Yielding to temptation damages relationships, even your relationship with God. But that doesn't mean God will abandon you. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah continues his look at the devastating power of temptation, how to avoid it, and how to restore your relationship with God should you succumb to it. To introduce the compelling conclusion of his message, temptation.
Here's David, and thank you for joining us. This is Monday, in the beginning of a brand new week for us, as we study the battle for your soul, based on a brand new book that was just released a few days ago. The battle for your soul is a reminder that there's a war going on inside all of us, all of us, even Christians, because there are two natures at work: the flesh and the spirit, and they're a Opposed to one another, and what we do defends our soul or allows our soul to be defenseless. We're talking about temptation at this point in time and how temptation seeks to destroy us. How it seeks to get its foot in the door and then take over.
1 Corinthians 10:13 is the passage before us, and we'll get to it in just a moment. But first, I want to remind you that this new book, The Battle for Your Soul, is now available from Turning Point for a gift of any size—a 240-page hardback book. A major book release that we do each year during this time, and it's available from Turning Point, or you can get it from your local bookseller. Yours for a gift of any amount to Turning Point when you ask for this resource, we'll send it to you right away. And now here's part two of temptation.
Remember this: God never tempts us to evil. Satan tempts us to evil, but when God allows temptation to come our way, in this passage of Scripture, He makes a promise that's quite surprising. He says He will limit its intensity to what we can bear. He knows our limitations, and He never allows us to be tempted. The Scripture says this beyond what we can bear, and He is present to help us.
The Apostle Paul tells us that he will deliver us from temptation. God delivers us; he has delivered us, and he will deliver us, according to Second Corinthians one ten. You might think that we would be better off without temptation. I think that on occasion, but when temptation comes, it serves a purpose. We need these tests because they help us demonstrate our love for Christ.
One pastor that I read a lot said, "If you don't have any tests, you can't have any testimonies." In school, you take a test occasionally to prove what you've learned. Without tests, there would be no real measure of growth and little motivation to study or grow wiser in the subject. And the Christian life is the same way. Without the occasional test, how would we measure our growth in Christ? When we are tempted to do wrong and still choose to obey Christ, it shows us that our faith in Him is growing.
If you hear someone say, "I was overcome by temptation and it was more than I could withstand," don't believe him. That's not what the Scripture says. The Scripture says there is no temptation that has taken you. But such as is common to man, and God is faithful, and He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can handle. And remember this: God is not merely regulating the circumstances; He's protecting the integrity of your soul.
God cares about your soul. He wants your soul to be pure, so you can relate to Him. If you yield to temptation, you shrink the soul, you complicate the soul, so that your relationship with God gets tarnished. And some of you know what that's like. David prayed on one occasion, "God restore to me the joy of my salvation." He didn't say restore my salvation; he said restore to me the joy of salvation.
Temptation can steal the joy of your salvation, and some of you are shaking your heads because you know what I'm talking about.
So. When it comes to temptation, you will face it, but God will limit it. And the third thing is, you can beat it. You can be victorious over temptation. Let me extrapolate that a little bit.
Paul would go on to tell his young friend that God would give him a way to escape the temptation, and it says here. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, will make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Whenever we are tempted, God has the end of that temptation in sight. The moment the test begins, the way out is already available. He doesn't wait to see how we're doing; he gives us a means of escape from that temptation at the very outset.
It's interesting that the Greek word for escape had the connotation of a narrow passage out of a treacherous canyon. In other words, you might climb down into this canyon and find yourself trapped, and you don't know how to get out. All of a sudden, you find a narrow way out. Paul says that if you see that path, don't walk past it, don't ignore it, but take the way out. The escape God provides is more than a way out of a situation; it's a pathway to preserving the health and strength of your soul.
God will always make a way, but let me say something about this. While this is very encouraging, it must not be taken for granted. Listen to me, and you know this to be true. In most situations, the way of escape will be just a fleeting thought. That thought will say something like, "This is wrong, and you know it, and you shouldn't be doing this." The way of escape may only last for a moment, and if it isn't taken, it will be too late.
Take the way of escape that God provides, and as you think back over the times you've been tempted, you know there's a moment, some place in that temptation, where you know you can make the right decision or the wrong one. If you yield to the temptation, you've made the wrong decision, and you've walked past the way of escape.
Now, every temptation is different, and all temptations fall into certain categories.
So, what I would like to do at the end of my sermon is give you some practical things that I've learned over the years through the study of the Bible and through personal experience. That will help you deal with temptation in your life, because once again, we're all in the same boat. We all have temptation. Number one, recognize the possibility of it. You know, there are some people that think, "Oh, I'm a Christian.
I don't get tempted. I'm not going to be." Listen to me. There's a verse in 1 Corinthians 10, right before the verse that we are studying. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "You're going to be tempted." First Corinthians ten twelve says this: Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. What that is saying is this: Don't get arrogant and proud.
Don't get cocky about your Christian life and say, "Well, I'm never going to get tempted." You know, temptation comes in certain ways, and you can almost predict them. I like to say it this way: I love the ocean. And the ocean is a good picture of this. The height of the wave determines the valley that follows it. There's a big wave, and then there's the trough behind it.
Temptation works that way. It often comes to us on the aftermath of some great accomplishment. For instance. Elijah faced his worst defeat right after his greatest victory. Peter made one of his worst mistakes immediately after he confessed Christ.
David was at the height of his career when he fell into moral sin. It is interesting how that works. I one time visited Mont Blanc, and that the. End of my tour there. I was introduced to the cemetery that's below the mountain, and I was told that in this cemetery, more than 50 percent of the people who are buried there lost their lives on the way down the mountain, not on their way up, because when they would get to the top, they would get cocky about the fact they'd made it and careless on the way down.
And lose their footing and die, men and women. That is the thing we deal with in life. We get to the place where we think we've had this great experience. When you have that great mountaintop experience, that's when you need to be careful, because what follows the mountain is the valley, and you don't want to go there.
So, what you need to do first of all is understand a little bit about how temptation works. And recognize the possibility of it in your life. Here's something most people would never think about: request help before temptation happens. In the Bible, there are two verses that tell us that before you get tempted, you should pray about it. In the Lord's Prayer, here's what it says: Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Did you ever pray that in the morning, Lord? Don't let me go into temptation today. Give me victory over temptation. And then, in Matthew twenty six forty one, it says, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You see, you have to be alert to the fact that temptation is real, that you are a definite candidate for it, and if you've had an experience of great victory.
You could be in jeopardy, so be careful. Watch and pray, and the idea is to be alert. Ari Tori said that the reason why many people fail in battle is because they wait till the hour of battle. They don't do anything to prepare themselves. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees before the battle came.
So anticipate your battles. Fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will have victory. I used to be a youth pastor centuries ago, and I used to talk to young people, and we would talk very plainly. And I remember saying to them on occasion, "The place for you to make up your mind about what you think concerning premarital sex is not the back seat of an automobile," and that got their attention. That's an incredibly important step.
Make up your mind ahead of time what you're going to do about the temptations that come your way. Determine your convictions before the conflict happens. Here's the third thing: resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That's an interesting one. The Bible says you can make the devil run away.
There are a lot of ways to see that happen. The best is to take into your hands the sword of the spirit. The Bible says that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he took the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. He was tempted three times, and three times he said, "It is written," and then he quoted from the book of Deuteronomy. Can you believe it?
And Satan was defeated by three quotations from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. Because the Lord Jesus Christ knew what to do, and at the end of that temptation, we are told, and the devil departed from him. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Don't just give in. Fight back.
Out loud. Learn verses that help you with the areas of temptation that are in your life, and quote them to the enemy. Use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Then, number four, retreat from certain kinds of temptation. Believers recognize that there's a lot of difference in the perils we face.
There's a time to resist and a time to retreat.
Sometimes we need to see the devil run, and sometimes we need to run from the devil. The Bible in the New Testament tells us to flee certain things, and two of those things were to flee. Is it says here, flee sexual immorality, First Corinthians, and flee youthful lust, Second Timothy two twenty two. Fleeing temptation may involve changing the channels you watch, changing the places you go, changing the friends you spend time with, or changing the websites you visit. In the Old Testament story of Joseph.
We are told that when the temptation was severe and Potiphar's wife was trying to get him to submit to her seduction, he ran out of the house. And I used to say, because he was better off without his coat than without his character, she kept his coat and used it to get him thrown in jail. But he kept his character. How did he do it? He ran away from it.
I think that's a very instructive thing because there are some temptations you cannot stand up against, some temptations you need to get away from. I remember someone saying that the best equipment you can have for dealing with temptation is the best pair of Adidas money can buy. Mark Twain said there are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice. Don't think you're going to be able to stand up against some temptations. Get away from it.
Don't put yourself in the position where you're constantly being assaulted by the enemy.
So let me go back over these. Recognize the possibility of temptation. Request help in advance of it. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Retreat from certain kinds of temptation, and remove any means of sin far from you.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter four, "Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn away from it and pass on." And Paul wrote, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh." I have told this story before, but there's no better story that I can tell you to help you understand this than the story about the donuts. There was this man who was incredibly overweight because he was addicted to donuts.
He just could not resist them. He could eat a whole box. But somebody got a hold of him and helped him get on a diet, and he quit eating donuts, and he slimmed up, and he was doing great. And then one day they came to work, and there he was sitting in the lunchroom with a box of donuts, just knocking them out one right after the other. And they said to him, "What happened?" He said, "Well, he said I woke up this morning and I had a great craving for a donut." I talked to the Lord about it, and He told me that if there was a parking space left in front of the donut shop, it would be all right for me to have a donut.
And He said, "Sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, there it was." So that's what it means to make provision for the flesh. That means you say, "I'm going to resist," but then you do things that put you in a position to fail. Don't do that. That's what the Scripture teaches. And then, replace bad influences with good ones.
Proverbs thirteen twenty says, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed." Some of the people in our lives can drag us down to the sin we are trying to avoid. Let me ask you this question: Are the people you hang out with Are they bringing you closer to God or are they trying to pull you away from God? All the time, I've been a pastor. People have been arguing with me about this in some way. They say if you get rid of all your unsaved friends when you become a Christian, you will never have a chance to win them to Christ.
I'm not saying you should get rid of all your unsaved friends. What I am saying is this. If you're in a relationship with friends or companions, and they're taking you away from Christ more than you are bringing them toward Christ, you better get another relationship. You can't stand that constant pressure. And our friends are important, but the Scripture tells us to seek out friends who are wise, so we can become wise and not.
Wicked friends who will cause destruction in our lives. The answer is to replace poor models with strong ones. Find people who will point you to Christ, make you stronger in your spiritual walk, hold you accountable. Look for wise believers to pull you up alongside them, and you will be benefited by that when it comes to temptation. And then finally, my last point in this long list is.
Resolved to live on the high road, I used to face this as a youth pastor because kids would come and say, "Do you think it's all right if I do this?" And they would list something that they already knew the answer to. They were hoping I would give them some reason to be able to go ahead and do what they knew they shouldn't do. And it was an illustration that there are some people who want to live the Christian life. They want to stay as close to the old life as they can, knowing they're going to heaven. They got one foot inside the kingdom.
And they still are trying to live according to the old way. The other way is this: we should try to live as close to God as we can, and stay as far away from the old life as we can. This is the low life. This is the high life. You have a choice to make as a believer.
Am I going to live the compromised life, which is? I'm going to stay as close to the old life as I can, do the things I used to do when I feel like it, or am I going to walk with God and be victorious in my life, victorious over the things that have drugged me down? Every Christian has a choice to make. The high road is the uncompromising walk with God, that doesn't count any cost too high to be in the position of God's blessing. Benjamin Watson was a NFL tight end, an outspoken Christian who played 16 seasons with the Patriots, the Browns, and the Saints.
His father, who became a Christian through Billy Graham's television ministry, led Benjamin to Christ. As a teenager, Benjamin developed an interest in hip hop after a friend loaned him a cassette tape and. When his father heard the album's explicit lyrics, he confronted Benjamin and told him never to bring such filth into their home again. Benjamin grabbed the tapes, sprinted two blocks to his friend's house, and threw the tape on the porch in disgust. He said, "I wasn't doing this because I made him angry.
I was doing it because I had disappointed him, and I felt so bad about that." He said, "I remember other times when I sinned, and each time my dad would lift me up. He would guide me back to the right path. He would point me toward better choices. And in the same way, God sees my failures, and He still forgives me. When you are victimized by temptation, that doesn't mean your relationship with God is over.
That just means you got some homework to do. You get things right with God." And he will forgive you. He always forgives. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Ladies and gentlemen, that verse was written to Christians, not to unsaved people.
So remember Paul's promise: No temptation has taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but with the temptation. Will provide a means of escape that you might be able to bear it. I want to end with this story. Shortly after World War One ended, Donald Gray Barnhouse walked through the battlefields of Belgium near the city of Mons.
The war was over, but its scars remained, and along the roads lay abandoned German tanks, broken artillery, shattered equipment left behind in retreat. The day itself felt peaceful. It was springtime, and the sun was warm, and the sky was perfectly still. And great trees stretched overhead like the arches of a cathedral. As Barnhouse walked quietly through silence, something strange caught his attention.
Leaves were falling. One brushed against his coat. He picked it up and rubbed it between his fingers, and it crumbled into dust. He looked up and saw more leaves drifting down, but it wasn't autumn. It was spring.
There was no wind and no storm. These were dead leaves that had clung stubbornly to the branches all winter long. Then he understood: deep beneath the earth, new life was rising. Fresh sap was moving upward through the trees, pushing out new buds, and that new life forced the dead leaves to fall away. We often try to strip away the dead leaves through sheer willpower.
We say, "I'm never going to do that again. I'm not going to yield to that temptation again." And before we know it, there we are doing it again. The real battle is within. Barnhouse realized the leaves didn't fall because of outward pressure, but because new life was rising within. The same is true spiritually, men and women.
As we renew the inner man through God's word and prayer and fellowship, and coming to church and doing the things we know that are going to make us strong, the Holy Spirit produces new life within our souls. And as the life of Christ grows stronger within us. He begins quietly to expel the things that were a part of our life before. The new life from within replaces the old life from without.
So, don't focus just on resisting temptation. Focus on drawing near to Jesus Christ. Let Him renew your heart. Let Him strengthen your soul. And when the life of Christ fills you, the old dead leaves of sinful desires will begin to fall away, and new spiritual fruit will grow in their place.
I share this message with all of us today because Satan is like a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour, and maybe this message from God's word will be a warning. And a provision for you to stop in your tracks, and do a 180 away from the enemy and toward God. That is certainly my prayer. And the Bible says, if we resist Satan, he will flee from us. I'm reminded of the illustration of that when the Lord was finished in His temptation by Satan.
The Bible says, Satan left him, and Satan will leave you if you will stand up and fight using the Word of God as your defense mechanism. Tomorrow we're going to talk about rest for your soul. The Bible actually says, and you shall find rest for your soul. If your soul is restless. Don't miss tomorrow because the Bible has some great things to say to us to help us fix that problem.
And don't forget the resource for this month is the Battle for Your Soul, a 240-page hardback book will help you stand strong in your faith. This book was written for all of us who live in the battle zone, and I hope you'll get your copy during the time that it's being offered here on Turning Point. When you send a gift to Turning Point during the month of October, just say. Please send me the book about the soul, and it'll be on its way. We'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening. God bless you. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Drop us a note to let us know how God is using this ministry in your life.
Write to Turning Point, P. O. Box thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California nine two one six three. Visit our website at davidjeremiah dot org slash radio, or call eight hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's new book, "The Battle for Your Soul," and learn to be victorious in spiritual warfare.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also stream more than 1,200 of Dr. Jeremiah's messages on demand on any screen on our streaming service, Turning Point Plus. For a monthly gift of any amount, visit turningpointplus.org for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us tomorrow as we continue the battle for your soul on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
