Monday, March 6, 2017

March 4-6, 2017 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 ON HANDLING TEMPTATION


LENT 1

March 4-6, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7



ON HANDLING TEMPTATION

1.     Know the Word.

2.     Love the Word.

3.     Use the Word.

4.     When you fall, Run!!!



 Genesis 2:15; 3:1-7 (NIV 1984) The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”



          Into the lives of all people comes the temptation to sin against God. It happened to perfect people named Adam and Eve. It happened to the perfect Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus Christ. It happens to you and me too at every age. In 1 Corinthians 10 we are told, “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 endure it.” That’s God’s truth. We will be tempted. We will have a way out. Let’s go to God’s word now and see how to handle temptation.

          God had created a perfect world filled with perfect plants and animals. He made a beautiful garden and called it Eden. Into that garden God placed two perfect people, Adam and Eve. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Commandments from God are ways of showing love. God showed love to Adam and Eve by forbidding them to eat what was bad for them. Adam and Eve could show love to God by obeying. It was a beautiful setup.

          But into that perfect Garden in the perfect world that had only perfect people slithered temptation. We don’t know everything we want to know about the Devil. We do know what we need to know. The Devil was originally a created angel. At some point after Creation and before what we are talking about today Satan led an angel rebellion against God. Pastor Waldschmidt and I like to repeat the phrase, “Sin is stupid.” It just doesn’t make sense. Imagine the Devil as a created angel pausing to take in the fact that God has just created him and all things and then somehow going on to think, “You know, I should be in charge here. I should be God. My fellow angels, God has just created us with a word of His mouth. He is that wise and powerful. I think we can take Him!” Sin is stupid. Satan and the angels who followed him were cast away from God’s goodness and love forever.

          Sin is stupid. Evil does evil. So Satan slithered into the garden of Eden in the form of a serpent to tempt Eve and Adam to join him in rebellion against God. “He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Look at how Eve handled the Temptation. First she knew God’s word. Satan came at her with an attempt to get her to sin and started with confusion. “Did God say you can’t eat from any tree?” Not true and Eve knew it. She knew what God said. “God did say, you must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.” She knew God’s word.

          She also loved God’s word. Some people get a little nervous about the fact that Eve went on to say, “ and you must not touch it,”  Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t she adding something to God’s Word? She’s perfect yet. Sinless. To me her words show respect. They show love for God’s word. Mr. Serpent. That is forbidden fruit. We are not to eat of it. Why would I want to do anything with it? Eve knew God’s word and she loved God’s word. But Satan didn’t back off. He didn’t go away. He kept on tempting.

          “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” There’s the lie. There’s the insinuation that God is holding out on you. God doesn’t want you to have fun. He does not have your good in mind. You need to disobey Him.

          At this point we would love to have seen Eve jump up in righteous indignation and say. “No! You don’t talk about my God like that. He loves me and knows what’s best for me.” But she didn’t. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Temptation entertained is temptation indulged. Eve sinned. Adam sinned. They fell into temptation and they ran.

          When I was a younger boy, my brothers and I discovered early some of the laws of physics and science. On the campus of what is now Luther Prep School were some beautiful crabapple trees. They had apples on them that were somewhere between golf ball and tennis ball on them. What we discovered is that if you took a stout stick about two feet long and stuck an apple on the end you could fling that apple a lot farther and a lot harder than you could throw by hand. And then one of the brothers the Lord gave me got the idea that we could hide behind a bush and launch said apples at cars driving down Western Avenue never suspecting we might actually hit one. The memory is a little fuzzy on who that was but one such apple got launched at one aforementioned cars and hit it square on the side panel.  Thunk went that apple. Screech went the brakes. Run went the boys. The wrong way. We ran away from the driver of the car instead of to him to express our sorrow over a foolish childhood prank. Adam and Eve did the same. You know the rest of the story. How they ran from the God who loved them and blamed each other and God for their own sin.

          Now what can we learn from this about handling temptation? Because remember, God won’t let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but will provide a way out. First, know the Word. You have to know what God says. Do you have your daily habit of reading God’s words yet? Secondly, love the word. Like Eve, have such respect for what God says that you want God’s approval and know He has your best interest in mind. Third, use God’s word. Keep using God’s word. The Devil doesn’t automatically give up. Where we wanted Eve to keep going and sticking to God’s Word, that’s where we need to. Use that word of God as shield that blocks the Devils temptations with a No, Father knows best. And use that word as sword. Get away from me Satan. Resist and he must flee.

             But the most important thing we need to remember is that when you fall, Run! Run the right direction. Not away from God but to Him. Temptations will keep coming. They will be different at different ages. During this Lenten season as we are reminded of what Jesus went through to pay for our sins we will respond with love for Him. We will want to fight hard against temptation and remove pet sins from our lives.  The fact is we will not defeat them all. In weakness that shames us we will fall. And when that happens, Run! Run to Jesus. You will not successfully defeat every temptation but Jesus did for you. You heard about that in the Gospel reading. You heard in the God’s Word in Romans how Jesus’ perfect obedience makes us righteous. When you fall and feel guilt don’t stay away from the Lord and church and the Lord’s Supper, run to the Lord, to worship, to Lord’s Supper. There you will hear God say again. I love you. I forgive you.  Go and sin no more. But when you do, when you fall. I will catch you because I love you.” What an awesome God we get to serve! Amen.

         

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