April 7, 2019
Evening Service

We will be tempted because our flesh is weak; there are many things in this world that appeal to the eye, the mind, the pleasure of the flesh, and our hearts. We as humans are prone to do the wrong thing most of the time and without the Holy Spirit imparted to us from God, we would likely continue to indulge our human selfish interests without regard to consequence. This however does not mean the consequences would be done away with, the consequences for living a selfish life with no regard for the Savior who bled and died for our sins are dire and result in a permanent separation from God our Father. This is the tragedy of living a self-fulfilled life instead of a life for Christ the Savior who bore our sins to give us eternal life. In the scriptures, it talks to us about the flesh and the weakness as Jesus said to his disciples.

Matthew 26:41  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”

This short scripture gives us great insight as to how we can deal with temptations that come our way, we can lean on the Spirit inside of us to guide our actions and thoughts to decisions not of the self, but for others and of God’s Will for our lives. Jesus will not judge you for decisions that are selfish or unrighteous until the Day of Judgment, you will be allowed to do all manner of things pleasing to the selfish desires of the heart and without consequence.

John 12:47  And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

But I want to emphasize with great passion, the Day of Judgment is coming and when Christ returns, be it today, tomorrow, or the next day, the Day will come. 

2 Timothy 4:1  I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom

We must be ready for the Lord’s coming whenever it is, we should do our best to live our lives as if He is coming in the next minute. The scriptures tell us to be watching and waiting and to be ready always for the Day of the Lord’s Coming. The message is a simple one, but one that requires faith in our Lord to truly believe. God sent His Son Jesus to live a life worthy to be the Lamb of God offered for our sins and transgressions, a Lamb without blemish and one given by God the Father for us to believe in as our Redeemer. Jesus is our Redeemer and this means we are lost without Him, we cannot earn our way to eternal life, we cannot do good deeds to be recognized as a way to eternal life, and we cannot pay our way to eternal life through wealth acquired in this life. There is only one way to eternal life and that is to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s only Son given to us for the remission of our sins, to confess Him as Lord and the Son of God with our mouths, and to be baptized in the name of the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is the way to eternal life and if anyone believes otherwise, the Day of Judgment will be a day of great sadness rather than a day of rejoicing in God’s great care and love.

The days of Jesus walking on the earth is filled with story after story of how he lived a life without sin to be an example for us to follow. I have heard people say, well I am human and I have to sin every day. This type of thinking is exactly what leads us into temptations and makes our actions sinful. We DO NOT  have to sin every day, Jesus showed us the Way to live without sin. We must love one another as we love ourselves, we must put God (Jesus our Lord) as the first and most important thing in our lives, and we must think unselfish thoughts and our actions will follow from what we place in our minds as appropriate thinking. God’s Word tells us this about our thinking and how it relates to sin.

1 John 2:16  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.

Galatians 5:16  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

God tells us in His Word, that sin begins in the heart and if it is in the heart, it is already a sin as if it were done outright. So we must pray that God keeps these thoughts from our mind and not allow them to enter into our heart, then we will not sin first of the heart. Humans are weak creatures, we sometimes live our lives like we are in control of our destiny and can make or break anything we choose. This is pride entering into to us and not of God, we as Christians know that God is in control and we must be obedient to his calling on us. We should live our lives that exhibit an example patterned by Jesus for righteous living. This alone will not get us into heaven because that would make the living, dying, and resurrection of Christ all for nothing. The truth is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and nobody will go to the Father in heaven without being cloaked in the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

When we sin, and we will sin because our sinful nature is such that we give into to worldly things, we must confess that sin and ask for the forgiveness of that sin to God the Father through Jesus His Son who did the work on Calvary for our eternal life. We then are forgiven and start afresh to live our lives for God without the sin. When we gave our lives over to God through Jesus our Lord, all things had become new! We are new creatures in Christ Jesus and no longer a bondservant to Satan. We are a bondservant to our Lord Jesus and our lives should reflect we are born again, this should be evident to anyone who crosses our paths. As the saying goes, people should see in us something that is appealing to them and create the desire to have what we have through Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins. This is how the Word and Work of God the Father and Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit is best communicated, without words, but with actions that reflect the love of our Lord. Remember, the work was done by Jesus and not by us and we can do nothing to save ourselves and no individual will be able to sneak into Heaven. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and this applies to all who choose not to accept Jesus also. It is not enough to just believe Jesus is the Son of God, the devil himself knows this and he is the most evil of all! We must believe and repent of our sins, claiming the blood of Jesus to be applied on our behalf before the Father. So many people will miss the great Coming of the Lord in the way Jesus wants for us, sin is the reason why and giving into temptations of the flesh.

Matthew 7:13  "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Jesus Himself was tempted and prevailed over temptation every time through scriptures. This is how we can also prevail over temptation is by using the written Word of God to be our Sword to fight Satan we he comes seeking to devour.

Matthew 4:1  Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

This happened to Jesus to show our Redeemer was not only tempted as we are tempted, but to show that he overcame the temptations with scripture and the ministering of the angels. This is our hope eternal of a home brighter and far more glorious than the one we live in now. Jesus led His life in a manner worthy of the Father in Heaven and this is done for us because we are not worthy, nor will we ever be worthy through deed, or kindness, or words, or gestures, we will only be worthy through Jesus alone. Filthy rags is how the bible describes our works, this tells me that filthy rags is not worthy of God’s presence. Even our offerings and sacrifices of us is not worthy unless given in the name of Jesus. God the Father will not recognize any human being’s works, deeds, offerings, or praise without their belief in Christ Jesus the Lord. We need a Savior and I thank God that He sent His one and only Son because He loved us that much! A final note on temptation is that the bible gives specific directions for temptation when it comes our way.

1 Corinthians 10:13  No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Our prayer tonight is Lord we truly thank You for loving us so much and so undeserved. Thank you for our Savior and Redeemer of our souls. We thank you Jesus for willingly yielding to the Will of our Father in Heaven to be our Lamb of God. You bore our sins on the cross having victory through your righteousness over evil.