First, I’d like to again apologize for the timing of my WFTD‘s.  This week has been incredibly busy at work, and I don’t like to send out an email, just for the sake of sending on out.  I don’t think that’s being a good steward with the time of the reader, and I like to be able to have God lead what is written.

The focus of my message today is to gain clarity on temptation and sin, and how we can guard ourselves against it.  What is sin?  What does it mean to be tempted?  Perhaps if we could better understand those questions, we would better be able to get to the root of our problem.

In Matthew 4, Jesus was led into the wilderness after His baptism to be tempted by Satan.  How did Satan tempt Christ?  First by appealing to His physical needs.  Satan tempted Jesus to make the rocks bread.  Now it’s important to know that Jesus had the authority to do it, and there is nothing wrong with eating food, but this wasn’t the will of God the father.  It was the Father’s will that Jesus go to the wilderness and fast to be tempted.  Jesus rebuked Satan with scripture.  Jesus revealed that man was not to trust in Himself, but in God who provides.

Satan then keyed in on that, and tempted Jesus to “trust in God completely” by throwing Himself off of the temple.  Now again Jesus had the authority to do what Satan said, and could have personally commanded angels to come down to fulfill scripture.  Further, this would have instantly gained Jesus great fame to accomplish such a feat – but this was not God’s plan.  Jesus did not come to be famous and well liked, but to be despised, stricken by man, to go to the cross for those who mocked Him.  Again, Jesus again rebuked Satan with scripture.   Jesus revealed that man does not exist to have their will supercede God, but man exists to submit to God, that the glory of God would be known and enjoyed.

Lastly, Satan tempted Jesus with all of the wealth and possessions the world had to offer.  Again, all of this was rightly Christ’s already, but Satan was offering it to Him now, without the cross, without the pain.  Thankfully Jesus rejected Satan again.  It would not have been wrong for Jesus to take His rightly place as King over all creation, included those kingdoms he was tempted with.  What made it wrong was that it was not the will of His Father, at that time.

What was common through each of these temptations?  If we can see what that is, then we can get a better picture of sin, than just what can be seen outwardly.  In every case, the temptation of man is the same – to pursue his own will apart from God.  What then is sin?  Romans 14:23 says “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”  What is faith?  Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Whatever does not come from a desire to pursue the will of God, is sin.  So then, this is where our battle must begin.  Do we delight in pursuing the will of God above all else?  Do we pray as Jesus modeled for us, that His will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven, in us, in our heart’s desires?  Seldom are we tempted towards things that are outright evil.  Usually we will be tempted to pursue something good, just in our own time instead of God’s.  Other times we will be tempted to pursue a physical “need” at the expense of spiritual needs.  Lastly we will be tempted to replace the joy in God Himself with the joy in what God has created.

How are you going through life?  Are you haphazardly walking through life doing what seems right to you, or are you disciplining yourself, to look into God’s Word, prayerfully seeking His will for your life to be done?  It’s a basic truth, that you will always be moving in your relationship with God; either toward Him or away from Him.  Temptation strikes, and gives way to sin when we stop actively pursuing God’s will moment to moment day to day.  Be encouraged, the victory is won through Christ who overcame all temptations to perfectly obey the will of our Father.  In Christ, we too have everything necessary to obey God.  This is why no temptation will ever come upon you that you cannot defeat.

1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam