OVERCOMING TEMPTATION
Luke 4:1-13 “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.”
I recently was fishing in a shallow clear stream on vacation in Broken Bow, OK. As my daughter and I walked down the stream we eventually came to a spot that looked promising. It was deeper and seemed to have fish hitting the surface. So we started casting out. Nothing. Not a bite. We noticed at the entrance of this deeper pool there were several fish hanging out, so we started throwing near them… still nothing. We finally realized that all these fish were simply waiting for the stream to bring them food. So we decided to throw our lines up stream and let it drift down toward these fish. Immediately we started getting bites! We caught fish almost every time we threw out our lines! These fish were waiting for weak, unsuspecting prey to drift towards them for an easy meal. I was reminded of some important lessons while reading this passage and thinking about our little fishing trip.
1. Temptation is Opportunistic
Jesus teaches us some important lessons about temptation by example in this passage. The first thing that we have to realize about our adversary is that he doesn’t go after our strengths, he goes after our weakness. He is opportunistic. What areas are you weak in? What times are you weak? When we are weak, we need to follow the example of Jesus and rely on the Word of God and His power to help us overcome. We CANNOT do this on our own!
I Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
2. Temptation is Relentless
Satan was relentless in his temptation. He came from all different angles and used every method he could come up with against Jesus and it is no different with us. There are going to be times when we are hit from all sides.
1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
Not only does our passage talk about three specific ways that Jesus was tempted… it also says, “forty days tempted of the devil”. We must never let our guard down because the devil has his sights set on us. He wants more than anything to destroy your godly testimony in a moment.
These fish were waiting on the weak but we were trying every method we could think of to lure them and eventually we found a method they couldn’t resist.
3. Temptation is Deceitful
Did you notice something in this passage? On the last temptation… the devil used scripture. Beware my friends… temptation sometimes comes with truth sprinkled in. My daughter and I used live bait on this particular trip and what the fish didn’t realize is that hidden in the bait was a hook. The devil often sprinkles just enough truth in his deceit that you will believe it. He’s been doing that since the beginning.
1 John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
Proverbs 11:14 “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellers there is safety.”
I Corinthians 10:13 “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.”
If you have been losing this battle, there is hope. However, you need the Word of God, His power and His wisdom to overcome. May God bless you this week as you endeavor to serve Him!
