Temptations never leave us nor forsake us, nor does the power and grace of God because "He is faithful." However we are the total opposite "disobedient, unfaithful, weak, and doubtful." When do we find ourselves under these conditions?
During casual occasions when we are not guarded, watchful, and prepared with a plan to fight, resist, and run from temptations leading to sin. The key statement we find in 1 Cor 10:13 is " the way of escape." This means there is hope and a solution to your fight and struggle with SIN; no longer do we have to continue in SIN. The question Do you know your way of escape when temptation comes? I hope these sermon notes will help you find your way of fleeing from SIN you continue to fall and succumb to.
During casual occasions when we are not guarded, watchful, and prepared with a plan to fight, resist, and run from temptations leading to sin. The key statement we find in 1 Cor 10:13 is " the way of escape." This means there is hope and a solution to your fight and struggle with SIN; no longer do we have to continue in SIN. The question Do you know your way of escape when temptation comes? I hope these sermon notes will help you find your way of fleeing from SIN you continue to fall and succumb to.
DO YOU HAVE A PLAN???
I have been studying and devoting toward dealing with the flesh and temptation and i want to share a help concerning how we must deal with temptation and test ----- after listening to John MacArthur sermon on 1 Cor 10:13.
The Lord never allows us at the point of our spiritual development to go through any temptation that is beyond our ability to deal with. So if temptation seems stronger for the one who is in the position of spiritual leadership, it still is in measure to his spiritual capability. We need to understand that. He puts limits on the extent of temptation. There's a ceiling, there's a cap, there's a lid on what He will allow in the life of one of His own. God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
There's a next point, a fourth one. You must understand the way out...you must understand the way out of temptation. He says with the temptation God will always provide the way of escape. He will always provide the way of escape. There's always a path to victory. There's always aekbasisis the Greek word, literally an exit. There's always an escape hatch. There's always a parachute. There's always a way out.
What is it? Well He tell us. He says, "God will with the temptation provide the way of escape also that you may be able to endure it." Now listen to this one. The way out is through...the way out is through. Listen carefully. The way out of the temptation is to endure it as a trial and never let it become a solicitation to sin...which effects a sinful response. The way out is to take it as a test and a trial and not internalize it so that it begins to solicit sin. So you've been wronged, so you've been falsely accused, so you've been maligned and treated unkindly and unjustly, accept it, accept it with joy and you will endure it and that is the way of escape. So someone had promised you something and they didn't fulfill it and you had tied some of your greatest expectations to that promise, accept it, understand it, acknowledge it as a trial that is intended to strengthen your faith and the way out is through it, sustaining it as a test, never letting it be turned into a temptation, that you may be able to bear it, or endure it is hupophero, it literally means to get under it and carry it. Usually we're looking for a quick and easy route. The only way out is through it. You remain under it but you endure it as a test with the view that God is using this to bring about my maturity.
You say, "But how do you do that?" Well you know what the keys are, and I only mention them...meditating on the Word, Psalm 119...what does it say in verse 11? "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin." When the test comes, you turn to the Word of God. You don't listen to your own lusts, you don't listen to the solicitations that your own heart will conjure up. When the test comes you turn to the Word of God, you listen to that.
Secondly, you pray. You pray I think what Jesus taught us to pray in the prayer we call that we call the Lord's Prayer, better called the Disciples Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us..." You turn to God and you cry out to Him to keep this test from becoming a temptation.
A third thing that you would do would be to take the shield of faith...that means to trust God no matter how the fiery darts may be coming at you, understand that God has a purpose and trust God for that purpose. Another important element, maybe
a fourth one, is to focus on Christ. He endured every temptation to the maximum and so you can turn to Him andyou can say to Him, "My faithful high priest, You know what I'm going through, strengthen me for this."
Simple really, we know these things. When the test comes turn to the Word. When the test comes turn to the Lord in prayer. When the test comes retain your faith in God's purposes through the test. When the test comes look to Christ the faithful high priest who will nurture you through this test.
No, there is no test that is more than we can bear. When we fall and the test becomes a temptation and the temptation becomes a sin, it is not that we are victims, it is that we made bad choices. We chose not to turn to the Word of God but rather to listen to our own hearts and our own lust enticed us. We chose not to cry out to God and ask Him to lead us away from this and deliver us from evil, but rather we pursued the evil because we wanted the hankerings of our flesh to be fulfilled. We failed to trust that God had a divine purpose in the test and that we could enjoy the test not for its own sake but for what it yields and we wanted it immediately removed. We turned away from God perhaps even angry at Him. And if we failed it's because we took our attention away from Christ, the faithful high priest who can nurture us through it and we focused on something else.
It should be true of us that the next time we come back to the Lord's table the list should be shorter. Know this, nothing is going to happen to you between now and the next time that is so powerful you can't possibly deal with it. You can. One thing that happened at your salvation sums it up, it is this...sin no longer has dominion over you.
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