I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1st Corinthians we consider this evening from 1st Corinthians chapter 10 if you're using the pew Bible I believe that is found on page 1137 we're going to look at two passages from 1st Corinthians 10 but I'm going to begin my reading back up at verse 1 and we're going to read down to verse 13. But we'll strictly be considering this evening verses 12 and 13. I picked this passage in light of Pastor Gordon's series that he's going through on sexuality and particularly the last time that we were in that series he focused on sin and so I thought I would preach a text here that speaks to battling sin and dealing with sin in the Christian life and so we're going to like I said we'll look at chapter 10 verses 12 to 13 we'll begin our reading at verse 1 for I want you to know brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spirit spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23 000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. Nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example. But they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Well, as I worked through these two passages, I thought these passages were quite beautiful. Very practical passages and comforting passages for us as Christians. These are passages that apply to each and every one of us this evening because they deal with an issue that all of us face. The issue of sin and temptation. It was the Apostle Paul himself who expressed his own dealings and wrestlings and struggles with sin and temptation when he says in Romans 7, Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I'm sure we've all felt to some extent in our struggle with sin that very wrestling that Paul speaks of there. Whether that pertains to besetting sins or more impulsive sins. Listen to how John Calvin described himself. He says, I testify and declare that I trust in no other security for my salvation than this and only this. Namely, that as God is the Father of mercy, He will show Himself such a Father to me who acknowledges myself to be a miserable sinner. Now these men, Paul and John Calvin, didn't just have sin and temptation in common, but their response to sin and temptation was the same. They responded by fixing the eyes of their hearts on Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. And that's my prayer for us tonight, that as we consider these passages this evening, we would similarly find our hope in Jesus Christ, that the eyes of our hearts will be directed to Christ Jesus, our Savior. So I want to consider this passage with you tonight by focusing on two simple things that Paul brings up here. One, taking sin serious. Taking sin serious. And two, battling sin. Battling sin. Those are our points tonight. Taking sin serious and battling sin. So let's turn our attention to our first point. It was Charles Spurgeon who once said, Too many think lightly of sin and therefore think lightly of the Savior. Paul doesn't want that to happen to Christians. He doesn't want Christians to take sin lightly and therefore to take their Savior lightly. See, verses 12 and 13 really are Paul's practical pastoral advice on sin and temptation. As you probably saw in what we read and heard in what we read, the Corinthian Christians were toying with sin. Notice back in verse 6 what Paul states there, what was happening. He speaks of Israel and their sin, and what happened there was an example that Christians would not desire evil and sin. And then he lists a number of sins, right? Idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, grumbling against God. And then in verse 14 he states, therefore flee such evil. And so verses 12 and 13 stand in between as something of his advice on how to deal with sin and temptation. In regards to sin, what Paul says here is take it serious. Take it serious, Christians. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. that phrase there take heed is simply a way of saying be careful take sin serious paul's calling the corinthian christians to be careful when it comes to sin and temptation he's calling them to be proactive to be alert to be on the lookout for sin and temptation now when you're being careful you're not just going through the motions are you you're not being careless and carefree you're not just simply waiting for sin or temptation to present itself no instead when you take sin serious and you're careful about it you're active you're actively on the lookout and you do what is necessary to avoid sin and temptation when you're careful about sin when you take it serious you even prepare yourself for the moment when temptation may arise and what this means is you do certain things to prepare for that like come to church gather together with God's people praise and worship him sing praises to his name for the wonderful things that he has done for you sit under his word hear his word preached where the Spirit takes His Word and implants it deep into our hearts, shapes and fashions us after that Word. Gathering together with God's people also means you develop relationships with other Christians. Christians that you develop relationships where you can confide in them. You can share your own struggles, your challenges, your temptations so that they might encourage you maybe even exhort you or hold you accountable. We also attend Bible studies or read books together, discuss truths, encouraging truths. We do all of this because we take sin and spirituality serious. One of my first jobs was working at Marie Callender's. I don't know if Marie Callender's even exists anymore. Does it still exist? I don't think it does in Escondido. i was a bus boy there for about a year and a half it's a great job fun job it was also a hard job difficult job had to bus tables over and over and over in a sense the flow of the restaurant we felt as busters kind of depended on us getting those tables bused so that new people can come in and have a place to sit down if we didn't get those tables bused as fast as we could the flow of the restaurant would be disrupted in addition what also made this job difficult was the fact that you had servers walking around with food bringing food to customers as you're trying to hustle and bus a table you had to be careful not to run in to a server with food you ever seen something like that happen you know it's disastrous right servers get upset customers get upset when food goes flying my point is this we had to be very very careful and so we did things to be careful we put up mirrors in certain places where there was a blind corner so we could see someone around the corner where we didn't have a mirror we would yell things like corner so that someone knew we were coming around the corner we did what was necessary in preparation because we took serious our work how much more our christian life how much more serious should we take our our our wrestlings our struggles with sin sin is nothing to toy with is it christian see think of what god said to cain prior to the murder of his brother god told cain sin is crouching at your door it desire its desire is for you but you must rule over it sin crouches at the doors of all of our hearts its desire is to consume us but we must rule over it and we do that first by taking it serious by being careful when it comes to sin and temptation see the christian life is a life of being on guard sin can be powerful can't it don't kid yourself brother and sister it's nothing to toy with don't allow sin to linger see there's a reason that the puritans use the word mortification when it came to dealing with sin. To mortify means to kill something. Sin has to be killed. It has to be put to death. When I was a young Christian, a principle that I and my friends often used and tried to live by was the principle that mightier men have fallen. I think I've mentioned that to you before. Think about that for a moment. Mightier men have fallen if David, King David, a man after God's own heart fell to sin. How much more do you think we are susceptible? Mightier men have fallen. Was King David being careful when he found himself tempted with Bathsheba? Was he taking sin serious? Was he prepared for it? And here's the thing. We live in a time when we are constantly bombarded with sin and temptation, right? We'd be fools to put our guard down. Foolish to relax and be passive in regards to our Christianity. We're all familiar with the phrase the culture wars. But you see, Christians, we are in another war. A war against sin. And we don't just live in a world full of sin and temptation. sin is also here sin is here in our hearts temptation is also here here in our own hearts it's what the puritans called indwelling sin you see it could be easy to to blame our struggles and our temptation on circumstances it would be easy to blame our struggles and our challenges and temptations on the world around us but listen to what james says about sin and temptation each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death james tells us that sin comes here it comes from our own hearts so we can't blame the world around us it's paul who said wretched man that i am paul called himself the chief of sinners paul knew he was to blame he was responsible he was culpable for his own sin but yes because we live in a world that is full of sin and temptation because our hearts even deceive us and tempt us we must take sin serious there's another reason that paul calls us to take sin serious here and that is because of the nature of sin if someone was to ask you what one word comes to mind when you think about sin what word would come to mind i think what paul has in mind here is the word deception deception if anyone thinks he stands be careful lest he fall sin is deceptive it deceives us into believing that we are standing firm when in fact we are not the ground beneath us is crumbling and we are quickly falling into a pit of sin and despair. Think with me of the very first sin in Genesis 3. Think of all the deception that happens in that scene in Genesis 3. Through the ploy of Satan we see for the very first time in Scripture the deceptive nature of sin and evil. You remember how Genesis 3 begins? now the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field now that word crafty there doesn't necessarily imply evil it can also be translated as prudence in some places but here in genesis 3 the sense is that this prudence has been perverted and done so for evil reasons this prudence has become deceptive and as we continue to read what you see is that is indeed the case. The serpent asks a question, did God really say? Not a harmless question, a question that called into question God's very own word. And the next thing the serpent says is just as confusing and convoluted. It's an obvious lie and yet it comes with some truth to it you will not surely die for god knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like god knowing good and evil what we gather from this is satan is indeed a liar right it's exactly what jesus said he's the father of lies and through his line deceptive sin enters into his line deceitfulness sin enters the world and so it's no surprise then that the bible then from that point on describes the heart of man as deceitful the heart of man being deceitful above all things who can understand it sin indeed is deceptive brothers and sisters it promises much but never delivers it promises freedom but it grants slavery it promises security but delivers anxiety and doubt it promises satisfaction but delivers bondage it does all of that by deceiving us listen to how rosaria butterfield describes the deceptiveness of sin when she says don't make false peace with sin don't make excuses don't get sentimental about it don't play the victim don't live by excuse righteousness if you bring the baby tiger into your house and name it fluffy don't be surprised if you wake up one day and fluffy is eating you alive that's how sin works and fluffy knows her job sometimes sin lurks and festers for decades deceiving the sinner that he really has it all under control until it unleashes itself on everything you built everything you cherished everything you loved friends sin is dangerous it's powerful it's consuming it's deceptive for all these reasons we must take paul's advice take it serious christians take it serious be on the alert be cautious don't be deceived now although sin is powerful god is indeed all-powerful because you see where sin abounds grace abounds all the more and that leads us to our next point this evening battling sin verse 13 says no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind 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 of escape so that you can endure it the first thing we gather from this text is that in our battle with sin god is at work god is working allow that to set in your mind and hearts god is at work even in our struggles with sin sin and temptation is not beyond his control that should bring us comfort brothers and sisters because often in our struggles with sin we feel like we are all alone we feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders We feel the guilt and the shame. We've lost it again on our children. We've lost it again on our spouses. We've lost it again on that neighbor who continues to irritate us. We struggle with various kinds of sin. We struggle with envy. We struggle with thoughts about ourselves. We struggle with jealousy. We struggle with lust. We struggle with all kinds of sin. And in those sins and temptations, we feel alone. But we're not alone. God is with us. And He's even working in our struggles with sin. And first, He is at work in allowing sin to expose our weaknesses. he allows sin to expose our weakness there's a sense in which the first half of verse 13 is part of paul's warning to the church at corinth be careful because you are not any superior to the israelites who fell in the desert no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man see the corinthian christians were proud christians they thought too highly of themselves They thought they were superior Christians. They didn't think they had to worry about common sins like idolatry, sexual immorality. That wasn't something they needed to worry about. So Paul says to them, no, you're no different. Take sin serious. All men are prone to all manner of evil. And the same goes for us here tonight. We too are weak, fragile, struggling Christians. Now you ask, how is this helpful in battling sin? Because it reminds us not to look to ourselves and to our own strength. Paul says to this church in 2 Corinthians 12, when speaking of his own thorn in his flesh, he says that the Lord said to him, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And then Paul goes on to say, Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so Christ's power may rest on me. And then Paul finishes by saying, For when I am weak, then I am strong. You see, in exposing our weakness, we're reminded we can't handle sin on our own. We can't kill our besetting sins on our own. We do not put sin to death in our own strength. and if we try we will continue to struggle and fall struggle and fall struggle and fall and we'll feel that despair we'll feel like hamsters on wheels just turning and turning and turning but you see christ lived and died not only to save us from the penalty of our sins but he lived and died so that we might now be empowered to walk in the newness of life that he has granted to us christians we are indeed new creations in christ new creations the old is gone the new has come and so now we are to walk in that newness not in our own strength and power but in the power of christ and the power of the good news of what christ has done for us how do we do that how do we walk in christ well we do that by cultivating hearts that find in christ our greatest joy satisfaction and pleasure you see we have may not think much about this but there's great pleasure and joy and satisfaction in the good news of what jesus christ has done for us because the message is such joyful news it's what we must cultivate our hearts to delight in and be satisfied with if you have children or you had children you know there's one thing that kids delight in ice cream ice cream right ice cream is one of those things that almost always satisfies kids if a kid falls on the ground cuts their knees you promise them ice cream and what happens the tears go away the pain goes away right kids have cultivated hearts that are satisfied with ice cream christians we need to cultivate hearts that are satisfied with the good news of what jesus christ has done for us maybe you didn't notice this evening but each of the songs that we sang this evening spoke of the joy and satisfaction that we have and what god has done for us through our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Gospel and the promise that comes with the Gospel has to be the single greatest satisfaction, joy, and pleasure for us as people. Christ living a life on this earth so that we might have righteousness must be the sweetest thing that we've ever heard. Christ hanging upon a cross becoming sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God must be the sweetest thing we've ever heard. Brothers and sisters, there is indeed great delight and joy and pleasure in what Christ has done for us. Listen to how the Old Testament saints describe the joy they found in God. Psalm 16, You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 63, O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 42, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. my soul thirsts for God, the living God. How much more, Christians, we, on this side of the cross, should find our joy, our pleasure, our satisfaction, not in sin and the temptations of sin, but in Christ, our Lord and Savior. We see God at work not only by exposing our weakness and driving us to Christ, but also in giving us the ability to endure sin and temptation. Verse 13 says, God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, He will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Sin is certainly beyond our ability to endure. It's powerful. It leads us astray. It deceives us. But our good Lord has given to us His Spirit. He's equipped us with His Spirit to battle sin and temptation. And so equipped with both the Gospel and the Spirit, listen to what Ezekiel 36 says. One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness. And from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put My Spirit within you. And listen to this. And cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules. Giving of the Holy Spirit means that we have been enabled to say no to sin and yes to obedience. See, apart from the Holy Spirit, we are indeed enslaved to sin. without the ability to deny or say no to sin. Ephesians 2 says this, Apart from the Spirit, we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, once living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind. That was us. Apart from God and the grace given to us in Christ and the power of the Spirit of Christ who has caused us to be born again. Born again, brothers and sisters. So that we now have the ability, the real ability to stand up to sin and temptation. To deny it. To endure the temptation. To say no to the passions of the flesh. To say no to the darkened way of thinking. to reject debased practices. We're no longer enslaved. But here's the thing. Just like old habits die hard, old ways of thinking of ourselves die hard. We at times can still think of ourselves as being enslaved to sin. And so we live that way. We live and act because we think of ourselves as being enslaved to sin. We don't realize the strength that we have in the Spirit. We've been given power, brothers and sisters, from above. The Spirit of God dwells in us so that we're now enabled to deny sin and temptation. And so we must live with that in mind. We must walk according to the Spirit. We must, as Christ says, deny ourselves. Take up our cross. Meaning, literally, crucify. Crucify sin. Mortify it. Walk in newness. Newness of life. Exercise the power and strength that has been given to us by the Spirit. You see, yes, at times God ordains to take certain sins away from us. But at other times He ordains to allow sin and temptation to remain so that we might walk by the Spirit in regards to that. When it comes to our sanctification, He gives us the Spirit in the Gospel and then commands us to walk and be empowered. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 5, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And then he says, if you live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. These are commands. Commands to walk in the newness of life that has been given to us. We've been equipped with what we need to say no to sin and temptation. Now maybe you hear what I'm saying. that we have to ourselves deny sin, turn from it. Maybe you hear that and you say, that sounds so difficult. I know how easy it is to cave to sin and temptation. And you're right. Denying sin, mortifying sin is not easy. See, there's no pill to swallow as we have been trained to think in other areas of life. There's no easy five steps to sinless freedom as we've been taught by Christian gurus and books and blogs. Yeah, it takes denying ourselves, walking in the Spirit, cultivating hearts that are satisfied with the joy and pleasure that we have in Jesus Christ. I've never killed anything in my life. but I've been killing sin now for some 25 years. And I'll tell you, I imagine it's like killing a bear with my bare hands, denying myself, taking my cross, following Christ. But you see, brothers and sisters, we don't fight this battle alone. Don't forget that you are not alone in this fight. The Spirit of God has been given to you for this work. Now this is indeed a lifelong battle. This side of death, we will not conquer sin fully. But you see, that's what makes the gospel of Jesus Christ so sweet. See, when sin and temptation is bitter, the gospel of Jesus Christ is sweet. For those who realize how much they have been forgiven, they realize the magnitude and the wonder of the grace of God to them. So I encourage you tonight, continue to fight against sin. Take it serious. Be careful. Be proactive. And do so by cultivating hearts that are satisfied in Jesus Christ. And when you get discouraged, remember that you have the Spirit of God enabling you and empowering you to continue to fight that good fight. And remember, Christ has indeed defeated sin. in temptation has he not it can feel like we are failures in regards to sin and yet we know that christ has the last say he has defeated sin he has defeated the consequence of sin death and so continue continue continue to direct the eyes of your heart at all times to christ jesus your lord let's pray father we again are reminded of the wonders of what you have done for us in jesus christ saved as paul says wretched sinners such as us who would save us from our sin and you've done so in jesus christ our lord and so we give you thanks and praise tonight lord and we pray father that you would continue to be patient and gracious towards us lord and may we continue to realize that your patience leads us to a place of repentance continue to enable us by your spirit and through Your Word, Lord, to deny sin, to deny ourselves, to not be led astray by sin and temptation, but to find our ultimate delight, desire, and satisfaction in You. We praise You tonight and we pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.