Mark
was very poor at spelling. On
examination day he was stumped by many difficult words.
Softly the tempter whispered, "Look at Jane's paper; she's an
honor student and always gets them right!" Mark heeded the suggestion and
copied several answers. The
teacher noticed his actions and was greatly surprised, for she had always
thought of him as an honest boy. When it came time to collect the completed
work, she observed that Mark was having an inner struggle. After bowing his
head for a moment, he suddenly tore up his paper. Although at first he had
yielded to temptation, he finally decided to take a zero rather than be
dishonest. Calling the boy to her
desk, the teacher said, "I was watching you, Mark, and I want you to know
that I'm very proud of you for what you did just now.
Today you really passed a much greater examination than your spelling
test!" From Bible
Illustrator.
On
one occasion Norman "Kid" McCoy, who was welterweight boxing
champion in 1896, was fighting a contender who had the misfortune of being
deaf. Once McCoy discovered his
opponent's disability, he wasted no time in taking advantage of it.
Near the end of the third round McCoy stepped back a pace and pointed
to his adversary's corner, indicating that the bell had rung.
"Oh, thank you so much," said McCoy's opponent.
"Very civil of you." But
the bell hadn't rung at all, and as soon as the other boxer dropped his hands
and turned away, McCoy immediately knocked him out.
Sin will take same cruel advantage of us that Kid McCoy
did of his deaf opponent. If we
listen to it even for a moment and drop our guard, it can destroy us.
-- Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, by Clifton Fadiman.
Little, Brown & Company (Boston, Toronto, London) pp. 376-377
Luke
4:1 (KJS) And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the
devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he
afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of
God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him,
saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word of God. 5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed
unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 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. 7 If thou
therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. {worship me: or, fall down
before me} 8 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. 9 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: 10 For it is written, He shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee: 11 And in [their] hands they shall bear thee
up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus
answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for
a season. 14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and
there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
What
are some of the temptations we face:
Look at how the devil tempted the Lord and how we can overcome.
1.
Tempted to help yourself without
considering God. Fulfill your
needs your way. This leaves no
room for the Father and his provision. The Breakdown happens when we leave God
out. The answer is to live by God
and depend on Him for all that we have and all that we are.
Not just bread or the things of this world.
If you live without God then you will die without God throughout all
eternity.
I
live in a small, rural community. There
are lots of cattle ranches around here and, every once in a while, a cow
wanders off and gets lost. It's a
big deal because if you happen to hit (as in "drive into") a lost
cow, it's your fault and you have to pay the rancher for his cow.
(That is part of the rural culture -- we have to worry about nuclear
destruction and runaway cows.) Ask
a rancher how a cow gets lost, and chances are he will reply, "Well, the
cow starts nibbling on a tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks
ahead to the next tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks ahead to
the next tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it
nibbles on a tuft of grass right next to a hole in the fence. It then sees another tuft of green grass on the other side of
the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft.
The next thing you know, the cow has nibbled itself into being
lost." -- From the July 1988
issue of The Wittenberg Door
2.
Tempted to take the world and
worship these things and thus the devil and not worship the Lord.
The breakdown is to worship the God of the world and not the one true
living God. What is the answer? We
choice to worship God because there is only one true living God. If you
worship any other then you are not of God.
We can’t worship two. Mat.
6:24.
3.
Tempted to put God to the Test.
Show s that you are trying to manipulate God.
We want God to be our pet, so that He would do the things that we want
Him to do. We want God to do some
tricks for us. How could we force
God to do what we want? Who is
really God? The breakdown comes
because there is no submission on our behalf to the Lord.
The answer is don’t put God to the test. Trust Him and follow Him.
Submit yourself to Him and he will lift you up.
James 4.
Temptation to breakdown can
lead to Overcoming. Then you will
have known the power of the Lord. We
may be tempted to think that this thing called temptation is only for the
Lord, but the facts are that it is common to all.
The devil tempts us to fail the test?
Here are Some facts about temptation:
·
There will be
temptation:
1Cor
10:13 No temptation 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 test our
hearts:
1The
2:4 (NIV) On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted
with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our
hearts.
·
God does not tempt, but
we are tempted through our own nature and the devil.
James1:13
(NIV) When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God
cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is
tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death.
Alexander MacLaren, in a sermon entitled Faith Tested and
Crowned, distinguished between being tempted and being tested or tried.
He said that, "the former word conveys the idea of appealing to
the worst part of man, with the wish that he may yield and do the wrong.
The latter means an appeal to the better part of man, with the desire
that he should stand. Temptation
says, 'Do this pleasant thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is
wrong.' Trial or proving says,
'Do this right and noble thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is
painful.' The one is a sweet, beguiling melody, breathing soft indulgence and
relaxation over the soul; the other is a peeling trumpet-call to high
achievements." Satan
tempts us to bring out the worst in us; God tests us to bring out the best in
us. From Bible Illustrator.
·
The only way to win
over temptation is through God and His word or map.
James
4:7 (NIV) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands,
you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
"Father,"
said Clara, "I never could understand how the same wind can take ships in
such different directions. There
goes one in toward the port, and there is another standing out to sea."
"It depends upon the position of the sails,"
her father answered. "It is
much the same with men in the world as with ships at sea. One sails heavenward by the same breeze which sweeps another
on to destruction. I was thinking of poor Fred Merrill, who has come home from
college where our Edmund graduated with such honor, and from which he returned
to be our pride and comfort. Fred
has fallen into bad habits, and is a source of untold anxiety and distress to
his parents. So differently did college-life affect the two.
And it is the same with all the influences, which surround us: they are
blessings to one, and poison to another.
Gaining wealth makes one man generous, and another miserly; domestic
trouble hardens one, and softens another."
From Bible Illustrator