In the Eye of Temptation

Introduction

Good morning.

Well, I have bad news. It’s gonna get worse. That’s what Ralph Walker, a premarital counselor and preacher in the Tampa area, told a young couple that was sitting before his desk, waiting, preparing themselves to get married. Fortunately, it wasn’t Kashka and I. But it was in response to a questionnaire that he had given. It was a series of about twelve, what we found out now are all false statements. And you were allowed to choose between true and false. The statements included things like if we fight, we have an unhealthy relationship. If we fight, we don’t truly love each other. And my interest was piqued. I asked Mr. Walker, knowing that those, at least those particular questions were set-ups and obvious type true-false statements. I said, has anyone said true?

And he said, Oh yes. And I said, What did they say to you? They said, Well, I had a young man sit right where you’re sitting, Greg, and he told me, he said, Well, I understand that and all, but we’ve already had a couple fights, and so I know what it’s gonna be like. And he said, Oh yeah, what was the fight about? He said, Well, we fight fight all the time over where we’re gonna go eat. I just know it can’t get much worse than that. And Mr. Walker said, It’s gonna get worse. Don’t worry, it’s gonna get worse. And unfortunately, we have some bad news this very morning. That bad news is that someone, something, is out there to get us. This mysterious adversary is coming to kill you.

He is coming to kill me. He is coming to cling at my ankles and pull me away from the Almighty God who wants nothing more than for me to be saved. And the bad news is he’s doing that to each and every one of us. And to make the bad news worse is he’s very, very good at doing just that. Last time I had the opportunity to speak, we spoke about before the eye of temptation. And we discussed different things like keeping first things first, recognizing that we are to be pressing on towards God so that we can distance ourselves from Satan. We should be praying to God. We should be seeking those things which are higher rather than allowing ourselves to succumb to those things which are lower.

And so this morning, we do have some good news to offset that bad news, and it’s to help us on what this morning’s lesson is about, about being in the eye of temptation. I hope you have your Bible still open, Hebrews chapter 4. If not, turn with me there. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning in verse 14, perhaps the most important fact of all the Bible is found with regards to temptation in these verses. And Hebrews chapter 4, beginning in verse 14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Christ has lived in this earth. He has been tempted, and yet he did it. The good news is it has been done. Someone has overcome the bondage of death, the bondage of sin, and that was Christ. The same Christ who is our intermediary with God, the same Christ who died on the cross to forgive us of our sins and to give us a shot at eternal life if we can withstand temptation. This morning, we’re going to look at four ways to stand up in the storm of temptation when Satan tries to knock us back.

1. Pray Before and During Temptation

A key verse for any Christian life. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God. So this morning we’re going to look at four ways. The first thing is almost a recap of what we discussed last week, and that is to pray. Last time we spoke of what to do before temptation, and prayer was also on that list. Because perhaps the most elemental and yet powerful advice the Bible offers about standing up to temptation, defeating the great adversary, the great deceiver, the father of lies, that is Satan, is found in prayer. We have the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who parted the sea, the God who took his people out of Egypt and made them a great nation, the God who took all those nations and afflicted those people, the God who saved those people when they turned to Him, the God who sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, the God who made His word available to us so that we would have a pattern for living, all so that we could live with Him.

That God wants us to come to Him. That God wants us to seek His advice, His counsel, His comfort. And all we have to do is pray to Him. And while this is often viewed as a preemptive strategy to temptation, and rightfully so, not all temptation happens in a singular moment. And we’re deluding ourselves if we think that is a one time only thing. For occasions when your job is putting stress on you, that’s pulling you away from your commitment to God, pray for guidance. Pray for wisdom. When we aren’t treating our spouses or our family right, or we feel we aren’t being treated right by our spouses or our family. Pray to God for patience, humility, and a change of heart. And he will supply our needs.

In fact, even in very moments of crisis, we should stop and pray. There are some situations, yes, I do realize that if you immediately kneel down on your knees and pray, it would be inappropriate for the moment. But let me suggest that those moments are far fewer than we actually give them credit for. There are a lot of moments in life where if we simply stopped what we were doing and prayed to God, the outcome would be a lot better if for no other reason than as we will see, we stopped and thought of who we are in comparison to who the great and almighty God is. Because think about if your wife or your husband were to stop in an argument and say, I need to pray to God.

Would you be mad? I certainly hope not. Would you be willing to do that to avoid saying something that could be destructive to the bond of marriage that God has sanctified? I certainly hope that we would. I can’t think of how many times, if I had just stopped and prayed over something, it would have saved me from saying something I would almost immediately regret. Something that I would have never said if I took more than four seconds to think about what I was going to say. And sometimes, frankly, that four seconds is more than I even spend thinking about it in a moment of crisis. Well, we see Christ prayed about temptation several times. Open your New Testaments. Look in Matthew chapter 6. In his model prayer, Jesus prays this in verse 9 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

These are just two of the noted prayers in the New Testament that we’re looking at this morning. And Matthew chapter 26, pick up the text with me beginning in verse 36. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping.

And he said to Peter, So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Note what Christ is praying about. He is praying for the temptation of his apostles, but he’s also praying in verse 38, in verse 39, to God for strength to get through the upcoming trial, to get through the numerous apparent temptations that would come with being crucified, with being completely innocent and guilt free, and yet having people strike you. People spit on you, people mock you. Christ was praying for strength, and he was praying for his apostles. And note the outcomes of this.

Christ’s prayer to that they may not enter into temptation is foreshadowing their disobedience and fall from the grace of God. And yet Jesus, who did pray, successfully navigated through the cross. He made it through all the wickedness, all the evil that was cast on him because of his devotion to God. Note what he says. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Christ’s spirit, with the help of God, overcame the weakness of the flesh. And we can do that too. With God’s help, we can overcome anything. And so when we talk about prayer, these should be applied both before and during temptation. Christ here was not only praying that temptation be avoided, but that temptation would be overcome. I think that sometimes we’re just plain convinced that prayer doesn’t apply to a certain situation.

Or it’s unwarranted or it’s inconvenient, or perhaps most discouragingly, we’re convinced that we don’t even think about prayer. We are convinced by society that prayer does not have a place. Brothers and sisters, prayer has a place in every single aspect of our lives, regardless of what anyone else will tell you. Prayer to God will get us through any problem. Sickness, spiritual turmoil, the grief of a loved one lost. God will get us through if we seek him. God is loving. God is gracious, and God is powerful, and he wants us to talk to him, and we should take that to heart and know that when we are in the eye of temptation, if we pray, we can do it. We have good news to overcome the bad.

2. Stop and Think About the Big Picture

We can push Satan away, just like Christ did. Christ proved that. And Matthew chapter 4, in a recorded example of Satan tempting Christ in the wilderness. We’ll discuss that further in just a few moments. But we see the power of prayer in our lives and the necessity of having God on our side. But the good news, if we can do those things. Secondly, this morning, I’d like to suggest that we simply stop and think. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of being a Christian is to stop and look at the big picture. Now, I don’t know what each of you individually struggle with. I can guess I’d probably be wrong. But the funny thing is, the big picture for each and every one of you here this morning is the exact same as it is for me.

The big picture is that we are to be obeying the God Almighty, submitting our will to His. And that is our all. We are to submit to the words of Christ, and conversely, we will be judged by them. Christ suggests that in John chapter 12 and verse 48. The words of Him will judge us in the last day. We are to live like Christ. We are to live with our will in submission to God’s. And that is our all. The ecclesiastical writer says, fear God and keep his commandments. For this is man’s all. If I were to ask you this morning, who here serves God? Hopefully, everyone would say, that’s me. Hopefully, everyone would say, I do that because I don’t think there’s a lot of Baal and Ashram worshippers left.

And that’s obvious because we’re sitting here at a place to worship God. We’re sitting here singing praises, praying to Him, and listening to sermons about Him. But what do our lives show? Do our lives show a fulfillment of that mental and spiritual submission and acknowledgement that we just made that God is who we should be serving? When the pressure turns up in your life and someone has pressed your buttons in a way that only they know how. Do you serve God? Or do you let them have it? When someone approaches you at school and they want you to cheat or allow someone to cheat off of you, as we spoke about a couple weeks ago in our teen study. Do you serve God? Do you compromise your faith somehow?

Or do you stand up and say, my soul is not worth that? Who do you serve? Not in name, but in life. Satan is coming. And he craves for us to get caught up in the moment. He desires with all of his might and all of his being that we forget the big picture. We do not stop and think. We go forward and act. No thought. No understanding of potential consequences, only action. That’s what Satan wants. Think about it. We see it in our culture, how that type of action affects our decision making. Sales are a perfect example. Cars, body sprays, cards, even animals are priced to move. They say this is a one time only sale. From 9 to 12, you get 40% off. Or if you buy 10, you get 10 free.

Isn’t that a great deal? How about the most depressing cliche of all time? Hindsight is 2020. How many situations in your life do you wish you could go back and change? If you’re like me, many of those situations have been messed up because you just reacted rather than stopping and thinking about what the true consequences were of what you were saying, whether minor or major on your life. In Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21, Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of the Father who is in heaven. He who does the will of our Father, who is in heaven, the passage dictates, will enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s what we need to think about.

In the eye of temptation, it’s not about what’s going on. It’s not about the person tempting us. It’s not even about you. It’s about your soul. It’s about will we stop and think, if I do the will of the Father, I get heaven, and if I don’t, I miss out. Jesus makes that point clear in that verse. Serving God, doing the will of our Father who sent us needs to be our goal. That needs to be our aim. That needs to be our focus. God needs to be on our mind, like he was with Joseph. And like he was with Christ. Because we have an example in David of when God leaves our mind and we get focused on the people or the desire or the flesh or anything that is not God, like David did with Bathsheba on the roof.

3. We Need to Not Be Fooled

We will act in a way that we may spend our lifetimes regretting. And consequently, the third point this morning is we need to not be fooled. We need to be able to recognize what the evil is, and that will show us what the good is. This is a time to take inventory. When things are going wrong in life, your life is in shambles, the spouse is upset, the boss is impatient, and we can see nothing but our own unhappiness, it’s a time to look at your options. Again, I said this before, I don’t know what tempts every single person here on a daily basis or a weekly basis. I don’t know what your individual temptations are. But I do know in the grand scheme of things, your choices can be lumped into two categories.

It’s a multiple choice question. A, doing the will of the Father, or B loving the world and acting accordingly. Jesus warns us of that type of necessary decision-making in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 13 and 14. He says, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter in by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Satan doesn’t want us to look at it that way, though. He doesn’t want us to recognize the evil. Because if you think about it, if you’re tempted in conversations and arguments and how you speak to your spouse, sometimes we are tempted and give in to the temptation to give away our soul to get what we want to say off of our chest. We just want so badly to say what we have to say, or to take part in that activity that we want to take part in, or watch that movie that we’re willing to trade our soul in the process. You know, if Satan came up this morning and he said, I will give you ten million dollars for your soul. Hopefully, none of us would take it.

But we exchange it for a few angry words. We exchange it for shows of disrespect. We exchange it for allowing garbage to come into our minds, allowing ourselves to subsequently act like the garbage that we’ve taken in. That’s why it’s so critical to stop and think. So that we are not fooled. If we always are thinking in the background of our minds, what would Jesus do? What is God’s will for me? The decision becomes a whole lot clearer. Because I gotta say, I like to say things, I like to do things, but if anything is compared with heaven, I’m gonna choose heaven. If someone says, you can say this to that person, you can say this ideal paragraph of text. You can say all these mean things, but you don’t get heaven.

But you can say these mean things. I’m not gonna take that. But when we don’t stop and think, we allow ourselves to be fooled. And we allow ourselves to forget what our true purpose is. The Bible says to abhor what is evil in Romans 12. We don’t do that when we sit down and consider, is this worth it? Or is it not? And we certainly, of course, don’t do that when we give in to those temptations. Look with me at what the Bible says about the process of temptation in James chapter 1. I hope you turn with me there to James chapter 1. And we’ll pick up the reading in verse 13. In James chapter 1 and verse 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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Look what the Bible says here. When are we tempted? What does the text say? When we are enticed by our own desires. What does the conception of desire lead to? Sin. What does sin lead to? Death. That’s how it works. Satan wants to blind us with our own desires. He wants us to be blinded by the things that this world has to offer. He wants to focus on what I deserve. He wants me to get what I want, what I need.

And then we don’t give another thought to the big picture. And let’s be more specific when we say big picture. When we focus, when I focus on my needs, I’m not focusing on how I can serve God. I’m focusing on how this world can serve me. Brothers and sisters, we cannot be fooled. Sin is sin. And it will lead to death. Talking bad about someone else and gossip is wrong, no matter how deserved or slighted you have been. Not going to church because you want to go and hit a round of balls at the golf course is wrong, no matter how much you need it. Cheating is wrong, no matter how problematic it is to the people around you or your reputation. In times of temptation, we must always recognize we have a choice.

4. We Have Seen Christ’s Example

And we have a choice to stand behind God. And if we pray to him, if we stop and think about it, we won’t be fooled. We will recognize the bad choice, the evil, and we will recognize the good, what is the will of God. And the final point this morning, we can do those things because we’ve seen Christ’s example. If we imitate his example in Matthew chapter 4, we can do it. Look with me there in Matthew chapter 4. In Matthew chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, in him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. We see here Satan hitting Jesus with a barrage of three recorded temptations. And Jesus parlays all three of them. There are a few lessons to learn here. The first one, resisting Satan is more than a one-time thing. Because it’s great and wonderful to talk this morning about praying and stopping and thinking about making the right choice and recognizing the evil. But you all may know this more than even I do. Temptation doesn’t come in a one-time decision. You don’t say no to Satan and just move on happily with your life.

It doesn’t work that way. That’s why prayer is so vital. That’s why recognizing what sin is and what good is so vital to our success at withstanding the storm of temptation. Because we need to focus like Christ did on being ready for all of the attacks and being ready and able and willing to stand up time and time and time and time and time again. Temptation is a lifelong battle that will come with continual resistance by the world because Satan controls it. But more than that, most temptations require more than just one time of doing the right thing within that one very same temptation. It’s not just one time you say no and someone goes away, one time you have to control yourself from saying something wrong.

It’s more than that. And that takes a pattern. And that’s the second lesson that we can learn from Christ. Is he recognized what sin was, and that made his choice easy. Look at what he says to every temptation. What does he get back to every time in his quotation of Scripture? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by what? Every word that comes from the mouth of God. Verse 7 What is his point? You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Verse 10, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Christ knew his only purpose, his only mission was to serve God. We need to remember in these times of temptation, Satan’s goal is to make sin alluring.

It’s to make it appealing. He doesn’t come with a flashing neon sign that says, this is sin, you’re trading your soul away. He gets us by allowing us to make small compromises. He gets us to not think about it until the moment has passed. Brothers and sisters, don’t let the moment pass. We need to be on guard like Christ was. We need to be focused on doing the will of God, putting his word first, focusing on not the bread of this life, but the bread that is the word of God. Christ overcame because he recognized the evil. He recognized what Satan was tempting him with, which were physical things. And he focused on the spiritual. And that’s perhaps the most important lesson we can learn about dueling with temptation, dancing with the devil, so to speak, is that Christ used Scripture.

So that means just a couple things. First of all, it meant he knew the word. If we want to have any chance at overcoming Satan, any chance at withstanding the storm that is pounding at our bodies.

And to know the word means we need to study the word. We need to know what to avoid and what to do. I’ve heard it said we need to know our Bibles. We need to know what tempts us and what the Bible says about what tempts us. We need to focus on knowing and doing the will of God. Think about the impact the word could have on your life. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 17, the word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Do you yield the sword of the Spirit?

Conclusion

Our souls depend on how well we can wield the sword. Our adherence to the will of God depends on how much we love Him and how much we know what He has said and how much we do accordingly. The question before each and every one of us this week is Are we prepared to stand in the eye of temptation? Are we disciplined enough? Are we strong enough? Are we knowledgeable enough in our faith to have the courage and the boldness to put God first every single time? Because God will judge us, and God will reward those who are His. The good news of Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 is it parallays the bad news. Yes, this life gets worse. Yes, temptations will get stronger. But God is stronger than all of them.

With God’s help, we can do all things. Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Let God strengthen you this week. Let’s focus on Him as we go throughout our Bible study, as we go throughout our classes and our next worship service and this week. And then we can stand victorious. And most importantly, we can stand and praise our God for all eternity if we stand with the God who wants us to be with Him. Let us pray. Our dear God and most gracious, loving, merciful Heavenly Father. You are our fortress. You are a deliverer. You are our Savior. Thank you, O God, for loving us. Thank you for using your infinite wisdom, power, and might to protect us, to encourage us, and to console us.

O God, we come to you realizing that we are weak people, that we are in need of your strong hand, your consistent power and might. Please help us in our fight against the devil. Help us to have a heart that can have the word of God poured in and a mind that remembers it. And give us the strength to the flesh and a spirit that is willing so that we can overcome Satan like your son did. Thank you for sending Jesus to live, showing us that we can do it. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus to die so that we would have a hope. And we ask all these things in his name. Amen. We’ll now be dismissed to Bible class.