Avoid Temptation: The Snares of Satan

Genesis 39:4-12

2 Corinthians 2:11

What are Satan's devices?  Satan can get an advantage over believers if we are not aware of his devices (snares, subtle schemes or traps).  Satan is also called the Tempter.  When he attacks the people of God it is usually not obvious.  If he went around like a roaring lion all the time no one would be deceived by him.  The bible tells us that he is the Tempter.  The church of Christ should not be ignorant of his devices because he wants to lure Christians into sin.  Many Christians are deceived into wrong thinking and actions.  Subtlety is his method, and traps are not easy to get out of.   Some evangelical leaders are so lacking discernment of Satan's devices that they take everything at face value, and anyone that says they are evangelical, they believe it.  There are so many men and women who are not aware of Satan's devices.  They are naive, living in the past, thinking that evangelical means the same thing now as it did in the 60s. But sadly, it does not.  Now, its not the biblical gospel, its the bible plus other things.  "make a decision"  "raise your hand". 

Sometimes Satan presents the bait and hides the hook.  Just do this thing and you will enjoy it but there are consequences which are hidden.   Sometimes Satan makes sin look small, he belittles sin, he presents God as all love and no justice.  Sometimes he says go and sin you can repent after.  That shows how Satan has snared Christians with his subtle schemes and many don't even know it.  Many Christians do not really want to know what the bible says.  Someone can prove from the bible that a church is disobeying God and it won't make any difference at all because people will just ignore it and pretend that it was never said.  They won't put it right because most professed Christians are determined not to obey the word of God and yet they still cling to the myth that they are saved, saved in their sin, clinging to a little profession.  Wanting, hoping to believe but Jesus said that it was only those who DO the will of my Father who will get to heaven.  Its a sad, sad situation when a professed Christian is content in their disobedience to the word of God.  

Satan's tactic will be that he will make a Christian confident to venture into the very place where they are going to be tempted.  He fills them with the notion that they can go to a place of temptation but they will be strong and not sin, they will be able to resist the temptation.   Satan says that you can resist temptation that is put in your path.  When you get tempted to think in that way, remember that Christians are to avoid temptation and all appearance of evil "lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory."   Don't think that you can put your finger in the fire but not get burned.  Enter not into the path of the wicked.  You are not going to get victory over sin if you don't avoid the temptation.  

Bible Women: Tamar, Sister of Absalom

2 Samuel 13: 1-20

In a previous study of Bathsheba, we learned of King David's sin of adultery and of his plot to have Bathsheba's husband killed.  Because of this, in 2 Samuel 12:9-10 Nathan the prophet, speaking the words of the LORD, tells King David "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Amnon.  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife."

And so, we have the tragic story of Tamar, daughter of David, sister of Absalom, half-sister to Amnon.  2 Samuel 13:1 “and it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.”  But this was a not a pure love of a brother for a sister, no, Amnon according to V2 was “so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do any thing to her." This statement brings out that he lusted after her, but because she was a virgin, he hesitated to carry through with his emotions.  How much better it would have been for Tamar and for Amnon if he would have listened to his conscience.  James 1:14-15 "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."  But also that, as believers, by the Holy Spirit we have the power to resist temptations James 4:7-8 "Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.  Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded".

And then we find in V3 that "Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother:". Jonadab was Amnon's cousin, and he possessed that terrible quality "Jonadab was a very subtil man"  As in Genesis 3:1 "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made" Jonadab notices Amnon's troubled countenance and asks Amnon V4 "why art thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day?  wilt thou not tell me?" to which Amnon admits "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister."  Rather than being a true friend and helping Amnon to overcome his obsession for Tamar, Jonadab shows his evil mind by giving Amnon a plan to fulfill his desires - V5 "And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick: and when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it at her hand." Not only deceive an innocent maiden, but bolder than that, involve the King of Israel in the deception!  Truly Jeremiah 17:9 "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  But we must also pay close heed to the next verse Jeremiah 17:10 "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."

The Child of God Walking in Darkness

The Child of God Walking in Darkness - Psalm 55

King David wrote Psalm 55 when he was betrayed by his son Absalom

Focusing on V22 "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."  What is this psalm about?  What experiences does this psalm delineate and explain to the child of God?  "Betrayed"..  This psalm was written by King David when he was betrayed by his son Absolom.  It was written at the time of rebellion among God's covenant people in Jerusalem.  We see in this psalm an expression of the broken heart of King David.  We see the great anxiety and stress and pain which David's heavy burden thrusts upon him.  "The child of God walking in darkness."  How relevant is this, because God's people do not live every day in sunshine.  Sometimes the sun of the Christian life is hidden by the clouds of a storm.  This psalm helps those who are at the extremities of experience.  This man of God is in extreme anguish of soul.  Have you ever felt like this?

1. Condition of God's child.  V1 "Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication."  God's child wants to be listened to..not primarily talked to, but listened to by God.

2. V2 "Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise"  Mourn means overcome, restless.  Make a noise means distraught.  Moral is very low, he is overcome and driven to distraction.  Serious anxiety and depression.

3. V4-5 "My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.  Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me."  He has inward emotional pain.  Fearfulness has come upon him.  Depression has come upon him.  Deep emotional pain, overwhelming feelings have come upon him.

4. V6-8 "And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove!  for then would I fly away, and be at rest.  Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.  Selah.  I would haste my escape from the windy storm and tempest."  I wish I was a bird, I would fly away from all problems, a desire to avoid the burden of the trial.  These verses teach that the psalmist wants to flee from the problem he was faced with.  It doesn't bring peace, the problem is still there.

Bible Women: Bathsheba

Bible Women:  Bathsheba

2 Samuel 11:1-5 "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah.  But David tarried still at Jerusalem.  And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.  And David sent and enquired after the woman.  And one said Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?  And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.  And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child."

Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, named in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ as "her that had been the wife of Uriah" (Matthew 1:6) inferring adultery.  Bathsheba has been portrayed as a temptress, but what is the truth of what really happened?

Bathsheba is introduced at a time when King David should have been to battle, but he sent Joab instead. (V1)  On an evening when he could not sleep, for V2 tells us "David arose from off his bed", he went to the roof of the king's house, "and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon." A temptation of the flesh, but one in the foreknowledge of God, who works all things together for  good. Here is the beginning of events that will bring sorrow to David for many years to come. Matthew 5:28 "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart".