Video Transcript: Sin and Temptation

A second big challenge for aspiring Disciples of Christ is how they will deal with  sin temptations. Failures here can be disastrous in the Christian life. There is, of  course, a lot of instruction by Jesus and the apostles on this matter, but there's  much wisdom in the Old Testament as well. In previous lectures, we looked at  the seriousness of sin and the need for perfect sacrifice to atone for it. But once  that problem is addressed, we need to know both about coming back from  failures in the Christian life, and about growing in our ability to avoid these  failures in the first place. As to these failures in the Christian life, everybody has  them. And if we're honest, we probably have a pretty good idea of what they are  in our own life. Anyone who is at all open to the sanctifying work of the Spirit of  God has experienced guilt for things they've done which they ought not have  done, or for things not done, which ought to have been done. The first are sins  of commission. The second are sins of omission. Such guilt is partly what  brought us to Christ for forgiveness in the first place. But once we're in Christ,  the Spirit works to further refine and sanctify us. And sometimes that means  making us aware of new areas of life that need to be cleaned up and  straightened out. Thankfully, God doesn't show us everything at once. That  would be too discouraging. But when his Spirit speaks to our spirits about  something that needs changing, whether it's something we didn't even know  about before, or something we knew very well was sinful, but did anyway. God  expects an obedient response. The temptation is always to deny sin, or try to  keep it secret that began right from the beginning with Adam and Eve. After they had sinned against God, they, they began to know guilt and shame and they  tried to hide from God ever since it's been our tendency to hide from God. Not  that secrecy makes sense. Of course, no one can fool God. Psalm 90:8 says,  you have set our iniquities before you our secret sins, in the light of your  presence. In Isaiah 29:15 agrees. Woe to those who go to great depths to hide  their plans from the Lord who do their work in darkness and think who sees us  who knows? God knows. And Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. Besides that,  with every sin and every attempt to cover up or hide it hearts get harder. The  end of such a path seems to be a heart encased on layer upon layer of  protective armor so that nothing can get to it. No conscience, no feeling, no  mercy, no sorrow. When that happens to a heart, it's no longer human, but  robotic, or worse, demonic. So whether we've gone against what we already  know to be the Lord's will, or the Spirit makes us aware of something else in our  life that needs to change. God expects us to be honest with him, and to confess  our sin and repent of it, understanding. As Proverbs 28:13 puts it, that he who  conceal his sin does not prosper. But whoever confesses and renounces them  finds mercy. Indeed, we cannot be disciples of Christ without such honesty, and  a willingness to do what God requires. But dealing with sin is not merely about  confessing and repenting of it, it's also about preventing it, which in part involves

learning to deal appropriately with temptations before they ever give rise to sins  that need repenting on. One thing that all of us sinners need to be clear about is  that temptation itself is not sin, and is not judged by God. Temptation is merely  the inclination or solicitation to sin. Mind you, it's not just any inclination that isn't that is we wouldn't say, I'm tempted to compliment my neighbor, or I'm tempted  to tithe we'd see it as temptation only if we're inclined to offer an insult rather  than a compliment or to keep our money for ourselves rather than give it for  God's work. Temptation is the inclination or solicitation to sin, when it comes  from the evil one Satan or from our own evil desires, and it tries to get us to do  something contrary to the will of God. is a temptation thus always needs to be  resisted. The Old Testament doesn't use the word temptation, but its characters  clearly face choices about whether they will respond in the way God wants them to, or they will go their own way in opposition to him. In some of these stories,  the word test is used. For example, God tested Abraham on the matter of his  command to sacrifice Isaac, Deuteronomy speaks several times of God's testing of Israel, so he would not only know what was in their hearts, but better help  help them serve him better. Once in the Promised Land, God used Israel's  pagan neighbors, Judges 3 tells us to test them to see whether they would  continue to follow the Lord as they had under Moses. And then various  Psalmists and prophets. Ask God to test his people to the end, that God might  not only know their hearts, but help them be better servants. When Abraham  was tested by God, he proved faithful, but too often God's people failed the test  going their own way and subsequently being severely criticized if not judged for  testing God and trying his patience. In each test, to repeat myself, God's  purpose was that his people would pass his test and thereby find their faith in  God refined and strengthened at the same time, although the Old Testament is  not nearly as overt about this as the New Testament, the desire of God's  opposer Satan was that God's people failed the test and subvert God's  redemptive plan. Satan's opposition is mostly implied, but come becomes clear  at a couple points. Besides the story of the serpent's temptation in the Garden of Eden, I Chronicles 21:1 says Satan, rose up against Israel, and incited David to  take a census of Israel. Job's afflictions were brought on by Satan in an attempt  to prove that his faithful service to God would cease as soon as they stopped  receiving God's blessings. Zachariah in chapter three, sees a vision of the  Lord's High Priest Joshua being accused by Satan, apparently for the filthy  clothes he wears, which stand for sin apparently, but the Lord then rebuked  Satan and clothed his high priest in vine, fine garments as as a symbol of things  to come. As the Lord says, I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. With  the understanding that every temptation we face is part of the cosmic conflict  between God and Satan. God rooting for our success in withstanding temptation and becoming evermore fully conformed to His purposes, and Satan rooting that we succumb to temptation and thereby contribute to his purposes. We see all 

the more that withstanding Satan's temptations is an essential part of Christian  discipleship. One of the first things to know if we're going to be successful in this is a difference between trying and training. At the best of times, everyone who  sincerely wants to be a good disciple of Christ tries to do what is right and avoid  what is wrong. Trouble is trying is usually not enough. So maybe we should just  try harder, right? But that may not be enough either. It certainly isn't in the matter of qualifying for an Olympic sport, no matter how hard most of us try. We'll never succeed in that. But some of us might if we train for it, rather than just try,  because correct training increases whatever ability you have. Too many people  rely only on trying when they come up against temptations The trouble is,  temptations reduce one's will to try and even if the will remain strong, it will be  not they will not be strong enough in some circumstances. We need training to  which we have access because God has given us His Word and Spirit. The  biblical Psalms and Proverbs are full of admonitions to treasure the Word of God and live life. And this is reinforced by many other direct commands found in  Scripture, and stories which both which illustrate both value of ignore of obeying  the Word of God and the problems that result from ignoring it or disobeying it.  Solomon, who was reputed to be the wisest man of his world knew the  importance of paying attention to God's instructions and making him the center  of one's life. And that's why he called the fear of the Lord the beginning of  wisdom and knowledge and gave us all these verses from Proverbs 3:5-6  memorized by so many of us already as children. Remember that trust in the  Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your  ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Solomon was just  repeating, repeating a familiar theme of Scripture, Some which applied directly  to himself as Israel's King, for example, this instruction from Deuteronomy  17:18-20, to each future king of Israel. Here's what God said, back in that day,  when the King when he takes the throne of his kingdom, he has to write for  himself on a scroll, a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests who are,  who are Levites. It is to be with him. And he is to read it all the days of his life so  that he may learn to revere the Lord his God, and follow carefully all the words  of his law, and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers  and turn from the law to the right or to the left, then he and his descendants will  reign along time over his kingdom in Israel. To sum it up, if you get trained in  living God's life God's way, then you will do well, or you'll be able to do well in  the implied. Alternative is if you don't train, you won't be able. Solomon  apparently didn't follow this advice through his life where he was eventually  judged by God for his failure to lead God's people and uncompromising service  to the Lord. We don't know actually how much attention Solomon paid to God's  word, but other factors in his spiritual decline were the distractions that  accompanied his position, his many possessions, his multiple foreign wives,  each of whom worshiped a different God, with a result of I Kings 11:4 tells us 

that Solomon's heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of  David his father had been? What was the failure due to it was not in the quality  of Solomon's training materials and opportunities. It was in his increasing  neglect of them. It's obvious, isn't it that one of the best things we can do to help us withstand temptations is to keep First things first through training, and not let  the blessings and perks of life become more important than the one from whom  all blessings flow. Don't let your heart be diverted from the source of your life.  And a couple of things that particularly help in that, besides attending to God's  word, are avoiding temptation when possible, and taking advantage of the help  of other Proverbs 7 depicts a succumbing to sexual temptation of a young man  without sense. It might be hard for a young man even one with good sense to  withstand such temptations. But the path that especially marks this young man  is one without sin is his visit to the district in which he could expect to be  tempted. There are enough temptations for would be disciples without them  visiting the places where they're sure to find them. The advice of Proverbs 5:8 is therefore good for more than sexual temptations. Keep to a path far from her.  Do not go near the door of her house. Andrew Kuyvenhoven gives similar advice in his study of the Heidelberg Catechism page 309. He says it's utterly sensible  to avoid reading pornography and seeing dirty movies. And it's wise to handle  alcohol and money with great care. Knowing that many have perished by these  means. We know that having much leisure time and nothing to do are open  invitations for a visit from the tempter. Course, temptation cannot always be  avoided. Even so when unexpected temptation arises, it's sometimes possible to run away from it. King David certainly would have done well to do this when he  inadvertently saw Bathsheba bathing. He might have been better prepared for  an appropriate response if as Job had done. He had previously made a  covenant with His eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman, Job 31:1. But  even in the moment he could have done what Joseph did when cornered by  Potiphar's wife, run. Running is often the most effective way of escape simply  because it involves dealing immediately with a temptation. Instead of savoring it, as we often do, as Martin Luther is to say, you can't stop birds from flying over  your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair. It can be  embarrassing, I suppose, to admit to yourself or others that you have to run  away from something that it's such a monster in your life that you can't deal with  it. So what run if you have to, we tell children that if some stranger tries to pick  them up, to do an antisocial thing and scream bloody murder and bite and run.  That's not such nice behavior. But nice behavior is not what's called for in  emergencies. Deal with the temptation by doing what's necessary, putting  distance between yourself and temptation, when possible. The other help I  mentioned previously was taking advantage of the counsel of others. The  prophets, priests and kings of Old Testament times were especially accountable  to God, not only for their own conduct, but also for helping God's people remain 

faithful to what what God told Ezekiel about his responsibility in this apply to all  the prophets, priests and kings in God's kingdom. He told he told him in this  paraphrase of Ezekiel 8:37 If you do not give up give them my warnings I'll hold  you responsible for their blood. But other scriptures imply the responsibility of  God's ordinary citizens to Proverbs 27:17 comments on the value of a friend for  encouragement and correction. It says, As iron sharpens iron, so one person  sharpens another. And here are a few other passages that are more direct about the need for God's people to help each other stay faithful. Leviticus 19:16 says  do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. But the next verse  makes clear that this includes failing to rebuke your neighbor when you should.  When it says, rebuke your neighbor frankly, so you will not share in their guilt.  Proverbs 27:5 says better is open rebuke than hidden love. Proverbs 28:23  says, Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor, rather than the one  who has a flattering tone. These responsibilities for mutual accountability are  enhanced in the New Covenant community, especially since all who are now in  Christ are vested with the responsibilities previously reserved for Old Testament  prophets, priests and kings. Recall the end of that earlier lecture on God's  firstborn. So if you want to help yourself and other brothers and sisters stand  strong against temptation, cultivate one or more accountability, relationships.  Finally, dealing with temptation is more than a matter of recognizing and  avoiding of rejecting sin. It's a matter of cultivating the virtues that God wants to  characterize our lives. One section of longing for a better country deals with the  wisdom that Proverbs offers on the so called The Seven Deadly Sins and their  corresponding virtues. These are sins to whose temptations It seems we are  particularly vulnerable. Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, and that  interferes with individuals recognition of the grace of God. The opposite of pride, and the virtue to be cultivated is humility. Envy is resentment of the status  abilities or situation of others. The opposite of envy and the virtue to be  cultivated is love, which wants the best for others. Gluttony involves going  beyond natural limits to consume something to access, whether it may food or  entertainment or so on. The opposite of gluttony and the virtue to be cultivated is temperance, respecting limits. Lust is that self destructive drive for pleasure out  of proportion to its worth. The opposite of lust and the virtue to be cultivated is  self control. Anger is sometimes violent impatience with the faults of others. The  opposite of anger and the virtue to be cultivated is kindness. Greed is obsession with material things with getting your fair share or more or the opposite of greed  and the virtue to be cultivated is generosity. Sloth is physical and or spiritual  laziness. The opposite of sloth and the virtue to be cultivated is zeal or  eagerness. I mentioned the sins in their corresponding virtues because they  may help you to understand where you might be vulnerable to Satan's deceit or  to self deceit, and what you need to work on and resisting their lure. The major  factor in success here is reliance on God in His Word, and spirit. If you try to 

resist the devil's temptations without coming close to God, and cultivating the  fruit of his Spirit, you won't have the strength you need. But with God's training,  in the application of the Bible's practical teachings on dealing with Satan's  temptation so we can make progress. Remember, that God himself never  tempts us. Never. He allows temptations to test and refine our faith, but he  doesn't send them and he always provides a way of escape. As the Apostle Paul put it in I Corinthians 10:13. There's no temptation that has seized you except  what is common to man and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted  beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a  way out so that you can stand up under it. God will help us meet this challenge  to biblical discipleship