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TEMPTATION
and
How to Resist Temptation
Articles
by Pastor Max Solbrekken
"There hath
no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear it".
(1 Corinthians
10:13)
Temptations
are common to man! As long as we are in
the flesh, we will be tempted - we will face temptation - the devil will see to
that! There are numerous temptations we will face -
temptations of various
types, shapes and sizes. Temptations are sneaky and subtle, while
others temptations are flagrant, daring and up-front! Some
temptations appeal to
the spirit, other temptations appeal to the mind or flesh; but all
temptations bring the
same end result - the deterioration of fellowship with God!
EVERY
TEMPTATION IS GEARED TO ESTABLISH MAN'S DEPENDENCE UPON SATAN,
THE WORLD AND THE FLESH...EVERY TEMPTATION IS GEARED TO EXALT
THE FLESH, AT THE EXPENSE OF THE SPIRIT!
Sin and
temptation are evil
forces and are brainchilds of the devil. This comparison may be likened unto
a mathematician:
Temptation +
Sin ADDS to a person’s troubles.
Temptation + Sin SUBTRACTS from a person’s
energy.
Temptation + Sin MULTIPLIES a person’s
aches & pains.
Temptation + Sin DIVIDES a person’s
mind.
Temptation + Sin takes INTEREST away
from a person’s work.
Temptation + Sin DISCOUNTS a person’s
chances of success.
Temptation + Sin SQUARES a person’s
conscience
Sin & temptation blind people - sinners are
blinded by Satan. Their eyes do not
see the dangers that
await them!
Sin
& temptation binds - sinners are bound by
spirits of lust, chains of pride,
greed, hatred and fear!
Sin
& temptation
deafens - one who habitually sins eventually stops hearing
the
Holy Spirit’s voice and warning!
Sin
& temptation deadens the conscience!
Sin
kills - the Bible says
“the wages of sin is death...” (Rom. 6:23)
In the Garden
of Eden, Satan was at his best. He knew his own downfall and
the cause of it, so used it on Eve. He employed the
temptations: ‘The lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life’
strategy!
Satan, the
evil devil using the most desirable temptations, succeeded in tricking our first parents into
desiring ‘the one fruit’ God had reserved for Himself,
when they had an abundance of all other fruit. By
dangling these temptations in front of Adam & Eve, Satan
created envy, suspicion and disobedience, in their hearts. Let’s
examine the subtlety of Satan:
"Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?” Or in other words, “Can you believe it? He is
holding back something which is good for you! He is not being
fair”.
"Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be AS GODS (literal ‘as
God’), knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4,5).
Man will never
become God! That is a false teaching promoted by the New Age
movement, the Mormons and other cults. What was the outcome of
their transgression? They realized they had made a tragic
mistake in believing the devil's tempting lies, and the results were
devastating!
ADAM & EVE
IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZED THEIR NAKEDNESS, AND WERE GRIPPED BY
FEAR AND THEY HID THEMSELVES!
"And the
eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God...And he said I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I
was afraid because I was naked." (Genesis 8-10)
Adam and Eve
were the first "runaways". They had made themselves
clothing of fig leaves to cover their nakedness! When they
heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden, they hid
themselves behind some trees...trying to hide from God!
THE FALL OF
OUR FIRST PARENTS IS A TRAGIC STORY! AND EVEN TODAY, SATAN IS
DUPLICATING HIS TREACHERY IN MILLIONS OF LIVES!
Let's look for
a moment at the actual temptation: "And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and
that is was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and a
tree to be desired to make one wise (pride of life), she took
of the fruit ..." (Gen. 3:6).
SATAN
USED THE SAME SET OF TEMPTATIONS ON KING DAVID, WHO SUCCUMBED
TO THE LUST OF THE FLESH!
"And it
came to pass in an evening tide, that David arose from off his
bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from
the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was
very beautiful to look upon.” (lust of the eyes) (1 Sam.
11:2-4)
"And
David sent and enquired after the woman...And David sent
messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and lay
with him.” (lust of the flesh) David’s sin was
engineered by Satan, in collusion with his own sinful flesh!
JESUS PUT SATAN
IN HIS PLACE!
However, when
the devil tried his "knock-out-punch" on Jesus
Christ, he was totally rebuffed. He went away licking his
chops! Satan found more than his match in the "second and
last Adam".
Let's study
the temptation, so we will not be ignorant of the devil's
devices.
"Then was
Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil.
"And when
He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an
hungered.
"And when
the temptor came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. (lust of the
flesh)...
"Then the
devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on the
pinnacle of the temple,
"And
sayeth unto Him, If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down:
for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning
thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at
anytime thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone. (pride of
life)...
"Again,
the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and
showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them.
"And sayeth
unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
down and worship me." (Matt. 4:2-9) (lust of the eyes),
IT
IS WRITTEN IN THE HOLY BIBLE SCRIPTURES THAT
THOU SHALT NOT TEMPT THE
LORD THY GOD.
It's so
wonderful to see Jesus' response, as He stops the devil cold:
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God".
"It is
written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God".
And finally Jesus declared: "Get thee hence, Satan: for
it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him
only shalt thou serve."
PLEASE NOTICE:
JESUS DEFEATED SATAN WITH THE WORD OF GOD, ALONE
- AND WE CAN DO
THE SAME!
The devil
fills our head with temptations every day. We are faced
with
thoughts of insecurity, rebellion, jealousy and pride; as well
as anger, hatred, lust and
greed!
The Bible
exposes Satan's sins that caused his fall: "Thine heart
was lifted up because of thy BEAUTY, thou hast CORRUPTED thy
WISDOM by reason of thy BRIGHTNESS". (Ezek. 28:17)
Isaiah lays
out the charges against Lucifer, the fallen arch-angel:
"How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning..for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will
sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of
the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I
will be like the most High" (Is. 14:12-14)
WHAT
WAS LUCIFER’S JUDGMENT FOR TEMPTING CHRIST?
Banishment
from Heaven and eternal doom in a place of torment, called
Hell!
"Yet thou shalt
be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit". (verse 15)
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of
fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
(Revelation 20:10)
St. Paul
warned the Corinthian Church of these
temptations:
lust
idolatry
fornication
tempting Christ
murmuring!
And since
human nature has not changed, Satan has not changed and God's
Word has not changed, this warning is also valid for our
time! And since Paul believed that his generation was
living in the last days, HOW MUCH CLOSER ARE WE
TODAY?
"Now all
these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world
are come." (v.11)
Then Paul
warned, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth,
take heed, lest he fall". (v.12) Strong words,
indeed!
Paul was not
lulled into a place of complacency, like so many are today;
e.g. "It could never happen to me"...Famous last
words!
St. Paul
stated, "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight
I, not as one that beateth the air: “But
I keep under my body, and bring it under subjection: Lest that
by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should
be a castaway.” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27)
ARE
CHRISTIANS FACED WITH TEMPTATION - IS IS POSSIBLE FOR A 'MAN
of GOD" to face temptation and to slip and fall ?
Is it possible
for a Christian to slip and fall? Is it possible for ‘a man
of God’ to be tempted, deceived, and back-slide? YES, A
THOUSAND TIMES, YES!
Here is the
reason: A strong Christian can become complacent, over
confident and let down his guard momentarily, thinking:
"I have arrived; I'm strong; If faced with temptation I
could resist, I could never fall; others may be weaker and
fall to temptation, but not me becauseI'm filled with the Holy
Ghost".
A person who
takes things for granted, MAY NOT see the temptations and dangers lurking
nearby. A person may find himself in a compromising position simply
because he DID NOT RECOGNIZE the temptations before him were
set there by the devil. Satan is devious, tricky and
cunning and the master of temptation. Satan has had 6000 years to practice his art
of temptation on every type of person,
in every continent of the world; with outstanding success.
DON'T
THINK YOU CAN OUT FOX SATAN... IN THE NATURAL...YOU CAN'T DO IT!
THAT’S WHY WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT TO HELP US REBUKE THE
DEVIL AND RESIST TEMPTATION!
He'll win
every time, hands down. You can't play with fire, without
getting burned. If you play his game, you'll lose! The devil
is an expert at delusion, deception, trickery, lies and
mirages! The Bible says, "...for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light". (2 Corinthians
11:14)
St. Paul
declared that Satan has ministers, who also transform
themselves into "apostles of Christ", but are liars,
deceitful workers, and corrupters who have no sense of shame,
remorse or conscience! (2 Corinthians 11:13,15) (2
Timothy
3:8)
Here's another
warning: "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived". (2 Timothy 3:13)
When
Antichrist shall appear, he will seek to deceive all who dwell
upon the earth (2 Thess. 2), and he will do a pretty good job
of it!
"And all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are
not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
Jesus warned,
"Take heed that no man deceive you..." (Matt. 24:4)
Again, Jesus said, "For there shall arise false Christ's and false prophets...if it were possible (but it is not) they
shall deceive the very elect". (Matthew 24:24)
Then St. Paul
warns, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the
temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is
holy, which temple ye are”. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
The
Bible says, "LET NO MAN DECEIVE HIMSELF..."
(Corinthians
16:18)
And Satan gets
help from our own flesh that loves being tantalized, pampered,
titillated, mesmerized and paid attention to! And we must not
forget that our eternal destiny depends upon our relationship
with God, through Jesus Christ!
Jesus warned,
"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown". (Revelation 3:11)
THE HOLY BIBLE
SCRIPTURES:
The Bible
states, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from
sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him:
"Knowing
that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death
hath no more dominion, over Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto
God."
“Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in
the lusts thereof."
“Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto
sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.”
“FOR
SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU: FOR YE ARE NOT UNDER THE
LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE.
“What then?
shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under the
grace? God forbid.
“Know ye
not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or
of obedience unto righteousness?
“But God be
thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness.
“I speak
after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your
flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to
uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield
your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
“For when ye
were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
“But now
being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have
your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."
(Romans 6:6-22)
Again the
Bible says, "For they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death;
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
“Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be."
“So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
“But ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of His."
“And if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness."
“But if the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
(make life in) your mortal (temporary, dying) bodies by His
Spirit that dwelleth in you."
“Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the
flesh."
“FOR IF YE
LIVE AFTER THE FLESH, YE SHALL DIE; BUT IF YE THROUGH THE
SPIRIT DO MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YE SHALL LIVE."
“For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God." (Romans 8:5-14)
THE
THREE LAWS OF GOD
St. Paul
teaches about three laws...
The law of God in our members (the Word of God in our
conscience;
Romans 7:22,25).
The law of sin and death (the carnal man, the old nature
inherited from
Adam; Romans 7:21,23,25).
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (the new birth
- Christ comes into
an individual. (Romans 8:2)
WHY DO
TEMPTATIONS COME, AND FROM WHERE? They certainly do not come
from God; however they serve many purposes, not the least of
which is to strengthen us, when we overcome!
"Blessed
is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he
shall receive the crown of life...Let no man say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempted He any man: But every man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
"Then
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: And sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death.
"DO NOT
ERR, MY BELOVED BRETHREN". (James 1:12-16)
Pastor James
knew that we are all human and not immune to Satan's
temptations, so he wrote, "Do not err, my beloved
brethren"!
It is foolish
to think otherwise, therefore we must "abstain from
temptations that war against the soul!" (I Peter 2:11) We
can never be too careful, in avoiding the pitfalls the devil
has laid for us!
HOW DO WE
OVERCOME THE ONSLAUGHTS OF SATANIC INVENTION, FLESHLY LUST AND
WORLDLY ALLUREMENTS?
Again St.
James comes up with the answer, "Submit yourselves
therefore unto God, resist the devil and he shall flee from
you". (James 4:7) "Draw nigh unto God and He shall
draw nigh unto you". (James 4:8)
King David
stated, "How shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking
heed thereto according to Thy word". (Psalms 119:9)
The Bible
says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be
not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God". (Romans
12:1-2)
"Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and
finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1,2)
St. Paul
states that God by His Spirit and His Word will renew our
minds and inner man! (Eph. 4:23; 2 Corinthians 4:16)
WE
CAN HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST!
The Bible
says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus:
“Who, being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God:
“But made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
“And being
found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil.
2:5-8)
Let us
cultivate the "FEAR OF THE LORD" (Proverbs
1:7), in our hearts and a healthy attitude toward the Bible,
and allow the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, direct and fill us
with Himself.
The Bible
says, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in
the lusts thereof.
“Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto
sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.
“For sin
shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the
law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:11-14)
Finally, let
us pray and meditate upon the Word of God, make Christian
friends and flee from all sin and even the appearance of evil.
(1 Thess. 5:22)
AND
LET OUR LIGHTS SHINE FOR JESUS! | 
