Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

Audio: iTunes | Spotify

Disclaimer: This is a transcript of Pastor Fenker’s sermon. It was preached from an outline, and the transcript taken automatically from the audio. Please forgive any typographical or formatting errors.

“No temptation is overtaking 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.”

᛭ INI ᛭

There are certain passages in the scriptures that are misquoted, and then there are those that are misremembered. The final verse from our epistle reading this evening is one of those verses. We have a saying based off of it. And the verse is true, but the saying is not. 
The saying is, God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. The problem is, That’s not true. The problem is, that’s not what the verse says. 


God, the scriptures reveal, indeed, does. Give more than you can handle. You don’t have to go very far if you decide to start reading through the book of Psalms. How David seeks the Lord’s goodness all the time. that without it, he is nothing, that everything he is experiencing is unbearable. Were the Lord not by his side. 


Or you can go to 2nd Corinthians chapter one. Another writing by Paul, where Paul lays out that they had received such suffering. that they despaired of life itself. Sounds like Paul had more than he could handle. And Paul admits in 2nd Corinthians one, that this was so. In order that Paul would trust not in himself, but rather in God who raises the dead.

Or you can even look at our Old Testament reading from this evening, where David takes up to talk again about all that the Lord does for him. And that if the Lord were not helping him, everything would be on would be beyond his ability. By you, I can run against a troop, by my God, I can leap over a wall. God is my refuge He has made my way blameless.

So the Lord indeed gives more than we can handle. But he does not let us to be tempted beyond what we are able. 


The verse is talking about not about trials and tribulations where the Lord would use them. to draw us closer to himself, where he would use them, as Paul puts it in Romans chapter 8, to conform us, mold us into the image of his son. The image of his son is suffering, then dying, and then rising from the dead. No, he is talking about temptation. 


Being enticed by our own sinful desires after what is not God pleasing. Paul gives cliff notes of all the various temptations that the people of Israel went through with the golden calf and sexual immorality, grumbling against the Lord, not trusting the Lord, and we can come up with many more. But the temptation after Mammon. 
The world seeks after wealth in all that Mammon offers, yet never is content, though gold should fill its coffers. And so even our sinful flesh. is drawn after such temptation. After money or possessions, which Christ personifies as mammon. 


We all have to have The right amount stowed away to be comfortable, don’t we? Or to retire safely, don’t we? So it is. Our flesh leads us into this temptation. Again, this is what the Lord is talking about here through St. Paul. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation, we’ll also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. 
He gives the way of escape. Christ is that way of escape. Christ who endured temptation.


You have a God who can sympathize with you when you are tempted, in whatever ways that you’re tempted. Christ was tempted exactly like you are. And he remained without sin. conquering temptation. For your sake and mine. Being perfect where we are imperfect. His way truly blameless, blameless for you. He endured all the temptations of the devil to avoid the cross. But he endured the cross, despising its shame, taking it up for your sins and mine, all the many times that we do indeed get led into temptation. And this Christ, who was tempted for you, endured temptation perfectly for you, paid the consequences of your going off, giving in into temptation. 


This Christ provides all the more gift for you. With the temptation, provides the way of escape. Christ taught us to pray. And he taught us to pray against temptation. It’s the 6th petition to the Lord’s Prayer. Lead us not into temptation. And as we know from the small catechism, summarizing the scriptures that God indeed tempts no one, that’s James, but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things. We pray in this petition that we may finally overcome them and win the victory. 
And God indeed answers that petition. He hears you for Jesus’ sake, When you pray this petition. 


He fulfills it in Christ. He gives you the Holy Spirit. And the Father also, as Christ says, gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. And he provides the way of escape. In his word, and his sacraments. You are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. leading to Christ. It is forgiveness and his new life. In holy baptism, you are made a new creature.

Your flesh rejects this, and Satan would tempt you to not believe it, but it is true. In and through holy baptism by faith. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you, and the life that you now live in the flesh, you live by faith, and the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you. 


And holy absolution, he restores you to the right path, opening heaven’s gates to you, where they are barred because of sin. The sacrament of the altar, Christ’s body and blood for you, into your mouth that you would be united with him, receiving his forgiveness, but united with Christ, remaining in Christ, and Christ remaining in you, and you have eternal life. No temptation is overtaken you except such as 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. Our sufficiency is not in ourselves. But in Christ, and Christ alone. 


We endure many temptations. And we should endure them. in prayer, seeking his word, praying the Lord’s Prayer. Besides being a shield against temptation, it’s a ask for all sorts of good blessings from your heavenly Father. 


Seek his word, seek his holy gifts, where he is faithful, to let you not be tempted beyond what you are able. And where we give in, where the spirit is willing and our flesh is weak, there is Christ all the more with his mercy and his forgiveness, with this enduring promise, that when when the going gets tough, beyond what you are able to bear, there, underneath you, is the Father’s everlasting arms, bearing you to himself, that even in the midst of tribulation and distress or death, that nothing separates you from his love, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

᛭ INI ᛭