Why God Lets Satan Tempt Us

Tonight we study the question, Why Does God Let Satan Tempt us, or as Thomas Watson puts it in this next section of his teaching through the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (And Lead Us Not into Temptation but Deliver Us from Evil), “Why does God suffer his saints to be buffeted by Satan’s temptations?” The short answers are: 1) to test our sincerity, love, and courage; 2) to keep us from pride; 3) to be more fit to comfort others in the same distress; and 4) to make us long more for heaven. We were also pointed to the very pastoral Westminster Confession of Faith 5:5 on God’s providential use of our temptations and sins.