Sermon Illustration

Our Lord’s temptation makes us see that temptation is not sin, nor does it necessarily involve sin. Christ was sinless, and yet tempted; therefore it is possible for man to be tempted, and yet sinless. Now so many of us, the moment we are strongly tempted, seem to fall into a sort of demoralized condition, as if our innocence were over, as if the charm were broken and we were already sinners; and so we too often give ourselves up easily to the sin. To any soul in such a state what could we say but this: “Look up and see the truth in Jesus; do you not see it there? To be tempted is not wicked, is not shameful, is not unworthy even of Him. It is the lot—in one view it is even the glory—of humanity. Sin does not begin, and shame does not begin, until the will gives way—until you yield to temptation. Stand guard over that will, resist temptation, and then to have been tempted shall be to you what it was to your Savior—a glory and a crown, a part of your history worthy to be written with th...

There will come a world where there will be no temptation—a garden with no serpent, a city with no sin. The harvest day will come, and the wheat be gathered safe into the Master’s barn. It will be very sweet and glorious. Our tired hearts rest on the promises with peaceful delight. But that time is not yet. Here are our tempted lives, and here, right in the midst of us, stands our tempted Savior. If we are men, we shall meet temptation as He met it, in the strength of the God who is the Father of whom all men are children. Every temptation that attacks us attacked Him, and was conquered. We are fighting against a defeated enemy. We are struggling for a victory which is already won. That may be our strength and assurance as we recall, whenever our struggle becomes hottest and most trying, the wonderful and blessed day when Jesus was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

If one looks out upon New York harbor, after an eastern storm, he will see it covered with craft, that brood upon its surface in flocks like wild fowl; nor can the eye, at a distance, tell why they hold their places, swinging but a little way with the changing tide, facing the wind obstinately and refusing to be blown away. Every one is rooted by its anchor. If men are found in life much tempted and yet firm in principle, there is an anchor somewhere. It may be a sweetheart, or a sister, or a mother, a wife, a father, or an old teacher. People anchor each other.

A believer’s watchfulness is like that of a soldier. A sentinel posted on the walls, when he discerns a hostile party advancing, does not attempt to make head against them himself, but informs his commanding officer of the enemy’s approach, and leaves him to take the proper measures against the foe. So the Christian does not attempt to fight temptation in his own strength; his watchfulness lies in observing its approach, and in telling God of it by prayer.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). There is a story told of an old Christian slave in the South whose master was an infidel. One day the master went duck-hunting with his slave, and turning on him suddenly said: “How is it, Tom, that the devil never tempts me, and always worries you? Why should he tempt a Christian more than an infidel?” Before the slave could find an answer, a flock of ducks came within shooting distance, and the master fired into them. He then directed the slave to make haste to secure the wounded birds first, and let those that were dead wait until last. When the slave returned to his mater he had found his answer. “You see, master, I reckon it is this way about the devil. He thinks I am only a poor wounded soul that he wants to make sure of first, but you are surely his, and so you can wait!” Perhaps the slave’s master thought he was getting a little too personal ...

Andrew Fuller, after his conversion at sixteen years of age, felt that he could no longer participate in the rough merrymaking indulged in on holidays by the young people of his town. So he tells us: “Whenever a feast or holiday occurred, instead of sitting at home with myself, I went to a neighboring village to visit some Christian friend and returned when all was over. By this step I was delivered from those mental participations in folly which had given me so much uneasiness. Thus the seasons of temptation became to me times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”

Wrong has seldom looked more like right than in the case of a soldier whose story was told in an American paper. He was in the General Hospital in Washington with a wounded foot, and still far from healed, when he heard that his wife was very ill and wanted to see him. He obtained a furlough and the necessary transportation papers, which would permit his journey home. On the way home his papers were stolen from his pocket, so that he became liable to be seized as a deserter, and was, besides, without sufficient money for continuing his journey. As he got out of the train at Philadelphia with a very sad heart, he trod on something which, when picked up, he found to be a wrapper containing the furlough and transportation papers of another man. A comrade, who knew his distress, promptly advised him to use them as his own. “You found them,” he said. “None of the conductors know your name; it is your only chance of getting home at all. You are a fool if you don’t.” But the man had Christia...

Not long ago, in the wall of an old castle in Italy where some repairs were being made, the workmen found a relic that told a tale of ancient barbarity and crime. Some baron of the old days put an enemy in a little niche in the wall, just large enough to hold a man, and then set the masons at work building the wall around him. Slowly the masonry crept up, as stone was laid on stone, until at last it arose and left the man standing there in his living tomb. “Ah,” you say, “such horrible forms of torture were only possible in days of darkness, when men exercised their ingenuity inventing new modes of cruelty.” Shall I tell you of something worse that is modern? A man starts out to build a structure, which he calls “Success.” Slowly, as the years pass, he walls in his soul. Duty calls, and he answers, “I cannot sacrifice my interests for you.” Pity pleads, and he says: “I really cannot afford to do anything for you.” Righteousness rings out with its prophetic demands, and he says: “It wil...

There was an old saint in days past—such a one, we can imagine, as was the Venerable Bede in the midst of his young students—who lived a life of such purity and serenity that his younger comrades marveled. The wonder grew upon them so greatly that at length they resolved to approach the master, and ask to be told the secret of this purity, this peace. They came one day, and said: “Father, we are harassed with many temptations, which appeal to us so often and so strongly that they give us no rest. You seem to be untroubled by these things, and we would learn the secret. Do not the temptations that harass our souls appeal to you? Do they never come knocking at the door of your heart?” The old man listened, and smiled, and said: “My children, I do know something of the things of which you speak. The temptations that trouble you do come, making their appeal to me. But, when these temptations knock at the door of my heart, I answer, “The place is occupied.”

Luther said in his own pithy way: “I cannot keep birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from building their nests under my hat.” We cannot keep Satan from plying us with evil suggestions, but we can keep from responding to them. Our Lord was sorely assailed of him, but He could declare that Satan, “hath nothing in me” (John 14:30).

C. S. Lewis made these insightful observations about temptation: 'No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. That is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is....Christ, because He was the only Man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only Man who knows to the full what temptation means."

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger,they leave a scar just like t...

I'm sure you've seen a dog who runs madly after a ball, catching it and bringing it back only to find that its master has already thrown another one--which the dog feels must be chased. On and on it goes till the dog is totally exhausted and flops down on the ground. While that's just a fun game to play with a dog, it's not so funny when you play that game with Satan. He gives one temptation and we go tearing out after it only to find that the thrill is short-lived and there's already another one that must be chased.

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner. As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck. Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head, and killed it. He was shocked and grieved. In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch the next day Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen." Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?" So Johnny did the dishes. Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, "I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally just smiled and said, "Well th...

If one should give me a dish of sand and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes and search for them with my clumsy fingers and be unable to detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep through it and now would it draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction. The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings, only the iron in God’s sand is gold!

When Justin Armour was a rookie wide receiver with the Buffalo Bills, some veteran teammates invited him to a preseason party. Justin went, and couldn’t believe what he saw: Gorgeous women everywhere, offering free sex to any of the guys who wanted it. “It was the most eye-opening experience I’ve ever had,” Justin says. “I had heard about things like this, but I was so naive. I got out of there as fast as I could!” As a single Christian guy, Justin had committed to saving sex for marriage. To do so, he knows he’s got to run from temptation. “I’d rather not have my mind polluted by those things. Once you’ve been in a couple situations where’s there’s temptation, you learn how to avoid them and you don’t go back.” Justin also calls his best friend and accountability partner, Steve Stenstrom. “You need someone to hold you accountable for walking with Christ,” says Justin. “Steve does that for me. He knows everything about my life, good and bad, and there’s nothing he won’t hold me account...