Scripture Readings
Luke 15:1-10
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Congregation in the Lord,
What is it about temptation which makes us so vulnerable? Think about it for a moment. We are not that far away from Christmas. Christmas time is a wonderful and joyful time of the year; a time to be enjoyed. But it is also a time which is full of temptations. There is the temptation to spend too much money. There is the temptation to drink to much alcohol. There is the temptation to be so focussed on holidaying that we put God on hold. In fact, if we were to stop and think about it for a while I’m sure all of us could come up with a series of temptations which are generally attached to the Christmas season.
And we don’t just have to focus on Christmas. Christmas only comes once a year. Temptation is a seven-day-a-week, 365-days-a-year event. Temptation is a serious problem which has serious and eternal consequences. You know that. I know that. God knows it even more. And because temptation is such a serious problem God has written to us to tell us how to deal with it. That is what our text is all about … how to seriously deal with temptation.
The first truth we need to know about temptation is that temptation is not an irresistible force. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man”. Paul is addressing a situation where members of the church were continually making excuses for the fact that they were constantly falling into sin. Part of the excuse which was being offered was that God was making the temptation too difficult to resist … so of course they were going to fall.
But Paul does not want to have anything to do with that sort of thinking. And he makes that clear in verses 1-12. We could summarise the things that Paul is teaching in this way:-
“Look at the examples of our fore-fathers. They had the same promises we have. They had the same blessings we have. Yet they failed because they opened themselves up to idolatry. They turned temptation into a game. You members of the Corinthian church, you will become like them if you continue to insist that you have a right to attend the pagan idol feasts. You will perish if you continue to flaunt with the devil. But, it does not have to be this way. No temptation has come upon you except that which is common to all Christians who live in a worldly and pagan society”.
Temptation is not an irresistible force:- it is not something which has absolute power and complete control. Temptation is able to be stood against and defeated.
When Jesus was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane He told His disciples to keep watch while He prayed. We then read these words in Matthew 26:40-41:-
Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. ‘‘Could you men not keep watch with Me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ‘‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
Yes it is true that it had been a very long night, but it is clear that the disciples could have resisted the temptations to drop their guard. The temptation was not an irresistible force.
In the book of Ephesians Paul talks about the need to put on the full armour of God. For what purpose? Ephesians 6:13 gives us the answer.
So that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
What this means is that we, with the help and strength of the Spirit, are able to stand against evil and temptation. We don’t have to be drawn into it.
The same truth can be found in 1 Peter 5:8-9. In fact the ability to resist is explicitly stated there.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
When we put all these passages together the truth is clear. Temptation is not an irresistible force. When it comes to standing firm we are not thrust into a loosing battle. That’s a truth which raises some significant questions:-
• If temptation can be resisted why does it always seem to take hold of us?
• Why do we constantly find ourselves falling?
• Why is it that we, who love the Lord and love to do His will, often find our life-style contradicts the Word of God?
Part of the answer can be found in verse 12 “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”. Temptation is not an irresistible force but we fall because we overestimate our ability to fight sin and we underestimate the cunning of Satan.
The members of the Corinthian church thought that Christianity gave them absolute immunisation against temptation. So they would attend the pagan feasts which included prostitution, orgies, drinking binges and general immorality. They would go to these places under the false assumption that placing themselves in such circumstances would not be a problem because they belonged to Jesus. And then they would wonder why they had a problem with temptation. There is a real sense where the Corinthian Christians had turned temptation into a form of entertainment.
The TV watch public in Australia was given a taste of seeing temptation as a form of entertainment when one of the networks aired a show called “Temptation Island”. The basic plot of the show was that four couples were going to test their devotion to each other by placing themselves on an island with 26 single people who had the sole objective of enticing the couples to separate. When it first ran it was the most popular show in America and Australia. It is now into its third season. The very fact that a show like this has even been thought up is sad enough. The fact that it became a most popular program is a tragic reflection on our Western society. Now I’m sure the couples who are in the show volunteered to be there because they thought their relationship was strong. But what a way to test it! You are just asking for trouble when you start doing that sort of thing aren’t you.
But we don’t have to look to the secular media for examples of overestimating our ability to sin and underestimating Satan’s cunning. I remember a discussion from my college days when we as students ended up talking about pastors and ministers of the past who had fallen into sexual temptation.
I don’t know how a conversation like that started, but it did.
The main focus of the conversation was the fact that such things could be avoided as long as you were wise in the way you dealt with ministry situations. The professor of the class let the discussion go for a while. Near the end of our conversation the professor made a very significant comment. He said, “These men that you are talking about sat in this very room saying the same things about others who had gone before them”.
Temptation is not an irresistible force but we fall because we overestimate our ability to fight sin and we underestimate the cunning of Satan. The Corinthians were doing it. The world in which we live in does it. Even as Christians we do it. For some reason we forget to hold onto the spiritual strength which comes to us from God and we find ourselves falling into sin. And it doesn’t just happen out there in the world. It can happen to Christian people … good people … who are in the church. It happened because people were opening themselves to situations which they were not ready and not able to stand against.
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man”. But we make it uncommonly difficult by exposing ourselves to situations which are begging for us to be tempted and fall.
• You who struggle with alcohol, why do you allow yourself to walk into the pub? Why do you go to the bottle-shop? Why do you meet friends at the bar? Do you want to be tempted?
• You who are a compulsive spender, you don’t have to go down to the shops, you don’t have to get all the home shopping books. Ask yourself. "Do I want to be tempted?".
• You who cannot control your desire for sexual pleasure, why do you seek to be alone with your girlfriend? Why do you drive to those lonely romantic places? Why do you make those suggestive comments? Is it not true that you set out to be tempted?
Temptation is not an irresistible force. But there are times when it is playing an easy game to win. “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man”.
Now all of this is true … but it is also true that temptation does get us in the end. Temptation is not an irresistible yet we continue to fall into its hands. We know ourselves; in fact we even know each other. And we know enough about ourselves and each other to come to the common conclusion that temptation does have a good strike rate. So what do we do once we have fallen? Have another look at our text … especially the last part of it. “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it”.
Temptation is not an irresistible yet we continue to fall into its hands. When this happens we have a God who will continue to hold us despite our failures. Even when it comes to the issue of falling into temptation God is with us the whole time. God is serious about temptation and He wants to make sure it does not destroy us. We have a God who promises to stick by us. We have a God who will never leave us to our own devises. We have a God who gave His Son to make sure we would succeed. We can be sure then that we have a God who will never push us away from Himself. In the midst of temptations and trials it is hard to remember that sometimes isn’t it.
Many years ago I met a lady who would always complain about her marriage. Her husband never supported her. She felt that she was missing out because he didn’t have a good income. They didn’t have a real sense of companionship and she felt like she was being ignored. The interesting thing about this lady was that she ended the conversation by saying “Job had his trials and I’m just like Job”. It’s just not true.
There are lots of people mentioned in the Bible who go through difficult times. The only one of whom we are specifically told that this was happening as a result of a test was for Job. On a large number of occasions the difficulties come as a result of sin. Now I am not saying that every trial and temptation we face comes as a direct result of our sin. But we do have to be so careful not to fall into this Job-complex mentality. The main reason this woman was having such difficulty in her marriage is because she never stopped to listen to her husband and when she did he was always wrong anyway.
Congregation let’s not look at our difficulties and put them all into the category of testing. God is not out to get us. He doesn’t deliberately put us in difficult situations to see if we will cope. He is not putting obstacles in our way in order to discover if we will stand or not. God’s desire is to hold us and strengthen us. He is for us, not against us. No passage makes this clearer than James 1:13-15.
When tempted, no one should say, ‘‘God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Never can we say, “I sinned because I didn’t have a choice – God pre-planned it that way”. He never gives us more then we can bear. Instead we should always take personal responsibility. Yet, even when we fall we have real comfort. The comfort of knowing that “I have fallen into temptation … but God always wanted me to be drawn closer to Him”. Know that it was never God’s intent to see you fall … and that will help you rise again.
But that is not where the help stops. Let me read again the closing section of this verse. “But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it”. When temptation comes we don’t have to take the way of failure. We don’t have to be defined for the rest of our lives by the sins we have committed. There is an escape hatch – a hatch which is in place even after we have fallen into temptation. Through His death and resurrection Jesus gives us a guaranteed escape from the effects of temptation since, even when we fall, Jesus continues to show grace, love and mercy.
Jesus came to take the punishment of all our sins. There is nothing we can do that is so bad that Jesus is unable to bring us forgiveness and hope. Jesus came so that we could be set free from the bondage of sin. Not even sin is able to separate us from the love of God. Jesus came to make us a member of God’s family. That is a truth which can bring us through any failure.
If God has set His electing love on us we will never be left alone. God is not One who sets conditions upon His grace and mercy. God does not expect perfection in return for the salvation He has given. Rather God accepts us as we are – warts and all – into His heavenly fold. Nothing can change that fact for those who are the children of God. Which gives us real hope. Because we can find in the middle of failure, covered with shame and completely lost. We can find ourselves in the same position as that sheep we read about in Luke 15:1-10
That is the sheep which got lost, and then got stuck. How embarrassing it is to be the only one out of the 100 which strayed. You just know you are the odd one out. What are the other sheep going to think? And now here comes the shepherd. He is carrying a big long stick with a hook on the end. Surely there is going to be trouble. Surely the stick is going to be used to make a nice round mark on your backside. The temptation to go and do your own thing was all too much. And you know you should be punished. But instead of being punished you get a ride on the shoulders of the master – along with a party when you get home. It is unconditional love shown to a person who is conditioned to sin … that is the escape hatch.
Congregation temptation is not a game or a form of entertainment. It is a serious issue. So serious in fact that God punished His Son so that you would have all the help you need. As we consider this text the question we need to ask ourselves is a simple one. Are we going to be serious enough about temptation to accept the help of God who has provided an escape hatch even when we fail?
Amen.
