OVERCOMING TEMPTATION Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. There are three definite things that come with life; taxes, death, and temptation. Every human has, does, and will continue to face temptation. As long as we are in the fallen body and live in this fallen world we will all face temptation. We must understand temptation and how to overcome it if we are going to be victorious as a Christian. There are several things we must know about temptation that will help us endure it and pass the test. #1- Temptation is to get you to sin and this brings death All temptation is a solicitation to sin. The Tempter is not really interested in the particular sin we commit, but that we commit sin. Sin always brings death. [Rom_5:12, Jas_1:15] This is called the law of sin and death. [Rom_8:2] Death always follows sin. When Adam and Eve sinned they died spiritually, then their soul died slowly, and then they died physically. When we commit a sin, some form of death occurs. It is a law. For a Christian their spiritual life is kept intact because of the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit in the new birth [Eph_1:13], but it is impossible to commit a sin and some form of death not occur. It might be death of a relationship, health, reputation, faith, or even intimacy with God, but something will undergo the working of death when we sin. It is important then that we endure temptation. When we endure temptation we are crowned with life. This does not necessarily mean that we will receive a crown of life when we die, but each time we endure temptation we experience a release of the life of God in our life. Sin brings death, and trusting God and enduring temptation will result in life. #2- Temptation and being tempted is not a sin! This is vital to understand in winning the battle over temptation! The enemy will bring temptation to you and then when you are tempted he will tell you that you sinned because you were tempted. He will try to convince you that you are wrong and evil for being tempted. In other words, the enemy tries to
convince you that it is a sin to be tempted! This is a huge lie! If the enemy can get you to believe this then when you are tempted to sin you will more than likely go ahead and do the sin if you believe you already sinned in being tempted in the first place! Let's shine the light of the truth of the Word of God upon this lie and see it destroyed! Here comes the light! Jesus Christ was tempted to sin in every way we are, BUT HE NEVER SINNED! Heb 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus was tempted! However, Jesus never sinned! This is proof that temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted in every way you are, but He never sinned! Jesus was not any less by being tempted. Being tempted is not wrong; yielding to temptation is! Jesus never yielded to temptation. Heb 2:18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. Jesus knows what it is like to be tempted because He was tempted in His earthly life. Jesus was both God and man. As a man, Jesus faced temptations just like you. However, He never yielded to sin. It is not a sin to be tempted! #3- You can enter INTO temptation There are three stages to temptation. The first stage is the initial solicitation to sin. Usually this begins as a suggestive thought to your mind. It can be triggered by what we see or hear, but the initial stage of temptation comes with a mental suggestion that leads toward sin. This initial stage is to get us to yield to the suggestion of the enemy. Yielding to the suggestion is the second stage of temptation. It is the yielding stage. Now, this stage might not be the actual committing of the sin. Yielding to temptation is often experienced by dwelling on the suggestion, or taking a closer look, or listening further. Adam and Eve knew they were not supposed to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, but they yielded to temptation, by standing by the tree and looking at it. The age old lie of the enemy is "There is nothing wrong with just looking, right, as long as you
don't touch it!" Looking is the beginning of yielding to sin. Adam and Eve should have stayed away from that tree! If they had then they would not have heard the serpent s lies from its branches! Proverbs says this: Pro 5:8 Remove your way far from her, And do not go near the door of her house, Proverbs teaches that it is important to stay far away from the temptress! Do not go NEAR the door of her house. Proverbs also gives us an illustration of breaking this wisdom! Pro 7:7 And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding, Pro 7:8 Passing along the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house Pro 7:9 In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night. Pro 7:10 And there a woman met him, With the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. This foolish young man went near her corner. He was just looking right! He was not going to do anything. He kept going by her house to look until the temptress MET HIM THERE! This young man would have never met the temptress if he had not been near her corner just looking. The enemy will often start out with a suggestion for you to just think about the sin. He assures you that you would never do it! He just wants you to think about it! This is the step of yielding to sin. The enemy knows that if he can get us to yield to his first suggestion then it is much harder to resist his further suggestions toward sin. The enemy will tell us that there is no problem with at least looking. We tell ourselves we are not going to actually do it, but we will look. This will almost always lead you to commit sin. Just looking caused David to commit sin with Bathsheba, and then death came afterwards- death to Uriah [Bathsheba's husband], the baby [conceived by his sin], Amnon, and Absalom. All these deaths occurred because of David's sin. It all started with the enemies suggestion to stay home from battle and then to just look upon a nude woman bathing instead of turning away. This second stage of temptation is also called ENTERING INTO TEMPTATION! The tabernacle had three compartments. The outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The enemy has also has a tabernacle he wants you to enter. It s a tabernacle of sin!
The outer court is the solicitation to yield to temptation. If you yield to the enemy s suggestion to dwell upon, look upon, or listen further to his suggestions, then you yield to him and enter the next room. This is entering into temptation. Once you are in this room, it is very difficult to exit. Most of the time you will go on into the next room, which is the committal of the actual sin. This is the third and final stage of temptation. This is where you believe the lie, I will just do it this time. I won t ever do it again! This lie brings you into the bondage of sin! One of the most important keys in winning the battle with temptation is to not to even enter into temptation! Jesus taught His disciples this the night he was betrayed. Luk 22:40 When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray [in order] that you may not enter into temptation." Jesus told the disciples to pray in order that they would not enter into temptation. The key to winning over temptation is to turn to God at the very first suggestion of the enemy. Instead of entertaining the thought and rolling it around in your head for awhile, you should immediately turn to God and resist the temptation by placing your faith in the Lord and His Word. It is much easier dealing with a squatter when he is at your front door, then trying to make him leave when he has moved in with all his stuff, and is sleeping in your bed, and eating your food! We must deal with temptation at its ONSET! 1Pe 5:9 Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset--rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world. [Amplified] Most Christians fail in the area of temptation because they enter into temptation by yielding to the suggestion of the enemy to mentally entertain the temptation, or to look further, or listen to it further. Jesus refused to look and listen to any temptation! Jesus was tempted to sin, but He never entered into temptation by yielding to the suggestions of Satan to move towards sin. Mat 16:23 But He turned [His back] and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."
The book of James shows vividly the tactics of the enemy and how he tempts us. (Jas 1:14) But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions). Amplified Here we see that each person is tempted by desires that arise from their own flesh. The enemy knows what each person finds appealing. All temptations have this in common- they come in thought form. It is not possible to be tempted and not first have the thought that causes the temptation. The enemy will send thoughts to our mind that appeal to our flesh. What we do the moment those thoughts come to us will determine if we will experience victory or defeat. The enemy places a hook in every thought much like a fisherman s bait. If a fish takes bait, then they will get hooked. The same happens with us with the thoughts of the enemy. If we receive the enemy s thought and dwell on it, then his hook is set in us. Once a fish is hooked, it will often start to fight against it. However, this just makes the hook more secure! Once the enemy has baited us and hooked us with temptation we often start to fight against it with our will-power. However, this just makes the temptation and draw towards sin worse, because when we struggle against sin by our own will-power then we are under the principle of law. The strength of sin is the law. [1 Cor. 15:56] It is therefore very important to deal with thoughts before we get baited and hooked by them. We become hooked by temptation when lust is conceived in our hearts. This comes by dwelling on evil thoughts. Once this happens, it is difficult not to give birth to sin. The answer to temptation and sin cannot be found in our will-power or our own moral strength. The only answer for overcoming temptation is found in Jesus Christ, our High Priest! Jesus, our High Priest, gives us the power over all evil thoughts that come to tempt us to sin. #4- Jesus will help us when we are tempted. This help comes from WHAT HE HAS ALREADY DONE, not what He WILL DO! Jesus has promised to help us when we are tempted because He is our faithful High Priest. Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Heb 2:18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. Many Christians seek the Lord's help when they are tempted, but they are hoping that the Lord will do something for them. They want Him to act on their behalf and deliver them from temptation. They rightly seek for the Lord's help, but they are seeking for the wrong kind of help. The help that the Lord offers is not something HE WILL DO FOR US, BUT WHAT HE HAS ALREADY DONE FOR US! Jesus will help us AS OUR FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST. Jesus is our High Priest, but Jesus is SEATED as our High Priest. The fact that He is seated means His ministry HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND IS FINISHED. His is a finished work! This is called the obedience of Christ. We are saved from sin, which is rebellion, by His obedience! Jesus has done everything that He is ever going to do to redeem us and help us from the control of sin. Jesus did all the work necessary to defeat sin at the cross. We discussed earlier that the tabernacle had an outer court and two inner rooms. In the courtyard there was the brazen altar where blood was shed. This altar represents the cross of Christ. The wages of sin is death. [Romans 6:23] When someone dies they are freed from sin. [Romans 6:7] Jesus as our representative died in our place. We therefore died in Him when He died! [Romans 6:6, Gal. 2:20] However, Jesus did not stay dead! He rose from the dead, and since we were in Him as our representative, we rose in Him and were given new life. The fact that He died our death by pouring out His life blood to death means that the power of sin has lost its authority and power over us when we claim by faith our identification with Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension! The Holy Spirit will put to death the deeds of our sinful flesh when we claim our identification with Christ and His shed blood for us. [Romans 8:13] The Spirit moves on the basis of the blood! Jesus shed His eternal-life blood out of His body unto physical death, which freed us from sin's control. [Romans 6:7] Payment was
paid that freed us out of Satan's and sin's control. We now have been given the power of the resurrection life of Jesus that will come to our aid when we claim by faith our identification with Christ's finished work and shed blood! What Jesus did in His perfect life and at the cross is called the obedience of Christ. It was the obedience of Christ that frees us and saves us from sin which is rebellion! Because Jesus represented us and did what He did in our behalf, we were seen to have died also to sin with Him. What does it mean to practically die to something? It means you have no more relation to it any longer. You have been separated from it. There are NO sins committed in a grave yard. You can walk up to a corpse and try to tempt him with many sins, but you will get any response, because he has died. The KEY for us to understand in applying our death to sin is that WE NO LONGER STRUGGLE WITH OUR WILL TO OVERCOME ANY SIN OR TEMPTATION! DEAD PEOPLE DON'T STRUGGLE! Get that! Dead people do not strain or struggle to overcome anything! If we struggle and strain to overcome sin, we declare by our actions we do not believe we have died to it! Many think that being dead to sin means you do not feel temptations or passions and desires any longer. This is not the case. Being dead to sin is not a matter of feeling, but a matter of FAITH, based upon what God has said. God has said we are dead to sin, because we died in Christ, our representative. [Romans 6:6-7] We are told to reckon that this is true. [Romans 6:11] How do we reckon that we are dead to sin? STOP TRYING TO OVERCOME SIN AND TEMPTATION BY YOUR OWN EFFORT! When sin and temptations arise and you feel the pull to sin, you must not try to overcome it by your willpower. If you do, you will be defeated. Instead, you need to turn to Christ that lives in you and say, "Lord, I am being tempted to sin. I know through you I have died to sin, so I am not going to try to deal with this temptation at all. I am dead to it! I give this temptation over to you to deal with it FOR me. I ask You overcome FOR me! Thank you Lord for doing it!" When you hand it over to the Lord, trust that He is doing it for you. Release it to Him in faith and turn away and rest. He will overcome for you! It is in the courtyard of temptation that we must flee to the altar of the Cross of Christ for refuge. It is by the finished work of Christ and the pouring out of His
life blood unto death that frees us from the power and control of sin and temptation. If we do not do this in the courtyard of temptation then often we will not turn to the Lord when we enter into temptation [start to yield to the enemy s suggestions]. We often have gone too far then. Once we have entered into temptation often the pull of the temptation is so strong that we will not seek deliverance from it because the desire for the sin is stronger than our desire to be free from it! We must overcome temptation at the onset of temptation before we enter it, or we will probably move on into the third stage which is sin itself. There is victory over temptation and sin. The victory is found in the shed blood of Jesus at Calvary! At the first hint of temptation turn to your faithful High Priest and His shed blood and gain the victory over temptation and sin. You will experience a crown of life!