Three Bringers of Temptation

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:9NKJV

This morning we will continue to study Westminster Larger Catechism Question 195, which

asks, “What do we pray for in the sixth petition?” The second part of the answer states: “In

the sixth petition (which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,)

acknowledging… that Satan, the world, and the flesh, are ready powerfully to draw us aside,

and ensnare us… .” Last time we saw how God is sovereign over any temptation that we

experience. And that even when God brings us to the place where we will be tempted, He

only does it for our true and everlasting good. Today we consider the enemies outside of

our souls and in our souls which are continually seeking to tempt us in order to destroy us.

The Bible is clear that there is a malevolent spirit, whose name is Satan. His most common

title is “devil,” which means slanderer or accuser. Twice in Scripture the devil is called “the

tempter” (Mat. 4:3; 1 The. 3:5), and he is the only one in the Bible given that title. To tempt

someone is to entice or allure them. It tries to get one to desire or be attracted to do

something to the point where the craving moves the will to act in order to satisfy it. Jesus

declared once in John that Satan is “a murderer” and “a liar and the father of lies,” (Joh.

8:44). The titles “liar,” “devil,” and “tempter” tell us who Satan is and how he operates. It is

the nature of Satan to seduce, in order to deceive, in order to accuse unto judgment and

destruction. Because Satan brought the first temptation—which was a half-truth making it

a whole and more dangerous lie—there is a sense in which all temptation goes back to him.

No doubt this is the meaning of Jesus when he calls Satan “the father of lies.” Satan gave

birth to the lie and it is always the lie that is used in temptation. For temptation always says

“Disobey God in some way, shape, or form and it will go better for you in this one instance.”

And that is always a lie. Because God is omniscient, omnipotent, loving righteousness and

hating iniquity, it will never go better for us if we disobey.

There are many instances in the Bible where Satan tempts directly either personally or

through one of his angels (demons), but that is not the only way temptation comes to us.

The second great enemy of the Christian, which is constantly seeking to lure us into

disobeying God, is the world. The world is not some impersonal system that somehow

exerts some kind of evil force upon us. Whenever the word “world” is used in Scripture to

refer to the enemy of our soul, it there functions as a collective noun which includes all

human beings who are in rebellion against God. We see this personal, collective aspect of

people in rebellion against God when Jesus says, “If you were of the world, the world would

love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,

therefore the world hates you,” (Joh. 15:19). Here the world is said to “love” or “hate.” Loving

and hating are activities that only rational creatures can engage in. Therefore, clearly the

“world” here means all the people who are opposed to God. In fact they are so opposed to

and filled with hatred for God that even the people whom God has chosen for Himself, they

hate, merely for the reason that God has chosen them! Contrariwise this verse says the

world promises to “love” those who join it in its rebellion against God. But this too is a lie as

the world’s love would do us no good whatsoever, for it is not in fact real love for us at all but

only a love of itself for all who join with it in its rebellious hatred of God.

The third and final enemy of the Christian is our flesh. “Flesh” here does not mean physical

body but it is often used to refer to our old sinful natures. If you are a Christian you have a

new nature that loves God and wants to obey Him, but if you are not in glory then you also

still have to deal with your old sinful desires, which do not entirely go away at conversion.

The remaining attraction for evil which believers have is what the Bible refers to as flesh or

even the “old man” (Rom 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9). The only reason the world and the devil are

able to successfully tempt us to sin is because part of us still loves sin. Thus it is written,

“each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (Jam. 1:14).

And so we see that even apart from Satan and this God-hating world, we still need God’s

help to overcome the temptation we bring to ourselves. May God grant us increasing

victories over all three of our mortal enemies.