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.
No comments:
Post a Comment