Fighting Temptations

Introduction

Illustration: Fighting Temptation

A father had to go on a trip for a few days and instructed his teenage son that the car was not to be used while he was gone. When he returned, his son greeted him and said, “While you were gone, I came very close to breaking my promise to not use the car while you were away. You left the keys and I carried them for three days, fighting temptation.”

The father smiled, “Son, there’s nothing like temptation to show you what you’ll do- if you are given the opportunity!”Temptation- An attempt to learn the nature and character of something, test trial

Temptations- An attempt to make someone do something wrong, an enticement

Tempted- To make an effort to do something that shows the futility of an endeavor

Transition To Body- Being in danger of being disqualified from the race by falling to temptations

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 ESV

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Body

Universality of Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 ESV

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Dealing with the past (as it regards our temptations)

Unawareness of the past

1 Corinthians 10:1–5 ESV

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Examples of the Past

1 Corinthians 10:6–10 ESV

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

Instruction of the Past (through the written word)

1 Corinthians 10:11–12 ESV

11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Provision Against Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Inoculation of the LORD’s Word

Psalm 119:11 ESV

11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Living, Active, Piercing, Discerning, Seeing Word of God

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Resisting in order to develop discipline- Hebrews 12:4-11

Temptation of our Desires

James 1:13 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Submit to the LORD & Resist Devilish Ways

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Unsurprising Trials as opportunities to Glorify God

1 Peter 4:12–19 ESV

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Faithfulness of the LORD God

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Psalm 118:1–2 ESV

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

Psalm 118:29 ESV

29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 136:103

2 Timothy 2:13 ESV

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Endurance Under Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Isaiah 40:27–31 ESV

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Escape- The end point of a duration

Outcome of an event or state.

Way out of some difficulty

Illustration: He will always make a way out. This word (ekbasis) may denote a mountain defile. The imagery is that of an army trapped in rugged country, which manages to escape from an impossible situation through a mountain pass. The assurance of this verse is a permanent comfort and strength to believers. Our trust is in the faithfulness of God.

Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 142.

Endure- Bear up under trouble or difficulty

To bear something for the benefit of another

Illustration: How to Endure pressure of temptation

Physical pressure is similar to the pressure of temptation in some respects. We can often escape it on our own, but we all have limits.

For example, even the atomic submarines built strongly enough to batter through the ice at the North Pole have a maximum crush depth limit beyond which they may not go with safety. The submarine Thresher exceeded that depth some years ago. As the pressure increased, the seawater crushed the sub’s heavy steel bulkheads as if they were made of cheap plastic. Searchers found only little pieces of that huge submarine.

Yet there are fish that live at the same depth in which the Thresher was crushed. How can these fish survive? The answer is that they have equal pressure within themselves. Thus it should be for all Christians. In ourselves we are doomed. But, in Christ, there is no temptation beyond our ability to resist.

Transition To Close- The Checkmate of faith

Illustration: Checkmate the Devil

In an art gallery in Europe hangs a painting titled Checkmate. On one side of a chessboard sits the devil, full of laughter. His hand is poised, ready to make his next move. On the other side of the chessboard sits a shaking, frightened young man. Sweat covers his forehead, dripping down and mixing with a solitary tear on his cheek. The game is obviously drawing to a close, and the winner appears to have already been decided.

One day, a chess champion from a far off country visited the gallery. Naturally, the painting caught his attention, inviting him to examine it for a very long time. In fact, while others had moved on throughout the gallery, the chess champion remained fixated on the game and especially on the devil, who sat eagerly waiting for his next turn, in which he planned to steal this man’s soul.

Minutes turned into hours as the chess champion studied the board from every possible angle. The sweat on the young man’s forehead urged him to continue. Finally, as the gallery was about to close, the chess champion found the proprietor of the gallery and asked him, “Sir, would you happen to have a chessboard here?”

After looking around in several of the offices, he located a chessboard and brought it to the man. The chess champion laid the board out at the base of the painting precisely as it was in the painting. He made a move and then countered that move in the only way that the devil could to avoid checkmate. He then made another move, and countered it again knowing that the devil would have to defend himself in his next move as well. The chess champion did this several more times, putting the devil on the defensive each and every time. Eventually, a loud yell was heard throughout the gallery as the chess champion cried out in relief, “I did it! I did it! I did it!”

Turning to the painting, the chess champion lowered his voice and said, “Young man, your enemy miscalculated a very important move. I uncovered it, and as a result, you don’t have to lose! You win!”

This chess champion had discovered a way not only for the young man to escape but also to checkmate the devil himself.

Evans, Tony. Victory in Spiritual Warfare (Kindle Locations 99-118). Harvest House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Close- When the Devil miscalculated Jesus’ next move

1 Corinthians 2:6–9

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

John 17:1–5 ESV

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.