The God of All Comfort

I'm Pastor Seth by the way, and if I've yet

to meet you, it's good to see you here this morning.

And our family we actually moved here to come on

staff at Crossway almost exactly nine years ago now, and

I know it's flown by, been been a while, been

just a sweet season for us and a lot of

you know that I was on a summer sabbatical over

the last few months, and I want to say again

that I'm just thankful to this church for that time.

It was a source of encouragement for us as a family.

So very grateful for this body and my fellow leaders

who provide things like this for the pastoral staff here.

And people have asked since getting back, is it so?

Is it is it good? It's it good to be back?

I was it hard to come back, And my standard

answer has kind of been, well, this past summer was

God's good gift to us, and being back to be

able to help Pastor this church is also God's good

gift to me and to my family. So yes, it's

good to be back, and yes it was good to

be back there over the summer as well. Both were good.

They were God's good gift and thankful for them, and

as we just get ready to jump into God's Word

here this morning, I want to do so kind of

on the coattails of what I found to be just

some really encouraging news, some good news that I kind

of discovered in a fresh way this summer as I

was spending some time in God's Word. And that good

news is this. It's that Christians don't have to give

into temptation. Christians don't have to give into temptation. Isn't

that terrific? Yeah? Maybe, maybe, Okay, a few nods there.

I know that, you know, all of us ought to

be super excited about such news as that, but it's

a little hard to drum up that immediate enthusiasm, all right,

So very kind of you to give some nods, you know,

to do that right here at the outset. But let's

jump in and see why this news is such terrific stuff.

And kind of enough with all of that setup, because

I'm going to take you to the source of this

delightful truth. If you're not already there. Turned to First Corinthians,

chapter ten, Verse Corinthians ten. We'll end up camping out

and mostly chewing on verse thirteen. This morning, but some

of the immediate context is going to be really helpful

for us as well. So I'm going to read for

us Versus six through fourteen. Okay, everybody there first Corinthians ten,

starting in verse six, and I'm going to make some

brief commentary along the way to kind of help you

jump into where we're at. And you'll see right there.

Now these things it says, and here's Paul's argument that

he's making is basically, we need to pay attention to

what happened in the community of the Israelites as they

came out of Egypt, they experienced the exodus, and now

they're in the wilderness. And he says, now these things

took place as examples for us that we might not

desire evil as they did. Do not be idolatrs as

some of them were. As it is written, the people

sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

You can read about that account in Exodus thirty two,

where the people were in the wilderness again and Moses

had gone up Mount Sinai to meet with God. He's

gone for a while, and the people grow restless and

they end up making this golden calf idol for themselves,

and what follows after that is this kind of strange

mixture of we're having a feast to the Lord in

front of this idol. That's what we see there in

Exodus thirty two, and then carrying on there in verse

nine or verse eight. Rather, we must not indulge in

sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty three

thousand fell in a single day. That account comes to

us in numbers twenty five, where we hear that the

people of Moab it has said they hoard after the

people of Israel, horde after the daughters of Moab, and

what that ended up leading to was actually them worshiping

their god bail as well. See the consequences for that.

They're also in verse nine, we must not put Christ

to the test, as some of them did and were

destroyed by serpents. The numbers twenty one has details for

us on that account, where the people were upset about

the food and drink that had been provided for them,

and they are in a place of putting the Lord

to the test and accusing the Lord of doing them harm,

and see the consequences of that as well. And then

finally verse ten, nor grumble nor grumble, as some of

them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. We see

at least the beginnings of that in numbers fourteen, where

the spies from Israel had gone into the promised land

and Canaan that God had promised to his people, and

most of them come back with this bad report. And

the people then take this bad report, and they just

grumble against their leaders and are upset about what God

has done and bringing them to that place, as they say,

we can't go into this place that God has promised

to us. So these are some of the things that

the examples that we have. And now carrying on with

verse eleven, he says, 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. And then our key verse this morning, 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. Therefore, my beloved flee from idolatry.

This is God's word for us here this morning. So

once again you catch that tremendous news there in verse thirteen.

In verse thirteen, you can endure in faithfulness through temptation.

You can endure you and I don't have to sin

when temptation strikes. Now, if we believe what God says

about the pain, the chaos, the destruction that sin brings

into the life of the perpetrator, and often with this

blast radius that reaches far beyond what we'd anticipate, shouldn't

we rejoice over the fact that it's possible to resist

the temptation that leads to sin. Should rejoice over this?

Let's take some time to explore it together, because what

I want this morning is an increased an increased joy

that I get to share with you over what God,

through the Apostle Paul, has has shared with us here.

So how about this first phrase of our key verse

there in verse thirteen, No temptation has overtaken you that

is not common to man. The initial way in which

this verse is good news for the tempted is that

you can call your temptation common. You can call your

temptation common. That's your your first blank there, if you're

taking notes with us this morning. Why is this so

important that we would be able to call our temptation common?

You see, the trap that we often fall into when

we're in this cycle of facing temptation and then sometimes

giving in to that temptation is that we think we

tend to think we're so alone in it. It's a

lonely place. All kinds of life float through our minds

regarding this. Nobody understands, we might say, nobody can help.

God has especially plagued me with this temptation, we might say.

Or even the motives that I have for intensely desiring

this pleasurable thing are they're purer than that of others

at least, so I'm unique, I'm alone. It's more acceptable

for me in particular to surrender to this particular temptation,

the lies that go through our minds there. Now, it's

of course always enough that God tells us plainly the

temptation that is seizing you or overtaking you is commonplace.

That should be enough for us. God says it right.

In a perfect world, we would simply always respond by saying, yes, Lord,

I trust your words. You don't have to explain yourself further.

That's what we would do in a perfect world with

perfect hearts. But I tell you what, even though that's

the right posture, God God knows us, and he's so good,

he's so kind to us to provide us some specific

examples of those who followed temptation into sin and what

that looked like. There's quite the variety there in verses

six through ten. Let's take a look at them again,

even just taking it from the very top there in

verse six, what are we told about the people but

that they desired evil? That's where it started. They had

a desire for evil. And everything that comes after this

can be traced back to that, the heart clinging wrongly,

to idols tangible or intangible, to idols of various kinds,

those things about which we might say, Okay, I have

this item, this person, or this situation or this relief,

I'll be happy and content, maybe even faithful. Now, let's

consider for a moment that the trying situation that Israel

was in it really happened, real history, real life history. Here,

I think that'll help us. I mean, it had been

both a glorious and a really scary escape from Egypt

that they had gone through into this wilderness with let's

just say, probably very sub par camping equipment. All right,

Picture of the masses out there, they've never been to

this place before, subpar camping equipment, here we go. It

couldn't have been the most comfortable of experiences for them.

I mean, moms, can you imagine can you imagine trying

to nurse and keep clean your little ones in that environment? Dads?

Can you imagine trying to ensure that your family stuck

together among the masses of people and had enough to

eat and drink each hour? Kids, or really any of

us here? Can you picture how bored, how bored you

might have felt when some days all you did was

hang out in one little brambly area, or walk walk,

walk to whatever next place God was taking you, who

knows where. Do you think, all of you that temptations

to covet something different would have been close at hand?

I think so for myself. So you're in this wilderness,

you maybe haven't had much spiritual instruction in your life yet,

and your primary leader, Moses disappears for weeks on end

up a mountain, and instead of patiently meditating on how

the invisible but very evident God had delivered you. Some

people start suggesting to you that a tangible image would

be good for people to rally to, you know, and

Moses's brother and spiritual co leader kind of says, I

can make that happen. Can you envision getting caught up

with the energy and compromising your clear sighted devotion to

the Lord in those moments? Again? I think I can

get there for myself. And how about this sexual immorality

with Moab that's spoken of. I mean, here's something and

maybe someone new, maybe even quite striking. And since you've

felt resentment over the stuffiness or this strictness of the

people in your own community, welcoming those exciting advances seems

all too reasonable. You're tired of being held back? Can

you enter in there too? Can you get that? And

then what about the food situation? I mean, most of us,

what's our problem? We can't find the food we crave

because so much other food is in front of it. Right,

But what if plain old manna, manna, mana wafers that's

all you had every day? Do you think you might

be tempted to accuse the Lord of holding out on you,

maybe testing him or putting him on trial like the

people of Israel did. I can arrive to that place

as well. And then finally, the people with the eyewitness

information about the Promised Land, they come back from spying

it out and they say, going in the there is

a horrible idea. We'll get wiped out for sure. Do

you think you might look at your leaders and up

to God and maybe grumble a bit over the fact that, well,

apparently nobody knows what's going on here, and why in

the world did we have to go through all that

terrifying stuff with the exodus only to face something even

worse in the next place. If I have this item,

this person, this situation, this particular relief, I'll be happy

and content, and out of that place I can be faithful. Well,

what do you think I understand? I've used some creative

liberty here in recounting these old Testament stories. But Paul

was giving the church these real life examples of people

facing genuine and relate temptations sharing with us. Then the

awful consequences of surrendering into sin. See things like tens

of thousands dead, serpent induced fatalities, or being killed off

slowly over forty years in the wilderness, the whole generation

not getting to see the promised land. Paul says, these

are a few of many examples for us. We really

can't plead ignorance here. We're meant to learn from these examples.

So we have those accounts, and they're really helpful ones.

They're the immediate context for us. But I can tell

you too that the temptations that any of you are

facing in life, and I know you have them, they're

also likely very similar to that of someone else in

this worship set less than fifty feet away. You ever

think about that, you likely need to see your root

struggles as more commonplace than you had previously thought. God

had his eye on the depths of every single temptation

from the very beginning, from the Garden of Eden onward,

and he looks at this room and he tells us

through Paul, right now, Yep, same stuff, same stuff, same

temptations coming to man. You are known and you are

hardly alone. It's good to remember that, and that really

leads us into the next part of good news that

we need to embrace here this morning. And it's the

good news that we can look to temptations, limitter. That's

your next spot. They're looking to temptations, limiture. The second

part of our verse reads God, God the limitter. God

is faithful and he will not let you be tempted

beyond your ability. We read so our God, who has

had his hands and eyes on humanity from our very beginning,

is he's putting a cap on temptations strength, a cap

that is in right measure for you, as his child,

You whom he knows by name, Paul says, Know that

he is faithful in his handling of you, knowing your ability,

familiar with your frame. This is so good to know

in times when you've put yourself in situations or taken

yourself down paths where you've essentially repeatedly invited temptation into

your life, Because it happens. Sometimes we run the same

course is over and over again. But even when you

come right up to that very edge of moving from

temptation and into a specific sin, Faithful God, faithful God

is right there for you to look to and hope

in and cry out to for the strengthening you need

to run away from sin. That happens. Sometimes we put

ourselves in the same situations over and over again, but

not always. Sometimes best as you can tell, there's no

way that you could have even seen a certain temptation coming.

There's this tantalizing mor soul again, tangible or intangible of

whatever kind, it's put right into your lap, or maybe

a scandalous image is set before your eyes, or even

a near at hand tragic event takes place that tempts

your heart to root itself an ongoing fear or anger,

or bitterness or despair or resentment in those moments as well.

In those moments, you need to know that God is

faithful to restrain that temptation from causing you to sin

against Him and others. He's faithful in that way. Isn't

it encouraging that as his you have the ability for

faithfulness in Him and through him looking to him. Consider

a passage as well, Like Galatians two twenty and be

refreshed with this. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who lived, but Christ, who lives

in me, and the life I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who

loved me and gave himself four me. Or how about

Romans eight twenty six. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in

our weakness, for we do not know what to pray

for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for

us with groanings too deep for words. Do you feel

resourced and supported from these texts? You understand yourself to

be upheld by God as you hear such scriptures. For

those who know Jesus hoping in Him alone for salvation.

We're made new, We're in Dwelt, where we're loved. We're

equipped for obedience as new people. This is gospel truth

that originates and continues through our faithful Triune God, of Father,

of Son of Holy Spirit. Fixing your hope and attention

on Him right now in this moment, in this room,

in this hour, it's going to ready you for the

moment of temptation when it inevitably comes. And looking to

Him and remembering that how He's in so faithful to

you when you're in the heat of temptation will help

to motivate your perseverance. In the midst of that, He

carried and supplied for his people in the wilderness, sometimes

meeting them right at that point when all hope seemed

lost and his faithfulness hasn't changed, same faithful God. He

won't let you be tempted beyond your ability. He sets

temptations limits, so it's essential that we look to him

as temptations limited. So we looked to him too, as

this real hero that we see at the end of

the verse this morning, which says, but the temptation. With

that temptation, he'll also provide the way of escape that

you may be able to endure it. So, in other words,

he'll supply. He'll supply what we need to escape. Temptations hold.

Final portion, we're looking at escape temptations hold. Now you

know how it is. It's pretty tough to come up

with a strategic plan when your heart is intensely drawn

to something that presents itself as so satisfying or so fulfilling.

Isn't it hard to have a plan in those moments.

It's kind of like the focus that our dog Diggery

anybody fan of Narnia out there, okay, It's kind of

like the focus that our dog Diggree gets at home

every time we make popcorn. Nothing else in all the

world matters to him because his tiny doggy brain can't

imagine anything that would make him happier than one of

us dropping a kernel to the floor. He maintains his focus,

I think in part because we also have some family

members who hand him kernels. But that's besides the point.

It's very focused in him. We're like that. Sometimes in

the face of sin, it captivates us. Everything else seems

to disappear in that moment. That's why it's so necessary

to have a knowledge of God's regular means of your

endurance that lead to escaping temptations. Relentless hold first, And

really this is built right into the context of our verse.

This morning is the call to open up God's word

and learn from the mistakes of others, be a student

of God's dealings with humanity. To be sure, the Israelites

did not have all the scriptures to the degree that

we do today, but they had enough. They had enough

of God's specific instruction to understand what it meant to

trust and obey him. So how much more for us

as we hold our Bibles in our hands. Paul says

twice to us in that paragraph that we read that

the records of their error, it's there to show us

examples of sin and its grave consequences. So again, going

through them here once more, when Moses went up on

Mount sayin I for less than six weeks, instead of

trusting that God was actually serious about the commandments to

not worship any God but Him, they make for themselves

a shiny toy God, probably because their confidence was found

more in God's messenger, Moses than in God himself. So

in what or whom does our confidence rest? Keep your

focus and let your diligence study beyond the scriptures and

its author. Otherwise you'll quickly set up similar idols in

your own hearts. That's what we'll have a tendency to do.

And how about again the example of sexual sin with

the Moabites. A quick look at numbers twenty five. It

reminds us that sexual infidelity was really just part of

the problem. It ended up being the gateway into the

worship of bail. They physically made themselves one with the

pagan people and then were subsequently lured into even further

spiritual oneness that ultimately led to pain and death throughout

their community. So we can't minimize that little bit of pornography,

that secret rendezvous, little sexual fantasies that we play out

over and over again in our minds, or even dating

people who are not explicitly devoted to Jesus Christ to

live for another lord. Such compromises don't bring life. They

never do. If we see any of these things as

having minuscule consequences or isolated impact, Paul would say, can

I share an example with you that might help you

to reconsider your way of thinking about that? For simplicity,

we'll put the last two stories, the last two examples

together here, testing the Lord and grumbling that we read about,

both probably indicating that the presence of unsettled hearts, of

anger and fear. We deserve better food than this God.

And you've set before us a way too scary path

into the promised land? Moses? Is this just so God

can kill us all out here? Terrible deathly consequences for

them in their community in that instance as well? So friends,

do you get? You get grumbly, even maybe a bit

accusatory of God when the picture in your mind of

the life you thought you'd have isn't the current one

that you've received. Does disappointment turn into demands that you

start to make of God and others because they're not

building your kingdom? Is this the idolatry that you need

to flee from. So that's the first thing regarding escaping temptations,

hold learning from others' mistakes, particularly as they're detailed for

us in the scriptures. But secondly, and simply, we might

say endure unto escape, endure unto escape, which is basically

a different way of stating the last part of verse thirteen. Again,

you know, I think many of us need to be

more like elite and fighters. Do you think I was

gonna say that next? No, you didn't? It worked? Then? Good? Good.

It's possible that my son Lewis and I have watched

this sport a little bit lately and some of you

might be just a little uncomfortable with that. But it's

a risk that I'm going to take as we're here

together this morning. See, I can't help but be increasingly

impressed with the athleticism of some of these men. Their

conditioning must be an intense process to be able to

go the distance for five intense five minute rounds with

someone else who wants to knock them down or choke

them out before that final bell rings. I mean, my

twenty five minute rigor is the five K button on

a treadmill that I push while I watch the History

channel on my phone. Pansy Land. That's all I can

say in comparison. But these guys are on constant offense

and defense, listening to shouts from their trainers on the sidelines,

who are telling them all the same things that they've

worked on in practice. Sometimes they're in this death grip

against the side of the cage. Chests are heaving as

they suck air. The guy who's locked up, he understands,

He understands the concept of enduring unto escape if he's

fought a good fight, paying attention to his coach, scoring

enough points along the way. All he ultimately must do

in that moment is keep from tapping out before the

final bell. You get where I'm going with this, right

temptation isn't going to go away for you or me.

But we've got the perfect playbook to study and pull from.

We have the trainer who wrote it and who only

ever cheers for his sons and daughters in the heat

of the battle. And there's a final bell closer than

we may know, even that brings us into our eternal rest.

So why why would we act like this fighting ring

of life? Is a little playground we can fool around in.

There's good periods of refreshment and recovery between the rounds.

Praise the Lord, enjoy those you need them. He has

supplied them, he says, you actually must take them. But

don't start to act like that's what life is all about,

trying to replicate and build up and protect that pleasure,

which is really just the construction of all these little

idols in your heart that we're so tempted to build,

My beloved, Let's flee from idolatry, so we see there

the end of the passage we can start to practice

such Even this morning, as we remember our Savior. We

remember our Savior who faithfully, sinlessly endured on our behalf

all the way to the cross, so that when we

have another bad round and surrender to sin, all is

not lost. If we confess our sins. He is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse

us from all unrighteousness. The apostle John tells us, let's

gratefully remember Jesus now through our time of communion together

that we're about to take