Eleven Steps to Victory Over Temptation: Part 2
James 1:12-16; 1 Corinthians 10:13
Dave Redick
(Click here for Part 1 of this message)

Imagine you’re out car shopping and you say "maybe" to a pushy salesman. Would you expect him to slink away and cease his pitch? The same is true when we don’t give Satan a firm, defiant, resistant, "no!"

Toad baked some cookies. "These cookies smell very good," said Toad. He ate one. "And they taste even better," he said. Toad ran to Frog’s house. "Frog, Frog," cried Toad, "taste these cookies I made." Frog ate one of the cookies, "These are the best cookies I have ever eaten!" said Frog. Frog and Toad ate many cookies, one after another. "You know, Toad," said Frog, with his mouth full, "I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick." "You are right," said Toad. "Let us eat one last cookie, and then we will stop." Frog and Toad ate one last cookie. There were many cookies left in the bowl. "Frog," said Toad, "let us eat one very last cookie, and then we will stop." Frog and Toad ate one very last cookie. "We really must stop eating!" cried Toad as he ate another. "Yes," said Frog, reaching for a cookie, "we need willpower." "What is willpower?" asked Toad. "Willpower is trying hard not to do something you really want to do," said Frog. "You mean like trying hard not to eat all these cookies?" asked Toad. "Right," said Frog. Frog put the cookies in a box. "There," he said. "Now we will not eat any more cookies." " But we can open the box," said Toad. "That is true," said Frog. Frog tied some string around the box. "There," he said. "Now we will not eat any more cookies." " But we can cut the string and open the box." said Toad. "That is true," said Frog. Frog got a ladder. He put the box up on a high shelf. "There," said Frog. "Now we will not eat any more cookies." " But we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the shelf and cut the string and open the box," said Toad. "That is true," said Frog. Frog climbed the ladder and took the box down from the shelf. He cut the string and opened the box. Frog took the box outside. He shouted in a loud voice. "Hey, birds, here are some cookies!" Birds came from everywhere. They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away. "Now we have no more cookies to eat," said Toad sadly. "Not even one." "Yes," said Frog, "but we have lots and lots of willpower." "You may keep it all, Frog," said Toad. "I am going home now to bake a cake."(1)

The antics of Frog and Toad illustrate only too well our own struggle with temptation and some of the issues involved. When I was with you last I began a two-part message called Eleven Steps to Victory Over Temptation. We looked at five of those eleven steps. They were, (1) Study God’s Word So You Aren’t Fooled, (2) Stop Providing for the Flesh, (3) Make Up Your Mind Ahead of Time, (4) Realize that God Expects You to Stand, and (5) Look for the Escape God. We’ll continue today with step number six.

Perhaps this step seems obvious but in my experience it isn’t that evident to some. Occasionally I still hear that old, worn-out reasoning that goes something like this: "When God takes away the desire, then I’ll know He wants me to quit."

I don’t know where that line came from but I can assure you that it isn’t from the Bible. God doesn’t have a timetable for giving up sin that is moved along a track by His removing our desires. He expects us to make a firm stand against those desires as soon as we realize they are wrong.

Titus 2:11-12 says, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age…."

When we deny our desires we say "no" to them. We resist them.

James 4:7 says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you…."

Sometimes when dealing with sin, we say a tentative "maybe" to instead of a firm "no," leaving the option open for saying "yes" at some point in the future. That is not resisting the devil.

Imagine you’re out car shopping and you say "maybe" to a pushy salesman. Would you expect him to slink away and cease his pitch? The same is true when we don’t give Satan a firm, defiant, resistant, "no!"

As someone has well put it: "When a fellow shuts his eyes to temptation, he ought to be sure he ain’t winkin’."

Even after we have made major effort to stop providing for the flesh, which was mentioned in number two of these steps, Satan will sometimes get past our best defenses. And he’s a great salesman. A weak or questionable "no" won’t put him off. Our response must be a very firm, stubborn, defiant, and resistant "no!" Anything less is an invitation to turn up the heat.

A woodpecker is a very interesting bird. The loud rat-tat-tat noise he makes as he drills into trees in search of bugs always attracts attention. He’s also a very persistent bird. When he finds a suitable tree he begins to drill a hole. If the wood is too hard or he finds no bugs, he simply moves over and starts again. Over and over he drills, going around the trunk of the tree, drilling here, tapping there, until he finds a soft spot. At that point he stops and focuses his full effort on that place. It pays off. He’s very good at what He does.

Satan is also very good at what he does. He tries one temptation on us and if it isn’t successful, he moves over a bit and tries another. Over and over he drills and samples until he finds a soft spot he can use to his advantage. Then he focuses on that.

Temptation often comes, not in our strongest moments, but in our weakest. When we think we are at the limit of our patience and love, when we are very tired, when we are hungry, when we are bored – these are the times Satan exploits to his advantage. If we have no plans to cover these times, he’ll win. Remember that Jesus’ temptation began after he fasted for forty days. He was hungry and weak.

When Elijah took on the 450 prophets of Baal, the devil didn’t bother trying to tempt him with discouragement in the middle of the contest. No. He waited until after the confrontation and after Elijah had run the twenty miles back to Jezreel. Then he hit Elijah with Jezebel’s murderous threats. At that point, probably due to Elijah’s exhausted and weakened condition, his defenses crumbled and he gave in to discouragement.

The weak time for Elijah in this case was after this great accomplishment that required maximum effort. It’s hard for Satan to get our full attention when we’re focused on some important goal. But once that goal is accomplished, in the slack time that frequently follows, that eddy, that backwash in the strong current of life, he finds us unguarded and vulnerable. It is a wise person who defines these slack times in his or her life and plans some accountability. We all need unstructured time to rest and recoup, but we dare not allow these unstructured times to be unguarded times.

Periods of idleness and boredom can also be times of vulnerability. The old saying is "Idle hands are the devil’s workshop." That adage didn’t arise in a vacuum.

We all need rest and I’m not suggesting there that we shouldn’t relax. It’s just that we cannot drop our guard. And we need to stay engaged, we need to be moving ahead.

Dale Galloway wrote in his book, Confidence without Conceit, "Only one thing is worse than living without a vision: to have had a dream and lost it. When David had a vision, he conquered Goliath. When he lost his vision, he couldn’t conquer his own lust. When Alexander the Great had a vision, he conquered countries. When he lost it, he couldn’t conquer the liquor bottle. When Solomon had a vision, he was the wisest man in the world. When he lost the dream God had given him, he couldn’t control his life."(2)

We need to stay engaged. We need to keep moving forward in our faith. It’s a lot like riding a bicycle. As long as we’re peddling, we’re OK. If we stop, we fall over. What this means practically is that we need to keep growing, keep discovering new truth, keep taking on new challenges. Temptation so frequently comes on strongest in the voids of our life.

I rely on James 5:16 for this point. It says, "…confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

Some believe that this refers to physical healing, and probably in its context in James, that is the primary meaning. But I know also that confession of sin to another human being has a powerful deterrent effect.

When sin takes place in private and never comes to light, we tend to fool ourselves. We rationalize. We don’t hold ourselves as accountable as we do when people know. Rationalizing is easier and truth is not as clear.

Please note what I did and did not say. I did say confess to "one another." I didn’t say that every sin needs to be confessed to the church. I’m referring to private, not public confession of sin.

Do you have a trusted friend in whom you can confide? Go to him or her and confess your sin. Ask them to help you and pray for you. Ask them to keep you accountable. For obvious reasons, I said, "A trusted friend." It takes a special person to fill the role of confidant. But it is also worth the time it takes to find such a person.

This step is closely related to the last one because what I’m referring to is one-on-one accountability. Once you have a trusted friend in whom you can confide and to whom you can admit your sin, you need to ask that person to hold you accountable. By that I mean, check on you from time to time to see how you’re doing. I mean look you in the face and ask pointed questions about how you’re doing, not to condemn you but to help you. And I’m speaking of giving such a person permission to do this.

It sometimes helps to have a list of questions drawn up ahead of time to which you both submit when you get together. These accountability questions are bold and forthright in their nature.

Things like, "Did you engage in such and such behavior this past week," "Did you take such and such agreed upon action this past week," and "Have you just lied to me?" Just knowing that we’re going to have to face a trusted friend with such penetrating questions and give an account can be a real deterrent.

I’m not referring to something that is done under compulsion here. It must be voluntary, held in place by your desire to have victory over sin and temptation.

There is strength in fellowship. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up."

Jesus said in Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst."

The presence of Jesus in the presence of others is a powerful place to bring about change.

There is a certain kind of ant that has a passion for the sweet, glandular substance given off by the caterpillar of a large blue butterfly. The ants become so addicted to it that they will actually seek out the "supplier" and carry him back to their nest. They bring him right into their midst. But they unwittingly bring home more than they bargain for. The sugary caterpillar is really a deadly enemy in disguise. Once the caterpillar is into the nest it gorges itself on ant larvae. Under normal circumstances the colony would mobilize and attack such intruder with great vigor. But the adult ants enjoy the tasty secretions of the caterpillar so much that they are oblivious to the genocide going on.

In human life as well, one of the great prices we pay for giving in to a pleasant temptation is that we damage the lives of those we love. Giving in to temptation for only a short time has the potential to ruin a lifetime of good.

A certain man was caught drilling a hole in the hull of the boat he and his companions were sleeping in. When brought before the

Captain who questioned his suicidal behavior, he replied, "I don’t see what you’re so upset about. The hole I was drilling was under my bunk!

Right.

William Barclay writes: "A man might be perfectly willing to pay the price of sin, if that price affected only himself. But if he remembers that his sin will break someone else’s heart, he will have a strong defense against temptation.

There is always an eternal cost of sin and there is often also a temporal one. The eternal cost will be born by the sinner alone. The temporal one often spills over and hurts the very ones we love most.

Galatians 5:16 says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."

A number of years ago there was an atomic submarine named Thresher that was destroyed. Thresher was one of a class of nuclear subs that was built so strongly that it could batter its way through ice at the North Pole. As strong as Thresher was though, like all submarines, it had a maximum crush depth beyond which it could not safely go. It exceeded that depth one fateful day and the pressure of the sea water crushed its bulkheads like they were made out of cheap plastic. Searchers found only a few relatively tiny pieces of the huge boat.

Yet there are fish that live at the same depth Thresher was destroyed. How do they do it? The answer isn’t complicated. They have a pressure within themselves equal to the outside pressure.

There is nothing mysterious about walking by the Spirit. A Christian who walks by the Spirit lives in such a way as to be constantly aware of the realities of faith. He abides in Christ continually and grows so that the mounting pressure inside is more and more equal to the temptation outside. He abides in the Spirit’s word, the Bible, so that grows each day and is more and more conformed to the image of Christ. He acts like Christ. He thinks like Christ. He deals with temptations like Christ.

If you find that you are constantly giving in to temptation, you need to ask yourself what you are doing to build your spiritual life. If there is no strength inside, Satan will sooner or later crush you like an empty eggshell.

A couple of "Good Ol’ Boys" became truck drivers. One day as they were driving their semi down the highway they came to a bridge. A sign on the bridge said, "Clearance: 10 feet, 2 inches." They stopped, took out a measuring tape and discovered that their truck was 10 feet, 8 inches tall. One of them turned to the other and said these words: "I don’t see any cops around. Let’s go for it!"

Doing nothing to improve your behavior under temptation is about as foolish as that. I encourage you to consider and implement these eleven steps, starting right away on any of them you are not presently doing. The outcome will be toward your eternal benefit.

Footnotes: Use Your Back Button to Return to Your Place

1. Renewal, Ray & Anne Ortlund, 1989, Navpress, pp. 73-74
2. Dale E. Galloway, Confidence Without Conceit, (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Power Books – Fliming H. Revell, 1989).

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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