240218 Sermon on fighting temptation (Lent 1) February 18, 2024

Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

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Sermon manuscript:

Today I’d like to address something that all people must face: Temptation. Temptation is when we are lured and enticed to do something that is wrong. Where does temptation come from? It doesn’t come from God. James says in our reading, “God tempts no one.” Instead, as he says, temptation is when “each person is lured and enticed by his own desires.”

This makes sense. If you don’t have a desire for something, how can you really be tempted? For example, some people don’t like sweet things. Forgoing dessert is not difficult. They have no strong desire for it. Likewise, with more serious matters: Some have an intense desire for money. Others less so. Some have an intense desire to get their own way. Others are more agreeable. What tempts us is closely linked to our desires.

The Bible teaches what is to be done when our desires drag us into temptation. This is seen already with Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s sons. Cain was stirred up with a powerful desire to kill his brother Abel. Cain is told, “Sin is crouching at the door… You must rule over it.” The picture here is that either desires rule over us, or we rule over the desires. Either we are slaves to our desires—forced to obey what our desires command, or we are free. If we are free, then we aren’t forced to obey whatever our desires tell us. We can tell them we are not going to obey them.

There are a couple of passages that speak like this. Paul says in Galatians chapter 5: “For freedom Christ has set you free.” The goal of Jesus’s work as the Christ is to set us free. Jesus speaks this way in John chapter 8. He says, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Jesus reveals something very important about our slavery or freedom with regard to our desires. The only way that we can be set free is by the Son of God setting us free. We cannot free ourselves. The chains are too strong. If we imagine that we have freed ourselves, we are deceiving ourselves. Only the Son sets you free, but, as Jesus says, “If the Son sets you free then you are free indeed.”

That’s good news! The word “Gospel” means “good news.” Slaves who have been kicked around by their masters are happy to hear that they are free. They no longer have to listen to those old masters. What’s more is that we are not just set free now to go about our business, having to make our own way. We have been made into sons in the only Son of God. We belong to the house of God, which we may live in forever. We are baptized into Jesus. We have become one with him. Jesus, as you know, is Lord over everything. He sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is above every power, authority, desire and demand. He is free. He is Lord. And so are we when we believe in him.

This is the Gospel that all of us Christians have been given. It says something new about us. “For freedom Christ has set you free.” You are free from amazing things! You are free from death. You are free from hell. You are free from the Law, because Christ fulfilled the Law for you. You are free from the demands of your desires. By the Holy Spirit who is within you you can say “No.” “I’m not going to obey you as though you were my master and I were your slave.”

Faith in this Gospel is truly wonder-working. It goes way beyond moving mountains. Moving mountains is nothing compared to the lordship that is ours through faith in Christ. We, together with Jesus, triumph over all evil. We triumph because Jesus is king and God. He’s on your side, and, through faith in him, you’re on his side. Everything has to turn out well, even if you first must pass through fire or the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus is just that great of a king. Your faith in him is powerful, because he is powerful.

But although faith is so powerful, it is, at the same time, easily damaged and lost. This is always how God’s enemies attack. They attack our faith with deception and lies. God’s enemies cannot attack Christ directly. They could never overcome him. So the only power that God’s enemies have is to deceive and tell lies in the hopes that we will give up on the truth and believe the lies instead. This is how our faith is easily damaged and lost. We believe the lies instead of believing the truth.

I’ll give you a very straightforward example that I’m sure you’ve all experienced. Let’s say a desire comes along and says, “Do this!” Hopefully you know and you remember from the Gospel that you are not a slave. You are free. You can say to that desire, “No, I won’t obey you.” But let’s say your desire puts up a fight and says, “I’m stronger than you.”

You’ve probably heard the saying, “A good lie always contains a bit of truth.” Goliath was stronger than David. So it may be here too. Your desires may very well be stronger than you! They aren’t stronger than Jesus! They aren’t stronger than the Holy Spirit. The deception here is that you are too weak for the temptation—just look at you—so you might as well give in.

I’ve been fooled by this simple tactic. There are countless more. They can be extremely subtle and convincing. The apostle Paul himself admits to being deceived repeatedly in Romans chapter 7 as he fought against temptation. There seems to be no end to God’s enemies’ lying, and, unfortunately, our flesh likes to be deceived. Being deceived is the way that our faith is so easily damaged and lost. We put back on the chains of slavery from which Christ has freed us.

What should we do if we find ourselves in this sad but very common situation? The most important thing is that you don’t go on believing in lies. Saying you should not go on believing lies is a lot easier than actually doing it, however, because continuing on in lies is the very thing that God’s enemies want you to do. Lies can look much more attractive than the truth. Remember Adam and Eve. Hiding in the bushes seemed much safer and wiser than exposing themselves with the truth.

The good thing about the truth, though, is that the truth is also good news. If the truth were that God hates you because you’ve blown it—I’d want to hide from that too! But that’s not the truth. The truth is the good news that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. The good work that Jesus has done as king isyou’re your salvation. His work does not need your cooperation and involvement. Jesus’s work is complete and perfect. He gives it to you as a gift. He gives it to you by having it spoken to you so that you can believe it. Believe this good news and it’s yours!

And then don’t forget what we’ve talked about already today. What we’ve talked about is so easy to lose sight of in the midst of temptation. You are not a slave. You have been purchased and redeemed. You have the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to obey your desires’ demands as though you were their slave. You are free. “For freedom Christ has set you free.” In Christ you are lords over all evil powers. They cannot do what they want to do to you.

Accordingly, and this is important too, we can have an assertive posture towards desires and temptations instead of having a posture of weak resignation. I know well—again, by personal experience—the whimpering prayer, “I wish these desires would go away from me. I wish they’d leave me alone.” Behind that whimper is the fear that my desires are too strong for me. There’s despair behind that whimper. Despair is the opposite of faith. Of course you are too weak to conquer all your desires, but that is not what we as Christians believe in. We do not believe that we are all alone and that it is all up to us. You aren’t alone. Jesus is with you. You are weak, but he is strong.

Therefore, you can be assertive. You can see this assertive posture towards temptation in our epistle reading from James. He says, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation.” He doesn’t say “Cursed is the man who has been tempted.” He says, “Blessed is that man.”

A few verses earlier he speaks even more clearly about this assertive, confident posture. He says, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when temptations of various kinds fall all around you.” Consider it all joy? Why? James answers: “The testing of your faith produces endurance.” The testing of that faith you have in Jesus as the king produces endurance. Having been set free, we can try it out.

Refusing to do evil is the smashing of evil. It is wonderful and glorious. We can learn by experience that we can endure temptation. We don’t always only have to sin. We don’t have to obey. That is when we are beginning to entering into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. That is when we are embracing the implanted word that makes us a kind of first-fruits of God’s creatures. It is better to smash evil than to cower in fear against it as though it were invincible—as though it were more powerful than Jesus. It’s not!

Now, in our fight against desires and temptations might we get bloody noses, stumble, and even fall? Perhaps. What of it? In that case we return to the Gospel. We return to the all-conquering truth that Jesus is king and lord over all.

Jesus is on the march. Whatever is evil is doomed. As light scatters the darkness, so the light of Christ obliterates the shadow of evil wherever it might be. You are on the winning side. This is good news.