Sermon Transcript — January 11, 2003
Good afternoon everyone. This afternoon what I’d like to do is to start what I have traditionally striven to do in serving the people of God and that is to begin the preparation for the Passover season. Believe it or not, that time will be here before we know it. I’m firmly convinced there’s no way that you can really understand and be properly prepared to observe the Lord’s Passover in the spring of the year when the holy days begin and come for their observation on an annual basis as the scripture commands. There’s no way you can be prepared for that if it is just a matter of one or two sermons. We need to look and cover a wide variety of topics and things; food for thought is what I’d like to call them, food for thought sermons and to see where we plug in and where we fit in to this overall, so that we can with confidence come to the Passover, take the Passover and walk in newness of life and harmony with Jesus Christ as the scripture outlines.
In light of that, what I wanted to do today is to get into an area, the first of that kind of material that I’d like to bring to your attention and this has to do with a topic which impacts on all of us in a big way. It doesn’t matter whether you are young or old or baptized or not baptized, male or female, this one’s got us all by the juggler vein. This one works on us constantly. This is one that we need to really be mindful of and that’s why I put it in the first position to launch us out and to be thinking about this coming year. Only God knows what 2003 is going to bring. We hope and pray for the blessing of God and we know we’ve got a world that is rattling sabers now talking war, we know that could impact on many young men and women and take them away from their families and they may or may not come back home again. Life will never be the same. Just like 911, once that happened, life was never the same from that point on. Everything has changed in our countries makeup and our whole posture right now is geared with that mentality of thought.
Well what we need to keep in mind in light of the scriptural admonition and taking into consideration what the bible is saying in preparation for Passover, there is something that all of us must contend with and we have to fight on a constant basis this very thing. It’s something that the bible says we must be over-comers in just as it speaks in Revelation and tells us to the over-comer. This was an area that Jesus Christ contended with, not quite in the say way that you and I do but He was in all ways targeted in this same particular situation. He was bombarded with the very things you and I are bombarded with, yet His outcome was quite different then normally ours. You and I fall into a category where we are the victims all to often of what the bible calls: “We surrender to the temptations of this world."
So today we want to look at the subject of resisting temptation, resisting temptation and what is so necessary for all of us to be mindful of because we live in a world filled with many varieties of temptation. The bible talks about temptation. Temptation is something that one must be mindful of because today, as one individual once said, man has always had the capacity to sin in relationship to yielding to temptations but today we have high-tech temptation. We have a thing called the internet now that can tempt people to all kinds of behavior that is not scriptural, that the bible says must be avoided at all costs, certain types of temptations that literally destroy families, that break up husbands and wives, that cause an awful lot of hurt in mind, body, and spirit. These are things we must be alert to, that the bible addresses because you see you and I are involved whether we realize it or not, whether mankind realizes it or not, the scripture affirms clearly, we are engaged in spiritual warfare. That spiritual warfare is going on 24 hours around the clock, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and you and I find ourselves many times, smack down in the middle of all this warfare. How does it erupt? It erupts in the form of many temptations that impact on all of us as human beings. They have been very successful, these temptations.
It started back in a time in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 where it talks about our first parents, met a temptation that was placed before them. They succumbed to the temptation and as a result, they were scarred. From that point on we all as the progeny of Adam and Eve became now susceptible to the same type of temptations and problems because now our nature was now under the influence of a great tempter that the bible talks about. We’ll see some of these scriptures that will deal with this. But we basically are fighting a three front war which anyone will tell you in military strategy is a terrible place to be, a two front war is bad but when you’re fighting a three front war, that’s even worse. The war we fight is number one against the tempter who the bible reveals as Satan the devil and we’ll see that shortly. It also reveals to us that because of the influence of this tempter and being so successful in what he has done it also has tainted our nature so we now are at war many times against ourselves and the old saying, a person becomes their own worst enemy because of the things they do and how they succumb to various temptation.
The third and final area that we must always be mindful of is the world in which we live, in which God very strongly tells us through the apostle John; “Love not the world nor the things in the world." You might say, “But pastor I’m stuck in the middle of the world, I’ve got to live in it, what are we talking about here?" Answer plain and simple, you can live in the world but you don’t have to be a part of it. You don’t have to subscribe and yield to the direction and the influence that the world says. The world says go right; God says go left, what is your choice? God says you’d better go left. You’re safer if you follow His instructions. You go right, now you throw yourself in league with the world, you’re putting your stamp of approval on the way the world is operating and God says He has a controversy with the nation. The nation, not just America and England and Israel. He’s talking about the world. The world is not living right and the whole world is in flames with problems and difficulties because of sinful behavior and a total disregard for the truth of God. Because of that, the world is suffering.
Now it’s important to realize that in a spiritual warfare we are told in Ephesians, chapter 6 to put on the whole armor of God. We’ll go back to that a little bit later but it basically tells you arm yourself. Each and every day when you get up in the morning, be sure you go out armed because you are in a spiritual warfare. Whether you go to school, whether you go to the job, whether you go (wherever you go), be mindful that the world is loaded with temptations, booby traps and subtle things designed to cause a person to stumble and to falter spiritually. That is the name of the game of the adversary. You and I then are pictured in the scriptures, as it says in:
II Timothy 2:3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Well whether we realize it or not, God says you are combatants, you are not pacifist in this war and you’d better not be arming yourselves in a passive approach as if well, God’s going to do it all for you. God is going to do the key and critical things that we cannot but He says: “You put on the spiritual armor, I’ll tell you what the armor is, you put it on." You have a part to play. You must be involved and you must, as the scripture says: "Fight the good fight of faith." Faith is going to challenged in this end time as never before and what I’m referencing, faith and confidence in God and the word of God that is being maligned so terribly today on all sides. We see the fruit of it happening. So here we are, as combatants living in a world and we are to combat and go against the influences of this world. There is nowhere you can go on the face of this earth that you can get away from temptation. There’s no place, perfect place in this world where you are free from temptation.
Temptation raises its ugly head in many different forms. Our purpose is not to go through and to list all the various forms but to merely address the matter of temptation in the context of scripture so you and I can be aware of what it is we got to fight and how to fight it according to scripture.
John 16:33 Jesus makes this statement: “Be of good cheer."
He didn’t say because you live in a world filled with temptation, be sorrowful, sad and cry and feel miserable. He said no, “Be of good cheer." Well you might say: “Well what do I have to be of good cheer about, you know with all these problems round about?" The answer is that He said: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Jesus Christ is revealed in the pages of the scripture as the over comer of all the obstacles and the problems that we engage in this world. As we’re going to see shortly, if we are involved deeply in a relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father, through the power of His Spirit, then we have the ability to deal with temptation in the way that most people do not. Now we’ve all succumbed to temptation, there’s not a one of us here that has not in one shape or in one form or another. It might be a little thing, it might be a big thing, but we’ve all fallen prey. How do I know? Paul said it in the book of Romans. He said: “All have come short of the glory of God." That means we’ve all yielded like Adam and Eve, we’ve all sinned, we’ve all come to a temptation and we’ve failed to overcome it and we don’t want to fail in overcoming temptations. We’ve got to be an over comer and when we do fail whatever the temptation might be, it is imperative that we go to God as quickly as possible and say, “God please forgive me, I have failed you and I need the precious blood of Jesus Christ to wipe the slate clean again so I can walk in newness of life, to know that by Your grace I will have victory in this matter." This is the only way it will come. You can’t get victory, I can’t, no human being can get victory apart from the Son of God . Turn with me if you will please to Romans chapter 8. The book of Romans deals an awful lot with very pertinent issues that impact on human beings, young and old alike, men and women and God wants us to understand certain things from His word that can be very helpful to us in overcoming with His spirit and through Jesus Christ, these temptations that we have to constantly battle. We have to constantly battle.
Romans 8: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation…
Nobody can point a finger, nobody can say: “Hey, you this, you that,
there is no condemnation in them which are in Christ Jesus." That’s
the key, the relationship has to be established that we are in Christ Jesus,
we have some kind of a relationship that brings us in harmony with Him and Jesus
says the way you do that is He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments."
Do those things in essence that are pleasing in My sight. If you walk away from
that, then God says how can you say you’re my friend? How can you say
you love Me when you throw everything I put forth to the ground? So here He
makes it very clear, He says it has to be in Christ Jesus. Notice, and that
relationship does something, It says:
…For those individuals who walk…
Now the term walk merely means; how you live your life, you’ve all heard
the expression, people talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk. It
means they’re not living what they say they are. Now the Christian man
and woman, the God fearing individual wants to live and walk the way that Jesus
Christ clearly outlines in scriptures to the best of their ability. And it says:
…they don’t walk…
Notice after the flesh, what do they walk after? It says:
…the Spirit.
They’re reaching out in their daily lives for the Spirit of God; which
Jesus said how much the Father would be so desirous to give you, all the help
you need with the help of His Spirit and He goes on to say:
Verse 2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus…
So, life comes to us in the form of Christ Jesus, the Son of God. All of us
were in essence dead to spiritual life until Jesus Christ came into the world.
Then through Jesus Christ, it is pointed out here and through His very life’s
experience, it says:
…He has made me free from the law of sin and death.
What was the law that pointed out sin and death? The Ten Commandments that made
it very clear, the wages of sin is death. You know, it brings it out in terms
of that if you break the law of God, you are a lawbreaker; you are a lawless
one. We’ve all been guilty of that. What would have been the end result
of that? Death itself. Spiritual death. Not so much worrying about physical
death but spiritual death in the long run. This is where God is taking our thoughts
in our mind.
Verse 3: For what the law could not do in that it was
weak through the flesh…
There was no problem with God’s law but it was weak because the flesh
of a human being, no human being can keep a spiritual law of and by him or herself.
That’s why Romans says: “No flesh will glory in His presence."
If you try to present flesh to God, God says: “Forget it, I’m not
interested in flesh, I want to see that you’re reaching out for the Spirit,
that you hunger for My laws and My commands so that I can write them in the
inner most part of your being as a man and a woman." He goes on to show
how that it is God then, how does God correct this problem?
…By sending His own Son in the likeness (notice) of sinful
flesh…
He looked just like every other sinful human being if you would just look upon
Him, but He was not a sinful creature. He had never sinned at all. Now it’s
very important that we take a look at what is being said here. He goes on to
say:
…He came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh.
By His action, giving Himself as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of
the world, what we have in Jesus Christ is a powerful example showing that with
the help of God’s Spirit working in the life of a human being, you do
not have to give in to sin. He condemned it in the flesh is what it is saying.
You do not have to give in to temptation but all too often we do, because you
see there’s a difference in here and here is where the difference comes
in. Remember Christ is revealed as the Son of God and the Son of Man. We are
just of the Son of Man, the flesh. He came as a representative of God; which
means that in His mind He thought the way of God. He lived the way of God. He
pursued the way of God but as we’re going to see, in the flesh He was
tempted in every point like we are. He knew the hurt and the agony of what it
meant to be in the flesh and He had to fight with the Spirit of God in the mind
that He knew to beat down that potential temptation. Now some people say: “You
know, Jesus couldn’t have sinned." Well that makes a mockery of
the word of God and what is the devil out there trying to tempt Him for, as
we’re going to see. Matthew 4:4, Jesus fought for His spiritual well being
and life and on behalf of all of us. He fought. He was weak in the flesh; He
fasted forty days and forty nights. Then the devil came when He was at His weakest
moment in the flesh when most of us would cave in when we’re in the weakest
moment and Jesus, relying on the Spirit of God; remember He was given the Spirit
of God without measure. He called upon that. He had the mind of God but He needed
the Spirit of God working, remember He divested Himself of all His immortality,
and all the other things that He had and He called upon God and so when the
devil hit Him with the temptation:
Matthew 4:3 “If You be the Son of God, turn those stones into bread."
Verse 4: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word of God."
That’s what Christ was living by, every word of God. He came to reveal
the will of the Father. He didn’t come to do His own thing. He came to
be the sacrificial lamb for mankind. So He goes on to say that righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in whom? In you; in me; in us. How can that righteousness
be fulfilled? We can’t do it. Christ in us can through the power of the
Spirit of God. We can say no to temptation. All too often we don’t. That’s
the weak spot we all have. That’s why we have to fight and be over comers,
that’s why Jesus said: “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world." If He had to overcome it, you know if He was God and He didn’t
have to wrestle any of these things, what is there to overcome? It was a breeze
for Him, that’s the way some people believe. No it was a struggle of struggle.
He is worthy of glory, honor and every righteous thing that can be said about
Jesus Christ and the Father is going to put Him on the highest pedestal to show
mankind, this is your wonderful High Priest, this is the One, the reason why
you live now is because this Being, My Beloved Son saved you from death and
destruction and because you responded to My grace of receiving My Son, I the
Father says will spare your life from gehenna fire.
Man alive! The bible is just filled with these dynamic elements and you don’t hear this stuff anywhere. People don’t talk about it like they need to talk about it. The bible is not alive to people, its just form and ceremony, let’s get back to the word of God and notice what it says. It’s going to be fulfilled in us, why, who walk, notice that. It’s fulfilled, God does His part; how do we know? Philippians says it is God who does, what? He works in us to will and do His good pleasure. But who has to walk? You and I do. We have to put one foot in front of the other and walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We have to keep the Sabbath, we have to obey the laws of God because they are good and righteous and holy. The law of God is perfect, converting the soul. It goes on to point out, how that we walk, not after the flesh, after the spirit. Our life we’re reaching for spiritual things, we’re not consumed with all the physical things.
Like the old story; Peter and the Dike. You probably remember that story, childhood story years ago how this dike, it was a little boy, Peter in the Netherlands in the dike and how they pushed the dike back and how all of a sudden there’s a hole. Peter has to go in there and try and plug the hole. Well you know, that’s how people are living life, they’re lives are filled with all kinds of holes. There’s one big hole, it’s called the hole in their heart and that hole can only be filled when Jesus Christ comes into the person’s life and becomes the center stage of a person’s life. When that takes place, then immediately you don’t worry about taking and trying to plug life’s holes with your fingers in your pursuits. You let God guide you through life. You relax and you begin to understand what He meant: “Live joyfully with the wife of your youth, under the sun for this is your portion thereof." In other words, this is it. You’re to enjoy this gift of life. But it’s only a token of what God has said. Just like He’s only given us a token of His Spirit. When we are finally born of the Resurrection we will be filled with God’s Spirit and experience life in a dimension, in a degree that as it says: “Eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard but God has revealed us," how? How do we know this? Through His Spirit.
So hear again, they that are after the flesh.
Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Just living carnally, couldn’t care less about God, His way; they mind the things of the flesh, they’re still busy out there, “Oh, I’m unhappy, I’ve got to get a new car." They get a new car, they’re unhappy. Cars fine. Great but you know they’re unhappy. “I’ve got to get a new house." They go buy a new house, get in the house. “This isn’t quite what I thought it was." So they’re not happy there, they’ve got to go out and buy another house. So they have to go out and do something else. “If I can just move and get away from this place to another place, I’m happy, I know I’ll be happy." They do it but they take all the garbage with them. They take all the problems and difficulties with them and they go to the new place, bam, they still got all these holes to plug. You have to take Jesus Christ with you everywhere you go. That’s the only way you’ll be happy. North, south, east, west, it makes no difference, around the world. You have to take Him with you because around the world you will have these temptations and you need to remember you are a combatant in a spiritual warfare. Well Jesus told us very plainly that with His help, we can conquer.
In looking at this thing of temptation, we might ask, what is a temptation? It can be defined in the dictionary in the following manner: To try to get someone to do wrong. To try to get someone to do wrong and especially it will have with it a promise of reward. In other words, if you do this, you can get this. Now if you go back and study the Genesis account, the beginning where mankind was ushered in on the scene, Adam and Eve had a contest with the devil, so to speak. They lost in this contest because they fell for the trap that the devil sprung upon them and all mankind has been under that influence ever since. The bait and there’s three elements to a temptation that we need to be mindful of. One I call the bait. You’ve got to have a bait; something to reach out for. There’s something that grabs the attention; a bait. Then there has to be a desire, this bait has to be more or less nurtured with a desire: “I sure would like that thing." Whatever it is and so you start wanting that thing. That desire then becomes what is called in the bible a lust or an inordinate desire. There are lawful desires, no problem with that but when it’s illicit or wrong desires for things or people or position or whatever it might be that the temptation is or to get your hands on a big chunk of money and today many people are compromising their values, their worth as an individual because they want to get money. This happened here recently, some lady got scandalized because she worked as a public servant. Did she serve the people properly? Yes, she looted the place of 12 million dollars and now she’s up on scandal charges. She used it to go gambling because she just loved slot machines. Well, her life is now in turmoil because you pay a price for that kind of living.
Well, looking very carefully we see then that what happened? We’re introduced in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis to an individual called Satan. He came in the form of a serpent, most subtle. He’s a shrewd and very deliberate deceiver of the worst kind. He can take things and make things look good that are absolutely wrong. He has this ability. He can work with a person’s mind and cause him to be tempted to do things that are wrong, thinking they’re going to get a reward at the end of it. What do we see? We see him listed as the tempter.
I Thessalonians 3:2 Here the apostle Paul was concerned and:
He sent Timothy as a minister of God and fellow laborer in the gospel of
Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,
Notice that and the importance of that was found in:
Verse 3: That no man should be moved by these afflictions…
Their faith was being tested by various afflictions they were going through.
He says:
…for you yourselves know…
The people are not ignorant in this and God’s people shouldn’t be
either,
…for you yourselves know that we are appointed there unto.
Verse 4: For verily I said to you that we told you before
that you should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass and you know,
Verse 5: For this cause,…
This is the cause; this is what Paul was concerned about.
…that when I could no longer forbear, I sent (Timothy) to know your
faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor be in vain.
In other words; his job as a minister and Timothy’s job as a minister. Was it all going to go up in smoke? He was concerned for the people because there were afflictions that were attaching their faith causing them to have doubts and wonder and concern, and he said: “Look, your faith is critical here, this whole thing is about concerning your faith." Isn’t it interesting that when Christ returns, He says: “Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth?" Afflictions will be high upon this earth and faith will be in question once again. People will ask the question and always do when afflictions and things come: “Where is God in all of this, why is this happening?" You have to in deference to God’s wisdom, back away and see it from God’s point of view or you’ll never understand anything concerning the ups and downs of every day life. God gives us an understanding from His word but we have to accept in faith His answers. Now he goes on to say how the tempter has tempted you. So Satan is revealed in the scripture as the tempter. We need to understand that, that he is going to be from time to time one who will try to tempt us and he’ll through at us, he knows our weakest spots and he will watch to see. Are you guarding yourself spiritually or are you leaving yourself wide open?
You know it’s like in World War II, they had (the French) something they thought, after they built it, was going to protect them from any onslaught against the Germans that they had experienced in World War I. They built what was referred to as the famous Maginot Line, he was their Defense Minister and he built this tremendous barricade between Germany and France and it had fixed guns emplacements and it was a work, it was really a high tech wonder of it’s time. The only problem was, they didn’t finish the job. What they did is they built it up to a point and then they came to what was referred to as the famous Ardenne Forest that more or less works between Belgium and the lowland countries and that portion of France. The Ardenne Forest the way they reason, (the French) they say: “Well now we’ve got this all built all the way here, why waste a lot of money and build this on in front of the forest, surely they’re not going to come through the forest." Remember your history? What happened? They came through Blitzkrieg, through the Ardenne Forest, the one area where there was no Maginot Line. They drove paratroopers behind those fixed gun emplacements and the French were just sitting ducks, they were just overthrown in a matter of weeks. It shows how fast things can go in reverse and what Satan does is similar when Germany did to France. They looked for the weakest link in that military strategy and that’s why you and I must always be on guard the scripture shows, especially when it comes to a world of temptation when we have a weakness in our own nature that causes us to submit to temptation if we’re not careful in fighting it. We have a devil whom is referred to as the master tempter and he will tempt anyone, he did it to Adam and Eve, he overthrew them. He thinks he’s got a winning battle plan. God has a better idea. He’s going to bring Jesus Christ into our lives and give us the power so that we can condemn sin in the flesh and we don’t have to go there. Now it doesn’t mean we won’t sin because again as human beings we don’t have the same mindset that Jesus Christ had. He came devoted to His Creator Father in heaven. The Creator who gave Him the power by the instrumentation, Christ became the instrumentation whereby He created the heavens and the earth according to the will of the Father. Nothing that was made, visible or invisible was made except by and through Jesus Christ as the express one who executed the will of the God Family.
So we see, very clearly is that Satan is a very powerful influence. His story can be understood more fully when you read Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 where it gives reference to him: How are you fallen oh Lucifer, what has brought you down and that how you were once a covering cherub and then you got your mind going in a different direction away from God and you choose not to abide any longer in the truth. The truth is that we must all serve the living God whether angels or human beings to become the sons and daughters of God. We’re called to serve the living God. That’s why God called us out of this world, not because He said: “Oh you people are just the most wonderful people I’ve ever seen, I need to save you." God says: “No, I have first fruits that I need and I’m going to reach down and I’m going to choose individuals at random that I see who may respond to this call, many are called, few are chosen." Not everybody responds. Everybody hears the phone ringing, not everybody picks it up to listen and say: “Who’s there?" God says: “I am, I am that I am and I am calling you and I am choosing you to become first fruits in My great plan of salvation for all mankind but they will all have to be dealt with in their own time and their own order." But the most important thing we have to understand that we come to an awareness of how Jesus Christ is the key player. He is the key role of the whole essence of what we’re all about and without Him, there is nothing. That’s why He said to His disciples and those that heard Him when He walked this earth, He said: “I am the door and He said if you try to come to the Father in any way but by Me, you are thief and a robber. You are trying to grab what cannot be had any other way, because this is what the Father has ordained and this is why I am here." That’s why He uses the expression: “If you have the Son, you have life." You have the absolute assurance from God who calls things that are not as though they are. You don’t see it, but John says: “We know that when He returns, we’re going to be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Those are statements that are there to encourage, to uplift, to help us to understand what God is doing.
Now Satan is not the only one who influences, our own nature works on us from time to time too. It deals us fits. Let’s notice James, after the book of Hebrews comes James, chapter 1 we see the following:
James 1: 13 Let no man, no woman, say that when he or
she is tempted, “I am tempted of God;"…
You can’t lay that at God’s hand.
…For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man.
But the problem is:
Verse 14: Every individual, man or woman is tempted when
he or she is drawn away.
It’s like a magnetic pull, it pulls on you this human nature that we now
have and our own lust, our inordinate desire, something we want that is not
what we should have and enticed. Remember I used the expression first comes
the bait, then the desire, and then what? The allure, there has to be an allure.
If you back in Genesis, it says, there was the tree; there was the bait. “Take
it, why don’t you take this? You know hasn’t God said you can have
access to all the trees?" “No we got to leave this one, no take
a look at that?" It was the more she looked, what happened? She began
to desire it. Why? It looked good, the fruit looked great and it was desired
to make one wise. “Oh, wow there’s some real benefit here, there
is an allure to the impression that if I do this, I can become like God."
So the allurement: the bait; the desire; the three ingredients for temptation.
It is why it’s so important to recognize them for what they are and to
fight against them.
Now we also see that we are told in James, chapter 4 that part of our every day existence is this:
James 4: 7 To submit yourself, therefore unto God. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you.
This doesn’t mean he’ll go away and never come back. Now it’s
interesting to note that it says, first you must submit yourselves therefore
unto God. If you don’t submit yourselves unto God, don’t think the
devil is going to run away. It’s because you’re bringing God into
you life on a day-to-day basis and you are resisting the temptations that Satan
throws at you, that your own human nature throws at you and the world throws
at you.
Now all you have to do is sit there in front of a T.V. and turn the T.V. on and if you don’t think there’s temptation boy, what school did you go to? It is written and designed for temptation. You know, buy now, pay later, no you’ll pay now and later. They want you to get it; they know how to entice you. Why the old saying, why do they use a car and have a girl standing with a bikini and a wrench in her hand. What in the world does that have to do with buying a car? The guy will look at the girl in a bikini and say: “She’s quite a gal, I think I’ll buy that car." The subliminal is this: You buy this car, you’ll have that kind of girl sitting in your car because she’ll think your car is sexy. They put the word sexy on everything today as a selling feature. How can knees be sexy, how can elbows be sexy, how can toothpaste make your teeth sexier? But they’ll play any gimmick and people fall for it. They fall for it. If they recognize it for what it is they would resist it, but they don’t. They fall for it and merchandisers know it. So with fame words they make merchandise of us day in and day out and they tempt us. When you’re sitting there watching a commercial, what comes on? Don’t you have to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken or have a Mac attack? Eat, eat, eat, and eat! What does the bible talk about in the end time? Eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, how to marry a millionaire, how to go out and eat. The programs are designed along the very lines God is warning and talking about. He tells you to be mindful of these things and this is what we see all around us. It can be hurtful and its affect upon us.
So, we see that this becomes a very potent danger; notice what I Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 13 reminds us. Here God points out something in a very interesting context, He goes through chapter 10 and gives you the history of Old Testament Israel and He tells you about the many problems they had and how they ended up yielding to temptations and doing all kinds of things that were inappropriate:
I Corinthians 13:10 There is no temptation taken you but
that is common to all men…
We are all exposed to the same problems, we all have to combat the devil, we
all have to combat our own human nature weaknesses and we all have to fight
the world that Satan has gendered around us so that again we can get absorbed
in it and become friends of the world and an enemy of God if we’re not
careful. So that’s why God says: “Come out of her my people, back
away from this world, see it for what it is." God will give eyes to anyone
who will listen to Him to see these very things. It’s not hidden in a
corner, it’s right there but it’s that old saying that has been
used many times: “There is none so blind as he or she who will not see."
It’s right in front of you but you can’t see it because you’re
not looking through the eyes of God. But God points out; these are common temptations.
…but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above
what you are able…
He will not allow you to be overcome by temptation but you will have to deal
with them and you will have to conquer them as an over comer and He points out:
…but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that, that
you may be able to bear it.
He won’t just take away the temptation but He will sometimes give you
another out, another avenue if you’re looking to Him so that you can get
past that. You can fill in the missing blank, there’s all kinds of temptations
as I say in the human sphere and it’s not my purpose to go through all
that and try to name every temptation but Jesus was tempted as the scripture
says, yet without sin.
Let’s go to Hebrews 4, verse 15. Here we’re reminded about Jesus
and it says:
Hebrews 4: 15 For we do not have a High Priest…
Which is His present occupation at the right hand of the Father.
…who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…
Oh boy does He know what those weaknesses were in the flesh.
…but in all points was tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Now here’s the encouraging part that we must keep in mind. Temptations are not sin. Temptations are not sin. If temptations are sin than Christ is guilty of sin. He was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin. So therefore, the temptation is not the sin, it’s the yielding to temptation that is the sin. The temptation comes but you can say: “No." You can say: “I don’t want that, I don’t want to go there." But you know when the temptation has the bait and has the desire and has the allure, it can become very, very intoxicating, especially like the one that Adam and Eve heard: “Boy, we can be like God." That’s quite intoxicating. You don’t have to take a fifth of scotch; you know get intoxicated. An idea can intoxicate you and you can start lusting after an idea, you can lust after a person, you can lust after a position, you can lust after power. All these things are things that have intoxicated mankind down through time, men and women and that’s why this thing of resisting temptation is something we have to become knowledgeable about because people aren’t resisting today.
You take a look at what’s on television and it is idiomatic of what people are doing in their lives. They are doing terrifying things, they are willing to eat things, do things, for money, worthless paper money that doesn’t even have gold or silver to back it any more but they want it because they think that will make life great as they plug holes with this worthless paper. They can get everything they want but the one thing they will never get is that hole in their heart plugged that only Jesus Christ can do to take away the sinful conscience of a human being. Until the blood of Christ takes that away, you can’t walk in newness of life. You always walk in fear and trepidation and you hope the bad things won’t happen and Jesus tells you how to fight the good fight of faith. It’s very important that we keep these things in mind. I Timothy 6, verse 12 is where we’re reminded about fighting the good fight of faith.
Now we’re also told in Ephesians 6 as I mentioned that there’s where you put on the armor of God. Isn’t it interesting that it says, in whatever you do make sure you take the shield of faith. The shield of faith and what is it likened to? It says:
Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the adversary, the wicked on.
Now if it quenches, faith kills that. What does that mean? It means he’s throwing temptations at you like crazy. He’s shooting at you from the world, from himself. He’s playing on your own human weaknesses, he’s hitting and all of this works to try to destroy the confidence of a man and a woman, so that you feel worthless, that there’s no hope, there’s no purpose, because he is the most terrified individual on the face of the earth. He is frightened as the scripture says in James, it says: “You believe in God, you do well." The demons believe and they trembled at the very thought of going to have a confrontation with God. Remember when Jesus walked this earth and one demon yelled out who was possessing and individual? He says: “What do we have to do with you Jesus, have you come to destroy us?" What is it they fear? What does the scripture mean when it says there’s a lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels? Why do you have to prepare a fire for the devil and his angels, is there something there that we may be missing, that we need to look at? They’re fearful, you and I are told to fear not. You believe in God, Jesus said: “Believe in Me." You do well when you do that. It is interesting and that very thing, that our minds must be set like in Colossians 3, verse 2 says:
Colossians 3: 2 Set your minds on the things above
That’s what so important, that’s what keeps us mindful in prayer, it keeps us mindful through the word of God, what it is that God desires of us.
Romans 15: 4 For whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
What do we gain out of that? Hope. The wonderful hope that comes from the word of God. In conjunction with that, again a reminder of I Corinthians 10, that story of Israel’s history and in verse 11 it says:
I Corinthians 10:11 Now all this happened to them for our learning
For us, upon whom the ends, their examples, their case histories, studies in human behavior for our learning so that we don’t make the same mistakes that they made, and what did they do? It says they went lusting. They wanted the quail, they got involved in sexual immorality; they got involved in all kinds of problems. They yelled and screamed about water, they murmured, complained. God said: “Look, if you’re tempted to murmur and complain, shut it down, don’t do it, don’t get caught up."
Look how people are today on the highways, they get so upset so quick, they have short fuses ready to explode. God has called us to recognize that and say: “Hey, I don’t want to go there, I don’t want to be a part of that, that’s not what I perceive life to be."
Now if all these things are written for our learning, what I’d like to do in the closing moments or minutes of this sermon, take us back to the beginning to the book of Genesis, chapter 39. In the book of Genesis, chapter 39, verses 1 through 20 you read the case history of a man of God whom it says God was with him and if there’s anything you and I must have today in this world with all its problems and difficulties, we must have God with us, that means we’ve got to be with God. We’ve got to be on the same page with Him. We’ve got to hunger and thirst for righteousness and not just say: “Well, I’m just going to kind of just cruise this one on in to the Kingdom of God." It isn’t going to happen that way. What God is showing us is that He is giving us examples of what He is looking for in men and women.
Now here was an individual named Joseph, beloved Joseph. Now Joseph had an interesting situation, he was blessed with many wonderful gifts, his brothers did not necessarily appreciate it because he didn’t have the wisdom in his early years, he kept telling his brothers: “Hey, you know what? I just had a dream and you guys are all going to bow down to me one day." That didn’t go down too well. They didn’t take highly to that and that said: “Oh yeah, is that the way it is? O.K. we’re going to ship you out of here." So they staged his death. They broke the heart of his father, Jacob whose name was Israel. But God was with Joseph and the story doesn’t end there, it takes it how He used that man and brought him into a position of great power. It took a while, there were some problems and difficulties to encounter but what happened in that man’s life is a tribute to every God fearing man and woman and God loved Joseph for this reason. Isn’t it interesting that it was the blessing that was placed upon Joseph’s children, Ephraim and Manasseh where today the United States and Britain held the great blessings of the 20th century, blessings that we have the sea gates of our enemies, we control things of the 20th century but we’re seeing today that the gentiles are rising up just exactly as the scripture says. Because of transgression, we’re loosing many of those blessings. We have to be very mindful again what God has been doing but He was with Joseph because of his outstanding character. He’s a case history; you don’t find a whole lot about Joseph where, boy, he was a real troublemaker. He really did this; he really did that whereas the story focus is on one key temptation. It was a sexual temptation.
Today we’d do well to listen to that because today we’ve seen many people go down in flames who’ve been caught. People of high position go down in flames because they’ve gotten involved in sexual immorality. It’s a warning call to us; young and old because we live in a day and age in a sex saturated society and if you don’t believe that, all you do is again turn on your T.V. and get back into the real world for a moment and I quickly suggest you turn the channel. Get on to something that is more wholesome and uplifting because there’s a lot of garbage out there and it is just being poured out in just one voluminous stream after another.
In this particular case, Joseph (you know how his story was, he came into Potiphar’s house.) Potiphar was the head of the captain of the guard there for Pharaoh. He was so good at what he did that finally Potiphar (making a long story short here) said: “Look, you can take charge of all my affairs, I love this." The reason why was because God was with him. He was blessing the work of his hands. Everything he did was great and Potiphar wasn’t a stupid Egyptian, he understood: “This guy is good, God is blessing him." So he gave him charge of the whole house. “Take care of everything; take care of the other servants; only one thing I will ask of you; stay away from my wife, she’s off limits." Reasonable request; no problem with Joseph. The problem wasn’t with Joseph; the problem was with Potiphar’s wife. She was a very liberated woman, very much like a lot of the women today that approach matters like Potiphar’s wife did.
You know Joseph is a real loser by many people’s definition today; who have today’s values and standards because they would look at Joseph and say: “You know, man, you really blew it; you had an opportunity; you were being hit on by this good looking wife of Potiphar. Potiphar’s out of the way here and (to use modern vernacular) you could have had a free be here, nobody would have been there, nobody the wiser, you’d have right there, nobody going to notice, you know she likes you." It goes on to tell you, if you read that chapter; that what he did, he tried to meet her first by reason. He appealed to her reason. He said: “Look, look, your husband has put me in charge of everything here, he’s made you off limits, we can’t go there!" That didn’t stop her. She kept coming. She saw what she liked. What she liked was Joseph. Joseph was a hunk to use the modern vernacular and so she came at him. But you see, Joseph had this wonderful ability to look at things from a Godly prospective. That is what you are seeing in the scriptures. When people get involved and do things under temptation, many times they don’t stop to consider, how is this going to have an impact if I do this? Like: “If I go ahead, Potiphar’s gone, he won’t know, if I do this, what’s going to happen?" Well, it’s going to have an impact, as it does in our world today upon spouses, upon children, upon family, upon friends, because you are not apart from everybody; you are your brothers keeper, you interact and have an impact with one another. So your example means an awful lot. So he appealed, she did not buy that, she just kept coming. We see very clearly here that he had to then appeal to her conscience; she wouldn’t appeal to reason so he appealed to her conscience. What was her conscience? He said: “Look, how can I do this? What you’re asking me to do, how can I do this great wickedness against God?" Hey, wickedness against God? He knew that playing around with this woman, flirting with this woman was a great wickedness of God because she was a married woman. All right, we know that the scripture tells us in:
Isaiah 5:20 Woe to them that call evil good and good evil.
Joseph called a spade a spade. He didn’t play around. He didn’t
flirt with sin. Today people say: “Man you are out of it man, you had
a golden opportunity." That’s the value of a lot of young guys today.
There are T.V. programs that do this and young girls, beautiful young girls,
but they don’t have any values, any character whatsoever; they throw themselves
for money at individuals. They just cheapen themselves and it’s just exactly
like God said woe unto that whoring spirit that is in Israel because He called
the whorish daughters of Israel. It had gotten to the place where they just
throw themselves and have no value whatsoever in the importance of what a woman
actually is and why God made women the way He did. He didn’t make her
to be defiled in the way society is defiling women today.
Joseph determined in his heart that he was going to obey God and he was not going to have any part with immorality. Notice, he determined that but it was because he was devoted to God in his heart and in his spirit and God was with him. Do you think God would have blessed him if he had not had a devotion in his heart toward God, if he had not considered the things of God? He suffered; she accused him of rape. He got thrown into the prison but he came back and what did God do? Second in command of Egypt. Joseph was a powerful Pharaoh assistant, second in command. That’s what God can do. You read in:
Genesis 39:10 And it came to pass, she came to Joseph day by day…
The temptation was every day, he was running, he said: “Here she comes, I’m out of here." He tried to move, she tried to block him in the other way. “Hello Joseph, Joseph why are you running away from me?" This is what movies are made out of today; adultery, affairs. When did you see the last movie that said; faithfulness, honor, cherish, obey? No, the latest movies are infidelity, unfaithfulness; things of that nature. The breakup of what is good to bring disaster to what remains. Well the bottom line is this, and I wanted to close with Joseph just to bring out this example of his wonderful character because he realized trust was placed upon him. That is a great lesson for all of us. Any kind of trust; young or old alike. You know if you’re a young person, if mom and dad trusts you to do something, don’t go behind their back and do something different. Be faithful to mom and dad. Joseph was faithful to his father Jacob and that is a very important aspect. God wants us to be faithful as Christ was faithful to His Father and He was devoted to Him. That trust must never be wrought in dishonor. Jesus didn’t dishonor the Father; we must not dishonor one another and it’s very important to realize that what Joseph was doing; he was denying himself Pharaoh’s wife, was he not? What did Jesus say? “If you want to be a follower of me, take up your cross and follow Me." But what do you have to do? Deny yourself. You have to deny yourself certain things that are not right and proper; being devoted to God and then determined in your mind to overcome temptation. If you’re not determined in your mind, if it’s not a passion that you don’t want to go there, you’re wide open for the attack.
So I want to use this as a stepping-stone as we get ready for Passover season
to help us all realize that we’re facing a very cunning adversary. We
are in a combatant situation, this is not a time to put your sword of the spirit,
the word of God down, this is the time to pick it up, study it, know it, get
into it so you know what God says, what He feels about different things. Be
devoted to God, be devoted to your fellow brothers and sisters, be devoted to
your mates, to your children, children to your parents, be devoted to your employer
as much as you possibly can. How many times do we hear these stories about people
working for employers and then they embezzle from the employer and things of
this nature? Well, that’s basically it, what I wanted to leave you with
today to help you understand that resisting temptation is a biggy and we need
to be about our Father’s business in doing so. Christ did it; Christ in
us can do the same.