The Bible teaches that how we respond to temptation will either lead us to corruption or eternal life.
So how can we make sure we're making the right choices in the right way? We'll explore that question today on Truth for Life as Alastair Begg examines a powerful example of how to resist temptation. We're continuing a study in Genesis chapter thirty nine. There is no More powerful force. In overcoming temptation, than the fear of God.
And somehow or another, Joseph had that fashioned into his life. And it made a difference. He didn't come to the lady and say, you know, I don't want to do this, I'd be hurting you. I don't want to do this. I think it might get out.
No, no. He says, I'm not going to do this. How could I do this? Such a wicked thing. And sin against God.
No, he's not addressing the issue of his desires. You know, if you can get Joseph on his own and say to him, you know, was she cute? He's gonna say cute? Goodness gracious! I mean Yeah, she's the Potiphar's wife.
But the response, the issue is, what are you going to do now, Joseph? I couldn't do this, he said. Listen. Sexual sin. No matter what contemporary culture says, sexual sin is not just between two consenting adults.
Sexual sin is an act of disobedience against God. And that's why you don't engage in sexual sin. That's why. No other reason. Not the pragmatism of it, not what it might do to the children, not what it might get around the office, no, it might be an issue here or there.
No, it is a wicked thing, it is against God, therefore we don't do it. Even if we feel like it, we don't do it. Even if every circumstance moves in that direction, we don't do it.
Now the pagans even understand this now for pragmatic reasons. Last month's edition of Men's Health, with a big, beautiful guy on the front. With muscles in places, most of us don't have places, has got a fantastic article on monogamy. I meant to bring it with me, I forgot to bring it. But the amazing thing is, the guy sets this scene up where you're on a business trip in Siberia.
You are 12,500 miles from your home, and you are a proposition by the most beautiful goddess that ever walked the face of creation. And he says, What do you do? This is a secular man writing in a secular magazine. He says, What do you do? He says, You get out of there as fast as you possibly can.
Why? Because you have a wife. And it would be wrong. Because you have commitments and they are to be fulfilled. This is secular magazines.
And when a society or a culture fails to acknowledge this, It's on the way out. And that's why our society and culture is on the way out. The fall of the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire, and every emperor all has fallen in on itself on the basis of idolatry, immorality, homosexuality, bestiality, and the whole thing, and we're right there. That's where we are.
So basically, God says, don't do this. We say, we know better than God. Joseph said it's a wicked thing. We say it's a matter of preference, and our culture crumbles around us. His response then was decisive principled and thirdly, it was unyielding.
Unyielding. Verse 10, day after day. It's one thing to resist temptation in its first attack. It's quite another. to ratify the decision on a daily basis.
Some of us managed to muster up enough strength and courage. to get past the first one. And then we're so proud of ourselves at having not done it. that we just go right ahead and do it for the next half an hour. Do you know how many times I've seen young couples do the same thing?
Oh, no, Pastor, we don't sleep together. No, no, no, no. Oh, we were here and we were there and we were there and everything. And you know, we're on the go, Pastor. We've got it done.
Yes, sir. And two weeks later, They're skulking around, hiding from you everywhere. You know, the kid used up all his energy saying no once, but he couldn't put it into practice on a daily basis. He just couldn't sustain it. If it's wrong the first time, it's wrong every time.
And he knew that. He wasn't about to play mind games. He wasn't about to do all this stuff of, well, maybe if I just yield on this one occasion, I'll be in a better position. Maybe I could witness to her, you know. You may laugh, but I'm sick and tired of hearing people walk into adultery on the grounds of personal evangelism.
Cut that junk out. If she's got questions, give her to your wife, or give her to a Christian lady, or give her over to the Lord. Don't be staying at half past six at night supposedly to read the Bible to her. Just cut it out as of today. Trust me.
And the same is true in reverse. There is no place for it. If you're so smart, then you go tell other people how to be smart, but don't you put yourself in that position. People tell me I In twenty years of pastoral ministry. This is one of the classics.
You know, Pastor? I really want to do the right thing and I fully believe. That if God wanted me out of it, Then he would Remove the temptation. He would Take away the feelings. He would.
Fix it for me. And the answer is Listen. Cloth ears. He has. written a whole jolly book on the subject for you.
And he is probably 99% certainly not going to remove the temptation. I've seen God remove the tempted. I've seen a guy go to heaven in a gas explosion, and the only explanation that I've got of it to this day is the fact that he was involved in an adulterous affair, and his wife, as a result of a spinal accident, was lying flat in her back in the house, and he was praying for God to take his wife to heaven so that he could get on to his business legitimately. God, I can't cope with this anymore. God, I can't live with this.
The Lord says, fine. He's eating his breakfast in a restaurant in Aberdeen, and all of a sudden the boilers blow up, and he ain't gonna be dealing with it anymore because in an instant he's in eternity. That's what 1 Corinthians is about. He says, you know what? You're just clowning around at your communion services.
You're playing fast and loose with us. That's why some of you have died. Don't mess with us. I'm full with this. Don't try and lay the charge.
At God's store. Don't allow our desires to overturn our reason. It is our own evil desires that lead us into temptation. We may think we merely respond to outward temptations that are presented to us, but the truth is our evil desires are constantly searching out temptations to satisfy our insatiable lusts. See, we wage war on three levels against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
The world and the devil are external to us, and the flesh is internal. As long as we live in this body, says Paul, we wage war against the flesh. The Westminster Confession says we live with a continual and irreconcilable war. And there is that within us, which if we sow to the flesh, yields death, and if we sow to the spirit, it yields spiritual benefit and righteousness. And every day we live our life, we have the choice.
And every day we live our life, we either move in the realm of obedience or we move in the realm of disobedience.
So there is within us a propensity, even as Christians, to go and seek out that which is most attractive to us. And so the world represented by Potiphar's wife is brought to Joseph. By the evil one, don't you fancy this? And now the issue is Will Joseph sow to his flesh and reap corruption? Or will he sow to his spirit?
and reap eternal life. And that for the believer, let us not be in any doubt here. The enabling of the Spirit of God through the directives of the Word of God is not to call us to some slavish observance of external rules, but it is to empower us from the inside to make the right choices. in the right way. In other words, and this is our fourth point: not only was Joseph decisive and principled and unyielding, but he was also practical.
He was practical. The end of verse 10. He refused to go to bed with her.
Now, notice the next phrase, or even to be with her. Even to be with her. He wasn't going to risk the possibility of allowing for a change in his own heart. See, that was a danger. He didn't know that because he'd been successful on Friday, he could be successful on Saturday.
He wasn't going to be so silly as to say, I've got this licked, it won't be a matter to me. That's what people tell me all the time. They say, Well, you live with your own little problems, Alistair, and you've got that problem. I understand it. You're a weak Christian.
But for me, don't you worry about me. I've got it taken care of. Beware Beware. There's a verse in the Bible, you know, about the guy who's standing. or thinks he is, Chinese proverb says, He who would not enter the room of sin.
must not sit at the door of temptation. It was straightforward. And fifthly, He was absolutely ruthless in his response. That's why in verse 12 he ran out of the house. Split.
Better to lose his cloak than his character. Take you 20 or 30 years to build a reputation and only five minutes to ruin it. That's why, when Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22, here's what I want you to do in relationship to these evil desires of youth, he says, I want you to flee. Right? Split.
1 Corinthians 6, 18. Flee immorality. You don't hang around, you don't play with it. You run away. That's why the book of Proverbs, especially in the opening sections, has so much to say regarding this.
Let me just give it to you as your homework. You read uh the first seven chapters of Proverbs, that'll be enough. That'll be enough. And just underline. The the the clarity of the words of Solomon.
He says, listen. In relationship to adultery, Don't go down that road, he says, because I'll tell you why. This is how you'll end your life, he says to his son. At the end of your life, you will groan. When your flesh and your body are spent, you'll say, How I hated discipline, how my heart spurned correction, I would not obey my teachers, listen to my instructors.
I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly. He says, Do you want to end your days like that? You want to end your days separated from your wife, separated from your kids, living over in some lousy apartment somewhere? Don't do it, he says. Let me tell you how to avoid it.
Drink water from your own cistern. Running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares, you're going to run around the neighborhood like a dog? No, let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
May she be to you like a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her breasts satisfy you always. May you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?
And that is the picture of Proverbs 5. Lost, rotted. captivated and destroyed.
Now he says, Don't put yourself there. And it is an act of the will.
Now, let me finish up by turning you to James 1. This is your New Testament homework. Old Testament homework, the first seven chapters of Proverbs. New Testament homework, read this section in James. James chapter 1 begins at verse 13.
And he talks about temptation. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. That's the first thing. God is never and cannot be the source of temptation.
So we can't lay the problem at God's feet. God is unsusceptible to evil and cannot tempt to evil.
Well, why does it say, says somebody, lead us not into temptation? We should read test for temptation, but even leaving temptation, let me explain it to you. The temptations or testings which God sets up are tests which He sets up for His students to pass. The temptations of the devil are set up for His students to fail. And the temptations or testings of God are there for us to be fashioned and to be formed and to be disciplined and to be structured and to be moved on.
The evil ones' temptations are to bring us down to the grave.
So, notice that God is never the author of temptation. Secondly, temptation begins with our individual desires. Verse 14: Each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. And then, after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and then sin, when it is full gone, gives birth to death. Imagination plus application.
So therefore We need to learn to deal with temptation. We need to learn how to nip it in the bud. How do you do it? I have four final words for you. I'll just give you the words.
If we're going to deal with temptation, we have to deal with it immediately. When it's just a little stream, not when it becomes a big river, the big river will sweep us away.
Well, it's just a spot of rust on the trunk. Lead. before the whole car becomes a rust bucket. Then you can only trash it. In other words, when I become conscious of any sinful thought, suggestion, desire, aspiration, deed, circumstance, deal with it then.
How am I going to deal with it immediately? How am I going to deal with it realistically? Genesis 4:7, sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you. Sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you, so we better be realistic about it. Jesus says to his disciples, Watch and pray so that you don't enter into temptation.
Murray McShane, who died at 29, the Presbyterian minister in Dundee, Scotland, before the age of 29, said to his congregation: I have discovered that the seed of every known sin dwells within my heart.
So we'll never deal with temptation unless we deal with it immediately, unless we deal with it realistically, unless we deal with it ruthlessly. Matthew 5:29 and following. Pluck your eye out, chop your hand off, chop your feet off. Metaphors, but graphic metaphors. Also, that we would deal with it consistently.
Consistently? Establishing patterns. You got your sales set, young guy? You set your sails up in relationship to this stuff. Even though the whole world goes nuts, even everybody else is into it.
I'll tell you what, I'm going with Joseph. I'm Joseph's man. He's my example. He was well built. He could pump iron.
He could run 100 yards faster than most. He was a popular And he was pure. And he did it with God's help. and greaten his teeth.
So I'm going to do it too. I'm going to respond to temptation in this way. Can you imagine just getting on a plane? You get into 13F there, your usual spot. And the pilot comes on and he says, Good morning.
This is flight 482. Uh to Phoenix. And I want you to know. That it has been ever since I began flying my express desire. Not to crash.
Very much. Very much. But there's very much. How much is very much? I mean, is once very much?
Once would be too much for me, wouldn't it, for you? I have decided not to crash. Very much? You know, I discovered something about myself this week in relationship to sin. That's kind of the way I approach sin.
Lord. I want you to know. That I have decided not to sin. Very much. Well, how much is it going to take?
to ruin your life. to mar your testimony. To make you another sorry statistic. Forty-three years to build a reputation. In five minutes.
to flush it down the toilet. And the last word. Is we're going to deal with sin. Not only immediately and realistically and ruthlessly and consistently, but we're going to deal with sin confidently. Confidently.
1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13 is my last verse. 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're tempted, He will also provide a way out.
So that you can stand up. Under it. You know the old Westerns? These great old movies. And everybody's trapped in the canyons and The the Indians are all around.
And uh That it's all gonna be a carnage, you know. And we're just stuck. And then The guy, you know, with a butt end cigar and the stubble on his face, Just when you'd forgotten he was even in the movie. He shows up. Yeah.
Follow me. I found the secret passage. And off they go. Five minutes before, it looked like it was oblivion and curtains, but here he came. With the way out.
Let me tell you something. Did you ever sin in the full face of temptation because there wasn't an escape hatch?
Now don't lie about it. The answer is you never did. Because as a believer, God has pledged an escape route. Every single Game. The reason that you and I both succumbed.
Because we closed our eyes. to the opportunity of exit. Because we allowed our desire to overwhelm our reason. And that's a bad Plan.
Some of you this morning listened to this message. And it's a real bittersweet experience for you. Because the insinuations of the evil one in your mind are such. That you don't know whether you can be encouraged enough by the challenge to lay down a new fixed point and move forward. For account of the fact that the accusations of the evil one are taking you back lower and lower and lower into the sense of emptiness that you feel because of mistakes that you've made in your past.
Let me tell you something. As Martin Luther said, Our Lord speaks with sweet reasonableness. And do not allow The evil one. to give you this kind of trip. Listen.
You are so spiritually overweight and messed up. That there is no point in you getting on that treadmill and doing anything. You may as well just chuck it where you are and give up. And that'll be fine. And the Word of God comes to you and says, listen.
Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more. I will drown them in the sea of my forgetfulness. I will respond to you in the way that Jesus responded to the woman taken in an adultery in John chapter 8, when all the Pharisees got on their high horse and were ready, gathering up stones, ready for the eventual demise of the woman. And Jesus looks around and says, Okay, buddy, you go first. You, without sin, you go first.
Then he turned to the lady and he said, So where are your accusers? And she said I don't see any. And Jesus says, And I'm not one.
Now you go. and lead your life of sin. And in The command. is the enabling. Because We stand.
In grace. If you think that this morning's message Is a strident call to pull up your socks, break a sweat, and try and dig yourself out of the morass of your own impoverishment. You haven't heard a word I just said. Because it is all by the enabling of the Spirit of God. Through the Word of God.
that we are able. to live the life. of God.
Okay. Listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. There's a book we're recommending today that is a brand new study guide from Alastair. It takes you verse by verse through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. And while this book was written thousands of years ago, Ecclesiastes speaks directly to our contemporary world and addresses the futility of our self indulgent culture.
The writer of Ecclesiastes was a king who had everything. He had houses and vineyards and gardens and silver and gold. Yet his conclusion to acquiring all of these earthly pleasures is that none of it satisfies.
So what does? That's the question this study explores. You'll follow the author of Ecclesiastes' journey in search of meaning and discover what he brings to light about where we can find lasting joy and peace. Ask for your copy of Alistair's brand new study guide titled Ecclesiastes: Chasing the Wind. It's yours when you donate to support the Bible teaching ministry of Truth for Life.
You can give online at truthforlife. org slash donate or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. Thanks for listening this week. It may be tempting to assume that our lives will go smoothly if we obey God, but that's not what Joseph experienced. Join us Monday as we learn what really made the difference in Joseph's life and how it can make a difference in your life as well.
The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
