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Temptation


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Temptation

By: Jim Crews

 

Every one of us is tempted.

James 1: 12 - 16

 

Temptation is a part of life. We can’t escape it. Everyone is tempted to sin. Temptation can’t be avoided. Yielding to temptation is sin. Sin brings spiritual death.

Romans 6: 23

 

This means that we must learn how to resist the things that tempt us to sin. We are going to study temptation today.

 

What is the source of our temptations? Temptations definitely don’t come from God. They come from our own lusts and desire, as we read in James to start the lesson. We are constantly fighting the battle of flesh vs. spirit.

Romans 7: 14 - 24

 

And we know that full and complete deliverance can only come through Jesus.

Romans 7: 25




 

So our temptations come from our own inner lusts and desires.

Now that we know the source of our temptations, who instigates them?

 

Satan is the instigator of temptation.

II Corinthians 2: 10 - 11

I Thessalonians 3: 5

 

Satan has three ways that he uses to tempt us. He uses the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride.

I John 2: 15 - 17

 

This is how he has tempted humanity from the beginning.

Genesis 3: 1 - 6

 

Notice, he used the lust of the flesh, by telling Eve that the fruit was good food. He used the lust of the eyes by showing her the beauty of the fruit. He used pride by telling her that eating of it would make her wise.

 

He used these same three tactics to tempt Jesus. He used the lust of the flesh.

Matthew 4: 1 - 4

 

After 40 days without food, Jesus was hungry, because He was in the form of a human. Satan used His hunger to tempt Him to display His power before the proper time. Jesus didn’t fall for it.

 

Satan then used pride to tempt Jesus.

Matthew 4: 5 - 7

 

Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and told Him that IF He was the Son of God, He would throw Himself down and nothing would happen. In fact, He would be ministered to by angels. Satan misapplied and took scripture out of context to come up with this, just as many people do today. Jesus didn’t fall for it.

 

Having failed at those, Satan then used the lust of the eyes to tempt Jesus.

Matthew 4: 8 - 10

 

He took Jesus to a high mountain to show Him all the kingdoms of the world, and told Jesus that if He would worship him, all those would be His. Jesus didn’t fall for it.

 

How did Jesus, our example, overcome the temptations of Satan? He quoted rightly divided and in context scripture back to him every single time. That is our way out of temptation. We should heed what the Bible says about the things we are tempted by.

Since we have free will, we can choose either to fall to the temptation or to resist it. One way to resist temptation is to remove the source from our lives. Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5: 29 - 30

 

This tells us that if we can’t resist falling to temptation, we must remove the source of that temptation from our lives.

 

As Christians, we must try our best to resist falling to temptation.

I Peter 5: 8 - 9

 

When we resist Satan’s temptations, he will leave us alone for a while. He will flee.

Matthew 4: 11

 

To resist temptations means that we must know our weaknesses and resist them. We have some examples of this very thing.

Job 2: 9 - 10

Daniel 1: 8




 

Jesus showed us how to avoid temptation. Use the Bible. We saw His example of quoting Scripture to avoid temptation. It worked for Him, because He did not sin.  

Hebrews 4: 15

I Peter 2: 21 - 22

 

We have help when we are tempted. God does not want any of us to perish.

II Peter 3: 9

 

God knows how to deliver us from our temptations.

II Peter 2: 9

Matthew 6: 13

 

He also knows how to aid us when we are tempted.

Hebrews 2: 17 - 18

 

He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what He knows we are capable of withstanding. He will always give us a way out. That way out is usually remembering Scripture that condemns what we are being tempted by.

I Corinthians 10: 13




 

Knowing that the source of temptation is our own desires, and knowing that the instigator of temptation is Satan, we are better equipped to exercise our wills and to resist our temptations. Remember that our greatest ally in resisting temptation is God, who wants us to succeed.

 

Not a single one of us is perfect. Even though we have heard the Gospel, believed the Gospel, and obeyed the Gospel by repenting of our past sins, making a public confession of our faith, and being immersed in water to have our past sins washed away, we will continue to sin. Satan knows this, and uses this to weaken us and try to cause us to give up altogether. He wants us to give up on ourselves. God, though, knew perfectly well that living a sinless life was so far above our ability that He tells us that even making the claim to be sinless is a lie.

I John 1: 8

 

God told us that once we become Christians, when we do sin again, and we will, some more than others, that we have the perfect advocate for our case.

I John 2: 1 - 3

 

When we fall again to sin, we must repent of THAT sin.

Acts 8:22

 

We must confess that sin to God in prayer and ask Him to forgive us.

I John 1: 9

 

He will forgive us every single time, as long as we remain faithful to Him, and don’t fall away from keeping His commandments.

 

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