God Can Lead Us to be Tempted by Satan (TMF:1276)

Monday, January 06, 2020
Peace to Live By: God Can Lead Us to be Tempted by Satan (TMF:1276) - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download two-minute feature)

       What I want us to see here is that because we have evil desires in our flesh, those desires can in fact lead us into temptation as we want what is not allowed. And if we don’t cast down the wrong desire, we end up sinning. So, God does not tempt us with things in order to see if we will sin or not. God already knows before the temptation comes what our response will be (see Matt. 26:34, 75). He can see our hearts, as he knows us. Secondly, though, God can and will at times lead us to be tempted by Satan, just as he did with the Lord Jesus Christ when the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wildnesses to be tempted by the devil. But God wasn’t the one doing the tempting, it was Satan who actually was doing it. With Jesus, it was a little bit different, because he didn’t have a sin-nature. He did have human flesh, and the weaknesses that comes with our flesh, but he didn’t have a sin-bent nature. God led Jesus to be tempted for his own glory, his own purposes, so that he might be tempted and yet shown guiltless.