10/21/24 ESCAPING TEMPTATION

10/21/24 ESCAPING TEMPTATION

I wrote a post concerning New Testament verses which indicate that God will deliver faithful believers from all temptation. This present post refers back to some of those verses.

Believers have God's word that He will deliver us from all temptation.
1 Corinthians 10:13
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.

We need to understand that escaping temptation can take place at various times.
Much of our temptation can be escaped before the temptation actually takes place.
We can also escape temptation at the moment we are attacked by Satan.
Lastly, we can escape temptation after a period of struggle and spiritual battle.

In this post, I want to mention the first way of escape, which is avoidance. Avoiding temptation requires faith, prayer, commitment, obedience, discipline, consistency, perseverance, self denial, awareness and reliance on the word of God, walking in the Spirit, death to self, death to the world, death to sin, growth in grace.
(remember death to sin is only possible to those who are alive in Christ.) 

Matthew 26:41
41 "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil...."

This was part of the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray. In this prayer we learn that God will lead us away from temptation. It is preventative care. God knows everything, including what will happen in the future. When we trust God with our every step, and seek His guidance, He will lead us to avoid possible pitfalls, and He will prepare us for possible Satanic attacks. 

Mark 14:38
38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

Jesus warned us that we cannot overcome our enemy and we cannot escape temptation by our own power, or by the virtue of past victories. Life and victory are current realities to those who are in an up-to-date relationship with God. 

Luke 8:13
13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

Jesus warned us that there will be people who hear the word of God and receive it with joy and believe for a while, but because they are shallow in their commitment, they fall away in time of temptation. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Knowing that future temptations can lead us into sin and death should move us to a strong, obedient, trusting relationship, which keeps us from failure.
(Some erroneously say that this person was not saved. However, Jesus said that they heard, they received with joy, they believed for a while, and then they fell away. That settles it.) 

Luke 22:46
46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

Jesus taught us we should pray specifically that we would not enter into temptation. Prayer is a preemptive strike against temptation. This is a prayer that meets God's criteria for answered prayer. But the person who actually prays for deliverance from temptation cannot be aligning with sin, entertaining sin, excusing sin, playing with sin or temptation. You cannot escape temptation while you are surrendering to temptation or if you are leaving the ear-gate, eye-gate, heart open to sins siren call.

A right relationship with God, through faith, conversion, growth in grace, entire sanctification, walking in the light God gives us is possible and essential for the believer who intends to resist all temptation. This will result in deliverance from temptation before it is ever encountered. God will lead us away from many temptations and He will ward off temptations before they reach us.

As I said, God will also deliver us from the temptations we do encounter. It can be a quick victory, or it can be an extended and challenging battle.

For those who fail to trust and obey, God has provided restoration, renewal, reclamation. But for those who fail to conquer their temptations, there is the possibility of turning further from the faith, and the danger of hardening the heart, rather than believing and surrendering to God. To sin against God after being saved is an act of presumption. Presumption is not only the lack of faith, it is the rejection of faith.

If you fail to resist temptation, I urge you to quickly repent and recommit to Christ.  

1 John 2:1-6
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.