THE THIRD SUNDAY IN THE SEASON OF LENT,
THE MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY THE 18th OF MARCH, 2001
THE TEXT ARE:
The LESSON:.....1 Corinthians 10:1-13
PRAYER...MAY THE WORDS OF GOD AND HIS MESSAGE SPOKEN THIS HOUR BE BOTH A WORD OF COMFORT AND CHALLENGE
WE PRAY THAT IT WILL CHALLENGE THOSE WHO ARE COMFORTABLE
AND COMFORT ALL THOSE WHO ARE BEING CHALLENGED THIS DAY.
INTRODUCTION:
1 Cor 10:12-13, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
One of the perils that a Christian faces from day to day is temptation.
The word "temptation" can have two main directions of thought. Temptation can be a testing, but it also can refer to an enticement to sin. Any enticement to sin does not come from God, rather it originates either from the world, the flesh or the devil.
The Bible says in James 1:14, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." It is absolutely wrong to blame God for an enticement to sin. The holy and righteous God will not entice you to sin. Since He is absolutely and infinitely holy, that is an impossibility.
It is not a sin to be tempted. Many Bible characters were tempted to sin, but did not succumb to it. You do not have to sin, though a part of living is being tempted. Through the power and help of God we can say, "No" to every enticement to sin that comes your way.
Enticement to sin actually comes from three main areas:
1. It comes from Satan. He is referred to as "the Tempter" in Matt. 4:3 and in I Thess. 3:5. He can even masquerade himself as an angel of light (2 Cor.11:4).
2. It comes from a love of the world. That is what the Apostle John referred to in 1 Jn. 2:16 as, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Three of the main sins that come from the world system is the desire for sensuality, covetousness, and egotism or pride.
3. It comes from man himself. When a person is saved, they possess two natures. One is a holy or new nature that comes from God and the other is a sinful nature that is separated from God and enslaved to moral evil.
James 1:14,15 says, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
It speaks of the conception of lust or desire. Wrong desire is often receive, dallied with and played with, hidden in the heart, and pondered how it can come about. It then leads to sin. That is the "conception of lust."
Lust conceived in the heart brings forth sin, and sin in turn brings forth death. Death has the basic idea of separation. The practice of sin leads to eternal death or separation from God. The Bible says that, "He that is born of God cannot commit (or practice) sin (1 Jn. 3:9). Why? The holy seed of God, the new nature, through which the Holy Spirit operates, is inside of the believer.
God may send trying circumstances to prove our loyalty or to woo and draw a person back to Himself who has strayed. Israel in the wilderness is an example of that truth. The Bible says in Ex. 15 that the Lord proved them or tested them.
God often orders our circumstances to reveal our love for Him, to make us stronger to resist sin, and to do us good in the end.
If you recall, Adam and Eve were tested in the Garden of Eden and prohibited from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan tricked them into disobedience and unbelief.
God allowed Satan to test Job, to reveal the true integrity of Job. Job would not listen to the devil or do his bidding.
Jesus Himself was tempted in the wilderness testing. He was tempted to misuse His supernatural powers and to worship Satan. Did He fall to the temptations? No, instead Jesus proved that He could not sin in the wilderness temptation. The devil could not deceive and trick Jesus into sinning.
We are told to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matt. 6:13). That is a prayer that asks the Lord to not order circumstances in which the Devil would find them as easy prey. There is also a request there for God to enable the tempted to resist temptation when it comes man’s way.
From 1 Cor.10:13 lets consider several things:
I. The Reality of Temptation
II. The Regulation of Temptation
III. The Release From Temptation
I. The Reality of Temptation
See the phrase, "Common to man."
Temptations are typical human experiences. Never think that you are the only one that faces temptations in life. It is common to all people.
There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that temptation is not the figment of someone’s imagination. It can be very actual and real.
A. When You Understand Something of the Devil
There is nothing the Devil likes any better than to tempt a Christian to sin, and see that believer fall into the desire to sin head over heels. Why? Because when we sin we grieve the heart of our Heavenly Father–it brings sorrow to the heart of God. Satan desires to try to hurt God all he can, because the Lord threw the devil out of heaven. Satan is out to get revenge. When you live to get revenge on someone else, you are never more like the Devil, than when you have that frame of mind.
B. When You See The Examples of Bible Characters
Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden of Eden.
King David was tempted to have the husband of Uriah killed, due to his desire for Bathsheba.
Job was tempted to curse God and die. If you recall that is what His wife urged him to do, after he broke out in boils all over his body.
Ananias and Sapphira were tempted to lie to the Holy Ghost in the Book of Acts. They did so and both died as a result of that lie.
On and on the list could go.
The experiences of the characters of the Bible prove that temptation in the sense of an enticement to sin is a very real thing.
C. When We See so Many Today Fall Into Sin
Before there was an actual sin, there had to first be an enticement or an inclination in someone, before the fall could come. First there is desire and then the deed.
So many church leaders are seemingly falling prey to the devil and falling into sin. They had to first experience a desire to sin, before it was ever actually conceived, and then committed.
D. When We See The Many Avenues the Devil Can Use
1. Desire to steal.
2. Desire for sexual sins. The sexual desire is good when recognize in the marriage bond, but outside of the marriage body it is sinful and wicked.
3. Desire for substitutes for God.
It involves a desire to worship the creature more than the Creator. We are told to flee or run from idolatry.
4. Desire for slander. Slander is one of the worst sins people can ever commit. It has a destructive force worse than a powerful tornado.
The Regulating of Temptation
"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able"(I Cor.10:13c).
Temptations and trials come our way but the Lord has a way of regulating them, so they will not be more than we are able to bear through His divine assistance.
We serve a sovereign, all powerful God who is still in control. At times we look around us and wonder if He is, but I want to assure you, in spite of the devil and all of the demons of hell, He is still in control. Christ is sovereign over the affairs of nations and peoples.
God will not allow a temptation to come your way that is more powerful than you ability through Him to resist.
He will not let us face any test that we are not able to meet.
The Lord will not let us go through things until we are able to handle them. When the soldiers came to take Jesus in the garden, he asked that the disciples with Him be permitted to go, and not be arrested also. Why? They were not ready to participate in what Jesus was about to go through. When they were finally ready, they all died maryter’s deaths except John, who died on the Isle of Patmos in exile.
They went through persecution, imprisionment, and countless hardships when they were finally deemed ready by the Lord to endure them.
No believer can rightly claim if he sins,that the devil made him do it. Satan cannot make you sin. He can’t even make one who is unsaved sin. A person chooses to sin. People sin because they willingly sin.
When a person sins, he or she chooses to sin.
How comforting it is to know that He will never allow more testing in our lives than we are able to bear. Remember, He has authority and say so over the devil.
The Release From Temptation
"But will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13c).
God ensures that there is always a way out of every temptation that we may encounter in our earthly life.
Illustration:
When people fall prey to wrong doing, they often try to excuse it. A three year old tried to give an explanation for being in the kitchen, on top of a chair, eating cookies. His explanation was, "I just climbed up to smell them, and my tooth got caught in them." How do you like that explanation?
If you find a way of escape, you have to be looking for it. It would be like being lost in a cavern, coming to an intersection and just sitting down because you didn’t know which way to go. You will never find a way of escape unless you are looking for one.
Keep in mind, we have the promise of God that there is ALWAYS a way to escape that we might be able to bear whatever it is we are tempted to do, that is against the will of God.
What are God’s ways of escape? How do we escape and come out on top when we are tempted?
A. Removal
Getting whatever is tempting you out of the way.
Illustration:
Man trying to quit drinking but would not take the drink out of the refrigerator. He wanted to leave one can of beer. He kept wanting to leave one after he slipped and drank it. He did not remove completely what was tempting him.
B. Running
Joseph in Potiphar’s House. Wife tried to force him to have sexual relations with her. Joseph ran and left her holding part of his clothes as he ran. He did what the Bible says in 1 Cor.6:18 to do, "Flee fornication."
Illustration:
J. Vernon McGee wrote of a boy that his mother heard in the pantry. She said, "Willie, where are you?" He told her he was in the pantry. "What are you doing there?" she asked. He said, "I’m fighting temptation." That is not the place to fight temptation, that is the place to start running.
C. Relying
The Bible says, "Having done all to stand, stand."
"Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might."
With every promise of God there is enabling. God will strengthen us to overcome temptation to sin, if we will only rest in His divine power.
Conclusion:::
Paul warns the Corinthians against over-confidence by drawing a parallel between what the Israelites experienced in the desert and their own contemporary experience.
Their experience provides a model, paradigm, type, pattern, analogy for the present.
What happened to them can happen to the Corinthians if they presume that the effect of the sacraments is automatic, allowing them to sin and yet remain saved.
For Paul faith is a perpetually renewed decision.
So that we might not desire evil things, as they did: Paul is suggesting that some Corinthians are involved in evil without recognizing it. If they would see the pattern in the example he is using they might see the light and change their position and behavior.
In verse twelve, "So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall." Here is the warning against over-confidence. The line between confidence and over- confidence may be hard to draw in theory, but Paul, himself, was a fine example of being confident without being overly so. He was saved, but knew the final judgment and full salvation were in his future just as surely as Christ was in his present.
In verse thirteen, "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it." Paul does not want to leave the impression that the Christian is on his or her own, even though the sacraments are not automatic shields against temptation or sin.
Learning from others can prevent us from making the same mistakes as they have made.
Learning from others includes learning from history; the "others" do not have to be alive at present in order to learn from them.
Those who do not learn from history condemn themselves to repeat it; there really are no new mistakes or sins.
Learning from History: Learning from the example of others who are alive and learning from those who are dead is really the same. Both are learning from "history," for everything past, including what we have just read, is now "history."
Temptation is a reality, it will be regulated by God, there can be a release from the temptation. In the long haul, we are benefit from every temptation that comes our way. Even an enticement to sin from the world, the flesh, or the devil, makes us stronger as a Christian, when it is faced and resisted. Every time our faith in God is exercised it becomes stronger.
Burdens, troubles, pressures of any kind can bring a blessing.
I. The Danger of Life Life is not a casual walk in the park. Along your life journey there are dangers, temptations which have been set up to draw you from your purpose in life. I want to highlight those dangers so you will not be ignorant.
D---Double minded in your thinking. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. James 1:8 (KJV) What would cause someone to take a chance on their potential marriage, to be exposed to temptations foolish brought before them? In one of the commercials a participant said something to the effect, this would prove if their marriage would last.
When you start to question the yes of your yes and the no of your no, when you become double minded, the instability caused by your lack of positive decisions will open your life up to all kinds of temptations which you cannot stand against. In the Garden of Eden the serpent comes to Eve and asks, Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? –Genesis 3:1b. (NIV). Because Eve was not solid in her decision, all of mankind has paid for her and Adam’s double mindedness. There is danger ahead if you don’t know what you stand for and what you believe. Society today is paying a heavy price for the instability in marriages. I was watching the Learning Channel where a 14 year old girl gave birth telling the interviewer she was just looking to be loved, she was not looking to get pregnant.
Invite Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life. Jesus said in John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I come that they might have life, and they might have it abundantly. Is your life weighed down with the cares of the world? Are you having trouble sleeping at night because of regrets you have?
It is time to move into the abundant life Jesus Christ offers. He invites us to do that. He says Come unto Me all who are weary and heavy- laden and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28).
Life will always have temptations. You can make a willful choice to indulge yourself in them, or a willful choice to pass by for the better purpose God has put before you, fulfilling His plan for your life.
We do live on temptation island. Sometimes it might feel we have been shipwrecked here so remember, your rescue is only a prayer away. In fact, why don’t we take time to send up an s.o.s., that’s save our soul, right now, would you bow your heads with me…
AMEN...................AMEN..................AMEN...
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