Think how many temptations you and I face in an ordinary day. Staying in bed late - the temptation to laziness. Growling at the breakfast table - the temptation to unkindness. Arguing over who should change the baby this time - the temptation to selfishness. Starting work 10 minutes late - the temptation to slothfulness. Losing your temper when a co-worker crashes your computer - the temptation to impatience. Flirting with that good-looking woman, taking a second look at the good-looking man - the temptation to lust. Refusing to speak to a person who has hurt you - the temptation to malice. Repeating a juicy story of your neighbor’s misfortune - the temptation to gossip. Lying awake at night thinking sensual thoughts - the temptation to impurity. Taking your anger out on the children after a hard day - the temptation to cruelty. Going out to eat when you can’t afford it - the temptation to self-indulgence. Having a second helping and then a third - the temptation to gluttony. Firing off a hasty letter to a friend who hurt you - the temptation to revenge.
Struggling to make ends meet on a first-call salary, the pastor was livid when he confronted his wife with the receipt for a $250 dress she had bought. “How could you do this?!” he asked. “I was outside the store looking at the dress in the window, and then I found myself trying it on,” she explained. “It was like satan was whispering in my ear, 'You look fabulous in that dress. Buy it!'” “well,” the pastor replied, “You know how I deal with that kind of temptation. I say, 'Get behind me, Satan!” “I did,” replied his wife, “but then he said, 'It looks fabulous from back here, too!'”
We want to live Christian lives, but find ourselves tempted to do what we know is wrong, and often acting on those temptations. It's frustrating isn't it. The Apostle Paul had the same frustrations and expressed it like this (Romans 7:14-15)
'I can see that God's law is good and that I should obey it. But I find that the things I determine I should do I cannot do. I try but I fail. In fact, the very things I don't want to do, those things forbidden in the law, those are the very things I end up doing. If I understand that I have no power to do what I know I should do, but rather I do the things I know I shouldn't, then where am I going to find deliverance from myself? Who's going to deliver me from this body of death?' I am sure that everyone here will have to agree with Paul and say "AMEN Paul that’s exactly how I feel".
How do we deal with temptations like these?
Let's take a little trip all the way back to the garden of Eden.
Here are Adam and Eve living the good life. They have prosperity – there is sufficiency for every one of their needs. They have pleasure – it's all there for their fulfillment. They have power – they have influence over every creature. They have prestige – God regards them enough to walk and talk with them in the cool of every evening. They have prominence – God has made them the pinnacle of creation, and has created them in His own image. They are in the garden and they have the 5 P's – prosperity, pleasure, power, prestige and prominence. There's nothing to tempt them with, they already have everything that could be desired. That's how God created it to be. Life was good. And God declared it so. What happened?
Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
God provided everything Adam and Eve would ever need or want. Satan came along. Did he tempt them with power, pleasure, prosperity, prestige and prominence? He couldn't, because he didn't have those to give and Adam and Eve already enjoyed those to the fullest. The serpent said, “You can't trust God for everything. You need to go after what you want on your own. Here, take a bite.”
Let's jump some centuries to Christ. Just a few days ago, he was at the river Jordan being baptized in obedience to his Father, who had publicly declared Jesus was his son in whom he was well pleased in the presence of a well recognized preacher prophet along with other religious leaders/teachers and a large crowd of his followers. Now, again in obedience to his Father, he was in the desert.
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Again Satan says, “Go after what you want on your own. Here, take a bite.”
Adam and Eve had everything and they took the bite.
Jesus gave up everything, and he didn't take the bite.
The difference was trust. Even though God had given them everything, Adam and Eve didn't trust their Creator. Even though Jesus gave up prosperity, pleasure, power, prestige and prominence and knew that persecution, personal betrayal, and perishing on a cross lay before him, he trusted His Father.
Temptation comes from not trusting God when he says,
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Adam's and Eve's lack of trust leads to disobedience and loss.
Christ's trust leads to obedience, even to the cross.
Adam's and Eve's disobedience leads them to desire what they lost.
Christ's obedience leads him to regain all that becoming human had cost.
Before we go any further, I want to clear up a misconception concerning temptation:
How many times have you heard – or said — “God is/was testing me/you,” “God won’t give you more than you can handle!”, or “God has put me/you through a heavy trial!”, or something similar? The culturally expected response is usually respectful sympathy, and a few “piety points” to the credit of the speaker. Why does it so seldom occur to anyone to reply, as the apostle James did (1:13-14), “But God doesn’t DO that!” ?
There are four different words that have been translated “trial” — each only once in the entire New Testament. Dokime, classically defined “to test or assay, to approve or sanction, to examine and admit to a class” , in Paul’s second letter to Corinth (8:2); dokimion (the means by which a test is made) in I Peter 1:7; peira (trial, attempt, experience) in Heb.11:36; and purosis (burning, cooking, or destruction by fire) in I Peter 4:12 and Rev.18. None of these are represented to be caused or “sent” upon his people by God, although several times he is said to have used them, or turned them to the benefit of the affected individual.
The more common word, peirazo (v.), peirasmos (n), is classically defined as “attempt, test the quality (as the assay of metal or ore), to be experienced, to examine, and to seek to seduce or tempt.” Remember, this is the same word: the only distinction is the context.
In the New Testament, the import leans heavily toward the latter meaning, though not by any means exclusively. It may refer simply to people trying to do something (Ac.16:17, and 9:26); to a person’s credentials for a task (Rev.2:2 and elsewhere); to self-examination (II Cor.13:5); and to people’s attempts to put God to a test (Ac.5:9, 15:10, Heb.3:9).
Only once does it refer to a physical malady – Gal.4:1-4 – to which Paul applies the label “a messenger of Satan” — hardly a justification for the common practice of referring to every illness, inconvenience, or incapacity as a “trial from God”!
The vast majority of New Testament references, however, are to Jesus vs. Satan himself, or the Pharisees and/or Sadducees who opposed him. Another large segment refers to the persecutions endured by the faithful because of their fidelity to Jesus and his Kingdom. The connection to persecution is not accidental. The “temptation” was NOT to “indulge” in some activity on a list of “no-no’s”, but to desert or betray one’s Kingdom citizenship. In both cases, whether the translation is “temptation,” “trial,” or “test,” the perpetrators are either Satan himself (12 x), or people/institutions that have deliberately set themselves in opposition to Jesus (about 15 x) — certainly not God!
There is one reference (Jn.6:6) where in the crowd-feeding incident, Jesus essentially gives the disciples a “pop quiz”: “He said this, testing him (Philip), for he knew what he was about to do,” and several where the source of the test/trial is not specified (James 11-12, I Peter 1:6-8).
The use of peirasmos in the Lord’s Prayer is interpreted by some as a request for God to refrain from what they mistakenly see as his accustomed practice of “testing” people. However, when it is seen in the context of the other half of that request, phrased in classic parallelism, “but rescue us from the Evil One,” it reveals exactly the opposite (and more accurate) understanding: that it is the Evil One who causes problems with “temptation.”
Peirazo appears in admonitions to “test” the qualifications of people who claim to speak with authority (Rv.2:2).
Do you notice anything “missing” here? In all of these references, we have encountered none attributing them to “God’s will” or any deliberate infliction of “trials” or “temptations” by him upon his people! Search the Scriptures, it’s not there. In no instance is there any hint of any of these situations having been instigated by God! In fact, James clearly declares that allegation to be a fallacy: (1:13-14) “No one must say, when he’s being tested, “I’m being tested by God.” For God is not tested by evil, and he tests no one. But each one is tested by his own desires, drawn out and enticed.” Remember, the choice of whether to use the word “tested” or “tempted” is entirely that of the translator. The word is the same. It is, as James makes clear in the next sentence, a very serious matter: one intimately connected to a person’s own “desires”, and having a very serious effect on his life. Epithumias– “longings, yearnings” — (from thumoo,with an intensifying prefix) — is a very strong word. These intense desires are the artifacts of one’s chosen life-direction.
The remedy is equally clear. Jesus himself has “been there, done that.” Heb.2:18 tells us, “In that he himself has suffered temptation/testing, he can help those who are being tempted/tested.” Or, as a later writer has put it, “He made himself like us, so that he could make us like himself!” By having experienced severe temptation/testing and triumphed over it, Jesus was enabled to extend his own success to his people!
Paul’s reassurance in I Cor.10:13 is essentially the same. Notice carefully that this passage also attributes to God not the source of the testing, but rather the “way out!”
It is appropriate neither to apply the label “trial/testing/temptation” to every major or minor annoyance of life (although one’s response to those certainly does “prove” — demonstrate – where his loyalties lie!), nor to ascribe all our “troubles” to the “will of God” Only when tests/temptations are recognized in their true light – attempts to turn us aside from whole-hearted devotion to the Lord and his Kingdom – and their source is rightly identified – persons or institutions that have set themselves in opposition to that Kingdom, and that malevolent power whose cause they serve – can the battle lines be accurately drawn.
Let me say that in a way our frustration with temptation is good. It indicates that we care, that we do in fact want to do good. We are in the battle. Those who aren't in the battle don't experience this frustration.
Secondly, let me say that if we are not frustrated by this struggle between the spirit and the flesh then we probably have a spiritual problem.
We are frustrated because we delight in the Lord and want to do good. We do not find God’s word burdensome, It is not a chore to go to God’s house and worship Him. Giving God our time, talents and treasure is not something we do grudgingly, but is something we do with a cheerful heart of thanksgiving. AND Serving God is not a task that we seek to get over with, as soon as possible. Rather serving God and seeking His will is our greatest source of joy.
Since we take delight in God and doing good, temptation frustrates our efforts.
We all know what it is like to have good intentions, to set our minds and hearts on accomplishing something good. We plan to do things like eat a more healthy diet, start an exercise program, get up right when the alarm clock rings, finish those projects around the house, get to places on time and a lot of other thing as well.
In our minds we tell ourselves I’m really going to get it done this time, we may even make a promise to fast from something during Lent. We all know what happens: we eat those 12 donuts, our exercise bike sits all alone in a corner, we hit the snooze button 5 times, the car is still on the blocks in our driveway and it seems we are always running late every place we go.
And we don’t understand. We have not changed our plans we still want to do good, but we don’t.
Friends that is exactly what Paul is talking about. As Christians we want to do good. We love God. We know we should make God #1, we should spend time with Him each day, we should pray for those who need prayer and we know we should give God our best AND we know there are things we must stop doing; being prideful gossiping, being envious and other sins.
Paul says that sometimes (and I know all of us can relate to what he is saying) that when he is doing wrong he knows it, and he still wants to do good BUT his sinful desire is so strong at times it is like it has a personality of it’s own It is almost like it is not even him doing it. But it is him, and it is us.
The truth of the matter is this: It is easier for us to do wrong than to do good. We have to work at doing good and doing wrong just seems to come naturally. This is what the scriptures mean when they refer to the “natural” man.
It is easier not to pray than to pray
It is easier not to be committed than to be committed.
It is easier to have impure thoughts than pure.
It is easier not give than to give.
This condition causes us all to lament with Paul "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death"
Many believe that this term body of death refers to a Roman form of capital punishment that was practiced in that day. If someone committed a particular hideous murder they would be condemned to having the corpse of their victim tied it to them face to face hand to hand ,until they died. If Paul is referring to this, it paints a vivid picture of our sinful tendency as being like we are dragging along a corpse with us.
Jesus on the night he was arrested showed us what to do when we face temptation. The very Son of God , earth’s Perfect Man, PRAYED to God when he sensed His own Human, frailty while standing face to face with the strain of the supreme demands of obedience to God.
His weary disciples did not do so well, they fell asleep. And do you remember what Jesus said to them. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing BUT the flesh is weak"
The spirit is willing BUT the flesh is weak. Isn’t that really the same thing Paul is talking about here in Romans.
How does Jesus tell his disciples to deal with a willing Spirit and weak flesh? Watch and Pray!
1) We need to be alert and we need to recognize our own vulnerability.
2) And we need to pray and depend on the leadership, power and protection of God.
That night in the garden Jesus was the only one who watched and prayed. And he was the only one to stand firm in the crisis of temptation. The others panicked and fled.
How do you think the disciples felt when they first encountered Jesus after his resurrection? Do you think they were afraid? Do you think they thought they deserved condemnation? Condemnation is the term for the sentence a judge pronounces at the end of the trial. Why do you think Christ's first words to them were, “Don't be afraid.”? They need not fear his condemnation.
Even as Paul asked, “Who will rescue me from this body of death”, he answered - “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” In Christ we are no longer condemned to carry that putrid old carcass around while it kills us. We are free from condemnation and free to love Him.
Our society doesn’t even have a clue to what freedom is. They have confused the liberty we have in Christ with license. They think freedom means, that they are free to do what ever they want. It means they are free to do drugs, drink, have sex with whoever or what ever they want, it means that kids are free to do whatever they want without consequence and it means adults can do what ever is necessary to get ahead.
And tragically the things that are supposed to be evidence of their freedom have in reality enslaved them. Just as Adam and Eve chose freedom from God to pursue pleasure, prosperity, power, prestige and prominence on their own and ended up enslaved by the desire for that which they lost.
Drug use has led to addiction, lost homes, lost jobs, lost families. Sex anytime, anyplace, with anyone has led to AIDS/DEATH, STDs, unwanted and neglected children, abortions as birth control, broken hearts from being used, and broken trust. Kids who use their freedom in school find themselves bound to low-paying jobs with limited opportunity to do better. Our current economic situation is due to adults doing whatever was necessary for them to “get ahead” in their pursuit of pleasure, prosperity, power, prestige and prominence without God.
IN CHRIST WE HAVE FREEDOM--TRUE FREEDOM!
In closing, Let me give you an illustration of the freedom we find in Christ:
You're ice skating in the Olympics. You're about to go up for your last performance. You know what is expected and what you need to do. Before you go out on the ice the judges inform you that you already have enough points to win the Gold Medal.
How do you think you are going to skate? Are you going to hold back, be nervous or inhibited? NO! You will be free to skate as never before because you have already WON.
If you are in Christ YOU ARE FREE. You are free to delight in God and live the life God created you to live like never before because you know that through Christ the victory is already yours. NOW that’s FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!
My prayer for you is taken from 1 Peter 1:6-9 and Romans 15:13.
In all this may you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, may you love him; and even though you do not see him now, may you trust in him and be filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. May God, the giver of hope, fill you with continual joy and peace because you trust in Him--so that you may have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
