Sunday
Morning Bible Study
April
15-16, 2023
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Regular:
2900 words Communion:
2500 words Video=75wpm
I want to talk today about temptation.
Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing when we are tempted…even when
we are rewarded for doing good.
We are going to
spend our time in 1Corinthians 10.
Paul ended the previous chapter by talking about self-discipline with a
warning about possibly being “disqualified”.
(1
Corinthians 9:27 NKJV) But I discipline my
body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others,
I myself should become disqualified.
Is it possible to become
“disqualified”?
I think that no matter how you
define it, Paul seemed to think so.
When you pick it up in chapter 10, Paul will talk about the things the
Israelites did to become “disqualified”
First he starts with reminding us of the blessings
the Israelites had…
10:1-5 Israel’s
Blessings
:1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be
unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
:2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and
in the sea,
:2 all were baptized into Moses
We might not think that the
Israelites practiced baptism, but Paul did.
They may not have been dunked in
the Jordan River like Jesus was, but as they passed through the Red Sea
they had water on each side and through their journey they had the pillar of cloud.
In this sense they were
“baptized” into Moses.
Besides its other meanings, baptism
is a way of connecting with someone’s leadership.
The Israelites were connected to
Moses.
We are baptized to be connected to
Jesus.
:3 all ate the same spiritual food,
:3 the same
spiritual food
After Israel left Egypt, they
had a food shortage.
So for forty years God provided this miraculous stuff
called “manna” (not donuts) in the wilderness (Ex. 16)
The Psalmist called it “bread of
heaven” or “angels’ food” (Ps.78:24-25)
Jesus
said that He was the “true bread” from heaven:
(John 6:30–35 NKJV) —30
Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You
perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our
fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread
from heaven to eat.’ ” 32
Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to
you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the
true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives
life to the world.” 34
Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread
always.” 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to
Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
:4 the same
spiritual drink
In Exodus 17, when the people ran out of water to drink, God told Moses to strike
this “Rock”, and water came out.
Paul now tells us that this “Rock” that followed them was Christ.
Later in Numbers 20, Moses was told
to “speak” to the Rock, and water would come out.
Jesus said,
(John 6:53 NKJV) —53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you.
We’ll come back to these verses a
little later.
:5 But with most
of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the
wilderness.
The Israelites would wander in the wilderness for forty years before
crossing into the Promised Land.
Except for Joshua and Caleb, none of the fighting men that left Egypt made
it into the Promised Land.
They had become “disqualified” through various things.
Keep in mind, Paul’s warning wasn’t about Israelites following Moses, he’s
speaking to Christians in Corinth.
10:6-10 Israel’s
sins
:6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not
lust after evil things as they also lusted.
Paul is going to talk about five sins that led to the Israelites not
getting into the Promised Land.
examples – tupos –
example, type; pattern, model, figuratively
(similar word is also in vs. 11)
lust – epithumetes
– one who desires; one who longs for
verb (we should) eimi is present active infinitive
evil things – kakos
they also lusted – epithumeo
– desire; long for; lust for
aorist active indicative
:6 we should not
lust after evil things
Paul is talking about an event in Numbers 11.
(Numbers 11:4 NKJV) Now the
mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the
children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), the word translated as
“intense craving” is the same Greek word Paul uses “lust”.
In the LXX, the word for “craving”
is epithumeo.
The Greek reads literally, “they lusted with lust”
The people were tired of the manna.
They wanted meat. They missed fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions,
and garlic.
God caused a
strong wind to blow and the land was covered with
quail. The people rushed out to eat as
much as they could.
(Numbers 11:33–34 NKJV) —33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it
was chewed, the wrath of the Lord
was aroused against the people, and the Lord
struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So he called
the name of that place Kibroth
Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to
craving.
“Graves of Craving”. The Greek LXX is “Graves of
Lust” (epithumias)
The first “sin” in Paul’s list is …
Lesson
Lust
Lust kept some of Israel out of the Promised Land. Lust always gets us into
trouble.
Some of us
always link “lust” with sexual desire, but it’s much more than that.
It’s having a strong
desire for something
that God doesn’t want you to have.
Illustration
Think of the admissions
scandal a few years back where wealthy parents were paying off officials to get
their kids into schools like USC.
It’s not wrong to go to USC. But the parents had this desire for their
kids to go somewhere they didn’t deserve. When you have to
cheat to do something, it’s not good.
Do you struggle
with having strong desires for something you shouldn’t? Something that’s
“evil”?
:7 And do not
become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people
sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
:7 do not become
idolaters
In Exodus 32…
Moses had been up on Mount Sinai for forty days and the people were
wondering what had happened to him. They came to Moses’ brother Aaron and said…
(Exodus 32:1 NKJV) …“Come, make
us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
Aaron tells them to bring him gold …
(Exodus 32:4 NKJV) And he
received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving
tool, and made a
molded calf. Then they
said, “This is your
god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
Did you catch that?
Aaron is claiming that this golden calf is the one who brought Israel
out of Egypt. I’d like to suggest that Aaron is telling the
people that this “calf”… is Yahweh.
The story continues…
(Exodus 32:5–6 NKJV) —5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron
made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”
6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and
brought peace offerings; and
the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
Did you see that last line? In 1Cor. 10:7, Paul is quoting
directly from the story in Exodus 32.
play – tsiqak –
can mean to joke, mock, laugh, play. Can
also carry the idea of “caress” or “show endearment” (perhaps with sexual
overtones)
(Genesis 26:8 NLT) —8 But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked
out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah.
The Greek word
used in 1Cor. 10:7 (paidzo) means “to play as
a child”
Did
you notice in Ex. 32:5 that they thought they were having a feast for
Yahweh? When you see “LORD” in all caps
in the Old Testament, it’s the name of God, Yahweh.
They thought this little golden calf was an image of
Yahweh.
The second commandment was not to
make an image or bow down to them (Ex. 20:4)
Why?
Because when we start thinking that
God looks like this picture I’ve drawn or this statue I’ve built, I have made
God too small.
The second sin is…
Lesson
God too small
The people wanted a “god” that they could see.
The problem with making an “idol” is that your “god” is too small.
Real faith is learning to trust in someone or something that you don’t see
or don’t understand.
Are you going to trust God even when you don’t understand what’s happening?
God may be a lot bigger than you think He is.
Is it
okay if God is bigger than your ability to understand Him?
Sometimes we call it “putting
God in a box”. We think God isn’t big
enough to handle my problem.
Be careful. Some of the Israelites
put God in a box and they didn’t make it into the Promised Land.
:8 Nor let us
commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three
thousand fell;
:8 Nor let us
commit sexual immorality
Paul takes us
back to Numbers 25, when the Moabites
had their young women entice the Israelite men to worship the god “Baal Peor” through sex.
commit
sexual immorality – porneuo – any kind of
sex outside the boundaries of marriage.
This is a very broad word and covers a lot things
including adultery, homosexuality, and pre-marital sex.
We get our
English word “pornography” from this.
The third sin is about…
Lesson
Purity
I don’t have to tell you that temptations toward sexual impurity are
everywhere. Our world is obsessed with
sex.
(1 Corinthians 6:18–20
NLT) —18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as
this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives
in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you
must honor God with your body.
Do you struggle with sexual purity?
You may not have committed the physical sin, but God also cares about what
is going on in your mind.
Do you long to have a pure mind? I do.
Don’t forget that this lack of purity kept some of Israel from the Promised
Land.
commit sexual immorality – porneuo –
any kind of sex outside the boundaries of marriage.
(1 Corinthians 6:9–11 NKJV) —9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will
inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were
sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God.
“Fornicators” (pornos) is
the broader word and includes many of the words that follow.
Adultery, homosexuality, and sodomy
are all more specific types of “fornication”.
Christians are typically very
strong in their condemnation of homosexuality, but it is just one small part of
a greater problem – immorality.
All of these sins are things that can be forgiven.
A person who
struggles with same-sex attraction is no different than a person who struggles
with opposite-sex attraction in that both are things Jesus wants to help us
with. Both types of attraction are a
problem when it leads to sex outside of a committed, heterosexual marriage.
:8 in one day twenty-three
thousand fell
The story in Numbers tells us that
24K perished at Baal Peor. Was Paul wrong?
Paul doesn’t list the total number,
just the number of those that died in one day.
The Jewish rabbis said that it was
not permissible for a judge to sentence more than one person a day. The Levites were the ones doing the
judging. How many Levites were there? Twenty-three thousand (Num. 26:62). In other words, the rest were put to death
the following day.
(They discourse of it in divers places of
the tract Sanhedrim to this sense.
Upon those words of God to Moses, קַח אֶת־כָּל־רָאשֵׁי הָעָם “Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the sun,”
they thus comment: “Take all the princes of the people, and
make them judges; that they may slay all those that transgressed with
Baal-Peor. If the people sinned, what did the heads of the people sin? Saith Rabh Judah, Rabh saith, God said
to Moses, ‘Divide to them judgment-seats.’ Wherefore? Because they judge not
two in one day.”[1])
:9 nor let us
tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
:9 nor let us
tempt Christ
The Greek root for this word “tempt” is found all
through the Bible. It is also translated
“put to the test”
tempt – ekpeiradzo
- put to the test; tempt; examination; try to trap
Sometimes the root of this word (peiradzo) is used to describe the trials we face.
(like vs. 13)
(James 1:2 NKJV) —2 My brethren, count it all joy when you
fall into various trials,
Sometimes forms of this word carry
a very negative connotation like here – where a person is trying to give God a
hard time.
(Matthew 4:7 NLT) —7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test
the Lord your God.’”
Test – ekpeiradzo
(Hebrews 3:7–11 NKJV) —7
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your
fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty
years. 10
Therefore I was angry with that
generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My
wrath, ‘They shall not enter
My rest.’ ”
v.8 “trial” – peirasmos
v.9 “tested” - peiradzo
The Israelites “tempted”
or “tested” God on several occasions, such as when the people complained about
not having water (Ex. 17)
(Exodus 17:2 NKJV) Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us
water, that we may drink.” So Moses said to them, “Why do you
contend with me? Why do you tempt
the Lord?”
In the LXX, this is the same word as our text (peiradzo).
God would tell Moses to stand
before the Rock and strike it, and water would come out.
(Exodus 17:7 NKJV) —7 So he called the name of the place Massah
and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because
they tempted the Lord,
saying, “Is the Lord among us or
not?”
Yet because Paul
mentions serpents, the account Paul is probably referring to is found in
Numbers 21 where once again the people complain to Moses about the food and
water.
God responded
by sending “fiery serpents” that bit and killed people.
When the people asked Moses to pray for them …
(Numbers 21:8–9 NKJV) —8 Then the Lord said to
Moses, “Make a
fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who
is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses
made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had
bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Jesus said this was a picture of Him.
He said if anyone believes in Him
they will have life. (John 3)
I want to call this fourth sin …
Lesson
Pushing
It seems to me that “tempting God” is about a lack of trust towards
God. It’s about pushing and
demanding. It’s about me wanting to boss
God around.
There is a place for “testing” to see if God is real. Yet once you know He’s real, stop testing and
start trusting.
God isn’t my little genie that has to do whatever I want.
God isn’t a codependent spouse to whom I say, “If you love me, you’ll do
such and such”.
Stop pushing and start yielding.
:10 nor complain,
as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
:10 nor complain,
as some of them also complained
complain – goggudzo
– grumble, murmur, speak secretly, whisper
The word here for “complain” is found 22 times in the first five books of
the Septuagint, starting in the book of Exodus.
The Israelites complained a lot.
About a lot of things.
A form of that word was used here:
(Numbers 14:36–37 NKJV) —36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and
made all the congregation complain
against him by bringing a bad report of the land, 37 those very
men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
These were the
spies that Moses sent into the Promised Land to check things out. Ten of the spies came back only focused on
the giants in the land and they stirred up “complaining” in the people.
This fifth sin is …
Lesson
Complaining
Paul’s letter to the Philippians is all about learning to rejoice. Yet Paul has to stop
and say this:
(Philippians 2:14–15 NKJV)
—14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may
become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in
the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as
lights in the world…
complaining – goggusmos
-
It’s
hard to be a light in the world when my life is filled with complaining
and arguing.
Is my life characterized by complaining or believing?
Griping or trusting?
So we’ve had a quick peek
at some of the issues that kept the Israelites from going into the Promised
Land.
Lust, God is
too small, purity, pushing, and complaining
What do we do with this list?
10:11-13
Warning and Promise
:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
That’s us.
examples – tupos –
example, type; pattern, model, figuratively
admonition – nousthesia
– admonition; instruction; warning
based on the word for “mind” (nous)
and “to put” (tithemi)
There are lessons in the Old Testament that we can learn from.
:11 upon whom the ends of the
ages have come
ends – telos – end, completion; goal
Lightfoot: “the end of the Jewish
ages” whereby we follow the ways of Moses.
(?)
(Matthew 24:3 NKJV) —3
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples
came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will
be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
BKC: Jesus brought about the fulfillment (ends) of
the Old Testament prophecies
Leon Morris: “It appears to mean
that the culmination of all past ages has arrived. The coming of Christ has decisive
significance. All previous ages come to
their appointed end in Him.”
:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
:12 take heed lest
he fall
The word for “take
heed” is the very common word for “seeing”.
Unlike any of
the other words in this passage, this word is in the “imperative”, meaning that
this is Paul’s command. It’s the only
command in the entire passage.
If you are going to pay attention to anything, it’s this: Open your eyes. Watch what you’re doing. Take heed.
take heed – blepo –
to see; to take heed, beware
Present active imperative – this is
a command
This is the only “command” in the
passage.
Other verbs can carry the force of
a command –
Vs.6 – infinitive, “that we should
not lust”
Vs.8 – subjunctive, “nor let us
commit sexual immorality”
Vs.9 – subjunctive, “nor let us
tempt Christ”
But this is the only true
imperative.
That means this is THE thing we
should be paying attention to and learning to do.
Lesson
You need Jesus
If you are here today and you haven’t taken that first step of asking Jesus
to help you, take heed.
You may think that you don’t really need to get all that serious about
Jesus.
You may think you’re good enough already.
Take heed. Open your eyes.
The Bible tells
me that I’m a sinner. And so are you.
My sins cut me off from God.
My
sins will result in a judgment that I can’t get out of.
The Bible also
tells me that Jesus came to pay
for my sins by dying on a cross.
If I
will turn to God and tell Him that I need Him, if I will ask Jesus to
help me, then God will forgive me and give me eternal life.
Lesson
Open your eyes
Christian, do you think you are doing well? (that’s a trick question)
Do you think
that you could never stumble or fall? Are you confident that you are “standing”
and you’ll never trip?
If so, then you need to open your eyes because you too might stumble like
the Israelites did.
(Proverbs 16:18 NKJV) Pride goes
before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Learn to
embrace humility.
I may be forgiven, but I know that I could still
stumble.
Look back at our passage. Paul is
writing to those who believe in Jesus and he’s comparing them with the
Israelites.
The Israelites had some of the same types of advantages as Christians.
They were “baptized”
They didn’t have a
full water immersion baptism like Jesus and John practiced at the Jordan River,
but going through the Red Sea with water on their sides and a cloud over them
was just like a “baptism”.
They ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.
That’s almost like
us taking communion
I think Paul was
alluding to communion where we “eat” the body of Christ by eating the bread.
The Israelites had
a pretty special food as well – they ate the “manna” from heaven.
Jesus even
compared His own body to the manna in the wilderness (John 6)
(John 6:30–33 NKJV) —30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign
will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You
do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He
gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly,
I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives
you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives
life to the world.”
They drank the same spiritual drink
Paul might be
alluding to the wine of communion, or he could also be alluding to the Living Water, the Holy Spirit.
The Israelites had
this “Rock” that seemed to follow them, the Rock from which they got their
water in the wilderness.
And yet God was not pleased with most of them.
The writer to the Hebrews gave us this very same lesson:
(Hebrews 3:18–19 NKJV) 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to
those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter
in because of unbelief.
It's at this point that Paul gives us something to hold on to…
:13 No temptation
has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the
temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
:13 No temptation has overtaken
you except such as is common to man;
temptation – peirasmos
– trial, temptation
overtaken – lambano –
receive; take; seize, take hold of, to grasp
Perfect, active, indicative
Perfect tense is something that has
happened in the past and it continues on into the
present.
Temptation hasn’t grabbed you so
that it’s not letting go.
common to man – anthropinos
– human, belonging to man, characteristic of mankind
:13 such as is
common to man
You aren’t the
only person who has ever been tempted like this. You aren’t the first and you aren’t the last.
You are just as human as the rest of us.
Look at that
list of Israelite sins. I imagine that everyone of us struggles with something on that list. We are all sinners.
:13 but God is
faithful,
faithful – pistos –
faithful, trustworthy, reliable
God is trustworthy. He is reliable.
You can count
on God to do what Paul promises next…
:13 who will not
allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
allow – eao –
let; allow; permit
Future active indicative – this
WILL happen (not maybe)
to be tempted – peiradzo
-
Aorist passive infinitive
beyond – huper –
over, beyond
you are able – dunamai
– to be able, to have power
Present, passive (deponent),
indicative
We like to think of dunamis as “explosive” power, but I like the idea of
“to be able”.
If I’m filled with the Spirit, then
I have the ability to deal with temptation the correct
way.
If I’m reading
this right, then God knows what my limits are.
He knows what I’m able to withstand.
You may think
you can’t resist the temptation in front of you, but God thinks differently.
You just haven’t discovered how to resist it yet.
:13 but with the
temptation will also make the way of escape,
temptation – peirasmos
– trial, temptation
make – poieo –
to do, to make
Future, active, indicative
God WILL do this. Not subjunctive (He “might”)
way of escape – ekbasis –
way of escape, outcome, egress
This is what
God does in His faithfulness.
If there is a temptation
in my way, then there will be a way of escape.
:13 that you may be
able to bear it.
you may be able – dunamai
– to be able, to have power
Present passive (deponent)
infinitive
to bear it – hupophero
– to bear under; endure; to put up with
Aorist active infinitive
God wants me to learn to find victory over temptation.
He promises to give me all I need to withstand temptation.
Lesson
Take the exit
So with every temptation I’m face with, God
promises a way out.
The problem with giving in to sin is that I don’t always recognize or take
the “exit”.
Or perhaps I
take the “wrong exit”
Illustration
The
smartest man on earth, a pastor, and a Cub Scout were
taking a plane trip
when the pilot came on the intercom and announced that they were having serious trouble and they
were going to crash. He suggested that everyone grab a parachute and jump out
of the plane. Then
the pilot jumped out himself. The three looked at each other and realized that
there were three of them, but only two parachutes. The smartest man on earth said, “I’m a very
important person, the world needs me, I need to be saved!” He grabbed a
parachute and jumped
out of the plane. Then the pastor said to the little boy, “Son, I’ve lived a
long life and I’m ready to meet the Lord. You take the last parachute.” Then
the little boy responded. “Hey mister, no need to worry! The smartest man on
earth just took my back pack and jumped out of the
plane!”
When you find the way out, take it. Don’t wait for the plane to crash!
But make sure you pick the right parachute.
Alcohol, drugs – those are the wrong parachute.
What does an
exit look like?
Let me name just a few…
It might be miracle
Peter had been
imprisoned and was facing death (Acts 12).
The church prayed.
An angel
showed up and opened the doors to the prison.
Yet Peter still had to follow the angel out of the prison. He didn’t stay in that cell.
But be careful here – this is the rare “exit”. Don’t wait too long for the miraculous – God
has many other exits that are more common.
It might be a distraction
David was being
pursued by King Saul.
David and his men went around one side of a mountain, and Saul and his men
went around the other side. David was
about to be captured.
Then Saul gets a message …
(1 Samuel 23:27–29 NKJV) —27 …“Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land!” 28 Therefore Saul
returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape. 29 Then David
went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi.
When Saul stopped chasing David, did David stay there
waiting for Saul to return and continue the chase?
No. David left
immediately.
You might get a
phone call that distracts you. A friend might show
up. Something happens that momentarily
stops the temptation. That’s your exit.
It might be a friend
(Hebrews 3:12–13 NKJV) —12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,”
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
We need people in our lives who will help us take a stand
against sin.
If I’m left to myself, I can talk myself into anything.
Yet when I have people who will challenge me, it helps me
to say “no”
This
could be a close friend. It could be a twelve step program.
It could be
a Men’s or Women’s group. It could be a
therapist.
It might be
God’s Word
(Psalm 119:11 NKJV) Your word I
have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
When Jesus was
tempted by Satan, Jesus
responded to each temptation with a Scripture.
In my life, I will sometimes find that a verse I’ve
memorized will come floating through my brain about the time I’m being tempted.
It may be just for a moment, but
take the exit.
But wait
pastor, does this mean I won’t ever sin?
What if I blow
it again?
Come back to
Jesus. Confess your sin. Keep following Him. And look for the “exits”