Would you look back again at
1 Corinthians chapter 10? Verse 13, there hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. you're going through, everyone
else is going through and has gone through. There's nothing
unusual about your situation. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you're able but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Temptation. Is Paul saying that when you're
tempted to commit a sin, and you know what that means, There's
a sin that comes into your mind, you're struggling with, you know
it's wrong, and you're tempted to commit that sin. Is he saying you've not been
put in a place where you're unable to resist that temptation? Because others have. Others have. You can as well. We can say no
to temptation. God has made a way to escape
it. You have the power to choose not to give in to that temptation.
You can do that. God has made that available to
you. And if you give in, you have
nobody to blame but yourself. Well, I wouldn't deny that. I dare say every believer feels
very uncomfortable with that because you know something of
your weakness before temptation. You know, just the ability to
be tempted shows how weak and sinful we are. Was the Lord ever
tempted to commit a sin? No, no. Was he ever thinking,
am I gonna do it? Or am I not? Of course not. He
is holy. He was incapable of committing
a sin. But you and I know something
about the power of temptation. Didn't the Lord teach us to pray?
Lord, lead us not into temptation. I hope no one in this room thinks,
well, I do pretty well with temptation. I pretty much got that down. I know that's not the case with
any believer. And so if I would look at that
passage of scripture, and I used to kind of get nervous whenever
I read this because I would think of, Me being tempted to sin,
oh, how horrible sin is, and how horrible being tempted to
sin is, and how horrible giving into temptation is. It's a horrible
thing. And every believer is dogged
with this every single day of their life. What does this mean? I think
of what Paul said in Galatians chapter two. He said, if a brother
be overtaken in a fault. Can you understand that? Can
you understand a brother being overtaken, overcome? He said, there's no temptation
taking you. Did you notice that, taking you? You which are spiritual,
you which have the Holy Spirit, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering yourself, lest thou also be tempted, knowing
whatever your brother would do wrong, you would too. And if
you're put in the same position, he was put in, you would fall
like him. Consider yourself, lest you also
be tempted." Now in our text, both the noun and the verb form
of tempted is used. Notice he says, there hath no
temptation. taken you. That's the noun. And
then we read, he will not suffer you to be tempted above that
which you are able. That is the same word in the
verb form. What does the word mean? And
I know the first thing that comes to my mind is being tempted to
sin. Oh, that's a horrible thing.
being tempted to sin. Something comes up in your mind,
you know it's wrong, you know it's evil, you know it's contrary
to the scriptures, you know it's against the will of God, and
you become swept away with it, thinking about it. You can't
get rid of it. You try to... What a horrible thing that is,
and everybody in here knows what I'm talking about. This thing
of being tempted to sin. Now, the word does not necessarily
mean that. Remember when James said count
it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations? That's not
saying count it all joy when you fall into temptation to sin.
He's talking about all the trials God sends our way for our good
in his glory. Count it joy when you fall into
various temptations. This is talking about trials
testings and difficult situations that God brings my way for my
good and for His glory. Him who is too wise to err and
too kind to be cruel who always does what He does for the good
of His people." This is what Peter referred to when he said,
now if need be you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. He's talking about trials and
trials. They bring heaviness. Somebody
says, well, I got through that trial easy. It wasn't a trial
then. If you go through a trial, you're
gonna find out how weak and how weak you are before that trial.
And you're not gonna think, well, I got through that well. I like
the way Peter said, if need be. Whatever trial, whatever test
the Lord sends my way and your way has a need be. Now if need be, you're in heaviness,
troubled through manifold temptations. What about when the Lord said
to his disciples, you are they that continue with me in my temptations. He wasn't talking about being
tempted to sin. The Lord was never tempted to sin. I love
the fact that Christ could not sin. I just love that. I've heard
preachers present, well, if it was no temptation, there wasn't
any righteousness in him turning it down. He was never tempted
to commit a sin. He never committed a sin, nor
did he think, oh, should I? I should. He's God. If he could sin, that means he
would change. He would not be immutable. He
would not be faithful to who he is. The Lord Jesus Christ
could not commit a sin. He wasn't tempted to sin in that
sense, but woe the temptations, the trials he had. Now, temptation
can also be an enticement to sin, whether arising from inward
desires, and you know what that means. It comes from you. It
doesn't come from outside, it came from out of your wicked
heart, my wicked heart, from inward desires or outward circumstances
we are put in. That's very real. And I would
never say that these temptations that are trials are ever separate
from also the temptations to sin. Now this verb form can also
mean to examine, to test, to prove, And it can be to tempt
one to commit evil, like Satan tempted the Lord. He sought to
seek to tempt him to sin. Now, whether this is talking
about simply the trials, the temptations that the Lord sends
our way, and we have them. I mean, there's so many, they're
so varied. They're coming our way. And if
you're not in one now, it's coming. And if you're coming out of one,
you're gonna be coming back into one. I mean, that's just the
way it is. And that's what we need, if need
be. merciful, but even during those
trials you can't separate that from the temptation to commit
sin in so many different ways. Now, in the context of this,
he's talking about the sin of idolatry. What it says in verse
14, wherefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry. He's talking
about the sin of idolatry. And that is involved in all the
things that he's been talking about in these first 10 verses
of the different trials that the children of Israel had gone
through. But I want you to turn with me to 1 John chapter 2 for
a moment. 1 John chapter 2. Verse 15, John says, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now, before I
go on, there's things in this world we love. We love God's
creation. We love the blessings he brings
our way. We love many things and well,
we should. So he's not saying hate everything
in the world. There's many things we're very
thankful for, many things. So what is he talking about?
He says in verse 16, for all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, The lust of the eyes and the pride of life is
not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes
away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever." The lust of the flesh. The lust of the cravings
of sinful, fallen flesh. It's pointed out before the fall
that Adam and Eve were both naked and they were not ashamed. It
was not an issue because they did not have a sinful nature. If I didn't have a sinful nature
and you didn't have a sinful nature, the thought of nakedness
would not be an issue. It's not be something that would
create lust and temptation and so on. But because of a sinful
nature, what's the first thing they did? They knew they were
naked. They were shamed. All the things that came with
that. And they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.
The lust of the flesh is the cravings of sinful, fallen nature. Somebody says, I can't help it.
It's natural to me. That doesn't make it OK. That doesn't make
it less sinful. It's the cravings of a sinful,
fallen nature. And then he talks about the lust
of the eyes. What's the difference between the lust of the eyes
and the lust of the flesh? Well, the lust of the eyes is
being concerned about what others think of you, about what others
see. It's being more concerned about
what men think of you than what God thinks of you. The lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, the pride of accomplishment and
achievement and power. Look what I've done. The pride
of life. I've heard it described like
this, the lust of the flesh, pleasure, the lust of the eyes,
popularity, the lust of or the pride of life, power. This is
actually what the Lord used or what Satan used with Adam and
Eve. You remember when that fruit was brought before them and the
fruit was pleasant to the eyes? The lust, I mean, pleasant to,
I can't remember exactly what it says, but it was pleasant
and then it was good to look upon. There's the lust of the
eyes. And a tree desired to make one
wise. There's the pride of life. These
three things. And when Satan tempted The Lord,
after fasting for 40 days, He said, command that this stone
be made bread. There's the lust of the flesh.
It had something to do with His flesh, satisfying His flesh.
Command that this stone be made bread. And then He said, If you're
really the Son of God, jump off the pinnacle of the temple and
prove it to us. Give us something we can see that'll prove this
is real. That's the lust of the eyes. And then he showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and he said,
all these will I give to you, for it's given to me to do this,
if you'll just bow down and worship me. There is the pride of life. And I love the way the Lord said,
the Prince of this world hath come and he's found nothing in
me. How much does he have to work
with, with me and you? A whole lot. He had nothing to
work with, with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, back to our text,
1 Corinthians chapter 10. Whether he's talking about Trials,
which I think that's what he's talking about, but you can't
separate that from being tempted to sin. I mean, because when
you're going through a trial, you're tempted to unbelief, you're
tempted to some kind of sin, you're tempted to something.
But listen to what he says. There hath no temptation taken
you. That's strong language. Taken you, but such as is common
to man. You're not going through anything
anybody else hadn't already gone through. Whatever it is. And
you know there's an element of comfort to that. What you've
gone through, everybody else has. The temptations you faced,
everybody else has. You're not going through anything
that's not common to man, but God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with
the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able
to bear it. Now it doesn't say he's going
to get rid of that temptation or that trial, but he'll with
it give you a way of escape that you might be able to endure and
bear it. Now what is the way of escape?
The gospel. the gospel. Now, this is not
a message on how to resist temptation. I wish I could tell you how to
resist temptation. I wish I could tell myself how
to resist temptation. I wish I could never be tempted
again to sin. I wish that. You wish that. But is this a
how to resist temptation? No, this is the way of escape.
He'll provide you a way of escape. Now, what came to my mind is
Paul's thorn in the flesh. That would give us some understanding
of what's going on in this thing of temptation. What was that
thorn? Was it a trial? Well, he had
plenty of those. Was it some sickness in his flesh. And some have thought that because
he said to the Galatians, you would have plucked out your own
eyes and given them to me. And perhaps he had severe problem
with his eyesight. But I have a tendency to think
it's not just a sickness or a problem like that, because you can get
those physical problems. There are trials. There are troubles. There are grievance. I realize
that. But when he talks about a thorn in the flesh, Maybe he's
talking about sickness, we're not really told. But a thorn
in the flesh, a thorn that had something to do with his flesh. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
12. Verse seven. And lest I should be exalted
above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given to me, who gave it to him? God did. There was given to me
a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan. to buffet me, to smite
me in the face, to bruise me black and blue. Now this was
Paul's experience. There was given to me a thorn
in the flesh. Oh, a thorn in the flesh is so
painful. There was given to me by God,
a thorn in the flesh to buffet me. to smite me in the face,
lest I should be exalted above measure. Now for this thing,
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." And
does that mean he only asked the Lord three times for it to
depart? No, it means I asked all the
time. I asked all the time. Let this thorn depart from me. Let it be gone. It's making my
life miserable. Let it be gone. Now, what brought on this passage where the Lord ended
up saying, my grace is sufficient for thee? Let me say, that's
the way of escape. That is the way of escape. My grace is sufficient for thee. But let's look up in verse one. It is not expedient for me, doubtless,
to glory. It's not a good thing, doubtless,
for me to glory. You know, the scripture says,
He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. But if you're put
in the position of the Apostle Paul, you might have a tendency
of glory. Let's see why. He said, I will
come to visions and revelations in the Lord. And Paul came to
a lot of visions and revelations. He tells us a little bit about
how he was caught up into the third heavens and heard unspeakable
words, which were not lawful for a man to utter, where he
was taught the gospel by Jesus Christ directly without the use
of a man. Now, if I was brought up into
heaven and the Lord communicated the gospel directly to me, I may have a tendency to think,
I've got something they don't have. Should I? Of course not. Would I? Yeah,
because of my sinful self. And Paul was aware of that. Now
look what he said there. He says, I will come to visions
and revelations of the Lord. He had many times. Now look,
I love the way he says this in verse two. He said, I knew a
man in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot
tell, whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth, such
a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God
knows, how he was caught up into paradise. And he heard unspeakable
words, which is not lawful for a man to utter." Now look at
the way he says this. He says, I knew a man in Christ. The humility. The only way I can even think
of this man is this man being in Christ. This wouldn't have
happened to me. I wouldn't have been given these
revelations that I've been given, teaching me the gospel, if it
were not simply for this one glorious fact, I'm in Christ. I don't even want to think about
anything apart from being in Christ. And Paul actually is
speaking With humility, I knew a man in Christ. Now here's my confidence in Christ. Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. I am all of that in Christ. Now, Paul said the only way he
could have brought me up into the third heavens, if he did,
in fact, it's something that happened 14 years ago, and I
thought that was interesting. 14 years. 14 years ago is 2010,
and I was thinking about this. I can't remember anything that
took place in 2010. You say, what took place in 2010? I have
no idea. 14 years ago is a long time ago,
but this is how long ago this happened, but he remembered this
I was brought up into the third heavens. I knew a man in Christ. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him." Isn't that the desire of your heart? And
Paul said, I wouldn't have any of this experience except I were
in Christ. I knew a man in Christ, verse
two, about 14 years ago. Whether in the body, I can't
tell. Whether out of the body, I don't
know if this was a vision, or whether I was somehow caught
up out of my body and brought into heaven. My soul, my spirit,
I can't tell. I don't know. God knows. Such
a one caught up to the third heaven. And that's a powerful
thought. There's the atmosphere, the blue skies, the nighttime,
the clouds where the birds fly. There's the second heaven, outer
space, the galaxies, The third heaven where Christ dwells, where
God dwells, where the angels live, where the seraphims fly
around his throne crying, holy, holy, holy. The third heavens. I don't know if I was there bodily
or whether my soul rose up out of my body, but there I was in
the third heavens. Hearing unspeakable words, which
are not lawful for a man to utter. Turn with me to Ephesians, hold
your finger there and turn with me to Ephesians chapter three. Verse one. For this cause, I,
Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you've heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to
you." Now, the reason I was brought up into the third heavens is
for you. Do you know that although Paul
was taught the gospel directly, you've been taught the same things
Paul was? He brought them to you in this word. God, the Holy
Spirit made it known, but everything that was revealed to Paul is
revealed to all of his children. If you know the gospel, God has
revealed these glorious things to you. And Paul says, when I
was up there, I heard unspeakable words. I don't know what language
he heard. Somehow he had to bring it down
to us. But I heard unspeakable words,
which were not lawful for a man to utter. Verse 3, Ephesians chapter 3,
how by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Now a mystery
is that which we could have never known had not God been pleased
to make it known. Would you ever know that God
is one God in three persons except he made it known? Would you have
ever known of the glorious atonement and achievements of Christ. Had
he not made him known, would you ever have known the work
of the Holy Spirit in the new birth? Had he not made it known,
you wouldn't know these things. But he made him known whereby
when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ. That's how I know these things. God made them known to
me. And this was communicated to
him in unspeakable words, which are not lawful for a man to utter.
And this is how Paul became the wise master builder. That's what
he called himself. I as a wise master builder. He said in Galatians 1.12, the
gospel which was preached to me was not after man. I didn't have Peter teaching
me. I didn't have John teaching me.
I didn't have any of the apostles teaching me. I didn't come up
with it on my own. The gospel which was preached
to me was not after man, for I neither received it of man,
nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And we believe the gospel Paul
preached. And that means if I believe the
gospel Paul preached, God revealed to me the same things he revealed
to Paul. So don't get too jealous of Paul.
He's revealed the same things to you and I. Now Paul says in
verse 5, of such a one will I glory, that man in Christ. Of such a
one will I glory. I'm so thankful to be in Christ.
I'm so thankful God put me in Christ. I'm so thankful for the
revelation that there is in Christ. Of such a one will I glory, yet
of myself. I will not glory, but in my infirmities,
my weakness, Now, when you think of your flesh, what do you think
of? Weakness. Weakness. Somebody says, not me, I'm strong.
Well, you're blind as a bat then. Weakness. Now look what he says
in verse six, for though I would desire to glory, I shall not
be a fool. For I will say the truth, but
now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which
he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. Now, if you knew
a man had been brought into third heavens and came down and was
talking to you, you'd be impressed with that man. If you were that
man, you would You know, you ought to be humbled
that the Lord would do something like that with you, but you know
you glory. If I was brought into the third
heavens, I'd come down and I'd think, hmm, the Lord's really
blessed me in an unusual way. I'm here to dispense the wisdom
He's given me to these ignorant masses. You know, that's, I mean,
that's just so, that's how we, sinful, stupid, self-righteous,
always ready to glory in something other than Christ. It's so evil,
but what did the Lord do for Paul? He says, verse seven, and
lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. What a temptation that must have
been. I don't know what it is. You
don't know what it is. But Paul called it the messenger
of Satan. And he said, it's me getting struck with the fist
of Satan in the face, beating me black and blue. And every
time that I feel how exalted I am, this is
given to me to bring me back down to earth real quick. What a trial! What a temptation! That was the messenger of Satan
to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. Now for
this thing, this thorn in the flesh, I bethought the Lord thrice
that it might depart from me. Oh, I want it gone. I want it
to leave. It beats me black and blue. I
hate it and I ask the Lord make this to go away. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace. Now his grace is sovereign
grace. You know what that means? He can give it to you. He can
give it to you because He's sovereign. He can give it to you. You can't
say, well, it can't be for me. He can give it to you because
it's sovereign grace. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. My grace, it's free grace. There's nothing you need to pay
to have it. There's nothing you need to do
to have it. It's free grace. It's always
saving grace and it's sufficient grace. I love that word sufficient.
My grace is sufficient for thee. Now here Paul is beat black and
blue with his thorn in the flesh. And what is his way of escape?
He'd asked the Lord to take it away. The Lord didn't. The Lord didn't say no. He didn't
say, no, you're stuck with it. He gave him this answer, my grace
is sufficient for thee. Now, I love thinking about the
sufficiency of his grace. Let's say you do have a thorn
in the flesh. Can your thorn in the flesh prevent
his electing grace? Oh, don't you love electing grace?
His sovereign choice of his people. without reference to anything
in them, simply because He's sovereign and He would. His redeeming
grace, can your thorn in the flesh, whatever that may be,
can it take away from the power of His redemption? His redeeming
grace, the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, can your thorn
in the flesh, whatever it might be, I don't know if it's a trial,
I don't know if it's a struggle in the flesh with something,
everybody's got their struggles in the flesh. I know they do. We keep them hid as much as we
can. You don't want them to get out.
But everybody's got their weaknesses, their sinfulness, their sinful
capacities that they struggle with. Can that prevent God's
grace from saving you? No, it can't, because His grace
is always saving grace. It can't prevent Him from giving
you life. It can't prevent Him from preserving
you. It can't prevent Him from glorifying
you, whatever that is. Can you rest in this? And I,
you know, it's almost, for Him to, I tried to put myself in
Paul's place, for Him to say, my grace is sufficient for you. It is. It really is. I don't need anything else. Oh,
my sufficiency is in Him, the sufficiency of His saving grace. My grace is sufficient for you. That's your way of escape. You
don't need anything else. My grace is sufficient for you. Are you content to be saved by
grace alone? Answer that in your own heart.
Are you content? Are you satisfied to be saved
by grace alone? He said in verse nine, my grace
is sufficient for thee. Nothing else is needed. Nothing
you need to do. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. You know, Paul goes on to say,
when I'm weak, then am I strong. You know, when you're strong,
you're so weak. You don't realize it, but you're
an utter weakness when you feel I'm strong. No, you're not. I
tell you when you are strong, when you're nothing but weakness
itself, that's when you understand my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee.
My strength, my strength is made perfect in weakness. It doesn't
operate where there's strength to compete with it. His grace
only operates in utter and complete weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities. Now, does that mean that he enjoys
the thorn in the flesh and glories in it? No, but he does glory
in what it teaches him about himself. And it teaches him about
the sufficiency of God's grace. So I glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore, I take
pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then am I
strong. You see, when you're weak, you're
nothing. When you're nothing, Christ is all. What is this way of escape? Turn
back to our texts in first Corinthians chapter 10. There hath no temptation, trial,
trouble, sickness, temptation to sin, there hath no temptation
taken you, but such as is common to man. You're not going through
anything nobody else has ever gone through. This is common
to man, but God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you're able? but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that you may able to bear it, bear
up under it. And what is the way of escape?
My grace is sufficient for thee. May the Lord enable us all to
glory in that. My grace is sufficient for thee. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that your
grace, your saving, free, glorious grace is sufficient. Lord, enable us to glory only
in the man in Christ. Our salvation is being in him.
And Lord, enable us to be weak so we might have your strength. Bless this message for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen.