things were written for our example. This chapter tells us not
merely how Ahab was tempted, but it tells us how WE are tempted,
every one of us, here in England, in these very days. As it was
with Ahab, so it is with us. Every wilful sin that we commit we
give room to the devil. Every wrong step that we take knowingly, we
give a handle to some evil spirit to lead us seven steps further
wrong. And yet in every temptation God gives us a fair chance. He
is no cruel tyrant who will deliver us over to the devil, to be led
helpless and blindfold to our ruin. He did not give Ahab over to
him so. He sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab's prophets, that
Ahab might go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead; but at the very same
time, see, he sends a holy and a true man, a man whom Ahab could
trust, and did trust at the bottom of his heart, to tell him that
the lie was a lie, to warn him of his ruin, so that he might have no
excuse for listening to those false prophets--no excuse for
following his own pride, his own ambition, to his destruction. So
you see, "Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God,
for God tempteth no man, but every one is tempted when he is led
away by his own lust and enticed." Ahab was led away by his own
lust; his cowardly love of hearing what was pleasant and flattering
to him, rather than what was true--rather than what he knew he
deserved; that was what enticed him to listen to Zedekiah and the
false prophets, rather than to Micaiah the son of Imlah. THAT is
what entices us to sin--the lust of believing what is pleasant to
us, what suits our own self-will--what is pleasant to our bodies--
pleasant to our purses--pleasant to our pride and self-conceit.
Then, when the lying spirit comes and whispers to us, by bad
thoughts, by bad books, by bad men, that we shall prosper in our
wickedness, does God leave us alone to listen to those evil voices
without warning? No! He sends His prophets to us, as He sent