Resisting Temptation - The Laws of Temptation

Pierre D. Mayo

The Laws of Temptation • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Being tempted is not in itself a sin. Sin arises when believers give in to temptation. Scripture urges believers to resist temptation, and gives them encouragement to face it.

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The Rat and the Cheese

I was recently thinking about my grandmother who had passed away several years back in that she owned several business in which I use to help her out as a teenage boy, with one of them particularly, her property she use to own. One of my jobs was to go in and clean up the house or apartment she was preparing to rent out to new tenants, and set mice and rat traps before the painters would come in and paint. Well it was plenty of times I would go down to this one location she owned despising needing to clean up the traps with dead rodents in it. because they couldn’t resist the free meal of that sweet smell of cheese. These things would risk it all every single time only to find themselves with a snapped neck or a dismemberment which I’m sure either lead to their death later on or incapacitated them to fully function correctly which lead to their death later, but probably still a lot sooner then they needed to die if they just would’ve avoided the sweet temptation of that cheese.

But isn’t that how temptation is? The lust of the eye is what it’s called, but I call it the lust of the senses. The way it feels in your hands, the way it looks to your eyes, the way it smells to your sensual desires, and the way it sounds to your ears. All of these things play an important role as to how you respond to your temptations.

The Rat is symbolic to us

The Cheese is symbolic to our desire

The Trap is symbolic to the death of of you after you sin.

So look at yourself as a rat -

James 1:15 CEV

15 Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.

Don’t let your desires control you, for in the end you will see none of it was worth it.

Encouragement to those Facing Temptation

James 1:12 NLT

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

See also Ro 8:37; Heb 2:18; Heb 4:15–16; Jas 1:2–3; 1 Jn 4:4

Finding in God and his word resources to overcome temptation

Daniel 11:32 NLT

32 He will flatter and win over those who have violated the covenant. But the people who know their God will be strong and will resist him.

See also Pr 2:1–2; Pr 2:12–15; Mt 6:13; 1 Ti 6:11–12; Jas 4:7

Practical suggestions for overcoming temptation

Overcoming temptation through prayer

Matthew 26:41 NLT

41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

Overcoming temptation through personal discipline

Heb 12:4; Heb 12:7; 2 Pe 3:17

Encouragements to resist temptation

Ga 6:1; 1 Th 5:22

Examples of those who did not give in to temptation

Job 1:22 NLT

22 In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

See also Ge 39:7–10; Job 2:10; Je 35:5–6; Da 1:8

Jesus Christ resisted temptation

Matthew 4:4 NLT

4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”