Ministry_of_Temptation
Ministry of Temptation
STRANGE MINISTERS
Ron Dunn
1 Corinthians 10:13-14
There is something that all of us have in common. No matter who you are, your position, your education, your spirituality That is the experience of temptation. The Bible makes it very clear in a number of passages that temptation is the appointed lot of all of us. Failure to understand the meaning and the ministry of temptation can lead to a great deal of frustration and failure in the Christian life.
As you and I come to know Jesus in a greater way, and as the experience of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 becomes ours (when he said that I may know him, that I may come to know him as I've never known him before), there is going to be at the same time greater knowledge of temptation. By that, I mean experiential knowledge of temptation. You are going to be facing more temptation.
Listen as I read verses 13 and 14 of 1 Corinthians, chapter 10:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow 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. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
There hath no temptation taken you: the word taken means to see and hang on. Doesn't that graphically describe some of the temptations that you and I have to endure? It not only seizes us suddenly but it just seems to hang on doggedly and stubbornly. Some of us struggle with the same temptations day after day, month after month, and year after year. We wonder why these things come upon us. Why is it that God allows some of these experiences? Is it because we are still sinful? Is it because we are still not right with God? Many times I have talked with Christians when facing severe temptation, and their first reaction was: well, I must not be right with God. Maybe he really isn't Lord in my life. Maybe I'm not even saved.
You need to understand two or three things about temptation if you are going to enter into the ministry of temptation. I think it is remarkable how everything that God brings into our lives, or allows to come into our lives, has a ministry to perform. I praise the Lord that he is in such absolute control of all circumstances and situations that everything that happens to me and comes to me performs a ministry—even if it is tragedy.
At a couples retreat some time ago, we had some testimonies. I was overwhelmed by two or three of the testimonies as young married couples stood and testified of tragedy in their lives. One child had been run over by a car and killed. Another child had died of leukemia. As these couples stood and gave testimony of how God used those experiences to bring them to Jesus, and to bring their home together, and to bring them to a full and abundant life, I thought how amazing it is that God can take the worst things that befall us and use them as a ministry for his glory and for our ultimate good. You need to understand this, Christian, everything that happens to you does not happen because of some impersonal, unknowable fate. It happens because there is a loving Father in heaven who is seeking to work and carve out his purpose in his life.
There is a ministry of temptation. We are going to say three things about temptation as revealed in these two verses. First of all, God permits the experience of temptation. God permits us to be tempted. Notice what the Apostle says: There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that ye are able. That little expression God will not allow you to be tempted tells me two things. 1) It tells me that temptation itself is not a sin. If it were a sin, God would not allow it to come to me. God allows me to be tempted. Temptation itself is not a sin. I find increasingly that Christians don't understand this. The devil comes and tempts us, and at the same time accuses us because we are tempted. He says: if you were really right with God, if you were really saved, you wouldn't have those thoughts. Those thoughts would never occur to you; that desire would never well up within you if you were really right with God. You need to understand that the temptation itself is no sin.
The book of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ was tempted in all points, not a few, such as we, yet without sin. Jesus was led of the Spirit, driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Jesus was sinless; yet he was tempted. When the devil tempts you, don't let him bluff you into thinking that the temptation itself is a sin. It is no sin.
This phrase also reveals another truth to me. 2) God allows the temptation. He permits the experience of temptation in my life. God himself tempts no man. It says that he allows the temptation. He himself does not tempt us.
Listen to James, chapter 1, verse 13:
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
What about those accounts in the Old Testament where it says that God tempted Abraham, and God tempted Israel? The word temptation is used in two different ways in the Word of God. It is used with the meaning to entice to evil, enticing someone to sin. God never tempts anyone in that manner. God never tries to get you to sin. He never entices you to evil. James says that when a man is drawn away to sin, when he has this impulse to sin and do that thing which is unholy, he cannot accuse God of bringing that temptation.
Temptation is used another way in the Bible: to put to the test, to try something to see if it real or not. God does tempt us in this way. He puts us to the test. 1 Peter, chapter 1, speaks of the trial or testing of our faith. In other words, God leads us into experiences to test us, to try us to see if our faith we profess is really genuine.
Abraham had made his profession of faith. He had said, Lord, I am yours. I put you above everything that I possess and everything that I love. So God tried his faith and put him to the test. God does test us and try our faith. God never entices us to sin. The enticement to evil never comes from God, but God permits us to be tempted.
Why does God permit us to be tempted? What is the ministry of temptation? I think there are two basic reasons that God allows you and me to be tempted. Every person here has been tempted. Some of you have yielded to temptation, and that is sin. Some of you have been confused by the temptation, and it has caused you to be filled with doubt and uncertainty about your relationship to God. Why does God allow this temptation to grab hold of me and doggedly hang on?
God allows us to be tempted to expose us to our own weaknesses. In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, God is giving an explanation why he led the people into the wilderness for forty years. In verse 2, Moses says:
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, (Now, why did he lead them into the wilderness?) to humble thee and to prove thee, (That word prove means to examine, to expose.) to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments, or no.
Do you know what the children of Israel had said on one occasion? Whatever the Lord tells us to do, we'll do it. They were lifted up with pride and self confidence, and God allowed them to be tempted. He permitted the experience of temptation to expose to them their sinfulness, wickedness, and rebellion that was in their hearts.
One of the easiest things for a Christian to fall into is spiritual pride and spiritual presumption. You and I get to the place where we think that that we have arrived. I came, I saw, I conquered all things. God says that you don't realize the wickedness that is in your own heart. It is very difficult to see the weakness and sinfulness in our own hearts so God allows the devil to tempt us to evil so that we might recognize the sinfulness in our own hearts. Every time I am tempted, whether I yield to it or not, the very fact that I can be tempted, the very fact there is a desire to yield to that temptation, convinces me that I still have a way to go. Paul says in this tenth chapter that you take heed lest you yourself fall. In Galatians, chapter 6, he says that if a brother be overtaken in a fault, you restore him. And you watch out because you can do the same thing. Once in awhile you and I get the idea that certain things could never happen to us. This failure would never happen to me. We have the idea we are better than they are and begin to look with a critical, condemning eye upon them. So God allows us to be tempted to expose to us or own wickedness and sinfulness. But there is another reason, and I think this is the best and most comforting reason.
2) God allows us to be tempted to enlarge our capacity for God.
He allows us to meet conflict, difficulty, and temptation in order to enlarge our capacity. God meets a person on the level of his capacity. God will give you as much blessing and pour as much of his fullness into you as you are able to contain. Listen to Exodus, chapter 23, verses 29 and 30. God is telling them how he is going to bring them to victory into the land of Canaan:
I will not drive them (the enemy) out from before thee in one year (He said it is going to take longer than a year. Rome was not built in a day, and Canaan is not going to be possessed in a year; it's going to take longer. Why?); lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
God said he would not drive all the enemies out at once. Have you ever wondered why it was that when the people of Israel crossed over Jordan, God did not immediately drive out every enemy but took it one city at a time? God said, you are a small nation in number and spirit. You don't really know me well enough yet to trust me in every situation. If I were to completely clear the land of all enemies, you wouldn't be big enough and strong enough to hold the ground that I give you. While you are waiting to grow up spiritually and numerically, the beasts would multiply faster than you multiply, and the land would become desolate because there are not enough of you to occupy the land. For this reason, I will give you victory by victory as you are able to contain it.
This is true with most of us. When we got right with God and came to the place where we were willing to acknowledge Jesus as Lord in our lives, it seemed as though everything in the land was completely overpowered. We thought we were big enough to possess the land, strong enough that we would never fail or fall. Do you know what happened? The land became desolate, and we found out that we really weren't strong enough to take all the blessings that God was giving us. We weren't mature enough to trust him in all these things God was going to do for us. Pretty soon, we began to lose ground.
Have any of you ever lost ground spiritually? Have you had that experience? Sure you have. You lost ground because you were not big enough, strong enough, or mature enough to hold the ground that God gave you in victory. This is the way God works. Some of us are perplexed because we think we have victory. Then we meet an enemy we didn't even know we had. Today I met an area of my life that I didn't even know existed. Sometimes we think that maybe we didn't really mean it when we asked the Lord to come into our lives. No, God brings you victory one city at a time. Little by little he is enlarging your capacity for fullness. As God allows one temptation to come to you, and you overcome that temptation, that enlarges you just a little bit. That increases you just a little bit. God allows another temptation to come to you. You conquer another city, and that gives you time to increase and enlarge just a little bit more.
What God is doing in our lives is enlarging our capacity so he can pour more of his fullness and strength and blessings into us. That is the ministry of temptation. You need to thank God for it. You need to realize that God is doing two things in this temptation.
1) He is exposing you to the weakness and sinfulness of your own heart so you won't be filled with pride and presumption. He is also making you larger so that you can receive more of his fullness and more of his love and more of his blessing. So God permits the experience of temptation.
2) God prevents extreme temptation. It is a comforting statement that the Apostle makes: but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that ye are able. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. You don't ever have an uncommon temptation. I want you to understand, Christian, that if you ever yield to temptation, it is your fault. God never allows you to be tempted beyond your ability to bear it—beyond your capacity, your strength. God is gradually enlarging you, and he is not going to allow the devil to tempt you beyond your capacity to take that temptation and stand against it.
This is why in Genesis 3 when the devil came to Adam and Eve to tempt them, he came in the form of a snake, a serpent. I am convinced that if God had allowed him to come in all of his power and majesty, Adam and Eve would have had no choice but to fall beneath the tempter. God had already given to man dominion and rule and control over the reptiles and the serpents. So God told Satan, you can tempt my creation but you will have to reduce your potential and come in the form of a serpent because man has dominion over you. I am not going to allow Adam and Eve to be attempted above that which they are able. Man had dominion over that serpent so he did to have to yield. Because of the blood shed on Calvary, you as the child of God have dominion over the devil—whether you know it or not. You do not have to yield. There has no temptation taken you but as is common to man. It is just human; it is never beyond your strength.
I had a man come to me a year or so ago. He said, pastor, I have a problem. Maybe you can help me with it. I have this problem of bad language; I just curse all the time. I can't help it. I cannot control my tongue. I told him I had never heard him curse. I have been around you a great deal, and I have never one time heard you say one foul word. He said, oh, no, I wouldn't curse around you. I said, then don't tell me you can't help yourself. If you can control your language around me, you can control it around anybody. You see, he thought he was helpless to stop using that kind of language. If you can control your language around one person, you can control it around anybody. Don't say that's beyond your strength. I said, why don't you use that around me? He said, well, you are a preacher. (It's as if that puts me in another category—subhuman, subterranean, or something. Somebody said that one of the greatest days of his life was when he discovered that his pastor was human. That's a very discouraging discovery for a great many people.) Then he said, I have too much respect for you. I said, your problem is that you have more respect for a human being than you do for Jesus Christ who dwells within you.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. God is faithful. Do you believe that? He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it (to endure it). When temptation comes to you, you just thank the Lord. Thank you, Lord, I am grateful that this temptation is just common to man, and I am grateful that I am able to bear it.
3) God provides an escape from temptation.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common (The Greek word means moderate.) to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation (right along with the temptation) also make (provide) a way to escape.
Every temptation that comes to you has with it a corresponding way of escape. There is a way out of every temptation. That word escape means a path through a mountain canyon. It is a picture of an army that has been stampeded into a box canyon, and they are pinned in—no way out. The only way out is guarded by the enemy. They are doomed, finished, going to be wiped out. But as they look, they discover a little opening, a door in the mountain. There is a way to escape where they can slip out of that box canyon and escape the onslaught. You may sometimes feel like you are hemmed in by temptation, and you are in a valley surrounded by mountains that are too high to climb over. This is the way temptation comes to us.
James, chapter 1, says when you fall into temptation. It's just like falling into an open grave or a deep hole. There is no way out. God says he will make a way out; I'm faithful—you trust me. I'll make a way of escape. You just look for it. There will be a door where you can escape.
I want to point out something that doesn't come out in your English versions of the Bible. Literally, the Apostle says: but will with the temptation also make the way of escape. There is a definite article the in front of the word way. The rule of Greek grammar says when the definite article is used, it is referring to a specific, definite thing. There is always not just a way to escape; there is always the way to escape. Do you know that that way is? Jesus says, I am the way. Jesus is always the way to escape.
A man came to me in Colorado and poured out a problem. It was a heartbreaking problem. He asked what he could do about it. I said, friend, the first thing is to recognize that it is not your problem. It is God's problem. The first step in victory is to see that this isn't my problem; it's God problem. Jesus dwells within me, and every demand that is made upon my life is really a demand made upon Jesus who dwells within me. You commit the problem to him. It is the way to escape. You ask, how can I escape temptation? When temptation comes to you, you remember that God is faithful. God has honed down this temptation, pressed it down, limited this temptation, policed this temptation, and he has made certain that this particular temptation is not beyond your capacity to take it. He tailor makes temptation for you, or he lets the devil tailor make it.
The devil said, I want to tempt Job. God said, here's what you can do. I'll give you the size, and you make it fit him. The devil has to obey the Lord. I don't know about you, but that gives me a great deal of comfort. The Father says, all right, you can tempt that fellow. Here are his measurements. You make it to fit him. You can't make it any larger than he is; it has to fit him perfectly. God is faithful. When temptation comes I recognize that this temptation is tailor-made for me. It is not bigger than I am; it is not more than I can bear. I thank you that there is a way to escape. Jesus, you are the way. This is your temptation because you are my life. You indwell me. I am going to trust you and let you handle it. If you come more and more in your Christian life to learn to depend upon the indwelling Christ and rely upon him, you will know that it is not your problem, your difficulty, your temptation but it is Jesus who will take all of this for you. He not only did my dying, he will do my living for me. That is the way of escape.
So he says: Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. When you see the exit, run, don't walk toward the exit. When you see the way He has given you to get out of temptation, you flee, you run.
Well, preacher, what if I do yield? What if I do fail? Well, there is no cause for permanent defeat. 1 John 1:9 says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I tell you that God has just taken care of everything. There is no way that the Christian who knows this book can miss out and lose. If the temptation comes to me, as it will, it's not more than I can take, and Jesus will provide an escape. If I do fail, and I do yield to that temptation, I can go to the Father and confess that sin. I am forgiven. God has taken care of everything—the failure as well as the success. Maybe you've failed this week. Maybe you have met that temptation and yielded to it. It is easy to get rid of that sin in your life by confessing it. Lord, I confess (name that thing). The Bible says that the moment you confess it, he forgives you of that sin. He goes a step farther; he cleanses you from all unrighteousness.
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