The Appeal of Temptation

Introduction

John Piper says that sin (lust for example) "gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier."

Temptation will work on us in many ways. We will see things and think it is great when we know in fact it is not. Yet, temptation makes us desire it more and more when we know it is wrong.

We will falter and seek to try and cover it up. We will do many things to make ourselves look better than we were.

We need to be ready at any moment to not fall into temptation. We need to beware the temptations that come before us.

As Charles Spurgeon has said, “What settings are you in when you fall?  Avoid them. What props do you have that support your sin? Eliminate them.  What people are you usually with?  Avoid them.  There are two equally damning lies Satan wants us to believe: 1) Just once won't hurt. 2) Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God's use, and might as well enjoy sinning.

"Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."

Today I want to look at Genesis 3:1-10

Genesis 3:1–10 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

In this text we see many things that we need to Beware of the appeal of temptation. There are many circumstances that surround us and will cause us to falter. So, we need to always beware of them and what is going on that may cause us to fall into the temptation.

Beware the appeal of temptation when the moral instructions are questioned (Gen. 3:1–3).

Right here we see that Satan questioned the word of God. He asked if God really said what He had said.

Satan caused the woman to doubt what she had been told.

She made another mistake in adding to God’s word hoping to demonstrate she knew it.

When she said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree…neither shall you touch it....” Satan knew then she did not have it all together.

You see the command was originally told to Adam and it was Gen. 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The woman should have turned away right then and not even engaged Satan. She instead added to a command and by doing so Satan knew she was ripe for the picking.

She should have been like LeRoy Eims and how he handles rattlesnakes. He said, “Rattlesnakes are fairly common where I live. I encounter one almost every summer. It is a frightening experience to see a rattlesnake coiled, looking at you, ready to strike. He’s lightning-quick and accurate. I have a simple two-point program for handling rattlesnakes: shun and avoid. It’s as simple as that. You don’t need much insight to figure out what to do with something as dangerous as a diamondback rattler. You don’t mess around.” (Charles R. Swindoll, Book of Illustrations (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 560.)

Shun and avoid. That is good advice. When we shun and avoid temptations when the moral instructions are questioned, we will be in better chances of not failing and falling.

But she did not. She did not heed the warning buzz of the serpent. She fell for what he set before her. She should have been wary of his wiles and what he was saying when he questioned the moral instructions.

We do the same thing. We see that something may be a little risque and we still flip to the channel and fain shock when some nudity appears or other sinful temptations.

We go to places when we know someone will question the moral instructions we hold to. We do not beware the appeal of temptation when moral instructions are questioned like we should.

We have the warnings and instructions just as Adam and Eve did. We know what is wrong yet we still add to what was said or we subtract so we can do something. When we do we fall and are caught up because we failed to heed the next aspect of what we should beware. That is...

Beware the appeal of temptation when the consequences of sin are denied (Gen. 3:4–5).

Satan says that they will not die when they eat. They were told this by God and God does not lie. Satan said they would not die but would be like God when they ate of the fruit.

Man, isn’t this exactly what the world says all the time about sin?

The world always says that our rules and restrictions hold us back. We need to flee that fairy tale and live life because then we will be our own ruler.

They may not use that exact language but they say we need to determine our own path because we are our own and no one elses.

The world has removed the consequences of sin. The world will not allow for consequences of sin because then that would interfere with their desires.

The problem is, we fall for it regularly. We are just like the woman and we take of the forbidden fruit and eat and then we give it to others.

When the consequences of sin are removed, we have nothing to worry about. We are free to do what we want because it is our lives and we control it with no fear of repercussions.

We see here that Satan moved to a denial of God’s integrity. He said God feared them being like Him. He kept the fruit from them because He did not want them like Him.

This is the world today. They want to be God and they remove all consequences of sin to do so.

This is something we must avoid at all costs. We need to avoid this temptation.

We all know what it is like to feel this temptation. We have all had that friend, or maybe been that friend, who said things like

“No one will ever know.”

“It will be fun and what is the harm.”

“It isn’t illegal.”

“Who will care, everyone else is doing it and they are happy.”

Consequences are there for a reason. We need them to stay in tune to why we should not do something.

I have read that children with a fenced in playground will run and play more freely than children in playgrounds without a fence. The boundaries give them freedom because they know they are safe within those boundaries.

That is what consequences do for us, they give us freedom because we know that when we are within them we are safe.

This is why we need to beware temptation when the consequences are denied because the consequences are our boundaries and safety.

But this is not the only time we need to be wary of temptations. No, we need to...

Beware the appeal of temptation when the satisfaction of your appetites is promised (Gen. 3:6–7).

We all have a desire for something and we want that satisfied. Whether this is money, fame, fortune, skills, abilities, or whatever it is, we all desire something. We all want our appetites satisfied in some form.

Here in this text we see that the woman had fallen into the trap of Satan and wanted three things of her appetite satisfied, “desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride of life.”

She wanted to be like God and she wanted what she wanted. She was like these monkey’s that I read of:

Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it's simple. They've been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can't get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.

The monkey is trapped by his own desire for the satisfaction of his appetite. We are no different.

We want what we want and we will do almost anything to appease that appetite.

We will even leave our hand in the melon because we are too foolish to remove it. We will then call for friends and others like the woman giving the fruit to Adam. We will bring others down because we want them to have the same joy we are having which is no joy at all because we are trapped by our appetite for whatever it is we want.

We then open our eyes and realize that our falling for the temptation led us into a bad spot and we are exposed and vulnerable and feel left out to dry. We hide and seek to avoid God when we know better.

We will make up excuses and place blame on others. We will even turn the blame back to God like Adam did in verse 12 when he said “the woman whom you gave me.”

We need to beware the temptations of sin when the satisfaction of our appetites are promised.

It will lead us astray and cause us to flounder and falter and blame God for what we have done.

We need to always remember this wise statement from John Newton, “Satan will seldom come to a Christian with a gross temptation. A green log and a candle may be safely left together, but a few shavings, some small sticks and then larger, and you may bring the green log to ashes.”

It always begins slow and seems to be nothing but then before we know it, the temptation has jumped into an all encompassing flame we cannot put out.

We need to Beware the Appeal of Temptation and seek to avoid it as much as possible. But if we remember these three Bewares

1. Beware of the appeal of temptation when the moral instructions are questioned (vv. 1–3).

2. Beware of the appeal of temptation when the consequences of sin are denied (vv. 4–5).

3. Beware of the appeal of temptation when the satisfaction of your appetites is promised (vv. 6–7).

We can avoid much heart ache and trouble in our lives.

Conclusion

God has promised us a way of escape from temptation 1 Cor. 10:13

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.

But we must beware of the forms and the ways it comes but,

“Too many of us expect to sin and excite sin...Whenever we play with temptation, it is easy to drift into great danger.”

and when we do we become like this lady,

“ A woman was bathing in the Gulf of Mexico. She was enjoying the comfort of relaxing on an inflated cushion that kept her afloat. When she realized that she had been swept about a half mile out from the beach, she began to scream, but no one heard her. A coast guard craft found her five miles from the place where she first entered the water. She did not see her danger until she was beyond her own strength and ability.” C. Swindoll, One Step Forward, p. 85.

We need to beware temptations and the ways they come to us because they will come to us and they will be under cover, they will question the moral instructions, they will question the consequences of sin, and they will offer to fulfill some burning desire inside us when all they can do is take us down and make us miserable.

So today I ask, “Will you Beware The Appeal of Temptation” or will you fall for the wiles like the woman did? Or will you seek God and what He has said about everything before you decide to make a move and follow your heart that may very well deceive you?