I. The world is the pot.
The world has been cursed by sin. There is in it both the good and the bad, both food and poison. God has placed us in the world that we may as Christians, do the work which Elisha did in his day. When we look about us, how many people we see who have been poisoned. There are murderers, suicides, thieves, robbers, liars, all these are acting in the way they act and live, because they have in them poison. It is well for us to understand that we need not expect in this world to find the good unmixed from the evil. Christ prayed that God would not take His own out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil in the world, and we are taught in the prayer called the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” As God’s children, we cannot mix with the children of this world. We cannot allow the amusements of this world and its allurements to lead us away from God and His Kingdom. We are in the world, but not of it. We are but pilgrims, passing through, on the way to the country of God, but all that we are and have are in this world; just as all the herbs were thrown into the pot, but there is also poison there. Is there any pleasure, without its tinge of pain? Is there any hope without the presence of a cloud? Is there any expectation without some kind of a disappointment? But Christ is our Elisha. The poison in the pot can be removed and He will remove it for us. The pleasures of the world may be rendered sweet and pure. The work of this world can be raised to the highest dignity. The power of this world may be turned to the highest good of all. We are not left helpless and hopeless.
II. The temptations of the world are the fire under the pot.
The question of temptations is a very interesting one, for the Christian. There are many who find their greatest trouble in temptations. They are not able to distinguish a temptation from a sin, and confusing them, they look upon themselves as very great sinners, because they have very great temptations. This is a false idea. A temptation is a trial. All temptations are not evil. There are also temptations that lead us to noble action. God is not tempted of evil, neither does He tempt to evil, but He does tempt us to the good, and indeed, He permits Satan to ply us with temptations, and we by overcoming these temptations may grow strong and pure.
Christ, the sinless man, was in the world, full of temptations, but He overcame them. His temptations were genuine, they were sinful, they would have proven destructive, but He overcame them and He overcame them without sin.
It matters not what the temptation may be, however dark and sinful, it is with you as to the result of that temptation in your life.
“Yield not to temptation,
For yielding is sin.”
It is the yielding that is sin. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Make friends of him and he will live with you. He will become a part of you, he will drag you down, he will work your destruction.
How often we realize that dark, sinful thoughts, pass through our minds. They are sins like a black cloud, sweeping over the beautiful landscape of the soul. Well, does this constitute sin? By no means. It is only when these thoughts remain in the mind, when we harbor them, when we become fond of them; this is what forms sin in the soul. It is your work to expel them, to drive them out, to hate them.
Paul said, When I would do good evil is present with me. How true this is with us today. Even in our holiest exercises, such as prayer, praise, worship, sin is found lurking in our aspirations after God. Selfishness enters our prayers, selfishness frequently inspires our holiest hopes, selfishness poisons our love, doubt weakens our faith, and so we find in our religion and its life, the element of sin. This is the death in the pot.