There was this one time when I was in high school and I had just gotten my license 16 years old. And, you know, I was excited to get my license and couldn't wait to I don't understand kids today and they don't want to get their license, you never noticed that most of the kids who turned 16 Today, what's wrong with you guys? Why don't you want to drive and get your license. But anyway, I had gotten my license, and we had gone to hang out at a friend's house, it was a weekend, and we were out a little bit late. And I'm guessing it was somewhere around midnight or so. And we were we were leaving our friend's house. And I was driving and I had one of my friends with me that I was going to take home and, and this person lived right by the middle school in our community. And the driveway went right alongside this football practice field. And one of our other friends who didn't live far from where we were hanging out was just walking home across the football field. And so we drive out of her driveway, and we see our friend who's walking across the football field. And all of a sudden, I had this thought, come across my mind. The thought was, I should drive on the practice field, and pretend like I'm gonna run over him to mess with me. And then that thought that entered my mind turned into an urge. I started to feel like that's what I should actually do in that moment. And even though I knew that it was wrong, and there was potentially some danger involved, because the urge was pretty strong. And I felt this temptation to maybe impress my friend a little bit who was riding with me to think I was cool or kind of mess with my friend a little bit in this way I gave into that urge. And I left the road and began to drive across the football field towards my friend. And he turned around and saw the lights coming towards him and he took off running. So I sped up, and now I'm chasing and I'm getting fairly close. And I guess at one point in time, I got a little too close, because the next thing I know, he had jumped up and he had landed on my hood. And he was holding on to my windshield wipers, and he was going for a ride. And he's like the rodeo. I mean, I'm swerving, and ducking and trying to throw him off thinking this is funny and the whole time and thank God in His grace, it didn't end horribly he stayed on and I came to my senses and kind of began to slow down and just thought somebody could die here. And so he got off and he ended up going home. And we at that time, I had a little bit of a good kind of laugh about it and and I went home and I went to bed. And it seemed like it was only a few hours later that I felt this thumping on my head while I was laying down on my bed. And it was it was my dad, who was poking me and saying Jason, Jason wake up what? Why is there a dent in your car on the hood? Then another thought crossed my mind. And that thought was I should not tell my dad the truth in this situation. And that thought became an urge. I feel like I should not tell my dad the truth in this one. And so I did not tell my dad the truth. In that situation. I kinda threw my friend under the bus. Pardon the analogy with the story here. But I did, I said that this guy, we were hanging out and he jumped on my hood. And we were just hanging out. And we were talking and he's just sitting there and I don't know, I tried to tell him to get off or whatever. But he wouldn't you know how guys can kind of be and I don't even know that there was a dent on there or anything. And I I don't know if my dad believed me or not. If you did dad, and you're watching I'm sorry. Now you know, the truth to the story. But he was mad. I mean, he was really upset and mad. And in that moment I I left that moment feeling a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear that my dad was going to hunt my friend down and give him a piece of his mind and let him know how unhappy he was for putting a dent in the car that he had paid for. And I really started to feel guilt and kind of shamed for just lying to my dad and then I'm thinking about how horribly that could have gone wrong and I could have killed my friend that night and all of these things that we were actually doing and and all this deep spiral of a mess that we had gotten into that all started out with a thought that turned into an urge. We're talking about spiritual warfare we're talking about this in visible battle that we are in and each and every single day with with Satan this war that we're in his attempt to rob us of the abundant life that God created us to have and one of Satan's tactics to rob us of the abundant life that He came to give us and to experience in him is that of temptation. Attempting us to do certain things that we know are wrong, that are not God's best for us. And we, we all of course, feel it. From time to time, it may be different things, but we're all tempted in some ways to lie or to steal or to cheat, tempted to, to gossip or tempted to manipulate and try to control other people tempted to try to get revenge Whenever someone's wrong to us tempted to medicate our pain through drugs and alcohol, tempted to look at pornography or have sex before marriage or to to commit adultery and have an affair. I mean, it could be any number of things. We certainly don't feel maybe all of those things at one time. But we all have felt tempted in one way or another. To do something that we know went against what we were called to it, sometimes it can be strong. Sometimes the urge within temptation to step into this thing and what it feels like it's offering in that moment, can be crazy strong, it can seem like there's no real way out that there's no real way to turn down this temptation that seems so inviting and it can leave us so discouraged when we're wrestling with temptation and skin sin, it can leave us feeling defeated, it can really can leave us feeling hopeless, in a lot of ways. We've probably all been there at one time or another. Maybe some of you are there right now, where you're battling some kind of temptation and sin that just keeps coming up over and over and over again. And it may not be every single day, but you've just never really found any victory over it. It just keeps coming back at some point in time. And if you're feeling that discouragement you're feeling defeated, you're you're feeling hopeless, and where you're at right now. So what do we do? How do we handle temptation? Is there any hope? Is there a way out? Paul says in first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, that there is he says, No temptation has over taken you except for what is common to mankind 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 evidently no matter how strong the urges, matter how strong the temptation is, no matter what the urge or the temptation is, there is always a way out. So what's the way out? Right. Many of you know if you were here last week that we talked about Satan's primary tactic in this war in this battle that we're in where he's trying to rob us of our life, his primary tactic is that of lies and deception. He is a liar and a deceiver in Scripture, again, testifies to that John 844, we looked at this verse last week, he says he Jesus referring to Satan was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies. He speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Revelation 12 Nine even says in the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. This is who he is, he is a liar and a deceiver. And so when it comes to temptation, they are a part of Satan's tactic, the temptations that we feel are part of his tactic to lie to us and deceive us, with the lower of promising something on the other side, that we're never ultimately satisfy. This is what he does. It's an attempt to make us believe that this sin that he is urging us to commit will provide us something that we're missing in our lives. We feel like we're lacking what it is that this thing can provide for us. But it's a lie. It's Satan's in his deception because he knows that it will not ultimately lead to more life, that you may experience some temporary pleasure in the moment but it will lead to death.
says it in James 113 James says Let no one say when he is tempted I being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin. And sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death, it may feel good in the moment, but it will bring death those drugs that you go after will certainly provide you a high, they will give you a momentary sense of pleasure and feeling like you're experiencing life and euphoria, right? But you're going to come down in the low is going to be even lower than where you were before. As you're going to be experiencing that kind of death in those moments, you have to go back to it again, to be able to experience that euphoria and that high again that you were and then all of a sudden you're in bondage in your tracks what you thought was going to promise you life is now actually producing death, that pornography or that sexual sin or that affair that you entered into may seem like it was going to provide life It may even feel like it's providing life for you in those moments. But it too will grab a hold of your life and put you in bondage and can lead to addiction and disrupt your marriage and the relationship that you have with your kids. It promises life, but it will lead to death, the gossip that you enter into and the feelings of life that it will bring you because you have power over someone else that you know something they don't know or it's gonna give you the attention that you feel like you're missing in your life because you can share something about someone else may give you a little bit of a feeling of power may give you some attention in the moment, but it will lead to death. It will rob you of your friends, it will lead you untrustworthy, they're all a promise of life, but it will lead to death. It's a lie. We're being deceived. Because a to Satan is it's what he does. Even in the passage that I just read to you James used that kind of deceptive language when it was coming to this once again look at back at verse 14. He said but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed. That's fishing language. Right luring where the first word describes an act of luring fish kind of from their hiding place and out from the hiding right and the second word pictures the enticing of a fish with maybe an artificial bait it's no secret that I I like to fish and I've got a whole tackle box of different fishing lures and worms and I've got you know, some worms that look like this and have different shapes and colors on them and I've got some that are longer and looks like this and I do want you to notice that one's broken right there because I actually caught a fish on that one and just wanted to kind of prove to you that I caught one. But you know, we've got we've got other things in here we've got you know, red winds and they make noise they kind of rattle I've got other longer winds and you know things that dive down and crank I've got things that are shiny and spinners and they attract you with kind of how you know they look in those ways. But but they're they're attractive and they look good. But guess what they all have in on a hook right? It's it's a lie. It's a trick. It's it's deception. It it looks like it's going to provide life. It it looks like it's going to meet a need. But it's it's a deception because there's a hook that wants a fish bites it is going to experience death. Now do realize and some of you may have caught this and have some questions about it that when James is using this language, he says but each person is tempted when when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. He doesn't specifically reference Satan here. But he does reference Satan later on in the letter. He says in James chapter four, verse seven, to resist the devil. I've already read two scriptures to you that call Jesus I mean, Satan, the father of lies, and the deceiver of the whole world, right. And we've talked about how we have a flesh and we can live independently of God trying to meet our own needs, trying to get our own life when we were created to ultimately find it in him. And there's no doubt that Satan knows your kind of flesh. He knows what he will entice you, some of you need nice little shiny things that spin right and some of you need things that make noise and some of us need things that you know look like this right but but no matter what it is, Satan knows what it is for you. He knows what it is that he can lure and entice you with and how your flesh works. And so the first thing that we've got to see When it comes to temptation is that it is a deception, that this is going to look good. And Satan is going to make it look good, he's not going to come to you with dark, evil, whatever thinks he's gonna make it look attractive and like it really will do something for you that you're missing in your life. And so we have to be aware of that. But what we also need to be aware of is that the sin will not fulfill what it is promising that there is a hook that it will lead to death. And listen, the other thing we've got to know is, is that it's counterfeit. Right? I mean, this is this is counterfeit life, the fish thinks it's going to have its needs met, it is going to bite this and try to swallow this and find out that it's counter fit, that it will not provide what it was that it was saying it was going to provide. It this is the same thing with sand. A lot of us think that God's trying to hold on out on a sand is where all the fun is. It's where the real life isn't God's just a mean God, he didn't want us to have any fun, right. And the whole Christian life is all about being stoic and all about being dedicated and all about not having any fun and just being disciplined and avoiding all the fun stuff in the world. And yet all of this language about how Jesus wants us to experience joy, and he came to provide abundant life, maybe it is the fact that he just knows that the sin that the Satan is the deceiver of the whole world that claims to be so fun for everyone to joy isn't really that fun in the long run anyway. And that's why we get hooked. And we have to keep going back to it over and over and over again, because it never actually satisfies. And Jesus going, I've got the real life, you want to have fun, you want to have joy, you want to enjoy the life that you are created to experience and really enjoy. Come find it in me quit going to counterfeit things that the world says is where all the fun is. Got to find God. He wants you to have fun, he wants you to enjoy life, when he says he came to provide it for you. And so we've got to be aware that all of these other things are counterfeit, and what they lead to, but some of us are aware of that. Some of us know that we're we're aware that it's wrong. And it's not ultimately going to provide and the death that we've experienced, we've entered into it before but yet he comes back before us again. And it's still shiny. And we know in the long run, but we're like I just can't say no. We've all experienced that before. So what do we do in those moments we're aware already know. We still feel defeated, it asked you to turn to Ephesians six, the apostle Paul talks about spiritual battles at the end of chapter six and references how we fight in these moments who have against what we're up against. Notice what he says there and verse 10. Finally, right, so he's written five chapters worth of material and a few verses into this one. And the last thing I want you guys to know, here's the last thing I gotta say, Here, be strong in the Lord, in his mighty power. Notice right up front whose power it is, it's not your power. Right? It's not I can do anything if I put my own mind to it. Right? Again, that sounds really good out in the world. But Paul says, Finally be strong in the Lord and His mighty power, right? Number 11, verse 11, cool, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Notice again, the scheme language, the deception, the tricks that he's going to try to play. But he tells us that the way to fight against Satan and his temptations and tactics is to put on the full armor of God. And he's going to describe it in just a moment. But look what he says the next couple of verses, verse 12, for our struggle, he says, is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, you notice in the last three verses, how many times he's referenced standing.
Instead to stand. He said, to stand your ground stand against the schemes of the Devo must be pretty important when things are repeated. And they're said over and over again, right and, and he's not even done. He's going to continue with the stand language and we'll come back and talk about that in a moment. Look at how he starts off verse 14. Stand firm, then there it is, again, stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around. around your waist, he begins to describe the armor. But Paul, of course, is playing off the imagery of a Roman soldier during their time, someone that they would be familiar with armor that they've seen before. And so he's playing on this imagery to help us see how to fight against these things. And the first thing that he mentions is the belt. I don't think it's any coincidence that he starts with the belt. We don't think of it as being that big of a deal, right? But it's kind of like the central piece to it all. I mean, it is kind of located in the central area of the body when we're talking about armor. But then again, it's also the piece that most of the other equipment probably attached to, in some way, it all kind of hinged and kept it all together. And notice again, what kind of belt it is. It's the belt of truth. We've been saying over the last few weeks that the battle that we are in is primarily a battle of what truth and lies, he starts with, put on the belt of truth. In other words, to have a belt of truth for us is to have a fixed standard by which reality is measured. To have a fixed standard by which reality is measured. It's not my truth. It's not whatever it is that I'm feeling like in this moment, or whatever it is that Satan is promising me is the truth in this moment becomes true because I'm feeling it in this moment, or because I myself and thinking that that's what should be true. The belt of truth is God's truth. It's a fixed standard by which reality is measured. And Paul says to stand firm in God's truth, don't fall for the lies, and the deception. Verse 14 goes on. And he says, Stand firm with the breastplate of righteousness in place. The breastplate of course covers the chest of a soldier and protects your your vital Oregon's right. Again, I think in a lot of ways, what Paul is saying is that this is the piece that's kind of talking about protecting the core of who you really are, right? We've shown you concentric circles before of how we're spirit beings and have a soul and we have a body and the core is who we become in a spiritual union with Jesus is our identity. That's who we really are, even though we may feel different things and the soul, local area and realms, or our body may feel different things in those ways, that that's who we really are. And the truth is, is that in Christ, we are righteous. We have a breastplate of righteousness, because we are righteous in Christ. Listen, when it comes to temptation, I'll just tell you one of the ways that I feel like I was deceived the most when there was certain sins that I just couldn't really experience any victory over. And I was praying about Him. And God helped me overcome this. And I've got accountability partners, and we're talking about it and all these other things, is the deception was, you're just a poor old sinner saved by grace, there is no language about how you are righteous in Christ, you are holy, you have a new nature. And yet, Romans six clearly says that my old self was crucified with Christ, that I'm no longer a slave to sin, that I've been set free from my old sin nature, and that I now have a new nature, one that is holy and righteous. You know, when I found that truth out, the sin struggles that I had felt like we're, I was in bondage to the chains that were wrapped around me really just kind of fell off. It's like, oh, that's not who I am. I may feel in my body like that something that I don't have victory over that I want to do in this moment. But it's not who I am at the core of my being, there is nothing in me in a spiritual union with Jesus that wants to do what it is that I'm doing in that moment. It's impossible for Jesus to want to do any of those things, and I'm in union with Him. So therefore, it's impossible for me, in reality, who I really am at a spiritual being as far as my identity, to want to do what it is that I want to do in that moment that I feel like I want to do, and all of a sudden, it's like it doesn't have a hold over me. And the same thing is true about you. Paul says, Stand firm with the belt of truth around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place for stiff teen with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Now, one thing that you may know if you've read Ephesians, but you may not know or remember, even if you've read Ephesians is what Paul referenced earlier before he says this, And what Paul said earlier in Ephesians 214 Is that Jesus is our peace. Right? And so Jesus is our peace. And so in Christ, we have peace. Why shoes? Why is he relating it to shoes? Well, listen, he's told us to stand firm, right? You ever tried to stand firm barefoot? Your feet slip out from under you and all that stuff. I
mean, if I got, if I got shoes on, man, I can dig down in the concrete and have some traction, I can dig down in the dirt a little bit more. And man, I can stand a lot more firm in shoes that I can without shoes on. And so when Satan comes at us, and he's making us feel all of this unrest, right, you feeling unrest in your life in this thing, if you'll do this thing, there's a promise of peace. All the unrest will go away if you'll step into those things, but I can dig in with the shoes when I feel like I don't have any peace. And this is the only thing is going to offer me peace and say, Ah, you may, I may feel like I will get peace in this thing. But the truth is, is that I already have peace in Christ, even if I feel like I don't in this moment. So I can stand firm right here. Right? Paul says, Stand firm with the belt of truth around your waist of the breastplate of righteousness with the shoes that come fit of the readiness of the gospel of peace, verse 16, in addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, there are a couple of shields back in this day one was a small one. One was a really big one that covered the whole body, the full body shield is what he's talking about here. And it's a, it's a shield of faith, meaning trust, right. And so when we trust, what Jesus says about us is true, that we have a new nature that His ways are now part of who we are and what's best for us, then we're protected from all the arrows that are coming at us that are saying, you don't have this in your life, you're lacking in this life, and you feel this way. And and you walk by faith, saying I may feel like that's true. But I'm gonna walk by faith that God says that I'm not lacking anything in this moment. And it extinguishes those arrows that come after you. And the temptation has been defeated, verse 17, he goes on and says, take the helmet of salvation. Now, remember, we talked about salvation, it's not just our sins that are forgiven, and then we get to take it to Heaven one day, write the full gospel as you have your sins forgiven, you have assurance of eternal life. But again, you become a new creation, you have a new identity, you're adopted into God's family as God's own son, or daughter. And so we've got this, this helmet to protect the mind that when Satan says, you're no good, you're not a real child, real child wouldn't have done this or wouldn't have done that. Or you wouldn't feel this way in this moment about doing these kinds of things. And that's another key thing to realize is that sometimes we can feel a lot of things and we can think that we're dirty, disgusting people, and we've entered into sin, just from having some of those thoughts. But that's not where the sin is, we're going to be having thoughts and things come at us. And these lies are coming at us and things that we're going to think about all the time. But with a helmet, we renew our minds to the truth of our salvation of of not just having our sins forgiven and getting to go to heaven one day, but that I have a new identity that I am a son or a daughter of the King and I have everything that I will need for life and godliness in this moment. Verse 17, he goes on after saying take the helmet of salvation. And then he says to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now the way that Paul references the word here, and the original Greek refers to utterances, he's referring to speaking the Word of God, when we're fighting temptation. We are to fight the temptation by uttering God's truth against Satan speaking it's the same way that Jesus went being tempted in the desert in the wilderness with Satan. He, he spoke God's truth, gospel truth to Satan, he quoted Scripture and you and I do the same thing. When we're up against this. We don't just recognize the lie. We replace the lie then with God's truth, by quoting scripture. Paul says in verse 18, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. In other words, Paul's saying this is this is how you use the armor of God is through prayer. You use the armor of God that we have already in Christ, please know that please understand that right? That it's God's armor. We're in Christ. So we already have the armor when Paul says to put it on, he's not saying to go grab it like it's not a part of you. He uses this language all the time when he gets into practical things and he'll say put on the new self it's because you already are a new self that you can put on the new self right? He's just saying go live who you are. You already have the armor so to put it on, is through prayer. It keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, His armor that we already have it His truth. It's how we declare to him that we're we're depending upon Him and in His mighty power and in his strength in that moment to overcome those temptations brings me back to what Paul said as far as standing firm. Why? Why does Paul say to stand firm? Why didn't he say attack? Why did he say strike? Why didn't he say to advance in these moments? He says, to stand firm to stand your ground stand to stand against the devil and his schemes. Here's the thing, if you're taking notes, write this phrase down. When facing temptation. Listen, you are not fighting for victory. You are fighting from a place of victory. When fighting temptation, you are not fighting for victory. You're fighting from a place of victory. Jesus is our victory through what it is that he accomplished on the cross to defeat the power of sin and death and through His resurrection forever. It has no power over us. He describes six different pieces of armor here, really six different pieces of armor referred to one piece, and that is Jesus, Paul says to put on the belt of truth, and in John 14 Six, Jesus says I am the truth Paul says to put on the breastplate of righteousness. First Corinthians 130 tells us that Jesus is our righteousness, Paul says to put on the shoes of peace. Ephesians 214 says that Jesus is our peace, Paul says to put on the shield of faith, but Hebrews 212 Two says Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith, Paul says to put on the helmet of salvation in Hebrews 210 says that he is the captain of our salvation. And finally, Paul says to pick up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and of course, John one tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. How do you fight against temptation? Jesus? Jesus is our Victor We are not fighting from for victory, fighting from a place of victory. So we can just stand in Christ and in His power in in his strength, because he's already been defeated. We don't have to fight wouldn't have to advance to try to win because it's already won so we can just stand in it. We are to be aware of his lies and his deception. Recognize them when they're coming, and then stand firm in Jesus and in his mighty power to overcome