Living Hope Fellowship Church

SWEET TEMPTATION

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

SWEET TEMPTATION

Preface

 (temptation and seducing spirits)

          1 Corinthians 10:13 it says, “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.”

          Seducing spirits of religion say that you can get by with sin, but you can’t.  It is a lie out of the pit to comfort men in their sins.  God wants you to be without spot or wrinkle.         

          Now we know that when we are tempted, God has made a way for us to escape!  It is not more than we can resist, praise the Lord!

SWEET TEMPTATION

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          In 1 Corinthians 10:13 it says, “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.” 

          There are a lot of things going around in the church world today, and people are condoning many things that are not right according to God’s Word.  Many say, Well, I’m weak, but God understands my weakness.  God understands when a man is tried and tempted, but it is wrong whenever men start using that as an excuse to sin.  Some say, Well, the flesh is weak, but I’m not saved in the flesh; I’m saved in the Spirit.  Hebrews 12:14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:”  Without holiness no man will see the Lord! 

          Paul also admonishes in his letters that we shall be judged according to the deeds done in this body.  Look again at what it says about temptation and failure when we sin.  “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. . . .”  Everybody has temptations, and everybody has trials and trouble.  There is no sin in the fact that you are tempted, but the sin comes whenever you yield to that thing that is being brought against you by the devil. 

          Look at this part of Verse 13: “. . . 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.”  This is talking about a Christian.  This is talking about somebody who is saved, born again, bought by the blood of Jesus, and is trying to live a Christian walk. Yes, the Bible says you’ll be tempted, but it says that any temptation that you’ve ever had or that you ever will have is a common thing to man.  It says that God is faithful.  He will not allow you to be tempted more than you’re able to bear! 

          In other words, God will not allow his children to be tempted above and beyond the capacity to resist it.  I’ll say that again.  God Almighty has never allowed any one to be tempted beyond what that man or woman or young person could stand.  They could say, No if they wanted to down deep in their heart.  Now that’s something you’ve got to be able to see, beloved. 

          Many times we try to place the blame on:  Well, I just got weak at that hour.  No!  According to the scripture, God made a way for you to escape it during that time, but you didn’t take the way.  You said, No, to that way.  I believe there’s an open door.  He said with the temptation He would also make a way to escape!

          There are many times when the enemy has come and attacked and tempted a child of God, and they have felt a brief moment of relief.  It was a brief moment, perhaps, of an open door to take another route or to get out of the situation, whether in mind, or heart, or in the natural.  When they’re placed in a serious predicament God has made a way.  It says in His Word that there is a way to get out of it, and anybody that says that they didn’t have any way to get out of it is a liar!  God’s Word says that with the temptation He will also make a way for you to escape it! 

          In other words, we don’t have an excuse when we yield to temptation.  Either God’s Word is true or it’s a lie!  Whenever you yield to temptation you sin and you are backslid.  Look over in James 1:14 where it says these words: “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”  Look at Verse 15:  “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”  What is that death?  That is a separation of you from God.  You are in a backslid state. 

          A lot of people think that there’s a quota to backsliding.  They think you have to commit thus and so many sins or one big sin.  God is on a point system, they say, and He’s not going to cast you out of his presence.  Some say that He’s not going to break off his fellowship with you just because you happen to say a curse word, or happen to go back on a promise that you were going to quit smoking, or drinking, or something else.  They think if you did a “big” sin like commit adultery or kill somebody, then he’d cast you away.  There are some who say that he wouldn’t do it then. 

          Some people would even say, Well, whenever you did that, you weren’t walking with God anyway.  Really?  If that was so, then every man who was ever tempted or has fallen, suddenly just wasn’t walking with God.  No, beloved, that is not how it works.

          David was tempted and he was drawn away of his own lust. Instead of being in the battle he was up walking around on his rooftop.  He spied somebody else’s wife and took her unto himself and committed adultery.  God was greatly displeased, in so much that he slew the son that was conceived in that adultery.

          I’m going back to 1 Corinthians 10:13 again.  “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. . . .”  In other words, nothing is going to come against you that is greater than what God knows that you can stand. 

          Look at this.  The Bible says that God is faithful and will not suffer you (or allow you, or require you) to be tempted above that you are able.  With the temptation He also makes a way to escape!  We have enough in a promise from God that we won’t be tempted above what we are able, but on top of that God promises that with the temptation He will also make a way to escape. 

          It is more than just the fact that you’re going to be able to fight a devil that you can whip; you are also going to have a way to escape by the hand of Almighty God according to the Scripture.  Many people today say that they have failed or that they cannot live for God because they stumbled and fell.  The Bible says the righteous man falleth seven times and gets up again!  Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again. . . .” 

          If we do stumble and fall, in 1 John 2:1 it says that we have an advocate with the Father.  We have one who is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  His name is Jesus.  Hallelujah!  (See 1 John 1:9.)

          The same one that saved you is the same one that can pick you back up, brush you off, and tell you to come on and go for God.  Beloved, when one continuously goes again and again and does the same thing over and over, you have a problem with the devil.  You have a problem with the fact that the devil is using something that you like for him to use. 

          There have been many times in the Spirit when we have felt the devil come and say, Don’t resist me.  Don’t resist me, because you know good and well that you like what I’m bringing to you.  This is particularly so in the lust sins, sexual sins, or food lusts.  It’s not an unpleasant temptation.  There are some temptations that are not pleasant, but there are some that are.  Flesh craves many of these things and that is why people fall, because for the moment it seems to be overwhelming, but it is not.  It is merely the devil coming as a liar and a thief of your faith in Christ Jesus!

          What you need to do is resist the devil.  The Bible tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  However, it says something else before it says that.  We must submit to God.  James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

          I know that according to God’s Word, He will make a way to escape the temptation, the trial, and the trouble that’s coming against you.  Don’t fall just because the devil says you’re going to fall. Don’t fall just because a preacher told you, It is all right; God understands.  No!  You are not supposed to fall.  You’re not supposed to premeditate sin.  David said in Psalm 19:13, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. . . .” 

          It is a presumption to say, Well, I’ll sin, but I’ll ask God to forgive me, and He will.  You are already admitting you are going to or have already sinned, and yet you are not even giving God any assurance that you won’t do it again.  Why do you think He’s going to forgive you this time, if He knows deep down in your heart that you’re not wanting to be free from it? 

          Many people want to be tempted.  I have seen people, after the devil is cast off, seek sin again.  They’ve been troubled and tormented by the devil, but when we pray for them and they are delivered from the thing that is hounding them, they begin to seek it! 

          It’s almost as if they think it’s as much a part of them as their daily life, their daily thinking, or as if it was an arm or a leg.  A person like that is bound, and not all yielded over to God.  They’ve not fully understood what it means to yield everything over to Jesus, body, soul, spirit, and mind. 

          Matthew 26:41 says, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Many distort this scripture to fit their situation!  It is sad to say that many ministers say, Well, God saved the spirit, and in the end the flesh will make it to heaven by His spirit.  There are Bible scriptures against this type of thinking.  The Bible declares to us that if you are tempted, then you are being drawn away by your own lust. 

          The devil is not going to tempt you in an area that you are not weak in.  He is not going to try to tempt you with cigarettes if you’ve never smoked.  He’s not going to try to tempt you with greed if that’s never been a problem for you.  He’s going to try to tempt you in an area he used to have you in.  The Bible decrees that it is not going to be more than you can stand, and it is not going to be more than what God will make a way for you to escape.  You can come out victorious!

          Every time you resist the devil, and he flees, you get stronger for God in that area, and you are able to resist the enemy again.  The next time he will not be so strong.  The next time it will be easier to resist because you’ve already defeated that enemy some time ago.  That is why whenever the Spirit of the Lord draws a man to God, He’ll continue to deal with that man.  However, if he resists the Lord, there will come a time when that draw is weaker and weaker, because he is building a callus in his soul against the things of God.        

          Consequently, it is even greater so when we resist the devil.  You begin to build a shield.  You begin to build armor against that thing that used to be able to easily beset you.  In Hebrews 12:1 it declares that we should, “. . . lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. . . .”  How does it beset you?  It besets you by tempting you.  When it tempts you, and you yield and say yes, and commit sin, then it brings forth death. 

          This is where people have trouble in their Christian walk today.  Many people believe they can sin and still make it to heaven. 

          Name the sin that goes to heaven with you!  Go ahead and think of a sin that will go to heaven with you.  Perhaps you would say lying, or stealing, or committing adultery, or wicked thoughts, or wandering eyes, or lewdness, or perversion, or smoking, or drinking, or swearing. 

          Now, remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 - “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”  No form of sin will make it to heaven. 

          Seducing spirits of religion say that you can get by with sin, but you can’t.  It is a lie out of the pit to comfort men in their sins.  God wants you to be without spot or wrinkle.  Now we know that when we are tempted, God has made a way for us to escape!  Praise the Lord!  You may say, But, before, I couldn’t resist!  I tried, but it forced me.  Then you were bound, and you needed deliverance. 

          You need the fullness of God in your life.  When you are living for God and serving the Lord Jesus Christ, He has given you the victory over all the power of the devil.  Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”     Beloved, I want you to know that God has made a way.  The way is Jesus Christ, and when you get saved, then stay saved!  Walk in the presence of the Lord.  When the devil comes to tempt you away, and steal, kill, and destroy out of your life the things that God has given to you, then you can say, No!  You can resist the devil.

          Tell the devil NO, and immediately get in the Word of God.  Immediately begin to pray and think on the things that God has commanded us to do.  Pray so that you do NOT enter into temptation.  God has given us the victory! 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.