What Would Jesus Do? Part 9: Concerning Temptation - 2 of 2

First Corinthians ten thirteen. We will finish what we started this morning There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man But God is faithful. He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able. But will with the temptation also make a way of escape. That you may be able to bear it.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word and the opportunity to minister in it this this evening. Lord, I pray that you would Lord, help us to focus your word and your spirit this evening that it might do a work in our hearts to draw us closer to you, to convict us of sin, to challenge us, and encourage us. In the path that you have called us as your children to live, to bring glory to your name. What a privilege it is to serve the king of kings and Lord of lords.

Our redeemer, our savior, father, and our friend. We thank you Lord for the fellowship that we have with you and with one another in Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. We pray that you would be honored this evening and in every day of our lives, we produce and pray in Jesus name. Amen. Start a message this morning.

What would Jesus do with temptation or how would Jesus deal with temptation and most of the message this morning was based on Matthew chapter four with how Jesus did deal with temptation. He was tempted. He was tempted under the harshest of circumstances in the Judean wilderness having not eaten for forty days and forty nights. Whereas Adam and Eve failed in the most perfect of circumstances, Jesus conquered and succeeded and overcame the temptations of the devil in the worst of circumstances. He is truly the son of God.

He is the sinless savior. He is the only one who fulfilled the law of Moses and that he kept the law and that the law and the sacrifices are typical of Jesus Christ who is our final sacrifice and in that sacrifice and his resurrection from the dead by his shedding of blood on the cross, He has sealed the old covenant and he through his blood has opened a new covenant, a new testament not just with the nation of Israel but with all of those who come to him by faith in his shed blood and sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. What a wonderful savior we have. He proved here in Matthew four as we read this morning. That he was stronger, mightier than the enemy, and able to resist any and every temptation.

But in doing so, he also gave us an example to follow. How that we might by God's strength and power and in his might and grace overcome temptation in our own lives. Philippians four thirteen, it says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me and that is more than just acute verse to say. It is the reality that if by faith we do believe that God does provide us with a way of escape. We can overcome the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

How did Jesus overcome those temptations? Well, he ran under the authority of the father. He submitted himself to his father's authority. He placed his trust in the goodness and wisdom of the father and he declared his intent to do the father's will. As he said, in answer to the first temptation to turn stone to bread.

Man shall not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Encounter to every temptation the devil brought his way. He ran not only to the authority of the father but he ran to the word of God which expresses that authority and that will and those promises of God towards us. For he knew the word of God.

Indeed, he knew it better than we will ever know it because he is the author of it but we can know it better every day. If we will take time to learn it more. He applied the word of God to the circumstances in which he was and the temptations that came his way which we also can and should and must do. It doesn't do any good to know the word of God if we will not apply the word of God to our circumstances of life and apply his principles to our life and the temptations that come our way. He knew the word of God.

He applied the word of God. He claimed the word of God, the sword of the spirit for he believed in it and he believed in the power of the God of of God who was behind it, whose word it is, as though he were standing right here in front of us. He ran under the authority of God. He ran to the word of God and this evening, I want to look at the third and final point. It does have some sub points and that is this, he would have us run away from temptation.

How do you escape something? Well, the best way to escape is to run away. When I was in I guess I was still in elementary school. I don't know. Maybe junior high.

I can't remember but we we had a fundraiser at the school. We were supposed to sell spices from door to door. We had these this different paper and it had all these different spices and I have knew absolutely nothing about spices, nothing whatsoever, but I would take it to the door and I would show the thing to him and and my aunt was nice enough to take me up in the housing development that was just down the road from where I lived. And we got to this one house and she pulled in the driveway and I said, Glenna, aunt Glenna, there is a dog over there, and I don't see that it's tied up. And I've I've always been deathly afraid of other people's dogs.

Now, my dog was one thing. Other people's dogs, that's different. I was bit one time by a dog. However, I can't exactly brag about that because the dog was only about that tall. But it still hurt.

Okay? But but anyway, but I said, I don't think that dog is tied up. She says, oh, oh, I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is, you know. So out you go.

So, I get about halfway to the door and this dog which is, he's not about this big. He's about that big. All of a sudden, takes off and he is not chained up and I ran I ran for my life from that dog and my aunt threw the door open on the driver's side and I jumped over her and into to escape the dog. She shut the door and the dog hit the door and we escaped. And the best way to escape an enemy, a dog that's coming after you or something else is to run away and so often we get in trouble.

We don't take the escape that God has provided us because we simply don't run away. We we stay there and we dabble and we play and we argue with ourselves. Instead of just running away. We think, well, hey, I can handle it. Whatever the case may be and we don't run away.

If we are to run away from temptation first thing we must do is recognize it. The minute my aunt pulled in that driveway and I saw that dog, I recognized. I recognized the enemy and when I got out and I also recognized that that dog was not on a chain and it was going to eat me. You're going to run away from temptation and sin. You have to recognize it.

As temptation and sin. First Timothy six eleven, Paul writes Timothy says unto him, but thou, oh man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Paul commands Timothy. He he exhorts Timothy. Oh man of God, flee these things, these things in the previous verses were attitudes of the world particularly towards wealth.

That Timothy needed to flee before the temptation and the sin caught him and destroyed his testimony and his ministry. Paul says, flee these things. But to flee these things, you have to recognize, you have to identify these things. Of course, the Lord identifies many of these things all throughout scripture. There are numbers of lists in scripture where the Lord identifies things, these things that we should be running from that are temptations and sins in our life.

In Ephesians chapter five, for instance, it it says, be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for an offering and a sacrifice to God for sweet smelling savor but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks. Paul says, the Ephesians, identify these things. Here they are. These things ought not be in your life.

These are the things that permeate the world and the lives of those who know not the Lord. These are not the things that are to be prominent and present in the life of the Christian. In Romans sixteen seventeen, Paul writes says, now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. In first sec, first Timothy chapter six, we're talking about things. In Romans chapter 16, we're talking about people.

There are people that are divisive, that are false prophets and teachers, that are rebellious towards the Lord, that would pull people away from him. Paul says to the Romans, mark those people. What does that mean? Mark them. It means recognize them.

Identify them and then avoid them because they are not going to be of benefit to you. They're not going to edify you. They're going to bring you down. They're going to distract you. They're going to pull you away from the Lord.

They're going to get you wrapped up in something that's contrary to the will of God. If we are to run away from temptation, we must recognize it. We must call it like it is. We must call sin, sin. Stop calling it by other names.

Stop justifying our sin. Pretending that it isn't a big deal. Oh, that's not a big deal. Read read the sermon on the mount. Things that the world says, oh that's no big deal.

God seems to think they are. It's just one drink. It's just a beer. It's just a movie. It's just a word.

It's a mistake. Oh, it's just a slip up. I hit my finger with a hammer. What'd you expect? It's sin.

The only way we're going to avoid sin is to start calling it sin and quit calling it slip ups and mistakes and no big deals. We need to recognize it. Second of all, when we recognize it, then, you need to avoid it. The Bible says, Jesus said to his disciples, when he asked them to pray and he came back and he found them sleeping. He said, the spirit is willing but the flesh is what?

The flesh is weak. The flesh is weak. The flesh is actually contrary to the will of God. It has no desire to do the things that are of the Lord. We need to flee those lustful desires.

We need to avoid the temptations Particularly when we can see them coming. Now, there are temptations that you cannot see coming. They're just all of a sudden, boom, they're there. There are temptations that you have little control over. When I was in college over the summers, I worked in a help me out, brother Al.

Tire factory, thank you. And helped get me through school. And I worked with a lot of interesting characters. And most of them could come out with a string of cuss words that that you just couldn't imagine that that somebody could put all those words together. And I was around that every day of the summer.

Hearing that language. That temptation was there. I couldn't make them be quiet. I couldn't make them not say those things. I I had to deal with it.

By God's grace. There are some temptations we can't avoid. There are some temptations that all of a sudden, we're there and we don't see em coming but there are many temptations that you know and I know are are are coming. We know that we're going to be tempted. We know when we do this activity, go to this place, think this thing.

We know what's going to happen. It is our responsibility to therefore avoid it when we can. Second Timothy two twenty two, Paul commends Timothy, flee also youthful lust but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of your pure heart. Paul tells Timothy, flee useful, few, flee, youthful lust. You know they're there.

You know they're present. Recognize them, flee them. Don't toy with them. If you play with fire, you're liable to get what? Burned.

That's right. Instead, Timothy, follow, pursue after. Don't just flee the bad things but in fleeing the bad things, pursue the what? The good things. Now, Paul talks about putting off the old man and putting on the the new man.

Avoid the youthful lust. Avoid the temptations. Follow after righteousness, faith, charity which is love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. In first Corinthians six eighteen, Paul writes to Corinthians and he says simply, flee fornication. Flee it.

Don't toy with it. Flee it with all your mind. Corinthian church had a problem. They were a church that was saved out of a terribly wicked, immoral, promiscuous society where the very worship of their gods included all kinds of immoral behavior and Paul wrote to them, don't you think it's no big deal. Don't you toy with it?

Run away. Learn if you would to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five. Look if you would in verse 28. We'll start in verse 27.

Jesus said to his disciples, you have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. He goes on to say, if they write, I offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell and if thy right hand offend offend thee, cut it off, cut it off, and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Now, Jesus obviously is not meaning this literally that you should pluck out your eye or cut off your hand but what he is saying is that when there's a temptation, a sin in your life that you're struggling with, that you can't seem to get victory over. You need to take some radical steps. You need to amputate whatever that temptation that is in your life out of your life.

You need to get it out of your life. You need to do what's necessary to protect, to insulate yourself from the temptation that you know is likely to bring the bad result. How many of you have watched the movie Fireproof? Some watched the movie Fireproof a matter. I don't remember if we've shown that in here or not.

But in the movie Fireproof, the main character that's played by what's his face? Kirkhammer. Okay. He's having a problem with his computer and what he's looking at on his computer. And so finally, he this hits home in his life, and he grabs his computer, and he takes it outside, and he puts it on the table, and he takes his bat, and then he looks over at the neighbor.

The old man neighbor over there is always watching him when he's losing his temper and doing something really silly, and he looks over there and he hesitates for a minute, and then he takes his bat and he just wails on that computer, on this monitor. And then he gets the desktop, the actual hard drive out, and he wails on it, and he kick and he throws it in the trash can. His wife comes home and looks over the trash can and is like, oh, what's going on there? So but the point is this, that computer was a what? It's a temptation in his life.

And so, to beat the temptation, he got rid of what was tempting him. He got rid of the the the channel through which, the means through which he was being tempted and he just got rid of his computer. There are things in our lives that maybe we just need to let go of. If those things are being a temptation in our life, just get rid of them. You may think that you have to have it, you don't, especially if it is a temptation in your life over which you seem to succumb again and again.

Maybe the way of escape for you is to get rid of that thing. That is the source of your temptation. So, we need to recognize it. We need to avoid it. We need to deny it.

There are some commercials were on TV back several years ago and there were three words, just say, no. Just say no. Now, they were in reference to drinking and driving. It always, it always puzzled me. Wouldn't it just be said or to just say no to drinking and you wouldn't have to worry about drinking and driving rather than just say no to drinking and driving.

You say no to drinking, alcohol, will you ever have to worry about drinking and driving? The answer is no but that wasn't what they wanted. They just wanted you to say no to drinking once you and and and that that's kind of silly anyway because after you're drunk, that's when your mind isn't working right and and you don't know better. So just don't drink at all. Just say, no.

Deny it. Recognize it. Avoid it. And number three, with temptation, deny it. Deny it.

Just say what? No. Just say no. When your flesh tempts you, when your friend tempts you, when the devil tempts you, just commit in your heart to say, no. We sing the kids with the song with the kids.

We'll probably sing it in VBS. It's if sinners entice you, don't give in, say no. Say no. If sinners entice you, don't give in, say no. Say no.

If sinners entice you, don't give in, say no. No. No. Say no to your friends who want you to sin. Say no to the devil who wants to win, if sinners entice you, don't give in, say no, no, no.

That's good advice. It's also biblical advice. Just say no. You say but I can't say no but God says you can. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

So, say no. You'll find that when you say no, it gives you peace and joy that saying yes will not give you. Say no. To the Titus two eleven says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness. What does that mean? It means just say, no. Matthew sixteen twenty four, Jesus said, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Deny himself what?

Deny himself the lust of the flesh. The ambitions of the flesh and instead take up the will of the Lord, the cross that is ours to bear, and follow Jesus Christ. But if you're going to follow Jesus Christ, you're going to take up God's will in your life and there's a sin and temptation that you just won't say no to. Then, you're going to have a hard time. Lot of Christian, why can't I witness?

Why can't I do this? Why can't I do that? Well, usually the why can't is because there's something in your life that you can't say no to. And you know it's there. There's something between your soul and your savior.

The Bible says in James four, submit to God, admit to the Lord. We read that this morning. Submit yourselves therefore to God but what's the next phrase? Resist the devil and he will flee from you. If you submit yourself to God and if you say no to the devil, what does God say?

God says the devil will what? The devil will flee. If you'll say no to him, and you'll say no to him and you'll say no and no and no and no, the devil eventually is going to what? He's going to flee. He's going to give up.

He's going to run from you because he cannot win against God. He cannot win against God's word. He cannot win against the spirit for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. We need to say no. Do not let it find a place in your life to live there any longer.

Submit to God and kick the devil out. And then the fourth thing is this, sometimes we don't recognize the temptation, and we don't avoid it, and we don't say no to it and we sin. What are we going to do now? Well, that was that part you know. Sometimes, we don't practice but we know.

The Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I believe that cleanse us from all unrighteousness includes God giving us the victory over that temptation and lust and sin in our life. I think that's what that means. If we will confess when we sin, if we will admit to God, call it like it is. And agree with him that it's sin in our life.

And ask for his forgiveness and seek his cleansing that he will help us to overcome. But we have to confess it. We can't sweep it under the rug. We can't ignore it. We can't just let it go.

We need to deal with it and the sooner we deal with it, the better. And God will help us next time to see the what, to see the way of escape, and run away before temptation gets the better of us. Is there something in your life that you need to confess? Is there a temptation that you haven't been dealing with the way that God says to deal with it and we want, you wonder why you can't get victory, you can. As I said this morning, God doesn't say it'll be easy.

God doesn't say it'll be painless but God does say it is possible. If we will follow Christ's example, if we'll run under the authority of the father, if we'll run to the word of God, and if we will flee and run away from temptation in our life. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you Lord. For your word, for the advice, instructions that it gives us, for the opportunity, Lord, to read it, to know it.

Lord, thank you for shining the light of your word in our lives, helping us to see where we failed, helping us to see the areas where we can be more like you. And get victory over sin in our life. Lord, get victory over temptation. Win the battles. Lord, strengthen us by your grace to say no, to see the temptation coming, to run to the Lord, to hide in you.

Lord, there we will be safe as we trust in our savior and in his word and not in our own heart, we're in the lust of our flesh. You will give us peace that passes all understanding. You will give us joy. And victory. In Jesus name, we pray.