There is a second truth we should learn from this section as well. It comes in this magnificent verse 13: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tem
Yesterday we started to look at what it means when Paul says that the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. This matter of baptism in verse 2 has confused a lot of people. There are those who say, “You see! They were all baptized in the sea. That’s talking about immersion.”
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: Deliverance from Temptation
At the very end of the sixteenth century, after the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the wars that had followed upon it, an anonymous Christian wrote some lines that aptly summarize much of what the Bible has to say about temptation. He wrote:
In all the strife of mortal life,
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: Types of Temptation
In yesterday’s study, we concluded by saying that the word “temptation” can have two meanings. It can denote a tempting to sin—which is what we commonly understand by the word—or it can refer to the idea of a trial, ordeal, or testing.
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: Submit and Resist
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: The Lord’s Example
I want to give you one final example of how temptation can be resisted, and the best example I can give is the account of the temptation of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 4.
Let me ask the question again that I asked yesterday. How did Jesus resist the temptations that are recorded in Matthew 4? Well, in the first place, He had just spent forty days in fasting and in prayer. In the second place, He replied to the devil in every instance by quoting Scripture.
Most of us have heard scores of jokes about temptation, such as those by Oscar Wilde, who wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray, “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” Or again in Lady Widermere’s Fan, “I can resist anything…except temptation.” Jokes such as these are thought funny by those who are not engaged in the struggle. But any who are seriously struggling with temptation know that temptation is real, that it is serious, and that it can come to any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, from any quarter, at any time.
The second main source of temptations is the world. Now what is the world? Clearly the Bible is not talking about the physical earth when it speaks of the world’s temptations. It’s talking rather about a system of values that are not divine values, and about a way of life that is not God’s way of life—a lifestyle, if you will. The Oxford English Dictionary hits upon this sense of the word when it defines the world as “worldly affairs, the aggregate of things earthly.” In this area we must place temptations to become president of the company or of the women’s auxiliary at the expense of others who also want the top position. We must include most of the sins of pride—pride in our ancestry, our wealth, our superior taste in art, music, or drama. We must include all desires to put down other people.
Now secondly what does it mean to resist? How do we resist? The answer is, by means of God’s Word. The Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” meaning that purity of life can be ours to the degree that we feed upon the Bible and study it. The psalmist said, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word…Thy word have I hidden in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Paul said, writing specifically of our spiritual warfare against Satan, “And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Now that brings us to the big question, the one for which we’ve reviewed this history of Christ’s temptation. How did the Lord Jesus Christ come out on top of them? How did He resist them and overcome? The answer to this is contrary to what most people think, for they think that He did it by drawing on His divine nature. They believe that He had more power to resist temptation than we do.
I do not know of any book of the New Testament that is more practical than 1 Corinthians, at least in terms of the range of subjects that it addresses. Through the first nine chapters Paul has dealt with pride, sexual immorality, marriage, divorce, lawsuits, and how Christian freedom functions in the context of love. But of all those practical matters that are handled in this letter, I suppose the most practical and far-reaching of all is this matter of temptation, which Paul discusses in chapter 10. That is because it affects everybody in a way that the specific issues mentioned above may not. Temptation is an all-inclusive category, and therefore concerns absolutely every person in the human race.
We need to talk about some of the imagery Paul uses in verses 1-5 because it is both interesting and helpful. The matter of baptism in verse 2 has led to a number of interpretations by commentators.
And yet, at the very time Moses was up on the mountain receiving the law, recorded in Exodus 32, the people were down in the valley breaking that very commandment. They were making the golden calf, and falling down and worshiping it. At this point, even though they were identified with Moses in the exodus and were numbered visibly among the people of God, they committed adultery and were judged for their sin. The sin of the golden calf led to the sin of sexual immorality because the worship of false gods always leads to a false or debased morality.
Another thing we need to remember is what Paul tells us in verse 13: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” This is a verse you should memorize and get in your mind early in the Christian life.
What do you do with sins that come from the world? Paul talks about this in the opening verses of Romans 12, where he writes that we are not to be conformed to the world, but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This means that you have to live close to God in the Scriptures, as you grow in the Christian life and allow God to enable you to think increasingly as God thinks rather than as the world thinks. For this to happen we need to draw near to God and allow the Holy Spirit to do that kind of transformation which makes us different people as the new life of Christ comes to fruition within us.
Canadian Committee of The Bible Study Hour
PO Box 24087, RPO Josephine
North Bay, ON, P1B 0C7
