Temptation Part 3

TEMPTATION #4

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Matthew 6:13

I plan to share just one or two more days on this topic, but I feel that it is important for us as men to look at this area of our lives if we are going to be thinking victory. May the reality of this truth hits home because we see the AFFECTS of sin every day in the lives of the men who are in the Colony of Mercy.

But even more tragically, are the number of calls I get each week from men who have been in leadership in the church who have yielded to temptation and now have had their lives destroyed because they have ignored the warning signs and plunged deep into sin, some losing everything including their jobs and families.

Listen to the warning John Owen gives: "The folly of the hearts of men is nowhere shown more openly in the days in which we live than by a cursed boldness and neglect of the warnings of God, and by a lack of consideration of so many that have already fallen into such a sad estate. Yet men run into and put themselves under the power of temptation. They will risk anything, not considering their own weakness, or the concerns of their poor souls. They will walk over the dead and slain who have fallen on this path. They see others fall before their eyes, but on they go without regard or trembling. Through this snare hundreds and thousands of professors have fallen within just a few short years.

We need to remember that we have no strength or power to withstand apart from what Christ can do in and through us. Some of us are not only weak, but we have bought into the lie of deception, which is the worst kind of weakness. If a castle is very strong and well fortified, and yet there is a traitor on the inside who is ready to betray it at the first opportunity, that castle is not secure from the enemy. We have traitors in our very heart that are already there to take part and unite against us at every temptation. They will argue for us to give up in the assault; they will even solicit and bribe the temptation to do its work, just as a traitor incites the enemy.

Do not flatter yourself that you can hold out. There are secret lusts that lie dormant, lurking in your hearts, temporarily quiet, waiting for the opportunity of temptation to befall you. They will then rise, argue, cry, disquiet seduce, with perseverance, until either they are killed or satisfied. He who promises himself that the frame of his heart will be the same under the power of temptation as it was before is woefully mistaken!

He whose heart currently abhors the thoughts of a particular sin will be powerfully inflamed towards it when he enters into temptation. All contrary reasonings and objections will be overpowered and silenced. He will deride his former fears, cast aside his scruples, and condemn his former convictions. Little did Peter ever think he could so easily deny His Master as soon as he was pressed to admit he knew him. When the hour of temptation came, all resolutions were forgotten and all love to Christ was buried. The current temptation united with Peter's carnal fear and carried all before." Adapted from TEMPTATION - RESISTED & REPULSED by John Owen.

And by the way - this was written in 1658! The book is available in the Keswick Book and Gift Shop. I highly recommend it to you: 732-350-1187 ext. 31.

Great quote: The real conflict is inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of concentration camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are victories on the battle-field if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves? Maximilian Kolbe