Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 004. Temptation's Weak Spot

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Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 004. Temptation's Weak Spot



TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 004. Temptation's Weak Spot

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Temptation's Weak Spot

Now I wish you would mark very keenly this: temptation has no power of itself. It must have help from the man being tempted. There is nothing so weak, so ridiculously weak in itself, as a temptation. It can do nothing, absolutely nothing, without the consent of the man being tempted. It can allure, it can sing bewitching songs, it can make an atmosphere around you mighty hard to breathe in, but it can't get inside a man's life without his consent. And it is as powerless as an infant except as it can get inside.

There is only one knob to the door of a man's life. And that is on the inside. That door never opens except as the man inside opens it. With greatest reverence be it said that God won't come in without a man's glad consent. God never forces. He comes in only by our free consent. And—mark keenly—Satan can't get in without the man's willing consent. Let every tempted man underscore this fact, that it may stand out sharp and clear. And then he can underscore it sharper yet in the book of his experience that it takes two to make a successful temptation, and you are one of the two. Without your partnership the temptation must slink dejectedly away defeated.

A young fellow of seventeen was telling an older friend of an experience he had. He was a carpenter's apprentice, and had been sent to make certain measurements for a new counter in a drinking saloon. It was very cold weather, and his teeth were chattering as he arrived, for his coat was thin. The saloon-keeper immediately mixed a hot drink, and pushed it over the counter to him. "It'll cost you nothing," he said, "drink it down and you'll soon stop shivering, my boy."

"He meant it kindly, too, and didn't think any harm," said the fellow, as he told the story. "That's what made it hard to push it back, and say I didn't want it."

"It must have been a big temptation," said the friend. "That saloon-keeper might have started you on the road to ruin."

"Well," said the young fellow, frankly, "I'd rather have had it than some other kinds. You see it takes two to make a successful temptation. There's no saloon-keeper and no cold weather that can make me drink. The temptation I'm most afraid of is the one I'm ready for when it comes, by hankering after it. If I had taken that drink, I would not have put all the blame on that saloon-keeper. It takes two every time to make a successful temptation."

Temptation of itself is utterly powerless. If a man yield, of course, he is whipped in the start; he gives the chance of victory away without even a decent show of fight. If a man play with his temptation, as so many do; if he dally and linger; if he hang round the fire poking dry straws in, as so many do, then he is whipped too. His defeat is sure. He passes the chance of victory out to the assailant without a decent snow of fight.

If a man fight, if he is determined to fight, he will win. For such a man will reach out for every bit of help within reach. And there is One standing very near by who knows all about temptation, temptations of every sort, who has been tempted Himself, and who eagerly gives His help. He is always waiting to help.

A man may feel weak and the temptation may seem very subtle and very strong. It may come with the rush of a wild storm down the valley. Or it may come with the sly, sneaking subtlety of a snake crawling along in the tall grass to strike its fangs in when you least think it is there. But this man says, "I mean to be right. I mean to be good, strongly good. I mean to be pure, above all else to be pure." And so he locks up every joint of his will, and reaches eagerly out for the help of the Helper at hand, and he fights, and more—he wins. Every temptation so approached and attacked is already defeated.