David Diga Hernandez - 3 Keys to Overcoming Sin and Temptation

You know what the topic is, as I introduced it, and you’re saying, «Lord, I want to overcome that; I’m tired of living that way.» You know, Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, «Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.» You often hear it said that nobody is perfect but Jesus. Jesus, in Matthew 5:48, commands this perfection, and the scripture talks about how the word of God has been given to us for the perfecting of the saints. Job 1:1 says, «And there was a man who dwelt in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and he was perfect and upright before the Lord.» Now, when I say «perfect,» I’m not talking about the perfection that Christ achieved, which we could never really attain here on Earth, but this perfection is more about maturity, completeness, wholeness, a finished touch, and God wants to bring you to the place where you can live in freedom from sin. Sure, there will always be those things of our flesh that we fight; there will always be the temptations that we face. Even Christ Himself faced temptation, and the scripture says that He was sinless, so that tells me that being tempted is not a sin. Christ was tempted, the disciples were tempted, the prophets were tempted—everyone in this scripture was tempted, and all of them fell except for Jesus. Therefore, we are given the keys to overcoming temptation; we’re given the keys to holy and righteous living right in the Bible. Jesus tells us that when we pray, we are to say, «Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.» In that same prayer, among other things, we are instructed to pray that we be not led into temptation, but deliver us from evil—or, as some translations say, «the evil one.» The point is that Jesus is saying we are to pray to be delivered from temptation, to stay as far away from it as possible. The problem comes when we want to tread the line of our temptations so that we can gain satisfaction from being near them and have the convenience of indulging any time we like. Really, our attitude, our goal, our mindset as Christians should be, «Lord, I want to be as far away from that line as possible.» Jesus said to pray that we be not led into temptation; He said, «Lead us not into temptation,» not «Help me when I put myself there.» There are many people who watch this ministry on television, and they have asked me several times, because many people have seen preachers and ministers fall. We should restore them and be gracious. Personally, I don’t think that the church handles fallen preachers very well. However, many have asked me directly, «What makes you different from those? How do we know you’re not going to face certain things?» Well, I strive for holy living. I’ve often asked myself that same question, and I said, «Lord, I want to make sure I continue to live a life that I can say is above reproach—a life that people can look to and say, 'Well, that’s a good example of Christ.'» But at the same time, I am able to keep myself there—not that I’m perfect, not that I’ve attained it, but I can keep myself in clean living. I can maintain a standard in alignment with the word of God as a minister of the Gospel. I am able to do this because I realize that I am not different from those who have fallen; I recognize that I am not strong enough to handle temptation on my own, and I understand that I shouldn’t put myself in places that would tempt me. So many people look at these situations and say, «Well, I’ll go around what I’m tempted with; I’ll go to the places of temptation and pray that God gives me strength when I’m there.» But one of the first keys—and this isn’t the listed keys that I’m going to give you, as you know I usually provide a list—is that there are three keys to overcoming temptation. I kind of want to talk to you about the nature of temptation first. But in discussing the nature of temptation, we must come to realize that we ourselves should not place ourselves in those situations. The scripture says that God doesn’t give you any more than you can handle. The problem isn’t that God gives us more than we can handle; the problem is that we put on ourselves more than God has given us, and therefore, more than we can handle. So, as believers, as Christians, we are to avoid the places of temptation. We should not put ourselves in situations saying, «Well, I’m strong enough; I can handle it; I’m good now.» We must avoid at all costs the things that tempt us and say, «Lord, I want to keep my eyes completely on You. I don’t want to go to the places that I know I’m going to be tempted.» I want to avoid those as much as possible. But the reality is that even though we don’t want to be led into temptation, even though we, as Christians, don’t look to tread that fine line between sin and holiness, even though we, as Christians, seek to live our lives above reproach, we will find ourselves…