Temptation
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Recently my wife and I went fly-fishing for the first time. Our guides told us that "to catch a fish you have to think like a fish." They said that to a fish life is about the maximum gratification of appetite at the minimum expenditure of energy. To a fish, life is "see a fly, want a fly, eat a fly." A rainbow trout never really reflects on where his life is headed. A girl carp rarely says to a boy carp, I don't feel you're as committed to our relationship as I am. I wonder, do you love me for me or just for my body? The fish are just a collection of appetites. A fish is a stomach, a mouth, and a pair of eyes.
While we were on the water, I was struck by how dumb the fish are. Hey, swallow this. It's not the real thing; it's just a lure. You'll think it will feed you, but it won't. It'll trap you. If you were to look closely, fish, you would see the hook. You'd know once you were hooked that it's just a matter of time before the enemy reels you in.
You'd think fish would wise up and notice the hook or see the line. You'd think fish would look around at all their fish friends who go for a lure and fly off into space and never return. But they don't. It is ironic. We say fish swim together in a school, but they never learn.
Aren't you glad we're smarter?
How many times did we fail the temptation test this past week? How many times have we lost the fight with temptation with a fight to the death? How many times did we lose our fight with temptation but actually did not fight at all? In our culture today is temptation even a temptation anymore. Why? There seems to be no more premium on learning how to deny ourselves. How to say no to ourselves. How be be content in any and every situation. If we are honest, it seems as if we are working harder to redefine, sin, reevalutae what a sin is, excusing and dismissing sin instead to leading the universal church to overcome sin. Temptation is a real test and we are doing more to say that it is not a test or that there are numerous do overs.
Sometimes when I was younger I would take some time to rest my brain by doing something mindless like playing video games. One of the things i wonder about… have we been conditioned to think that we have endless lives. I can take risks I can mess with temptation and bad decisions, I will always have a redo in life. A try again. A regeneration. But there is no redo in life.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
And yet the temptation remains. The testing remains. But the concept of temptation and or testing does the remarkable for us and yet it also difficult for us. The dichotomy is important for us to understand and getting a better sense of temptation might help us better understand what is happening here in the final petition of the Lord’s prayer. Lets look.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
He Leads Us
Why Test Us
3. Tempted Without Sin
The first thing we will look at today is the intial reality that it is God who leads us in and out of the temptation arena. Second, we will see the importance of testing in our growth as a Christian. And finally, we will see how Christ was tempted in the same ways and yet overcame the test and brought to us the victory of salvation.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose sight of the seriousness and nature of sin, it is the truth of the scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit that will illminate the true reality of sin and the glorious way we can be delivered from it.
I. He leads us
-He leads us to places where we will be tempted.
A. We come to the final petition of the Lord’s prayer. We pray that God’s name be kept and celebrated as Holy, we prayer that His kingdom comes, we pray that His will be done. Then our prayer for ourselves… give us this day what we need. Forgive us out sin and deliver us from sin.
B. One of the things I have been crying about for years now is theat we need to take sin seriously. Sin is serious and we need to be addressing it. Shane why do you gotta talk about sin all the time. Pastors and their members even brag about how they do not talk about sin in their churches. You don’t have to worry about people talking about sin here. We have seen how we minimize sin, call sin not a sin, or even ignore it. And of the three petitions, 2 of them has to do with sin. Are we getting a clue today? For give us our sin and deliver us from our battle with sin.
C. So what does it mean to ask God to lead us not into temptation. 1689 LBC states.
Q. 117. What do we pray for in the sixth petition?
A. In the sixth petition, which is, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil," we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin,
or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
D. We as Christians do not desire for anything to hamper, disuade, or get in between us and Christ we do not want anything to keep us from Christ. We do not desire to sin against Christ. Our prayer is for God not to lead us to a place where we could fall into sin. This is a hard thing for us.
Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
E. Even Christ prayed this in a time of testing.
“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
F. One of the reasons why we struggle with this petition is something inescapable. We cannot escape the real implication when we pray for God to lead us not into temptation is the reality that God does indeed lead us into temptation. Why would Jesus tell us to pray that God will not lead us into temptation if it was true that God never does this. Jesus knows about this.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.
G. God lead Him and it was the Devil who tempted. And we see throughout the scriptures God tempting or testing others. Job, Abraham, Jacob, David, the disciples. God lead Job into the hands of the Devil. For many over the years we erroneously think we solve this by thinking that temptation the work of the devil is being done independently from God. So we think its ok because we are praying that God will protect us from temptation and the devil work. But it is the Lord who is leading us into it. We cannot escape that. Well then thats messed up. Again we cannot rescue the character of God from the Bible. And when we do this we miss all that is glorious about this prayer.
And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.
H. Ontologically, God cannot tempt. God can lead us to be tempted but cannot by nature actually tempt us. In light of the garden of Eden, the fist thing he would have to do is cast doubt on his own word. You cannot trust my word. Did I really say? Then he has to cast doubt on his goodness. Think about… am I really good? Do I really have your best interest in mind. They God would have to convince us to trust our conclusions not His truth. He cannot tempt us to sin nor does He. And yet God did indeed put the tree in the garden of eden.
II. Why Test Us
-We need to grow in obedience.
A. When we are tempted to do something and we don’t do it, it is showing our growth and strength in obedience. It is showing maturity. Do we go and ask for advise from people who give in to temptation? No we ask those that don’t give in… why is that? He leads us into temptation to teach us to obey.
B. He leads us into temptation to teach us to love Him more. Sound weird? It is a moment when tempted that we have to choose between Christ and the thing we are tempted with. We must see that we overcome the temptation becuase we love Christ more. DA Carson taught that the reason people cannot overcome addictions (he was speaking about pornogragraphy specifically) It is Idolatry. You worshipped your way into it… you gotta worship your way out of it. Meaning you will not overcome the power of the addiction until you love Christ more. Temptation shows us where we are with this. Why do I love this more than Christ.
He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
C. We are tempted to teach us how we have got to depend of Christ. Christ urged the disciples to pray so that they overcome temptation. Instead of depending on God maybe they thought it ok to sleep and depend on my own strength and ability? And what happened to Peter. And how have we faired in life when we rely on our own strength?
D. Finally we are lead into temptation to test our faith. This is where we find out what we truly believe. We find out how much faith we rally have. We find out that all our talk is just talk. We find out what we are made of. We find out if we are for real. And in the self deluded culture we live in where we cannot make sober judgements about ourselves and what we really believe. This is where it comes to light. When we fail. When we give into temptation. It is telling us that there is something in our life that is seriously wrong. Well Shane I love Jesus more than anything… then we spend the next days failing our temptations. Well I guess you don’t love him more than anything. No I do love him more than anything it was just mistakes my heart says I do and you don’t know my heart. Neither do you. You do not trust your heart for it is deceitful above all things. We must trust the test. Don’t listen to those that tell you you are OK when you fail. We do not judge hearts we judge fruit. I know what is really in your heart because of what you do.
E. Do not listen to the lie that you are Ok or its not that bad. Relax God knows your heart. Its not that bad of a sin. Falling into temptation is a serious serious thing. Don’t just cover it up with white wash. Stop putting a gold ring in a pigs snout. It is like the false teachers addressed in Ezekiel…
“This will happen because these evil prophets deceive my people by saying, ‘All is peaceful’ when there is no peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to reinforce it by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down. A heavy rainstorm will undermine it; great hailstones and mighty winds will knock it down.
F. Its like asking our late Master builder Jerry Schenfeld about the church fence… the foundations are cracked, the fence posts are broken and its starting to lean. I think its gonna fall. And jerry goes nah nah… give it a fresh coat of paint and it will be ok. Failing in temptation it communicating something very real to us. It is telling us the truth. Let it set you free today.
G. So God leads us into temptation for our benefit in so many ways… So here we come back to the Lord’s prayer. So should we go looking for temptation around every corner. In the 6th petition Jesus tell us to pray that God does not do this. What in the world is going on Shane?
H. As Christians we do not want to sin. I do not want to ever be put in a situation where I could indeed be a transgressor of the law of God. It is a hard thing to go through trials and tribulations. It is awesome and gracious to suffer the way Christ did, but itf it be possible please take cup from me. I know what happens when a spark goes off in a bucket of gasoline… it may need to go off, but please Lord please spare us. Sure there is famine in the land… it is probably judgement, probably the best thing for us to learn in discipline, probably turn things around, but we do not wake everyday praying that the land continues to not bear a crop. Suffering is awesome and it brings so much reward and we rejoice in it, BUT WE DON’T PRAY FOR IT.
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
I. This encounter is coming and it will benefit us, strengthen us, inform us, cause us to love more, cause us to fight more, cause us to help more. YES. But we do not pray to God that this will happen. God called us to be GODLY not CRAZY.
J. Sure it is time to fast. Fasting is good for us. So should we no longer pray for food for our daily bread. Should we not desire us to live life in joy happiness. We should pray for good times. We still pray that God is merciful for us. If it be possible please take this cup from me. Lead us not into temptation. But not my will but thy will be done. But deliver us from the evil one. Lord keep us from being tempted to sin, but if not support and deliver us when we are tempted.
K. And I do believe that there are times of temptation that God will lead us away from. This one is gonna be hard for Shane… I’ll give him a break today. But tomorrow he gotta face this one and he prayed to be delivered from the evil one and I’m gonna do that. I love you God and I do not want to sin against you. Lead me away from these things or at least give me the strength to overcome it.
L. Why all of this… because Christ knows what we are going through.
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
M. This is a wonderful dynamic. Beautiful encounter in prayer with God. The implications are huge. This is an awesome display of the grace and mercy of God that he desires to have on His people. It shows that He knows. He understands.
I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough. Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement. So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him.
N. Again, there is no reason to think that we will receive the relief and deliverence if we don;t pray for it. What an important thing for us to ignore. Not only does he understand He did beat it.
III. Tempted Without Sin
-He has overcome.
A. And not only do we see that He was tempted in everyday. He still overcame sin. He beat it, he did not fall away into it. So not only does he understand he knows how to overcome. And so when we pray for Christ to deliver us from the evil one, we can be confident that He can. And we can be confident that he will have mercy on us if we ask for it.
B. But in our culture today when it comes to topics like this and the beauty of how the Lord leads us in our lives it is not as impactful because when it comes to sin, it causes no real concern. The simple answer is… We don’t care. For years the voices of truth and reason has been warning us about how the church and culture are losing its hold on the topic of sin. Many surveys that go out asking for answers. Many say that the church is not helpful because it deals with topics that do not matter to me. Sin, the bible, communion, the gospel ect. When asked what is the most important issue you need help with, it is not sin. Its work, family, friends, politics, money, economy, making ends meet. Sin plays no part anymore.
C. When our Lord teaching us to pray has two out of the three petitions concerning sin, we better pay attention to it. Seriously… when we pray all we are concerned about then is give us this day our daily bread part? The reality is that sin is the enemy of our soul. And we are all affected by it. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. We are all by nature children of wrath. How serious is sin? The punishment for sin is eternal torment in heel the place reserved for the devil and his angels. Outer darkness, eternal fire where the worm never dies, weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity. How awful is this?
D. Can we be saved from this? Because Christ did not fail in temptation. He was able to live the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. And because he did … Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
E. The promises continue… All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. Believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and you will have life in His name.
F. And we have received the Spirit of Holiness. He is here with us to make us Holy. And we contonue to pray that the Lord will lead us not into temptation, but if we gotta go through it, we can pray with confidence that Christ will deliver us… we will overcome because he has overcome.
