corruption, grace appears. So is the soul kept in uncertainty: we fail in our trials. God comes with a gauge that goes to the bottom. He sends His instruments of trial into the bowels and the inmost parts of the soul, and lets man see what is in him, of what metal he is constituted.
Thus God tempted Abraham to show him his faith. Abraham knew not what faith he had I mean, what power and vigor was in his faith, until God drew it out by that great trial and temptation Gen 22:1-2. When God says He knew it, He made Abraham to know it. In the same way He tried Hezekiah to discover his pride; God left him that he might see what was in his heart 2Ch 32:31. Hezekiah did not know that he had such a proud heart, so apt to be lifted up, as he appeared to have, until God tried him, and so let out his filth and poured it out before his face. The results of such discoveries to the saints—in thankfulness, humiliation, and treasuring up of experiences—I shall not treat of.
2. To reveal God Himself to man
God does it to show Himself unto man, and that
a. In a way of preventing grace. A man shall see that it is God alone who keeps from all sin. Until we are tempted, we think we live on our own strength. We think that though all men do this or that, we will not. When the trial comes, we quickly see from where our preservation comes, by standing or falling. So was it in the case of Abimelech, when God said, “I also withheld thee” Gen 20:6.
b. In a way of renewing grace. God would have the temptation continue with Paul, that He might reveal Himself to him in the sufficiency of His renewing grace 2Co 12:9. We know not the power and strength that God puts forth on our behalf, nor what is the sufficiency of His grace, until it appears unto us as we compare the temptation with our own weakness. The effectiveness of an antidote is found when poison has been taken; and the preciousness of medicines is made known by diseases. We shall never know what strength there is in grace, if we know not what strength there is in temptation. We must be tried, that we may be made sensible of being preserved. And God has many other good and gracious purposes that He accomplishes towards His saints by His trials and temptations, on which I will not now elaborate.
b. How God tempts men
For the ways by which God accomplishes His search, trial, or temptation, these are some of them.
1. Great duties. God puts men on great duties, such as they cannot apprehend that they have any strength for, nor indeed have. He tempted Abraham in this way, by calling him to that duty of sacrificing his son—a thing absurd to reason, bitter to nature, and grievous to him on all accounts whatever. Many men know not what is in them, or rather what is ready for them, until they are put upon what seems utterly above their strength; indeed, upon what is actually above their strength. The duties that God requires at our hands in an ordinary way are not proportioned to what strength we have in ourselves, but to what help and relief is laid up for us in Christ. We are to address ourselves to the greatest performances with a settled persuasion that we have not ability for the least. This is the law of grace; and yet, when any duty is required that is extraordinary, this is a secret not often discovered. In the yoke of Christ, it is a trial, a temptation.
2. Great sufferings. God puts men in great sufferings. How many have unexpectedly found strength to die at a stake, to endure tortures for Christ ! Yet their call to it was a trial. This, Peter tells us, is one way by which we are brought into trying temptations 1Pe 1:6-7. Our temptations arise from the “fiery trial”; and yet the end is but a trial of our faith.
3. Providential occasions for sin. God providentially disposes of things so that occasions unto sin will be administered unto men, which is the case mentioned in Deuteronomy 13:3. Innumerable other instances could be added.
Temptation’s Special Nature: To Evil
Now, it is not properly the temptations of God, as coming from Him, with His design upon them, that is here intended; and therefore I shall set these apart from our present consideration. What I intend, then, is temptation in its special nature, as it denotes an active influence towards sinning as it is managed with evil, unto evil.
a. The world, the flesh, and the devil
In this sense, temptation may proceed either singly from Satan, or the world, or other men in the world, or from ourselves, or jointly from all or some of them in combination.
1. Satan tempts sometimes singly by himself, without taking advantage from the world the things or persons of it or ourselves. He deals this way in his injection of evil and blasphemous thoughts of God into the hearts of the saints; which is his own work alone, without any advantage from the world or our own hearts. This is because nature will contribute nothing to this, nor anything that is in the world, nor any man of the world—for none can conceive a God and conceive evil of Him. Satan is alone in this sin, and shall be so in the punishment. These fiery darts are prepared in the forge of his own malice, and shall, with all their venom and poison, be turned into his own heart forever.
2. The world. Sometimes Satan makes use of the world, and joins forces against us, without any helps from within ourselves. So he tempted our Savior by showing “him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” Mat 4:8. The variety of the assistances he finds from the world is inexpressible, in persons and things on which I must not elaborate, the innumerable instruments and weapons he takes from it, of all sorts and at all seasons.
3. The flesh. Sometimes Satan takes assistance from ourselves also. It is not with us as it was with Christ when Satan came to tempt Him. Christ declares that he “hath nothing in me” Joh 14:30. It is otherwise with us: he has, for the compassing of most of his goals, a willing participator within our own breasts Jam 1:14-15. Thus he tempted Judas: Judas himself was at work, and Satan put it into his heart to betray Christ. “Then entered Satan into Judas” for that purpose Luk 22:3. And Satan sets the world at work: the things of it, providing money for Judas “They covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver,” Mat 26:15; and the men of it, even the priests and the Pharisees. And Satan calls in the assistance of Judas’ own corruption: he was covetous, “a thief, and had the bag” Joh 12:6.
I might also show how the world and our own corruptions do act singly by themselves, and jointly in conjunction with Satan and one another, in this business of temptation. But the truth is, the principles, ways, and means of temptations the kinds, degrees, effectiveness, and causes of them are so inexpressibly large and various; the circumstances of them from providence, natures, conditions, spiritual and natural, with the particular cases arising from them so innumerable and impossible to be comprised within any bound or order, that to attempt the giving an account of them would be to undertake that which would be endless. I shall content myself to give a description of the general nature of that which we are to watch against; which will make way for what I aim at.
b. Descriptions
Temptation, then, in general, is any thing, state, way, or condition that, upon any account whatever, has a force or effectiveness to seduce, to draw the mind and heart of a man from its obedience that God requires of him, into any sin, in any degree of it whatever.
In particular, a temptation to any man is that which causes or occasions him to sin, or in anything to go off from his duty, either by bringing evil into his heart, or drawing out that evil which is in his heart, or in any other way diverting him from communion with God and that constant, equal, universal obedience, in matter and manner, that is required of him.
For the clearing of this description I shall only observe that—though temptation seems to be of a more active importance, and so to denote only the power of seduction to sin itself—yet in the Scripture, it is commonly taken in a neutral sense, and denotes the matter of the temptation or the thing whereby we are tempted. And this is a basis for the description I have given of it. Be it what it will, from anything whatever, within us or without us, having advantage to hinder in duty, or to provoke unto or in any way to occasion sin—that is a temptation, and is to be looked on as such. Be it business, employment, course of life, company, affections, nature; or corrupt design, relations, delights, name, reputation, esteem, abilities, personal qualities or excellencies of body or mind, place, dignity, art—so far as they further or occasion the promotion of the ends before mentioned, they are all of them no less truly temptations than the most violent solicitations of Satan or allures of the world. That soul who discerns it not lies at the brink of ruin. And this will be further discovered in our process.
https://takeupcross.com
takeupcross
Take Up the Cross 