TOPIC:“Resisting Everything But Temptation”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:I Corinthians 10:1-13
“There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:13)
We as believers live in a world in which Satan the sifter is very active. He is going to do everything in his power to trip us up and defeat us. Recall the words of Jesus when He sent the seventy forth to do his work: “Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). I like the way Kenneth Wuest renders these words of Jesus: “Behold, I am sending you on a mission as lambs in the midst of wolves.”
That's what we are as believers in Christ. Lambs among wolves. Now wolves are out to get lambs. Christ likened us as lambs and we must be careful about the devices Satan is going to use against us. So today I want to speak about one of the problems we face as Christians. It is the problem of temptation.
Resisting temptation is one of the great problems that we as believers face. Even Jesus told His disciples: “Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Ever since Eve's battle with Satan in the Garden of Eden, mankind has had to deal with temptation.
Temptation starts when we are born and ends when we die. It is life-long and world-wide in scope. It starts the moment we wake up in the morning and continues until we fall asleep at night. There is not a single person here in this sanctuary who is exempt from being tempted.
And get this: The more you serve the Lord the more Satan is out to get you and destroy you. The means he uses is temptation. Because of this, I want us in this message to come to grips with three things we need to now about temptation. Let's consider each one of these.
I.
First of all, according to the Apostle Paul temptation is NATURAL. Recall the words of Paul: “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man” (v. 13). Williams renders it: “No temptation has taken hold of you but is common to human nature.” I like the way the Living Bible puts it: “Many others have faced the same problems before you.”
Even Jesus, the sinless and spotless Son of God, faced every kind of temptation possible for man to experience. The writer of Hebrews declared regarding Christ: “He . . .