R921 Temptation

We all face temptation, and today we'll go to God's Word with Dr. Don Wilton to discover one of the ways we break free. This is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton. And in this message from Matthew chapter 6 on temptation, we'll gain insight on how we can break free. We'll also be reminded that you're not alone in that temptation.

Sometimes the most important thing we can do is share with a friend the fact that we're being tempted before we have to share this is the sin we ask you to help us move away from. Boy, we'd love to be a partner with you, an accountability partner, a prayer partner. We can do that at 866-899-WORD. That's right, 24 hours a day, 866-899-9673. We'll connect you with one of us, happy to talk or listen or pray.

We're here for you. Now today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. I want to give to you six solutions to overcoming temptation right out of the Bible. Now, usually what I do is I preach a whole message from the text and then I give you the solutions at the end. Well, I'm going to do that at the end as well. But in a practical sense, I want to begin with the Word of God.

Here they are. Number one, put on the whole armor of God. Put on the whole armor of God.

Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11 and following. That's the first solution. By the way, there are many more.

There are many more. I'm just giving you six. Otherwise, we'll have an overload here. I don't want to have an overload today. Number one, put on the whole armor of God.

Watch this, folks. Solution number one, get dressed properly. Get properly dressed. And God tells us how to do it. Number two, watch and pray. Matthew 26 and verse 41.

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Now watch. Why did Jesus say this? That word there, watch. Do you know what it means, folks? It means just open your eyes.

Be alert. You know, Jesus spoke about this. He was telling us way back then, this is real stuff.

Temptation is real. He wouldn't have included that in there. He knows what the devil wants to do. He wants to tempt us, wants us to fall, wants to destroy our lives. He wants to discredit our witness. Jesus said, if your eye offends you, pluck it out.

He wasn't talking about an eye. He was saying to you, whatever it is that you need to do, do it. Watch out. Jesus said, watch and pray. Number three, present your bodies. Romans chapter 12.

That word there, present in Romans 12. Watch this. Present your body so that you will not conform to the world. What does the world say to me? The world says, man, if you look at it and you want it, take it. If you like it, it's yours. Tastes good, feels good, looks good.

That's the bottom line. Have at it, big boy. Who cares about that beautiful wife at home who's been so faithful? Go and ravage your eyes and your bodies with all the junk gets put out on television and all the pornography and destroy the very self worth. Let me tell you guys, it won't even happen to your wife first. What will happen?

It will start with your own sense of self worth. And that may go on for months and years. It'll just eat away at you like an acid, like a cancer.

And eventually it will catch up. You won't conceal that. It'll destroy you. That's what temptation does. Present your body, yield. When you give way, when you yield, you lay it down. It means that you are submitting to the authority of God who enables you by His Spirit to stand up against the conforming demands of the world.

Number four, I love this one. Be self-controlled and alert. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. Be self-controlled and alert because the devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That word there, be sober, be vigilant, be self-controlled, be alert. The word alert is the same word as the word watch out. Alertness means open your eyes, be on the move, stand up. Be vigilant, be on your guard because you can do something about it.

Number five, I love James 4 and verse 7. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Now that word resist there is a command.

It's an active ingredient. You know, I know some of you will forgive me, but I'm so glad football season's here. In football games, I've never played a game of football in my life, but evidently you put on all this padding. See, I grew up playing rugby, didn't have padding.

That's why you have so many dead rugby players. I'm just talking about what I hear coaches saying in football is that when you're playing football, you're on the alert. I'm telling you, those guys get down, they get set, man, and you just see this like that.

They're looking, man, they want to have quarterback for lunch with apologies to all the quarterbacks, right? Be alert. Be ready. Get ready. On your mark, get set, go.

Resist the devil. Get ready. The play's coming. The ball's in the air. Hold your hands up for crying in a bucket.

If you don't hold your hands up, you're not going to deflect the ball even when it's still in the air. Number six, hide God's Word in your heart. Love that one. Psalm 119, verse 11. Hide God's Word in your heart. Okay, there's six solutions.

Boy, great truths. Put on the whole armour of God. Watch and pray.

Present your bodies. Be self-controlled and alert. Resist the devil. Hide God's Word in your heart. Read God's Word. Study God's Word.

Memorise God's Word. This is a directive from the Lord Jesus, folks. And there are six facts, just in these two lines, there are six facts that He gives us about temptation. I just want to give them to you.

It's amazing. Jesus gives us six facts that all people need to know about this issue that robs us. Fact number one, temptation is considerable.

Excuse me. Temptation is not just a passing little fancy. Jesus is letting us know it's major, it's considerable. Fact number two, asking God is advisable. Well, if temptation is considerable, He says, you and I need to go to our heavenly Father and say to Him, our Father which is in heaven, would you be so kind as to help us, prevent us from being led into temptation?

Asking God is advisable. Temptation is considerable. That's fact number one. Number two, that asking God is advisable. Number three, prevention is possible.

Boy, I love that. Jesus was making an announcement. He said, listen, you can prevent temptation from taking hold in your life.

Number four, deliverance is available. To prevent something is one thing, but to be delivered from something is entirely another. I don't only want to be prevented from succumbing to temptation, I want to be delivered from even the semblance of being tempted by the evil one.

I don't want to have to deal with this, do you? So watch this. Temptation is considerable. Asking God is advisable.

Prevention is possible. Deliverance is available, but the first fact that He gave us is that the devil is capable. He said, rather deliver us from the evil one. I'm not preaching today on the doctrine of the devil.

I'm telling you folks, we could do a year's series in this church just on what Bible teaches us about Satan. And he means business. I tell you young people, he's got your number, man. You know what he wants to do? He wants to destroy you before you've got off the ground. What he'd really like to do is just take you out, man. Like to destroy your life. He's going to lick his chops, man.

Before you get married, whoever it is that you're going to marry knows that you've been with every person in town. He wants you to be washed up and used up. That's what he wants. He comes to seek and to kill and to destroy.

So what is Jesus saying? Just letting us know the devil is capable. But there's a sixth fact. Victory is attainable. Victory is attainable. Yeah, you've got a flow of fact that comes from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. Temptation is considerable and asking God is advisable and prevention is possible. Deliverance is available. The devil is capable, but victory in Christ Jesus is attainable.

Boy, I love that one. Okay, so how does God do this? How does He do it?

Now watch this. Jesus is telling us. He says, listen, I want to tell you something. You can go to Him.

You can ask Him. My question is, I know He's God, but how does He do this? How does He prevent me from being led and succumbing to temptation? I'm here in my life. I'm making a commitment to the Lord that I don't want my life destroyed. I don't want to get to the age of 40 and look back and say, man, if only I had listened when I was 18 and 19 and 20. Have you ever met somebody at the age of 40 that looks like they're 60 and 70?

Just chewed up. By the way, some of the most precious, godly people I've ever met fall into that category. I tell you, you can get every person who falls into that category.

They'd stand up here in a New York second and they would stand and literally beg you. How does God do this? Well, it's quite simple.

He does it through the position we occupy. I have been adopted as a son in God's family. You've been adopted as a daughter in God's family.

Now I've got three children myself, all grown. But I'm telling you, as we as a family interact, I'm the only dad that they've got. We have a unique relationship. And because I have a unique relationship as father to my children, there are some things that I'm able to do with and for my family, watch this, because of the position we occupy together. Well, I'm a child of God.

I'm one of His children. I'm in a unique position. And when God gives me a promise and He helps me, He makes available to me all the resources necessary to be able to stand firm, to overcome because of the position I occupy. Number two, through the Word we live by.

That's how God does it. The Bible says that Thy Word is a lamp and a light, lamp under my feet and a light under my pathway. He does it not just by the position through the position that we occupy. I am in Christ.

God's imputed righteousness conferred upon me as an adopted son. But He does it through the Word we live by. He also does it through the Spirit we are empowered by. Zechariah chapter four and verse six. It's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

Okay, I've got three things working for me here that God can work through. Number one, my position as an adopted son, as an adopted daughter in Jesus Christ. Number two, through the Word. The Word of God that we live by. This Word just filled with God's promises. Number three, through the Spirit of the Lord who empowers us. Christ in me. The power of God, not my power, but God's power.

Well, number four, through the authority He rules by. That's the fourth way God does it. He tells us about it in the last phrase of the Lord's Prayer. For thine is the power, the kingdom, the glory forever and forever.

That's what that means, folks. In a sense, I don't want to put words into the name of the Lord Jesus. But what He's saying here is, listen, man, I'm talking about temptation. Yeah, and including all these other things, doing the will of God and praising Him and getting His provision and getting forgiveness and forgiving others. But I'm going to tell you something, the means by which God is able to help you and me to overcome temptation is not just the position that we occupy.

It's not just the Word that we live by. It's not just the Spirit that we are empowered by, but it is through, listen to this, the authority that He rules by. His is the kingdom, the power and the glory. There is a sense in which I can hear, I can hear Jesus looking into the face of the devil saying, you want a piece of me, son? You talking to me?

You want to pick on one of my people here? Listen, you think you've got power? All power is mine. You think you rule the kingdom? I'm in charge. You think all glory comes to you? I am glory forever.

Maybe the devil was sitting there somewhere saying, I'm going to get you forever, forever and forever and forever. All right. Now watch this. How do we bring it all together? What can we do?

What must we do? We've looked here at six biblical solutions. We've looked at six facts that Jesus makes concerning temptation. We've even tried to discover how God does this.

What's the means at His disposal? And we've uncovered our position, the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the authority of God. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's powerful message on temptation and how we break free with Dr. Don Wilton. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you, I mentioned the phone number earlier. 866-899-WORD is a way to connect and have someone pray with you and pray for you. That's 866-899-9673. We'd also love to connect with you online, keyboard to keyboard, so to speak, at tewonline.org.

That's our website, tewonline.org. We're here for you. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. But folks, what must we do? You ready for this? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Here it is, down the line. Number one, folks, this is serious stuff. Face up, face up, face up to the facts, face up to the facts. I believe in America today, folks, we better start facing up to the facts.

America needs a revival. You and I need to face up to the facts of our own struggles. What is it? What are you being tempted with?

What's your Achilles heel? What's going on? Is it pornography? What is it? Is it lying?

Is it cheating? Is it your disposition? What is it? Face up. Number two, face up. It's one thing to face up to the reality, it's another thing to face up. You better confess it to Jesus because it's His business. He wants it to be His business.

I'd love to partner with you. I believe in accountability, but I can't do anything about it that Jesus can. Face up. You know, I don't know about you, but I find myself praying sometimes, in fact, more times than not. I get down on my knees and I know that there is a sin in my life. But man, over my dead body, am I actually going to call a spade a spade. So I get down there or I'll be sitting here and I'll just simply pray or I'm driving my motor car and I'll say, Lord, just help me and I confess all my sin. But how many times do you know what your child has done, but you want them to tell you about it? Why?

Because generic confessions don't get it done, folks. Face up. Number three, put up. Put up.

You know, when you think about athletics, you've got those cheerleaders training all year for those ball games and then finally the time comes and the ball game arrives and all those moves and all the activities and all the time and the coach of the cheerleading squad looks into the faces of those girls and says, girls, it's game time tonight. It's time to put up. There's no more of this stuff running around. Well, let's do it again. There ain't no more do's it again tonight. We're out there in front of the crowd. Put up.

That word put up means you've got to get on with it. Number four, pray up. You want to be where God wants you to be? Pray up. That's what this prayer is all about.

That's why Jesus said watch and pray. Number five, stand up. By the way, that little word there, stand up, is rather interesting. It means that you've got to take a stand where a stand needs to be taken. You see, folks, you're not in a popularity contest over this. Some of you are going to even risk a little bit of friendship and popularity because of the stand you take. Some of you young people on that high school campus, when you stand up, you might lose your best friend over it. That's just fine and dandy. God will bless you.

Stand up. Maybe it's out at that country club. Boy, you love that game and you love the Lord Jesus Christ, but there's just something about it. Every time you get out there into that group of guys and they start talking like that and they start drinking and they start carousing and they're all married men and they're talking about other women.

And all the time, every time you hit the golf ball, somebody's passing comments. All the time, it's just nonstop, never ending. It just goes on and God says, stand up, because if you don't, that temptation is going to just suck you into that vacuum.

You're going to become part of that group. You're listening? Are you listening? You don't stand up.

You're not going to go anywhere. And some of you come to church on Sunday and God speaks to you and you know what you need to do. You're even willing to face up and fess up and put up and pray up. But as soon as you get out there, you will not stand up. You're too afraid. You're chicken, man. You're a squawking chicken in the economy of God. You won't take your stand. You're like a dead fish. And you'll come to church on Sunday and you'll look the part and you'll sing the part and you'll sound good in front of your wife and your children. But when it comes down to where the water hits the wheel, man, you are not willing to stand up. What's the matter with you, men?

I'm telling you something, my beloved friend, that pornography will destroy you. Or whatever it is. Jesus wasn't playing games. I don't read in this passage that Jesus said, Well, you know, by the way, there's another thing I'd like to just mention in passing.

If any of you would like to give it some consideration. Folks, you don't need a deacons meeting for this. Stand up. But you know, there's one final thing that we must do. Stay up.

Oh, man, please. I wish I hadn't said that. Stay up. Keep on keeping on. This is a life's journey. It takes a life's commitment.

It means you're in it for the long haul. I'm not anything special, folks, but I tell you what. I have told both my sons, my daughter-in-law and my daughter, my children. I told my children, I said to them, my beloved children, by God's grace, and my wife, by God's grace, I'm making a commitment to you that I will never go to a pornographic site. I told my own children that. I said, your daddy, I'm going to tell you right now.

I'm going to make a commitment to you because I love you. But folks, I cannot do that in my own strength. I've got to cry out to the Lord. You've got to cry out to the Lord.

You've got to establish parameters. You've got to face up to the facts, face up to God. You've got to put up and make a start because it's time. You've got to pray up.

You've got to ask God to help you. You've got to stand up, take your stand and be counted. And then you've got to stay up. If you don't stay up, man, the devil will get you like a falling domino. And down you'll go. But the good news is if we go down, we don't have to stay down.

Ephesians 4, 9 says, two are better than one, for if either of them falls, one can help the other up, and we are here to help you up. Know that we're ready to pray with you, to connect you and encourage you with some resources here at The Encouraging Word online at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org, or this phone number. Jot it down.

Store it in your cell. We are 866-899-WORD. Twenty-four hours a day that'll connect with one of us, happy to talk or listen or pray.

866-899-9673. We're here for you. And speaking of here for you, Dr. Don is here with perhaps the most important questions of our broadcast today. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If God's spoken to you and you've given your life to Christ, give us a call. We have free resources we want to put in your hands.

866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. And while you're online, you'll discover great resources like this. Many people around the world are looking for some kind of assurance to quiet their fears. They want to be totally secure. Total assurance only comes from God.

I have a serious question to ask you. If you were to die today, would you go to heaven? This month, with your gift of $25 in support to the encouraging word, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful message, The Confident Assurance of Salvation, along with his book, Totally Secure. Both of these ministry resources will help answer five important questions people churched and unchurched struggle with. Such as, what is salvation? Am I saved? Can I lose my salvation? Will I go to heaven?

What happens when I sin? Call us at 866-899-WORD to request The Confident Assurance of Salvation, along with his book, Totally Secure. You can find peace, protection, and assurance in the arms of God. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for today, but we're connecting always at tewonline.org and join us tomorrow for three spiritual exercises. That's the message coming up tomorrow with Dr. Don Wilton on The Encouraging Word.