The Bible Top 40
Assurance of Victory
I Corinthians 10:13
Larry Meredith sent a story out over the email this week of a guy who was busily losing his paycheck at the racetrack. Even though it was still early in the day, he had already lost most of it. He was just about to pick his choice and bet his last dollar, when he noticed a priest blessing a horse, touching it on the head. He checked the number on the horse, it was a long-shot at best, but he hadn’t won all day, so he figured he had nothing left to lose. He bet the rest of his money on the horse, which inexplicably won! He looked around, and, sure enough the priest was blessing another horse. He ran to the window, bet on that horse, and won again! Before each race he began scanning the stable area for the priest. Each time he placed a bet, he won! He couldn’t lose!
Toward the end of the day, when he had won more money than he’d ever dreamed of, he saw the priest touching the head and hooves and ears of a horse. “WOW!” he thought, “A sure thing!” He bet all his money on the horse, which not only lost, it died before it crossed the finish line!
He frantically sought out the priest, and demanded to know what was up. “All day I’ve been watching you bless horses, and they always won, then this last one died on the course!” The priest thoughtfully asked, “Where do you attend church, my son?” “I’m a good Baptist!” The man answered. “I thought so,” said the priest, “You Baptists never could tell the difference between a blessing and Last Rites!”
Sometimes we think we have things all figured out – a fool-proof plan, a can’t lose system. How many times do we hear about a “can’t lose” proposition? Usually its on TV, one of those infomercials about car wax, kitchen cleaning products or the latest weight-loss miracle drug. Or a hot tip from a friend about a stock purchase. The only problem with these “no lose” products is that people regularly lose with them – they lose their money. The stock crumbles, the car wax is no better than the cheep stuff at Wal-Mart, the cleaning products don’t cut grease and the only thing that gets thinner with the weight loss drug is your wallet!
Today we are going to discuss areas far more important than betting at the track, or having a cleaner car or kitchen. We are going to talk about temptation. And we’re going to talk about “Assurance of Victory,” but I’m not going to stand up here and tell you that you can’t lose. What I AM going to tell you is this: you don’t have to lose!
Turn in your Bibles to I Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. (Page 772 in the Bibles found throughout the sanctuary.) As you are turning there, let me tell you a little about this place called Corinth. Corinth was an important city in ancient Greece. Geographically, it was a hub for commerce between Italy and Asia, and with the flow of products and people made it a thriving metropolis. To put it in perspective, I picture Corinth like our own Chicago. Because of the placement of the Great Lakes, everything traveling from the Northeast to the west naturally dips south around the lakes, and eventually passes through Chicago. For that reason, it has been a cultural and economic center since the earliest days of our Nation.
Corinth was much the same, located on a thin strip of land that connected northern Greece, with Athens and all of Asia beyond, to southern Greece, with the great sea port of Sparta. Corinth grew to be a place known for business, culture and sports.
And like our present day Chicago, Corinth became known for it’s decadence as well as it’s affluence. In fact, the immorality of Corinth became so widely known that Greek verb for a sexually immorality was korinthiazomai.[1] When someone was loose in their lifestyle, they were said to have “gone Corinthian.”
Needless to say, the members of the church in Corinth were faced with a lot of temptation. There were temptations for power, idolatry, sex, money, you name it. And in the middle of this letter to the church, Paul gives us words that are among the most important in the Bible. They are part of the Bible Top 40 – verses each of us should know and apply to our lives.
I Corinthians 10:13 reads as follows:
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 the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
The first thing Paul tells the Corinthians, and us, is a message of some comfort and some challenge – the various temptations we face, no matter how difficult or persistent they may be, are normal. They are no different than all people have faced throughout time. This is a message of comfort in that we realize that we are not alone in our struggle. All believers, from the days of Adam and Eve, through Cain, Joseph, Moses, Sarah, David, Esther, even Jesus Himself faced temptation, and today every believer still does. You are not alone. But these are also words of challenge. “Don’t tell me,” Paul is saying, “that you somehow have it worse than everybody else. Your temptations are no different than mine and every other persons.”
The phrase “common to man” means that temptation is part of the human condition. It is part and parcel of being alive. We all face temptation – that is not news to any of us – the NEWS in this verse s not the temptations we face, it’s the God who is faithful.
God shows His faithfulness in our temptations in three ways:
This is an amazing truth. God will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. That means that you never face a temptation that God does not already know you can beat. A few years ago a television evangelist who had had a moral failure sent a video tape to some pastors he wanted to convince to continue to support him. He said in the video that he had a dream in which a cobra was ready to strike him – the cobra was four feet tall, then the dream changed and he was faced with a cobra that was 4 stories tall – he tried to kill but could not. He then told his viewers that the dream meant that the temptation to sin was too large for him to beat, so they should be merciful to him, and not hold him accountable for his failure.
That is an all to common tactic. We have seen far too many people claim that it was simply impossible for them to resist the temptation. But they are denying the faithfulness of God! This verse promises that God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. It is not a question of what we can handle, it is a question of what we will resist! Oscar Wilde once said, “I can resist everything except temptation.” This verse asserts that every temptation you and I face can be beaten – it is a matter of our choice – to yield or to resist. “God is faithful, He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.”
God’s faithfulness is secondly shown in that He will, with the temptation, also make the way of escape. Now that word escape is really interesting, and Paul chose it very carefully, I believe. In the rest of the New Testament, the Greek word for escape means “to flee, to get away, to go out.” This word is only used here, and it refers to a mountain defile. The image is of an army trapped in rugged country, finding a way out of an impossible situation through a mountain pass.[2]
I’m reading a book that was loaned to me by Cindy Beecroft about the Battle of Bastogne, when American troops found themselves surrounded by 250,000 Germans and 1,000 tanks. The city of Bastogne was completely surrounded for 6 days until General Patton arrived to drive a single path of escape and re-supply for the troops.
Isn’t that just the way it feels some times? It seems like the enemy is camped all around us, hitting us from every side with temptations to lust, steal, cheat, over-eat, over-drink, lie, get angry, be prideful – he never seems to run out of ammunition! But even when it seems we are surrounded, there is a way of escape – a path through the difficult terrain that will allow us to get away. No person can come to our rescue –for our temptations are common to all people. It is God who is faithful to provide this way of escape. It is left to us to take the escape, to chose to escape rather than to give in to the temptation to sin.
3. That you may be able to bear it.
God’s faithfulness is shown, thirdly, in the statement that we will be able to bear it. God’s promise that he will not allow us to be tempted beyond our capacity, coupled with his provision of a way of escape bring us to the conclusion – all this has been done so that we can bear the load.
None of us is exempt from temptation – we will all be tempted at some point almost all the time – but none of us has to yield to that temptation at any time. God has promised us that we can bear the burden. Now you may be thinking – “well, if there’s a way of escape, then I don’t have to bear it at all, do I?” And there may seem to be a conflict here, but I think that Marvin Vincent has caught the meaning of Paul quite well when he says, “Temptation that can not be fled must be endured. Often the only escape is through endurance.”[3] That thought is backed up in Scripture by James, who writes in his letter, chapter 1 verse 12,
Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive a crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.
And that’s what it is all about, isn’t it – that we should be able to stand in the face of the enemy? Even when attacked on all sides, we can stand – realizing that God is faithful, that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist, and that He will provide a way of escape – often a clear choice of acceptable behavior rather than yield to sin, but no matter what, we have the ability to stand up under the temptation – to bear it. God is faithful – God is faithful – God is faithful. He has done, and will do His part.
It falls to us to do ours. I think it is telling that in the next verse, Paul follows up his statement about God’s faithfulness with a call for action. He says, “Therefore, my beloved, flee…” Paul does not make excuses for them in their circumstances, he does not allow any room for maneuvering. He calls them to purity, to devotion, to holiness.
The truth has been presented. God is faithful – He has provided all we need for victory in Jesus – it is up to us to chose to walk faithfully with Him. As we commit these words to our memory, and as the Holy Spirit quickens them within our hearts, may God grant us the Victory promised here.
Prayer.
[1] Chuck Swindoll, The Living Insights Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996. pg. 1211.
[2] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries – I Corinthians, Inter-Varsity Press, Grand Rapids, MI. 1985. pg. 142.
[3] Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1973. pg. 242.