Temptation - A Blessing Or A Curse

TEMPTATION - A BLESSING OR A CURSE

TEXT - Luke 4: 1 - 15

INTRO. - I want to speak on one of the inescapable facts

of life and something that fills the pages of Scripture.

I want to speak on the subject of temptation. Temptation

is something that we all must face and was something

that our Lord faced while here on earth. In fact Jesus

summed up three years of his public ministry in just two

words in Luke 22:28, he called it "my temptations".

What is this thing we call temptation?

What is this thing from which even our Lord could not

escape? What is this thing that we are warned against in

Matt.26 to watch and pray lest we enter into?

The best definition of temptation I have ever found

was given by a Bible scholar named Kyle. He said that

"temptation is an excitement of the natural

desires to go beyond the boundary set". Notice

several truths from this excellent definition.

1. It is an excitement - not a yielding. Temptation

itself is not sin. Christ was tempted and yet did

not sin. To yield is to sin. Many feel because they

have such strong temptations they are sinning. Don’t

trust feeling on this. Blessed is the man that

endureth temptation.

2. It is an excitement of the natural desires. It is

natural and normal to be tempted. It is an

excitement of the desires that are good and natural

and were given by God to man before the fall. Our

nature is now depraved but these desires in

themselves are good and normal. God made man and

gave him the desire to want things, enjoy things,

and to do things. Temptation works with these

desires that are good in themselves but...

3. Temptation is an excitement of the natural desires

to go beyond the boundary set. God has set

boundaries on the natural desires and the world, the

flesh, and the devil try to get us to cross those

boundaries. God gave Adam and Eve the natural desire

to want food but He put a boundary on it when he

told them they could not eat of every tree of the

garden. The temptation was not sin but the yielding

was sin. The desire for things is alright but the

boundaries forbid covetousness and how we get the

things we want. We cannot steal them. We must work

for them.

4. Some people think they are plagued with certain

temptations that others do not have. This is not

true. These are natural desires. See I Cor. 10:13

LET US LOOK AT LUKE CH. 4 AND SEE WHAT GOD HAS TO TELL

US ABOUT TEMPTATION AND TEMPTATIONS.

I. THEY WERE DIVINELY PERMITTED - vs. 1

God allowed it. God never tempts to sin. In Gen.22:1

God tempted Abraham but the word "temptation" means "to

test" not "to lure to do evil". God does not tempt us to

sin but he allows Satan to tempt us. Temptation to the

Christian will strengthen us or weaken us. It is not

God’s plan for us to live with no temptation. For a

Christian to pray for temptation to be removed from

their presence is unscriptural. We can pray as the

Lord’s Prayer tells us, "lead us not into temptation but

deliver us from evil". We can pray not to be led into

yielding to the temptation. We are to watch and pray

lest we enter into yielding. But for us to ask for the

temptation itself to kept from us is not biblical.

II. THEY WERE HUMANLY CONDITIONED - VS. 2

They were conditioned along the 3 basic lines as found

in I John 2: 15 - 17.

1. The lust of the flesh - Luke 4:3 - bread - Eve saw

the tree that it was good for food...

2. The lust of the eyes - Luke 4:5 - saw kingdoms - Eve

saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes...

3. The pride of life - Luke 4:9 - Cast thyself down and

angels will catch thee - Eve saw the tree was

desired to make one wise

III. THEY WERE CUNNINGLY PLANNED - see verses below

Notice several truths about temptation from our text.

1. Temptation comes almost always after great blessing

from God - vs. 1 - 2

Jesus had just returned from Jordan where in Luke

3: 21-22 we see that our Lord had been baptized by

John, had the Spirit descend on him in the form of

a dove, and had heard the voice of the Father say

"Thou are my beloved Son, in thee I am well

pleased."

Here was the anointing for his earthly ministry.

Here began his earthly ministry.

Here the approval of the Heavenly Father was given.