dealing with temptation Luke chapter 4 from verse 1 to 13 Gospel of Saint Luke starting in chapter 4 verse 1 and let's see the word of the Living God Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing, and afterwards, when they had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. But Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. And Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Then he brought him to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you. And in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone. And Jesus answered and said to him, It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. This is the word of God. After the dove at the baptism, came the devil in the wilderness. And when you have the approval of God, you can expect the assaults of the devil. Because here, immediately before this time of tempting in the wilderness, time of fasting and tempting, our Lord Jesus had been baptized in Jordan River, by John the Baptist. The Father had spoken from heaven, the Holy Spirit had come down on him as a dove. The words of the Father came, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This is a high point, and it's almost inevitable after any kind of high point that there is a low point. You can just think of Moses, after some of the greatest achievements, there was the depth of depression. Elijah, after the battle of Mount Carmel, went into such depression, It is not unusual that a great attack or depression happens after great victories. Napoleon said, a good general should not be unduly elated by success, unduly depressed by defeat. Why do you say that? Because after any victory you must watch there's going to be a counter-attack. And after any defeat you've got an opportunity because while the enemy is looting and feasting and celebrating this is your chance to counter-attack. It's a natural thing. After some height, you know, what goes up has got to come down. And when you're climbing up a mountain, you've got to know that what's at the end of that peak, well, there's another valley, and so on. But what we see here in the temptation of Jesus is that no one is exempt from temptation. If anybody thought, well, as a Christian, I shouldn't be tempted, well, that's foolish. Not even our Lord Jesus Christ could be exempt from temptation. And we read in Hebrews that He was tempted and always like as we. In every way, He was tempted. Now, that reminds us of the teaching of Scripture that temptation is not a sin. Giving in to temptation is a sin. Martin Luther put it very well. He said, you cannot be blamed for birds flying over your head, but you are to be blamed if you allow them to build a nest in your head. That is the point. For a temptation or an evil thought to pass your mind is not a problem, if you kick it out immediately. But if you welcome it in, open the door, let it sit down, examine it, look around, consider it. Now, I mean at that point, now it's past temptation, now it's sin. So, here we get in Luke chapter 4, and this is also parallel passage to Matthew chapter 4. You see the experience that humbles us. Temptation should humble us because We often feel soiled and disappointed in ourselves that we could even be tempted in many things. It's humbling. But here in Luke 4 we see an example. An example that helps us, that empowers us, that inspires us. When you have the approval of God, expect the assault from the enemy. And here in the wilderness you see a collusion between our Lord Jesus Christ and the devil. Collusion is good. Collusion is bad. We should not collude with the devil. We should collide with him. Notice here in verse 1, Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. So you can be led into temptation. And the Holy Spirit led him to a place where he was going to be tempted. Now we pray, lead us not into temptation. And God doesn't tempt anyone. He does test us. But he might lead us into a situation where the devil tempts us. And we also read in the scripture that no one is tempted from God, but our own evil thoughts tempt us. So, some comes from the outside, some comes from within, but none of it comes from God. So, being led by the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that we should expect a clear road without any thorns, without any obstacles, without any dangers, without any temptations. He is led by the Holy Spirit. He went into wilderness and he is tempted for 40 days. And during those 40 days he ate nothing. He was in a full fast. I don't know how many people can survive 40 days fasting, let alone in a hot environment such as wilderness, where shade would have been hard to find. You might have found a cave here and there to get a little bit of shade, but it wouldn't be much. It wouldn't be any serious trees or any of that kind of shade. You might have got a cave, but that's about it. And so when you add heat to it, the idea that you can fast for 40 days, our Lord must have been physically strong and mentally strong, of course, because a lot of fasting is even more mental than physical. And you can see the Bible does not exaggerate when you get to verse 2. After 40 days of eating nothing he was hungry. Now that's talk about understatement. Notice how the devil comes, verse 3. Like in the Garden of Eden with Yea, hath God said. Satan is the first fact-checker. It wasn't Zuckerberg and Facebook that invented fact-checkers. In fact, the Pharisees were fact-checkers too, and they checked out and they were absolutely sure Jesus couldn't have been a Messiah. He wasn't son of God, and they condemned him, betrayed him, to be crucified as a result, because they were the religious leaders they knew, and they not only doubted, they completely discounted. his teachings and his claims and his identity. It didn't matter that he healed the sick, raised the dead, calmed the storm of the Word, that he could literally feed thousands of people with a handful of food, fulfill the prophecies. None of that mattered. They were fact-checkers. They knew. They somehow had the authority to count them on what the Lord himself had said. So, as in the garden, Satan starts off with if. He questions, he gets us to doubt. You don't need to prove anything, you just need to create a bit of doubt. There's smoke, there must be fire. Just create a bit of doubt. And that's how Satan works, he creates doubt. If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. Now what's so bad about that temptation? Does it even look that serious? he's hungry, and in the State of Israel, all over the place in wilderness, you see these rocks that look like loaves of bread. In fact, some of them look so realistic, you could put them on a stool and until a person picked them up, they wouldn't know that they're dealing with a rock, some of it actually looks like bread. And you can imagine, you're trying to fast and next thing you've got all these rocks around that look like loaves of bread and it would have been easy for our Lord to just turn some rocks into loaves of bread. How easy would that be? So you would think, what's wrong with that? A lot of temptation is taking legitimate desires but putting them above the will of God. If God's will here was fasting, then a legitimate desire, like hunger, what's wrong with satisfying your hunger? Well, there's nothing wrong with that, but God may have a prior claim, there may be a reason why you put that aside for one moment. There's all kinds of legitimate desires that can be dragged off to be sin. So, hunger can easily become gluttony. Some drink can become drunkenness. Where there is natural affection that should lead to marriage, well that could be led into lust, fornication, adultery, perversion. There was a legitimate desire, but it's been taken off to the extreme. One may have self-preservation, nothing wrong with that, but if it becomes cowardice, desertion from duty, then of course it's evil. In fact, cowards are at the top of God's list of those who get condemned into the lake of fire in Revelation 21 verse 8. Cowards! So, self-preservation is good, cowardice is wrong. Hunger, not illegitimate, gluttony, illegitimate. And so it carries on. So, here is a legitimate desire, but for the Lord to use His power in an illegitimate way, as he said, that he did nothing except what the Father commanded him. Remember the Lord on earth was fully man and fully God, and so bearing this in mind, this is not the second person of the Trinity being tempted. This is the Son of Man being tempted. This is the humanity of Christ being tempted. Because if Jesus was able to resist temptation, as the second person Trinity as God incarnate. What help would that be to you and I? We're not God, how can we use the same power? But if Jesus being tested in this humanity as someone who could feel tired and hungry and thirsty so much so that he could even fall asleep in the middle of a storm, in the middle of boats on a lake, then you can imagine the humanity of Christ was being tempted. And he was able to resist it as a truly, fully human being, with the same grace that's available to you and I, as sons and daughters of the King as born-again Christians. So this isn't just us looking and saying, well, of course he could do that, he's God. made man, but in his humanity he was tempted. In his humanity, using the grace that's available to you and I, he resisted. Satan begins with questioning God's Word, if. That's how theological seminaries become theological cemeteries. And verse 4, you get the counter-attack. How did our Lord react? It is written. The scripture is the sword of the Spirit. This is the weapon of the Word. And to be able to take God's Word and to quote it back to Satan. And notice, twice it is written, it is written, and the third time it has been said. But even when he said it has been said, he is quoting what is written. in the Word of God. It was said by God, but it's written in the Scripture. And so, what the Lord does each time with Satan's temptations is he quotes Scripture back. Just another good reason for Scripture memorization, that we know the Word of God, because your words and my words have no power, but God's Word, well... That is all the power. It's the sword of the Spirit. It's the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Faith comes from hearing, hearing by the Word of God. God's Word is like a seed. It always produces what it's sent out to accomplish. God's Word is like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces. His Word is like a fire that burns within our hearts. And so the Word of God is the weapon we've got to use. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God. In fact, that verse inspired our practice that we have scripturing before lunch. And I think it's an excellent principle that as we're about to have physical bread, which we need for our body, we also remind ourselves of the mental and spiritual food that we need for our mind and our soul. So, yes, he has the power to turn those rocks into bread, and there's nothing wrong with fulfilling your desire for hunger. But this isn't the time and this isn't the place. God has a high purpose right now and he's not going to let his desires, his appetites, his aspirations get in the way of the will of God. and therefore God's will is higher and more important and I'm going to suppress my appetites and my aspirations right now and I'm going to fast longer. He reminds himself, man shall not live by bread alone. The whole purpose of fasting should be to give more time to pray in the Word, and whenever we feel hunger, we remind ourselves to get back to the Word, to get back to pray. It's meant to be something to deepen our spiritual life, and of course, our Lord very strongly speaks against people fasting for people to be impressed about. The amount of people I know who tell you that they're fasting, how much they're fasting, how long they're fasting, how often they fast, and they keep reminding you about this, and she's made it clear, when you fast, You're not meant to let it be known. In fact, you're still meant to clean your face and comb your hair and don't walk around looking like a, I'm suffering so much, I'm such a great spiritual martyr and so on. That is fueled by pride. That's no good. So, living by the Word of God. When we are fasting from food, we should never fast from the Word. In fact, we should be taking a double dose of that. Which is why some people who've said at the mission, when they didn't come down for Bible reading at lunch, you know, I'm fasting from... Yeah, but you're not meant to fast from the Word of God. You can come for the reading and then go off and do whatever else you want to do, but don't fast in the Bible reading. Verse 5, then the devil, taking him up to a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. This suggests that the devil had the power to transport it. And he said to him, all this authority I will give you and all this glory for it's been delivered to me and I can give it to whomever I wish. This reminds us that when man sinned and gave in to the temptation of Satan, the first fact checker in the garden, then the devil in a sense took over the dominion that had been given to Adam and Eve and so we read about the devil, Satan, being the god of this world we read about Satan deceiving the nations and all the nations being deceived and we read in Revelation that at the end God will send an angel who will bind Satan that he might deceive the nations no more so he's offering all this glory, in other words you can have the crown without going through the cross. You can go straight to the crown. You can be the king of all these kingdoms, but you must worship me. You can avoid the cross, avoid the scourging, avoid the shame, avoid the trial, avoid being betrayed and deserted by all his followers and all these other hideous things. And drinking that vile cup, which represented all the sin of all of us, past, present and future. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but if he loses his own soul? And so a Lord is the example of saying to him, Get thee behind me, Satan. For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. And then, Satan brought him to Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if you are the Word of God, now I just love the if. Satan knows he's the Son of God. All the same, he still wants to introduce this doubt. And of course, he's coming at the time when the Lord is physically exhausted, when he's physically weak, and Satan comes at us when we are weakest. When we're tired, when we're sick, when we're hungry, when we're confused, when we're deserted by others, All the things that are going wrong, that's when he comes. And so you can't expect the devil to attack you on your best day when you've got everything ready and you're surrounded by co-workers who are going to help and other shields around you. He'll come when you're at your weakest. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will give you angels to take charge of you, to keep you. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dast your foot against a stone." Now, if Jesus jumped off the temple, an angel caught Him and ushered Him into the temple, what an entrance, what a triumphal entry, where people can see He's defying the laws of gravity, there's an angel delivering Him to the very steps of the temple, But Jesus chose, instead of this way of pride, he chose the way of entering on a humble donkey, about as humble a way of entering as a Jewish Apostle. Not even a horse, a donkey. So, he was given a chance to have a shortcut. Again, don't worry about the suffering that we sang about in I Asked the Lord and John Newton's hymn earlier. Don't worry about going through the cross, you can go straight to the crown. Shortcut. get-rich-quick scheme, basically. There's a lot of that. You've got whole churches dedicated to health and wealth, prosperity. Who needs this discipleship, sacrifice, suffering, business? Go straight to the crown. I'm a child of the King. Demand my rights and all that sort of thing. But no, our Lord answers, it has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. So we notice that our Lord resists every temptation according to scripture and by putting the will of God above what may be legitimate desires. But if they interfere with the will of God then they must be denied. Take up your cross, deny yourself, forsake the world, follow me, Jesus said. When you look at this, and then you see in verse 13, now, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. So we can assume that the Lord was tempted with far more than these three. It could have been who knows how many temptations. If he is tempted continually for 40 days, you can imagine multiple temptations every day. Still, these three are representative. And we read in the Bible of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And so these are three categories of temptation that, in a sense, combine them all. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. The lust of the flesh, those are things you do with your body. Passions, liquor, laziness, greed, glutton, gossip. There's different things we might do. The lust of the flesh. And so these are passions of the body which lead to drunkenness, immorality, perversion, laziness, so many different things. The lust of the flesh. Where we love sleep, or food, or drink, or drunken stupor, or immorality, or whatever it may be, more than the will of God. And then there's the lust of the eyes, which have to do with things you want. See, I want, must have, give me. Bigger toys, more things, big and better iPhones, computer screens, cars, whatever they are. And it's all about possessions. I saw a bumper sticker in America, the man who dies to the most toys wins. What kind of dumb comment is that? I would have thought that's not a winning. You just mentioned dying, which means eternity. You can't take it with you. There's no yule hall on a hearse. Therefore, unless you've laid up treasure in heaven, you don't win. You might have the most toys accumulated, but somebody else is going to get them when you pass on. So, the lust of the eyes, things that I have, possessions. And then there's the pride of life. This is to do with your being, your person, pride, status, fame, fortune, position, place, Yet, for this pride, and you can't mistake the fact that the middle letter of pride is I, and the middle letter of lie is I, and the middle letter of sin is I, and the middle letter of Lucifer is I, so I is at the heart of it all. Pride. Selfishness. That's the heart and soul of sin. Me, myself and I. Existentialisms. The new trinity. And for these temptations, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, silver. Esau sold his birthright for a plate of food effectively, a bowl of stew, something like that, mess of pottage they call it, whatever that is. It certainly wasn't worth his birthright. No wonder God says that he loved Jacob and he hated Esau. What a hideous attitude of Esau to despise his birthright, to despise what his parents had given him, how God had placed him and he ignored that. So when we're looking at Loop 4. We see an experience that humbles us, temptation. We see an example of how Jesus resisted temptation that should inspire us and help us and empower us. And we should see that we can be a victor. We don't need to be a victor. Every temptation we give in to makes the next temptation harder to resist, easier to give in to. Every temptation we resist makes the next one easier to resist and less likely to give in to. We read in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 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 a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And when I read that in 1 Corinthians 10 30 and I immediately think of Joseph, as in the Joseph in Genesis who was in Potiphar's house and been tempted and harassed by Potiphar's wife and fled leaving even his cloak behind him. He's misunderstood, he's falsely accused, but the fact still is God knew his integrity. He had made a stand and he did the right thing. He said, how can I sin against my master like this? How can I sin against God? He said at another time. So no temptation has overtaken you except that God will give you the strength to resist it or the ability to flee from it. Sometimes the best form of discretion is just to flee. Flee temptation. Sometimes Just making sure we're not in the place is the best. The best driver is not the one who can drive the closest to the edge of the cliff. The best driver is the one who drives the furthest away from the edge of the cliff. Why would you want to entrust, say, your daughter to be driven by a driver who likes to show how close to the edge she can drive? You want one who's going to be on the safety side and be as far from the edge and not take those chances. A lot of Christians seem to want to think how close Can I live with the world and yet still be a Christian or still get to heaven? But the goal isn't to see how worldly can I be and still be considered a Christian. It should be how holy can I be? How far from the world can I move or rebel and resist and make a stand? Hebrews 2 verse 18 we read, For in that he himself has suffered, been tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. So because our High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ is tempted, he is able to help us. He actually understands temptation. We don't have a God, a Savior, a Redeemer, a High Priest who cannot understand what it is to be tempted. He actually understands our temptations and he manages to defeat it. In James 1 verse 2 we read, My brethren, count it all joy when you have various temptations and fall into various trials. Count it all joy? What on earth is joyful about trials and temptations? But the suffering is temporary, but the glory of victory is eternal. And so we should be glad. Smooth seas don't make skillful sailors. How are we to be stronger, better, able to fight the good fight. If we don't know what it is like Pilgrim to go through Pilgrim's Progress, we had to go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, fight Apollyon, climb Hill Difficulty, be trapped by Giant Despair in Doubting Castle, escape from Bypass Meadow, get out of Vanity Fair. All of these what seemed grievous and difficult and tempting at the time can actually make you stronger. And at the end Pilgrim is a soldier in full armor of God, able to resist Apollyon because of what he goes through, which includes the failures and what seemed like defeats at the time. So we should count it all joy. And as they say with animals, if you see a lion or lioness with battle scars across their faces, They say, you know, just remember this shows that that lion was stronger than whatever tried to kill him. And, you know, what doesn't kill you should make you stronger. And it's so with people who've gone through a plague. Ulrich Zwingli came through the plague in Zurich. He suffered from it, he thought he was going to die, but he came out of it not just stronger physically, that he now had an immunity, but spiritually, on fire. The Reformation launched. James I, And verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Testing of your faith produces patience. I suppose that's what Nick must have been thinking about when he was praying for us to have patience. Devotions, which made you wonder. James 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. This reminds one of Judges. Judges chapter 2, we read that God allowed those Gentiles, those heathen nations, to surround the children of Israel, that he might test them to see if they love him. So sometimes the battles and the tests and the pressures and why is it that we always have numbered? Why are there so many of the pagans and there's so few of us? Why are there so many compromised and so few being true to the Lord and so on? Well, it's a privilege to be given a hard assignment. In fact, you can count it. For example, in the military, if you're given a hard assignment, it's a sign of greater faith. It's an honor to be given a tough assignment. and I'm sure there are people who wonder why have I been given this difficult situation or health problem and a child with learning disabilities or health issues and yet it's a privilege to be given a tough assignment by God. You shouldn't just be asking for an easy assignment from God. 2 Peter 2 verse 9 The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. God knows how to deliver the righteous from temptation and that's why it's good for us to pray for the Lord to deliver us from temptation. We have so many teachings in the scripture concerning temptation. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11, lest Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices. We shouldn't be ignorant of his devices. Satan is conniving, and he knows how to use the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, lust of the eyes. What's the weakness in each person's life? What's the buttons he can press? How can he actually get us off the path, deviate us, distract us, discourage us? And in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3, Satan deceived Eve, well he started by questioning God's word. putting doubt into her mind, corrupt and conquer, confuse, divide and conquer. These are the tactics of Satan. What's our counter-attack? Submit to God. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. Greater is Christ who is in us than him who is in the world. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith. And then in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 5, For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent in and are sent in to your faith, lest by some means the tempter has tempted you and your labor might be in vain." And so Paul was concerned that the Thessalonians would give in to temptation and that his labor would be in vain, so he sent this message to encourage them to endure temptation. in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Which is just another reason as to why it's so dangerous to be in any church that's a health and wealth prosperity orientated church, because if people are coming because, oh, I can get wealthy, rich, you could be a millionaire, or they've got what, millionaires and billionaires in training seminars and conferences I see being offered, and toy magazine, all of it. It's dangerous for us to have aspirations to be rich, because as the scripture says, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires. We've got a pretty good comedy here in our video realm. It's a Billy Graham Evangelist Association film, Road to Redemption. And it all starts out with this person at work who's absolutely convinced, if I can borrow this money from the company and put it on this horse, which there was this definitely going to win, had insider trading information, I could double all this money and this and the other, or triple, quadruple, whatever it is, and I could get rich, put an original sum and nobody would know. And what was the end result? Well, it turned out she was actually working for the mob, a man who's borrowed from the mob, and this next thing, the Mafia's after them, because obviously he loses. I was on a mission to Ciskei back in 1993. as a guest of Brigadier Gorzel. And a chaplain from one of the Siska Defence Force battalions was driving me to a different engagement. On the way he stopped and picked up a weeping woman by the side of the road who needed a lift. And they were talking the whole time in Khorza while into a place we dropped off. And afterwards he turned to me and said, oh, that poor woman. And he started to relate to me the story. Someone had died in the family. And she has entrusted all the money from the extended family to pay for the funeral. And on the way to the funeral, she saw the casino, the gambling casino. And she thought, because they had this big sign, you could win a million. Billboard. And temptation got hold of her. She thought, I could double, I could triple, I could quadruple, I could keep all that, no one would know. She went and she lost everything. Everything. Now, the entire family was trusting her to arrange for the funeral, which was, you can imagine, really expensive. And she's destitute, but not only that, her entire family is going to hate her, because she gave in to temptation. It was dishonest advertising for sure, but this is how the devil works. He promises you and he delivers you help. I mean that's every time. That's what Satan does and we should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. And so James 1 verse 14 says, but each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. So temptation more comes from inside than outside. The devil knows how to trigger by a visual or an ad or something that just pops up and something somebody says, but it's the sins within us that responds to that. It's an incitement, but the ability to give in or to resist that temptation is within us. We can do it. We can destroy our lives because we are our own worst enemies, or we can resist the temptation and keep walking by. And if anyone's seen the Confessions of a Shopaholic, there's that scene where every one of these mannequins on the street are enticing and you know all these different shoes and handbags and gestures and signs of need and how at the end when she walks by and they all start applauding. It's this victory over, I'm not going to give in to this. Because one actually hates oneself when you give in to these hideous temptations and if somebody else came to you for counsel you'd know exactly what to say. but as ourselves we don't see the wood for the trees and we can be so limited and beware when we think we stand less we fall. 2 Peter 2.18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. And so, all these terms, great swelling words of emptiness. It sounds like the politicians right there. And alluring people through the lust of flesh. You think of a lot of the advertising industry, and Hollywood, and through lewdness, well that's definitely Hollywood. And those who have actually escaped from those who live in error. That's 2 Peter 2, 18. So there's some great passages in the Bible speaking to us about temptation, and how to resist the temptation, and the fact that we should not allow temptation to rule over us. Proverbs 1 verse 10, My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Again and again we see this. Do not walk in the way of evil. Proverbs 4 verse 14. Luke 21 and verse 34, But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and the cares of this life. and that they find you unexpectedly. In Romans 6 verse 13, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Ephesians 6 verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. 2 Peter 3.17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Time and again we get good examples in the Bible of those who resist the temptation. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, standing firm. We will not eat the food offered to idols. We will not bow before this idol. We will not refuse to pray to God. We might end up in a fiery furnace, we might end up in a lion's den, but God is with us there too. It's so important that we have this attitude of, get thee behind me Satan, for it is written, you shall Worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.