The Heart of Temptation

When last we left Eve, she was being tempted by the serpent. I’d like to ask you a question at this point. Where in the Garden of Eden was Eve standing when Satan was tempting her? She was right next to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I believe that she was standing right beside it, gazing at the forbidden fruit, even as the devil was putting all sorts of thoughts into her head. She must have been, for verse 6 tells us that she was looking at it, and she merely had to reach out her hand and take it.

The reason I stress this is that temptation always is strongest at the boundary lines of our lives. When we are living well within the will of God, and we’re not living out on the edge of the limits God places on our lives, it is more difficult for Satan to reach us with temptation. But when we begin to wander, and our fellowship with God is not all that it should be, then we soon find ourselves running into the limits that God has placed around our lives for our good. And who meets us there? Satan of course.

A little four year old boy was caught eating cookies out of the cookie jar one day. He told his mother: “But Mom, I just climbed up here to smell them and my tooth got caught.”

The temptation of Eve would not likely have been as strong were she not already in a place she shouldn’t have been. A wise old pastor was talking to a young fellow who was just going into the ministry. They were talking about the dangers of immorality and indiscretion in certain counseling situations. The young man said “Well, it’s good to have a third party present, because I believe there’s safety in numbers.” “Yes,” replied the old man, “but I’ve found that there’s even more safety in exodus.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 No 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.

Many times the best way of dealing with temptation is to flee the scene of the crime before the crime happens. That’s what Joseph did when he found himself alone with Potiphar’s wife. He ran away. Eve should have run away.

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

A long time ago, back in the early 70’s, there was a show on television called the Flip Wilson show. Flip was the first black comedian to become really popular as the host of his own variety show. In some of the comedy sketches, Flip played a character called Geraldine Jones, a sassy, liberated, swinging woman who had a jealous boyfriend named “Killer”. Geraldine got herself into all kinds of predicaments each week. Her favorite line, which became Flip Wilson’s trademark, was “The Devil made me do it.”

That may be good comedy, but it’s bad theology! Satan can tempt us, but he cannot force us to sin. We cannot say to God “The Devil made me do it.” We sin of our own free will - that’s why God holds us accountable for our sin. Sin may involve our emotions and our intellect, but it springs primarily from our volition, our will. We sin because we choose to.

Now I want you to understand that our intellect and our emotions become the accomplices of our will when it comes to choosing sin. Verse 6 tells us that Eve based her decision to eat the forbidden fruit on a series of three rationalizations.

1. This fruit will be good for me.

the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food

All of us have been born with inner physical needs. The need for food, the need for physical pleasure and comfort, the need for sex. One of the areas in which temptation operates very strongly is in this area of physical needs. The devil would like us to operate under the assumption that because we have a physical need, that need must be satisfied.

When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, this is the first area he tried. Jesus was hungry. He had been fasting for forty days. Satan tried to get him to use his miracle-working power to turn the stones into bread in order to feed himself. Satan tries to get us to rationalize sin on the basis of a false assumption. The assumption is that if we have a physical need, we must satisfy it in whatever way we can.

This is how Satan enslaves people to physical addictions. The bondage of alcoholism, nicotine addiction, drug addiction, even addiction to sex through pornography, are all the result of Satan’s suggestion that you meet your physical needs in ways which are counter to God’s will and ultimately self-destructive. He whispers in your ear “You have a physical need. God made you that way. He, of all people, will understand that you have to satisfy that need. So go ahead and do it.”

Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food. This is what the Bible in 1 John 2:16 calls the lust of the flesh.

2. The second rationalization Eve based her decision to sin on was that the fruit was beautiful, it was nice.

the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye

This may seem fairly innocent. What could be wrong with wanting something because it is pleasing and nice? Yet this is an area in which Satan operates with a vengeance. God created us with the ability to appreciate beauty and order and design. Ladies, this is why men are so captivated with cars and computers. Men, this is why women so love interior decorating, and pretty clothes. I believe that this is an evidence of the fact that God created us in His image. We can appreciate nice things.

But Satan comes along and says to us that to really appreciate something that is beautiful or excellent, you must possess it, you must have it, you must own it. Doesn’t matter what it takes, or what else you must sacrifice in order to get it. The false assumption is that excellence must be possessed to be appreciated.

The second way that Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness is given to us in

Luke 4:5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.

Here on Long Island, we have a whole culture based on the false assumption that excellence to be appreciated, must be possessed. This is what drives our materialistic culture. This is what makes people sacrifice relationships and family and God in order to have more nice things. For example, there are lots of people on Long Island who have given up the raising of their own children - farming that job out to total strangers - simply in order to have a larger inventory of cars and houses and boats and land. People enslave themselves in financial bondage in order to acquire the nice things that the world tells us that we have to own to appreciate. This is what the Bible in 1 John 2:16 calls the lust of the eyes. (if time, tell story of the man with the marble bathroom - he lost his marble!)

3. There was a third rationalization that Eve gave for her decision to disobey God. It was a rationalization that was based on self-worth.

the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom

Satan would like us to believe that life is performance-based. He would like to sell us the idea that there are certain things we can do that will give us an inherently greater worth than the next person. Is this true? No it isn’t, according to God’s Word. The Bible says that God has created all of us equal, and in his sight we all have infinite worth. The beggar in Penn Station is a human being with as much inherent worth as a successful financier on Wall Street. And in the book of James ch.2, the Bible warns us that we’d better not show favoritism when these two people come into our church.

Satan wanted Eve to believe that there was something she could do to increase her self-worth. If she could just get this wisdom by eating the fruit, she would become an inherently better person than the person God made.

This false assumption - that it is possible to enhance your self-worth - is a prominent feature of our culture today. It feeds the relentless drive of ambition - the desire to succeed in order to prove your worth. A lot of people are drawn to New York on the theory that if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere. The Sinatra Syndrome! So they become driven people. The workaholic is chained in an emotional prison that comes from basing his sense of self-worth on his job performance. This is behind the craving for acceptance and approval that fuels the fashion industry and the physical fitness craze. It is the assumption that I can do certain things to increase my self-worth. This is what the Bible in 1 John 2:16 calls the pride of life.

When Satan tempted Jesus the third time, he took him to the temple. (Did you know that the devil will gladly have you go to church if he can tempt you there?) He took him up to the pinnacle of the temple and said to Jesus “Jump. God will have to save you, and you’ll prove to everyone how important you are. Everybody will see how much value you have in the sight of God.”

Eve based her decision to sin on these three rationalizations:

1. the lust of the flesh - she saw that the fruit was good for food

2. the lust of the eyes - she saw that it was pleasing to the eye

3. the pride of life - she thought it would give her wisdom if she ate it

She had convinced herself that disobeying God would be good for her, so she took the fruit and ate it.

James 1:14-15 ..each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

What is the hardest thing for a sinner to do? The most difficult thing for a sinner to do is to admit that he is a sinner. Because he has gone through a process of rationalization to the point where he doesn’t see the wrongness of what he’s doing. The Bible says that only the Holy Spirit can convict us of sin. Only the Holy Spirit has the power to break through the fog of rationalization and excuses that surround our sin and show us what it really is.

This morning, as you have listened, you may have sensed the Holy Spirit putting his finger on an area of your life where you are out of step with God, where things are not what they should be. Perhaps you have drifted away from your fellowship with God and you have fallen into disobedience. It happens to all of us, you know.

I would say just one thing to you this morning. If the Holy Spirit is probing and convicting you of sin, don’t try to rationalize your way out of it. Don’t try to make excuses. Admit your sin to God. Ask His forgiveness. And ask for his cleansing power to come into your life and make a difference in that area from now on. If you’re struggling with a physical addiction that you know is wrong, ask God to give you victory over it. If you have become a slave to this desire to have more nice things, ask God to help you to enjoy the nice things in life that are free. If you are struggling with self-esteem, trying desperately to prove your worth to the significant people in your life, ask God to help you understand that you are worth so much to Him that he sent his son to die for you. And ask him to help you build your sense of self worth not on what others think of you but on what God thinks of you.