The Apostle Peter declares that God
has given his children, that is, believers, exceeding great
and precious promises. He tells us that in his second
epistle. And I believe that the Apostle
Peter there refers especially to the promises of the new covenant. As that new covenant is related
to us in Hebrews chapter eight, I see these four promises and
they are exceeding great and precious promises. First of all,
God promises a new heart, a new heart, an inward work of his
grace. And that's something all of us
need. Religion, and there's plenty
of religion, religion always starts on the outside, tries
to clean the person up from the outside. Tries to motivate people
by laws and rules. But salvation is an inward work
of grace. Begins with a new heart. A new
heart that loves the things of God. That loves what wants it
hated and hates what wants it loved. That's the first promise
I see there. In Hebrews 8 of the New Covenant,
it is God giving us a new heart, writing his law upon our hearts. And then secondly, God promises
to be our God. Now that just covers everything.
It really does. If you consider that, meditate
upon that, God promises to be our God. If He is our God, then
we can have no needs, no wants that He will not supply. That's the reason David could
say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I just won't want. When the Lord
is my shepherd, when God is my God, the true and living God,
not some fake God, some imaginative God that man has concocted in
his mind, some God that wants to do a whole lot if man would
only cooperate. But the God of the Bible is a
God who says, I will and they shall. I will and they shall. The third promise in that covenant
is God promises that we shall all know him. Remember the Lord
Jesus Christ in his prayer in John chapter 17, he said, this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. We know God in Christ. He that hath seen me, he told
Philip, hath seen the Father. And the fourth promise there
is God promises that he will not remember our sins and iniquities. He has removed them as far as
the east is from the west from his people. Blessed is the man,
David said, blessed is the man, happy is the man. to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. Our sins God will remember no
more. But having said that, that I
believe that the exceeding great and precious promises that Peter
is speaking of refer especially to those promises of the new
covenant, it is also true that God has sprinkled all through
the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation, he
has sprinkled promises for his children. And they are precious
promises that he has given us. And tonight, we're going to look
at one of them here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse number 13. Here we have a promise that God
has given to all of his children, there hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you
may be able to bear it. Now I have three points I want
to make as we look at this promise. First of all, the word temptation. There hath no temptation taken
you. I believe all of us here tonight
recognize that this English word temptation is used in two different
ways in the scripture. I think most of us, when we think
of temptation, we automatically think temptation to evil. And
it is used that way in the Word of God, but it is also used in
the sense of trials. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. Temptation there doesn't mean
temptation to evil. So the word temptation is used
in two different ways in the scriptures. When you look up
the word temptation in the Greek concordance, or in the Strong's
concordance rather, he gives this definition of the word.
A putting to proof. A putting to proof. like a meteorologist,
metal-ologist. I think that's the way you say
that. They're able to test metal. They're able to put metal to
the proof. When they build these bridges,
the metal has to come up to a certain standard because the weight that's
going to be on that bridge, if the metal is not tested, if it's
not put to the proof, before it's ever put up as a bridge,
then people, traffic may be going over that bridge, these heavy
trucks, and the bridge give way. So the word temptation, the Greek
word means a putting to proof. And then in parentheses, by experiment
of good, experience of evil, solicitation, discipline, or
provocation, and by implication, adversity. Now, so we see that
the word temptation may be used in either one of these ways.
Adversity may mean adversity, and God's children certainly
are not exempt from adversity in this world, or it may be temptation
to sin, to evil. Same word may be used either
way. In the context here, in 1 Corinthians
10, to determine which way it is used is not easy. It's not
easy to determine in this text which way it is used. When I
first started looking at it, I thought, well, certainly it
means temptation to evil. Because in the context, you notice
in the next verse, Verse 14, wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from my idolatry. So there the temptation, it seems,
would be to evil, to sin. But all of the writers, all of
the writers believe that it speaks of adversity. So the best thing
for you and I to do is to consider it as a promise in both ways. A promise that God has given
us concerning temptation to evil or concerning adversity. Now, notice the second thing
we see. The temptation that takes you
is common to man. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. The two words, taken you,
might be translated, assailed you. The picture is that of an
enemy grabbing someone, overcoming someone, attempting to hold someone
in his grips and not let us go. The temptation, whether it's
temptation to evil or it is adversity, it makes no difference. It is
still common to man. Whatever temptation you may be
in, you may go through, it is a temptation that is common to
man. The scriptures tell us that God
tempted Abraham. God tempted Abraham. Now, He
didn't tempt him to sin. Because the scriptures also tell
us that God cannot be tempted to sin, neither tempteth he any
man. But when God tempted Abraham,
it was an adversity, wasn't it, that he was brought into. These, we might say, are common
to man. Common to man. Any temptation,
every temptation. that you, here you are living
today, October the 12th, 2022, whatever temptation, whether
it's temptation to evil or it's adversity, your temptation, my
temptation is common to man. We're not the first one who has
experienced this and we will not be the last one to experience
this as long as this world continues. John Gill mentioned several ways
that God has tempted his people. And he gives the example of Abraham. He commanded Abraham to do something
very hard. Offer up thy son Isaac as a burnt
sacrifice. And God tests or tempts his people
sometimes by commanding us to do difficult, disagreeable, hard
things. Sometimes another way that he
tempts his people, he withdraws his presence. You're walking
in the sunshine of his love. The smile of God is upon you. You have fellowship with the
Lord. And then you wake up one morning, and you don't even know
for sure there is a God. Well, I've never experienced
that. Well, I have. I have. Sometimes I can get down
to pray and it's as though the Lord was right there with me.
And he is, I know that. But I just know he is. And sometimes
I may get down on my knees to pray and I think my prayer might
hit the ceiling and bounce back. That's about as far as it goes.
And sometimes the joy of the Lord is in our heart. And we
can't wait to be in the worship service with the people of God,
to sing the praises of God, to get in the word of God, to read
the word of God and rejoice, rejoice in our spirits. And sometimes
We have to make ourselves read the word of God. Isn't that true? Sure it is, I know it is. God
tests or tempts his people in this way. And yet again, I say we know
the apostle James tells us, God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man. So the scriptures tell us that
God tempted Abraham, and the scriptures tell us that Satan
tempts to sin. God will never tempt you to sin,
but Satan will. He was allowed to tempt the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was allowed to tempt him.
Here he is, Satan, knowing full well who he was Speaking to and
yet he says if if thou be the son of God Command these stones
to be made into bread Tempting him to not trust God to sin and
not trust God Satan is allowed to tempt God's people He tempted
Job remember I'm thankful for the book of Job, aren't you?
For what we have recorded concerning Job. There's much we don't understand
how Satan came among the sons of God. There's a lot we can't
explain. We don't have to explain it.
We read it, we believe it. But what was Satan's desire? He took away his camels, he took
away his asses, he took away all of his animals, he took away
his children. But what was his primary desire? It was that Job would curse God. You read it there in Job chapter
one. Satan told God, yeah, He's only
serving you because of what you give him. You just take this
away and he'll curse you. He'll curse you to your face. That was his desire. He didn't
want his animals. He had no use for those things. No, his desire was to tempt Job
to sin, to curse God. John Gill gave these temptations
of Satan. He tempts by soliciting God's
people to sin. He tempts by suggesting blasphemous
thoughts. You ever have any of those? Those thoughts that come into
your mind, maybe just out of the blue, we say. Thoughts of
blasphemy, wondering if there even is a God. He tempts by filling
our hearts with doubts and fears. We begin to doubt God and doubt
his word. He tempts us by, John Gill said,
dissuading us from the use of means. Now by that it means,
of course, it means the word of God, prayer, preaching. He dissuades us from using these
means that God has given us for our spiritual well-being. To neglect the word, to neglect
the worship services, to neglect the ordinances. Remember, he tempted Peter. Our
Lord said, He wants to sift you as wheat. And the way they sifted
wheat, we know, the way they harvested or prepared wheat, they would thrust
it up into the air, wouldn't they? And the wind would take
the shell away and just the wheat would fall to the ground. And
that's the way Satan would have done Peter and did do Peter,
no doubt. He shook him. I mean, he cast
him up and let him fall down. The point is, the point is that
these temptations, and I can't name them all, I'm sure all of
us have had different kinds of temptation, different kinds of
adversities, but no matter what they are, they're common to man. We're not the first. and we will
not be the last. But now, here's the third point,
God's promise. His promise is threefold, as
I look at it. It's threefold. First of all,
God is faithful. Look at the verse. There hath
no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but
God is faithful. The first thing we consider about
a promise should be the promiser. The promiser. This is the bedrock
of our faith and our assurance and our confidence with any promise. Our God is faithful. In 2 Timothy chapter two and
verse 13, the apostle said, if we believe not, Yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Look with me to Romans for just
a moment. Turn over here to Romans. We'll
come back to the text, but let's look in Romans chapter four. Concerning Abraham. So the first
thing about a promise is the promisor. God is faithful. Here in Romans chapter four,
beginning in verse 17, we read, as it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed,
God. Abraham believed God, who quickeneth
the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Now notice this, Abraham, who
against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father
of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body, now dead, he's 100 years old,
nor the deadness, of Sarah's womb. He didn't consider
that. Those are the impossibilities,
right? God promised him a son. He didn't
consider the fact that he had passed the age of having children
and his wife had passed the age of having children. He didn't
look at the difficulties, the obstacles, but what did he do? He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, now notice this, and being fully persuaded that what
he had promised, he was able to perform. Now if a man that
I know is a consistent liar promises me something, I'm not going to
put a whole lot of stock in his promise. If a man who is so poor,
he doesn't know where his next meal is going to come from, and
he promises me that he's going to supply all my needs, I don't
put a whole lot of stock in that promise. I'm thankful that he
considers me, yes. But you see, when God promises,
God who cannot lie, when he promises something, We can count on that. When God promises something who
has everything, everything is his. When he promises that he
will supply all of our needs according to his riches in Christ
Jesus, we can count on that. Why? Because of the promisor. The promise is great, but not
as great as the promisor. Now back in our text, the second
thing we see, and before I go on, this doesn't
mean that we do not avail ourselves to the means that He has given
us. He's promised, yes, but we pray, we ask Him, and that's
the encouragement to pray. When we have a promise, we take
the promise to God and say, Father, This is what you promised. Now
do. That's what Jacob said. Now do
what you've promised. But the second thing I said,
there's a threefold, I say a threefold promise here. How? First of all, the promisor, God
is faithful. But second, how can God make
such a promise as this? He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able. How can he make such a promise
as that? He can make that promise, listen,
because he is God and he is the sovereign over all things. That's how he can make this promise
that you, he will not suffer you to be tempted above that
you're able because he's God. because he's the sovereign ruler
of all things. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. He can make this promise, secondly,
because, listen, every child of God here, God's put a hedge
about you. That's right. God's put a hedge,
you can't see it, but God sees it. He's put a hedge about you
just like he did Job. That's what Satan said, how can
I do anything to him? You've put a hedge about him.
God can make this promise because he's put a hedge around every
one of his children. And he can make this promise
thirdly because he keeps all of his people, now listen, as
the apple of his eye. He keeps all a keeps you. You're
one of his people. He keeps you as the apple of
his eye. In other words, he's not going
to let anything touch you arm you destroy you. Because he keeps you as the apple
of his eye. Just like you keep your eye.
It's a reflex, isn't it? You see something, you're working
on a project and something you see is coming at your eyes, it's
automatically you protect your eye. God protects his children
the same way. He will not, this is what, he
will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able. And then
third, Notice, he will with the temptation,
with the temptation, at the same time of the temptation, he will
make a way. He will make a way, whether it's
temptation to evil or it's adversity. He will, the scripture says, But will, with the temptation,
same time as the temptation, also make a way. And I'm stopping there. Make
a way because I want us to see that this way might be a way
to escape or it might be a way to bear. You see that in the
text? But will with the temptation
also make a way to escape? That's the way he will deliver
his people. Sometimes he makes a way to escape. But sometimes he makes a way
that you are able to bear it. You've all visited someone. I'm
thinking of someone right now in my mind who I've watched for
years suffer, physically suffer, and
yet always has a good attitude. And you've said this. You go
to see someone in the hospital or someone that's suffering.
You think you're going there to encourage them and kind of
lift them up. You visit and you come away the
one who was encouraged. How is that possible? God gives
them the grace to bear it just like this scripture here says.
Man by none of us by nature have the strength or the ability to
bear adversity. We all are weak as water but
the promise is God. will provide. Paul, remember,
he had that trial, that temptation, that thorn in his flesh, and
he prayed three times that the Lord would remove it. God didn't
remove it, said he wouldn't remove it. But what he did, he gave
him the grace to bear it, to bear it. He continued the rest
of his life, I assume, with that thorn, whatever it was. But he
never stopped serving the Lord. He never gave up. He never quit
praising God and thanking God for having mercy upon such a
sinner as he was, the chief of sinners. Now let me close by
saying that this promise is another evidence that God will not, now
listen, here's another evidence that God will not allow any person
who is truly saved to be tempted so as to fall away. To do that,
these three things would have to be true. If any child of God could fall
away after he's been saved and received eternal life, if he
could then lose it, of course it wouldn't be eternal if he
lost it. But think about this. The only
way that could happen is, number one, God not to be faithful. That ain't gonna happen. That's
not going to happen. Our God is a faithful God. Number two, he would have to
allow a person to be tempted above what he's able to escape
or bear. And he tells us right here that
he will not. He will not do that. Who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able. Or number three, because he will
not make a way to escape or to bear it. And that, as he says
here, he will do. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to each and every one of us. Someone said, that a child
of God is either in adversity, just came out of adversity, or
just going into adversity. Anytime, all the time. He's either in adversity, or
he just came out of some adverse situation, or he's about to enter
in to some adversity. That's just the way it is, isn't
it? Let's sing a hymn.