Biblical Sermons

How Twelve Preachers Apply the Principles of Biblical Preaching

Robinson, Haddon W., Haddon W. Robinson

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN: 9780801090448
• eBook ISBN: 9781441231598
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Ministerio cristiano

Haddon Robinson's method as presented in Biblical Preaching is employed in twelve expository messages, offering concrete examples of how experienced preachers have made Robinson's homiletical principles work for them. Robinson comments on each expository message, interviews each preacher, and contributes a sermon of his own. The book shows how successfully his method of developing sermons can be adapted to different contexts.

Chapter 1

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A Case Study in Temptation

Genesis 3:1–6

Haddon W. Robinson

Sermon

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A few months ago I received a letter from a young man in a penitentiary in Texas. He is serving from ten to twenty years for attempted rape. He is a Christian, and he asked if I would send him a book that was not available to him in the prison. I gladly responded to his request. But his letter deeply disturbed me, because the young man had been a student of mine when he was in seminary.

When he left the seminary, he left with notable gift and great vision. He pastored two different churches, and both of them, humanly speaking, were successful congregations. In the second church, which I knew better, he demonstrated the gift of evangelism. Many of the people in that church were led to Christ as a result of his witness. He was a careful student of the Scriptures. There were those in the congregation who testified that again and again as he stood to speak they could sense the power and the presence of God. He had a discipling ministry; he left his thumbprint upon the men in that congregation. In fact, when his crime was discovered and he had admitted his guilt, men in his church raised over $20,000 for his legal defense. And now he is a prisoner in a penitentiary in Texas. In one dark hour of temptation he fell into the abyss. He ruined his reputation, destroyed his ministry, and left an ugly stain on the testimony of Christ in that community.

When I read that letter and knew what had happened, I found myself wrestling with all kinds of questions and emotions. What happens in a person’s life who does that? What went through his mind? What was it that caused him to turn his back on all that he had given his life to?

I realized as I was asking those questions that I was not simply asking about him, but about myself. I was asking about men and women who have graduated from seminary who, in some act of disobedience, have destroyed the ministry to which they have given themselves. What is it that causes someone to mortgage his ministry to pay the high price of sin? What is it that lures us to destruction?

It’s a question you face. You’re a Christian. Temptation dogs your path and trips you at every turn. The question you must face sometime in your life is, “How does the tempter do his work? How does he come to us? How does he destroy us?” Here, early in the ancient record, we have one of the themes that appears again and again throughout the Scripture, the theme of sin and its destructive power.

What we have here in Genesis 3 is a case study in temptation. In a case study, you get rid of the independent variables to study the thing itself. As Eve is approached by the tempter, many things are true of her that are not true of us. For example, she has no poisoned blood in her veins. She does not have a heritage on which she can blame her sin. Eve comes, as Adam does, as the direct creation of God; and when God created Adam and Eve, God declared that the creation was very good. Unlike people today, Adam and Eve were not half-damned at birth. What is more, Eve and Adam lived in a perfect environment. Nothing in the pollution of that atmosphere would lead them away from God. So Eve stands in the morning of creation, a creature of great wonder. No sinful heritage, no savaged environment. We have a case study in temptation.

As we watch the way the tempter comes to Eve, we recognize that while this story comes to us out of the ancient past, it’s as up-to-date as the temptation you faced last night—the temptation you may be feeling this morning, the temptation you face in your study, in your home, in your ministry, in your life. The scene has changed, but the methodology has not.

As you read this story, one thing is obvious. When the tempter comes, he comes to us in disguise. The writer of Genesis notes the serpent was “more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.” When the serpent approached, therefore, he did not come as a creature of ugliness. This scene happens before the curse, before the serpent crawls on its belly over the ground. No rattlers here warn of an approaching danger. There’s nothing here that would make Eve feel alarmed.

When Satan comes to you, he does not come in the form of a coiled snake. He does not approach with the roar of a lion. He does not come with the wail of a siren. He does not come waving a red flag. Satan simply slides into your life. When he appears, he seems almost like a comfortable companion. There’s nothing about him that you would dread. The New Testament warns that he dresses as an angel of light, a servant of God, a minister of righteousness. One point seems quite clear: when the enemy attacks you, he wears a disguise. As Mephistopheles says in Faust, “The people do not know the devil is there even when he has them by the throat.”

Not only is he disguised in his person, but he disguises his purposes. He does not whisper to Eve, “I am here to tempt you.” He merely wants to conduct a religious discussion. He would like to discuss theology; he doesn’t intend to talk about sin. The serpent opens the conversation by asking, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” You can’t argue with that. Satan asks only for clarification. “Look, I want to be sure of your exegesis. I want to understand the idea God was trying to get across. Did he really say you can’t eat of any of the trees of the garden?” You see, he is a religious devil. He doesn’t come and knock on the door of your soul and say, “Pardon me, buddy, allow me a half hour of your life. I’d like to damn and destroy you.” No, all he wants to do is talk about a point of theology. He only desires to interpret the Word of God. It is possible, isn’t it, to discuss theology to our peril. We can talk about God in an abstract way, as though he were a mathematical formula. You can concoct a theology that leads you to disobey God.

You’re convinced about grace, very strong on Christian liberty. You know the freedom of the sons and daughters of God and you will debate grace with anyone. You can do anything you want, at any time you want, with anyone you want. No restrictions, no hangups; you’re free; you know God’s grace! Every person who’s ever turned liberty into license has done so on theological grounds. “Even when I sin, God’s grace abounds. Isn’t it wonderful that I always have God’s grace because when I sin, I demonstrate his forgiveness?”

You can be strong on God’s sovereignty. No one will outpace you when it comes to that doctrine. God is sovereign over the affairs of men and nations. God’s eye is not only over history; his hand is on history. His hand rests upon your life, but before long God is so sovereign that you have no responsibility. In a sense “all the world’s a stage, all the men and women merely players.” God maps out the action, plans the dialogue. We go through our paces, but it’s all of God. Even our sin. And out of that discussion you find good sound reasons—or reasons that sound good—for disobeying God. All because you discuss theology with the wrong motive. One advantage of graduating from seminary is that you can manufacture a lot of pious excuses for doing wrong and be theological in your disobedience.

Another thing that Satan does in this conversation, this discussion about God, is to focus Eve’s attention on that single tree in the center of the garden. He says, “It is inconceivable to me that God wouldn’t let you have any of these trees.” Now Eve jumps to God’s defense. She’s a witness on behalf of God. “No, we can eat of all of the trees in the garden but that one tree—that tree there in the center—we can’t eat from that, we can’t touch that tree.” God didn’t say that. He didn’t say anything about “touching” it. Some people defend God by becoming stricter than God. They not only know God’s commands, but they believe they are holier if they go beyond those commands. There is danger in that. Eve says, “You know we can’t taste it; we can’t even touch it.” What Satan has done, of course, is to focus her mind on that single tree, the one thing God prohibited.

Sometimes people turn their backs on all the good things, all the blessings that have been poured into their lives—throw all that away for a single sin in their lives. They no longer can see God’s goodness. Satan shifts your focus, and there emerges that one thing you want so desperately, you’ll do anything to get it. It becomes the obsession of your life, and everything else God does for you, you forget. So Satan comes in disguise. He conceals who he is. He conceals what he wants to do.

The second part of his strategy is to attack God’s Word. When Eve responds, “We may eat from all the trees in the garden, but we must not eat the fruit from the tree that’s in the middle of the garden. We must not touch it or we will die,” then Satan throws his head back and with irrepressible laughter says, “Surely you don’t believe that, do you? That you will surely die? Oh, come now. A bit of fruit? Surely die? That’s just a bit of exaggeration God’s using to get your attention. He doesn’t mean that. Surely die? You’re too sophisticated to believe that God who gave you this marvelous garden and all these trees, and that bountiful fruit is going to be that upset about your taking that one piece of fruit. Surely die? You can’t be serious! God doesn’t mean that. God certainly doesn’t mean that.”

I can believe in the inerrancy of the Bible as a whole, except on one particular issue between God and me; I’m sure God doesn’t mean it when he says, “You will surely die.”

For thousands of years Satan has repeated that strategy. It is the theme of modern novels. The author manipulates the plot so that his characters live in deep disobedience against God, yet at the end everything has turned out well. It’s the subject of modern movies in which the characters rebel against the moral laws of God but live happily ever after. It’s the word from the sponsor on television. It appears in four-color ads. Here’s a perfume—it’s been on the market for a long time—called “My Sin.” A huckster on Madison Avenue named that fragrance. “Here is a fragrance that is so alluring, so charming, so exciting,” he whispers, “we can call it ‘My Sin.’ ” You would never guess the fragrance of sin arises as a stench in the nostrils of God.

How do you respond to the warnings against disobedience that fill the pages of Scripture? Does God mean it when he says, “The mind of sinful man is death”? Does God mean it when he declares, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction”? Does God mean it when he urges, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows”? Does God mean it when he states, “But all the wicked he will destroy”? Does God mean it when he warns, “The LORD will judge his people”? Does God mean it when he promises, “God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral”? Does God mean it when he tells us that sin brings punishment?

God is serious about sin because God is serious about you. God is serious about sin because he loves you and knows the devastation that sin can bring in your life, in your relationships, in your character, in your ministry. God is serious about sin as a loving parent is serious about fire and warns a child about it, knowing that it can maim that child for life, destroy the home he lives in, and do untold damage. But how do you feel about it? Do you take God seriously when he utters those warnings?

Not only does Satan attack God’s Word, but he drives deeper and attacks God’s character, which lies behind his Word. The serpent explains to the woman, “For God knows that when you eat of it [that tree] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan slanders God’s goodness. He implies, “Do you know why God gave you that command? He wants to spoil your fun. He wants to hold you on a tight leash. He doesn’t want you to be free and experience the good life. He is out to deny you pleasures. He desires to keep you down. He wants to forbid you the excitement that life offers. He knows very well that when you eat that fruit, you’ll be like him and will know good and evil. Then you’ll enjoy experiences beyond your wildest dreams. God has an ulterior motive, a hidden agenda, and it’s an evil one.”

Once the well is poisoned, all the water is polluted. One of the most beautiful confessions of love and faith in the Bible is the confession Ruth makes to Naomi. June embraces November. Ruth pleads, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.” An expression of loyal devotion as beautiful as any in all of literature.

But suppose someone whispered to Naomi, “Naomi, listen. Ruth’s a gold digger. She’s a manipulator. What Ruth, this Moabitess, really wants is to get into Israel and marry a wealthy Jew. She knows you are her passport. She’ll tell you anything to get a visa into Israel.” If Naomi believed that, the well is poisoned. Every good word Ruth speaks, Naomi now suspects. Every kind act Ruth does, Naomi will reject. When you poison the well, all the water is contaminated. If you question God’s Word because you doubt God’s goodness, then Satan has done his work. How easily we succumb. All of us have served the Prince of Darkness and lived in his realm too long. When we enter the kingdom of God’s Son, we carry our doubts and suspicions with us. If something painful happens in our lives, we ask “why?” and the question mark is like a dagger pointed at the heart of God. How easily we suspect that when some reversal happens in our lives, God has lined up against us. We suffer such a twisted will that even when good things happen to us we doubt God’s goodness. If something marvelous comes into our life, something completely unexpected, at first we’re delighted. Then all at once a shadow crosses our mind that it will soon be snatched away. God doesn’t really want me to enjoy this expression of his goodness; just as I start to enjoy it, he’ll pull it back like a sadistic parent. So we “knock on wood” and hammer at the heart of God. When we doubt God’s goodness, we will doubt his Word. If we believe God wants to hold us back from enjoying a full life, then the work of the tempter is complete.

At that moment, “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.” Now the forbidden fruit pleases her eye. She has listened to the lie of the tempter and her senses take control. When you get God out of your life, if you come to question God’s Word and God’s goodness, then your senses come alive to what is evil; what was once out of bounds to you becomes what you desire more than anything else on earth, even if it is something that can destroy you.

“Piece of fruit?” someone might say. “Surely not a piece of fruit. You’re not going to tell me that Eve sinned by eating a piece of fruit in the orchard. You’re not going to tell me that’s why Adam sinned and why murder came into their family. You’re not going to tell me a piece of fruit damned the race.”

No, not a piece of fruit, but disobedience to God’s Word, an ugly suspicion of God’s character. The fruit is out at the periphery; the sin stands at the center. Whenever you come to doubt or deny the goodness of God, then at that point you’ll come to reject his Word—the fruit is only the point of disobedience.

If Satan had come to Eve that early morning and said, “Look, sign this paper. Say that you are through with God,” she would never have signed it. When Satan approaches us, he never comes dragging the chains that will enslave us. He comes bringing a crown that will ennoble us. He comes offering us pleasure, expansiveness, money, popularity, freedom, and joy. In fact, he never hints about the consequences; he only promises we will fill all the desires of our hearts. That is how we are destroyed. That’s the lesson: the temptations that destroy us strike at the heart of God, at God’s integrity and God’s goodness. As we deny God’s goodness, we reject his Word. When we reject his Word, we do so at our peril.

Hear me well. I do n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. A Case Study in Temptation, Genesis 3:1–6 – Haddon W. Robinson
• 2. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, Exodus 20:14 – Erwin W. Lutzer
• 3. The Big Valley, 1 Samuel 17:1–51 – James O. Rose
• 4. A Night in Persia, Esther – Donald Sunukjian
• 5. Riding the Wind of God, Psalm 127 – Duane Litfin
• 6. He Who Has Ears to Hear . . ., Jeremiah 1 – Bo Matthews
• 7. For “Wait” Watchers Only! Luke 1:5–25 – George Kenworthy
• 8. Who Cares? Luke 15 – Joseph M. Stowell
• 9. A Woman Who Came a Stone’s Throw from Death, John 8:1–12 – Nancy Hardin
• 10. How to Stand Perfect in the Sight of God, Romans 4:5 – Larry Moyer
• 11. When Life Deals You a Lemon, Make a Lemonade, James – Michael Cocoris
• 12. Lament for the City of Man, Revelation 17–18 – Joel Eidsness
• List of Sermon Illustrations
• Index
• Notes
• Back Cover