The Way of Escape

1 Cor 10

¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 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 stand up under it.

With the temptation a way of escape

If we think back on the times in our lives when there have been temptations, there has always been a way of escape. Many times when we've given in to sin, it was because we didn't put forth the little effort needed to find the way of escape. Perhaps it involves not getting into a tempting situation in the first place. Perhaps it means facing embarassment. But whatever the case, when you escape temptation and your conscience is clear, it's a good feeling. It's as though you were with someone you love and something very terrible happened to them and you were shocked and saddened by what happened...but then you woke up and it was just a dream.

I have found that when I've given in, it's because I was too lazy to reach out for the way of escape that was offered to me. Perhaps I was not listening to my conscience. Click...I just turned it off.

[Specific examples where people did not reach for the way of escape....perhaps in the news.]

If you think of escape as a rope that you have to grab on to to get out of trouble, you have to be ready to grab it before it slips through your fingers. To be ready to escape, you must prepare your mind by studying the word of God. Prepare yourself by dedicating yourself to God in your daily life. You'll be less prone to temptation in the first place and that's half the battle.

Now, this is not an idea that we find just in the new testament, God providing a way of escape. We find many situations in the old testament where he gave his people a way to escape.

For our first example of this, think about Joseph and the incident with his master's wife. Joseph was entrusted with power over all of his master's belongings. His master's wife came along and tried to seduce him. He fled...so fast he left part of his cloak in her hand. When his master came home, the master's wife made up a story about it being Joseph's fault. Joseph was thrown into prison...But even after all of this, God saw that he was treated well while he was in prison. He was even put in charge there. How about that? Even when it was bad, it turned out well.

(Genesis 39)

But look at how Joseph literally fleed to escape the sin that faced him. If only we were always so faithful as this. Literally walking out of the situation and getting away from it entirely rather than hanging around and seeing how much we can bear.

If we look at the example of Noah. He was surrounded by people who did evil. The entire earth...imagine that...not one good person on the whole earth except for Noah's family. What must the influences have been like for him. Perhaps all around him as he built the ark, he was being mocked...maybe people were doing everything they could to bring him down...to get him to be disloyal to God. But Noah did all that God told him to in building the ark. He escaped in the end. (Genesis 6)

The Bronze Snake

Numbers 21
⁴ They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"
⁶ Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.
⁸ The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

The people were rebelling here. Blaming God for their problems...the God who had just helped them escape from slavery in Egypt. It was so disrespectful to God that he punished them there on the spot. But he still held back from destroying all of them and offered a way of escape. He showed mercy there and on many other occasions and still does today through the offering of his son in our place.

As an example of one who always found the way of escape from temptation, we have Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 4
Jesus the Great High Priest
¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Jesus was such an example to us. He was tempted by satan. Greater temptation than any of us has ever gone through. And how many times did he give in? None. A perfect record. But still, he understands what we are going through in temptation. He knows we are weak and we are struggling against it. We cannot say that God doesn't understand our situation.

Now aside from God understanding our situation, it's important for us to understand it as well. For us, one of the first things we must remember when we are trying to find the way of escape from sin is to remember that we aren't immuned to it. As an example, let's say there's a guy who's trying to quit smoking. He's been smoking for years. He knows it's bad for him. He knows he needs to quit...but he's already tried to quit many times. He's started smoking again every time. By now, he's begun to question whether he has the willpower to quit at all. Now the doctor tells him...ok...it's gotten bad. Either you've got to quit now or you'll die within a year. At this point, he makes a decision...but he realizes his life hangs in the balance. Finally, the gravity of the situation sinks in and he quits for good. Why did it work this time? Why was he able to quit now but couldn't before? Because it finally hit home. He finally realized what it would cost him if he didn't quit. Sure it was always in the back of his mind before...but now it was there in black and white...stop or you'll die. Likewise, it's important for us to take it to heart when we read:

Romans 6
²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We must take that to heart when we are tempted. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Remember that when you're tempted. There is nothing good about sin. It isn't worth any temporary satisfaction at all!

Temptation develops our patience.

James 1
Trials and Temptations
²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

[When we do escape sin. When we see temptation and sin ahead and we turn the other way and walk away from it, we develop patience. We become less tied up in the idea of seeing how close we can get to it. It has less power over us. So patience is so important to us. As we walk away from sin more and more, we become more patient. As we become more patient, we are more likely to walk away from sin. It goes in a circle.]

^{...continuing...}

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
[This is talking about asking God to help you to resist temptation. But then James mentions the importance of faith in this. Do you really believe that God can help you during temptation or are you just going to ask him about it and do what you were going to do anyway? If you don't have faith in God's ability to help you, then there's not much point in asking him in the first place.]

...continuing verse 12...

¹²Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

[Another good think about persevering through the hard times is the reward that awaits us.]
¹³When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. ¹⁵Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

It's a mistake to blame God for tempting you. We are never supposed to be indignant toward our heavenly father. It's misplaced blame if we think he's responsible. The problem lies within us...our own weaknesses.

And isn't this true that you see these different levels in temptation. To begin, there is our own evil desire. If you don't look for that way of escape in the first place...which probably involves fleeing the temptation, you get closer to the temptation. Your own evil desires draw you in. Pretty soon, you find yourself dragged in. It's too late. You passed up the way of escape. If you think of that metaphor with the rope, you are sinking into the quicksand and the rope eventually gets out of your reach and all you can hear are your own desires enticing you. Then your desire brings about sin and sin results in death as we die to our conscience and fail to remember what God has told us is good.

We also read about the root cause of temptation in

Jeremiah 17
⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
¹⁰ "I the LORD search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve."

The writer knew where so many of our problems with sin originate. We read in several other places about the problems that come from our own hearts.

Jesus warned about this many times.

Mark 7

²⁰He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' ²¹For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "

It can be amazing when your desires overcome your reason. Sometimes, we know what's right. We've read the bible. And yet we still occasionally fall to the most basic of sins. Perhaps you say, "I know this is wrong...but it'd be so easy just to give in just this once." But it was never promised that the way of escape would be easy. Sometimes we are not only fighting against outside influences, but also against every desire inside us that would lead us astray. Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, murder and so on. They come from the heart before they happen outside.

Paul understood this. Look at what he writes:

Romans 7

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This internal battle that's happening within all of us. Our desires waging war against our beliefs...kindof sad, really. But Paul knew who would save him in the end. He put his faith in Jesus as his savior.

Paul writes something similar in

Galatians 2
¹⁹   For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
²⁰   I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
²¹   I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

How can we escape if we have these evil desires inside that would lead us astray? We commit to Christ rather than our desires. We die to our old selves in baptism and rise to live in Christ.

Ephesians 6

The Armor of God
¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle 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. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Now think about this metaphor. If you're going to go into battle against swords and arrows. Do you want to just run out there with your bare hands and nothing else? No! You want preparation. You want armor. Sometimes, we take off our armor at the times we need it most! You'd be crazy to do that in battle. But this is what sometimes happens...we rush headlong into greater temptation than we can handle in the first place. And worse still, perhaps we don't want to prepare because we're afraid to stand out from the crowd. But the answer is here if we'll just do it....this armor of God with faith, study of the gospel truth, righteousness, prayer.

And even Jesus mentioned the power of prayer in helping us through temptation.

Jesus' example of prayer, he says...

Matthew 6
    ¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Peter writes about the situation of Lot:

2 Peter 2

⁶if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men ⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)-- ⁹if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.

Lot's situation was similar to Noah's. He was surrounded by lawless men. But God delivered him. Another concrete example of someone trusting in God and being delivered.

Paul said [talking about the problems he had with Alexander the metal worker] in

2 Tim 4

¹⁷But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. ¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever.

You can see such faith as Paul writes this letter. And Paul has not had an easy time here. He's gone through difficult times. In the previous chapter, he was talking about suffering he had gone through...but he still says that God has delivered him time and time again and he trusts that God will continue with him until he goes to heaven. Such trust! And we can learn from this. Never at any time do we see Paul show anger or blame God for what he's gone through. He shows patience. He continues to serve God. He praises God.

In conclusion, I would want us to take from this lesson that God has promised that there's always a way of escape in temptation. So many times, we read a verse that we read often and just gloss over it. "Oh, that's nice...there's always a way of escape. That's a nice thought." And then I walk away and the next time I'm tempted, this scripture is the furthest thing from my mind and maybe I just walk right into the sin. Well, it shouldn't be that way. First of all, I shouldn't claim that I'm being tempted more than I can bare. I shouldn't blame God for my failure. I should be alert. Whether it's the temptation of lust or greed or revenge or fitting in or an addiction, I should be ready to do whatever's needed to escape the sin...walk away...get out of that group of people who has a bad influence...pray about it...have faith that God can help you...put on the armor of God. Remember that when you find the way of escape from temptation, you glorify God.

Now, as he has offered a way of escape from temptation, he has offered Jesus as a way of escape from our sins. Please come forward if you haven't accepted this escape from your sins and would like to.