James 1:13-18 – Temptation
Intro:
How many of you have ever been tempted? A)If the
person next to you doesn’t have their hand raised –Check for a pulse
B)Temptation is part of
LIVING – Breathing – susceptible to being tempted!
C)) Temptation is what James
deals with in the verses before us this morning
13 Let no one say when he is tempted,
"I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He
Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his
own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to
sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
At
first glance this seems like a new section here – James is moving from talking
about trials to temptation - But the two go together
A) God allows trials –
Purpose is to produce something in us –
B) But temptation can come
in the times of trial
1)
Tempted to doubt God
2)
Give into the flesh
C)
Biggest times of trial – Depressed – tired – Stressed –
1) Trials can produce
all 3 of those things
But here is
the thing James wants us to understand – although God allows trials – He is not
the source of temptation So
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God";
A) Don’t blame God: Tendency to cast blame
B) Adam was the first to
blame God – It was the woman that YOU gave me – Your fault God
C) We can do that too, You put me in this circumstance – married to
this unlovable person –
1) This tough Job with the
Cute guy or babe girl
Who is an unbeliever – no
Christians ask me out
D) You gave me this desire –
it is your fault God
E) People try to blame God
all the time!
Others
like Eve tried to Blame the Devil – it was the serpent
A) Man with his wife
shopping{ Look but don’t buy
Comes home with red dress – get behind me Satan – looked good from that view too
B) People want to blame
Satan! – People try to blame others -
1) Some even try to blame
God
C) The first thing James
wants to Establish is:
God doesn’t tempt
anyone – here is why!
Temptation is the solicitation to evil
A) The very nature of God is such that temptation has no place
in Him or allurement to Him.
B)
By its very nature, temptation implies that one is drawn by desire for
something that he lacks.
1) It may be a desire for material
things or intimate relations or position or attention.
C)
We are drawn out by our desire for these things because we have the perception
that we are not complete without them.
But God lacks nothing. He is self-sufficient.
A) There
is nothing in the makeup or the Character or the nature of God that can be
tempted by evil
B)
There isn’t anything that He wants. Every attribute of His being is perfect.
1)There is never a need for growth in
any aspect of God's being because everything about Him is infinite.
C)
Pt is this: it goes beyond that God wouldn’t do this
– It revolves around the fact – that He can’t
1) For God to need anything would mean that He is not God.
D) So God can not be tempted
- Nor can He tempt anyone:
All
evil repulses God because it stands in opposition to His holiness
A)
So the very nature of evil makes it impossible for Him to tempt someone because
that would indicate that He has a
delight in seeing someone do evil.
B) He can’t be a Holy God
and Do that
C) So James starts with this
theological truth – Temptation Can’t come from God !
1)
So what is the Source of Temptation?
Temptation
doesn't come from God but from within. Temptation starts with us: V.14
“But each one is tempted
when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”
A) If we are
honest at any given time we look inwardly and see there
is a traitor living within us,
B)
A traitor who is willing to betray the things of God and be drawn to the things
of the world.
C)
Our flesh longs to be satisfied in every way!
We should never be surprised
by this
D) Story of a young priest who served in the
confessional for the first time, accompanied by an older senior priest.
At
the end of the day the older priest took him aside and said, “My boy, when a person finishes w/ confession,
you have got to learn to say something other than, Wow!
E) We all Sin ! Give into desires
So
it starts with Desires – our wants – Desires are not all bad
A) The normal desires of
life were given to us by God and, of themselves, are not sinful.
B) Without these desires, we
could not function.
1)
Unless we felt hunger and thirst, we would never eat and drink, and we would
die.
C) Without fatigue, the body
would never rest and would eventually wear out.
D)
Sex is a normal desire; without it – Marriage would be lacking something and
the human race would not continue.
So
it starts with Desire – His own desires -
A) We all have certain
things that appeal to us
Mint chip ice cream – Choc
chip –
B) Dog, a can of Alpo
inviting – to me it is repulsive
C) We all have things that
we are attracted to!
Now
there are 3 forces that we are always fighting against – there is Satan / our
flesh and the World
A) Satan uses the things of
the world to bait our flesh into sinning – giving into TEMPTATION
B) That is the imagery that
James uses here!
James
uses two illustrations from the sporting world when he says “But
each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”
A) Drawn away - carries with it the idea of the baiting of a trap.
B) The hunter baits a trap for the animal to stumble into by using food
or something to draw it in.
1)
Draw it out of its comfort Zone by appealing to the animal’s desire for food.
C) The animal moves outside the realm of protection and into the
hunter's trap because of his own desires dragging him into danger.
1) Someone called it
"the magnetism of desire, the hypnotic attraction of bait for a
hungry beast"
The
second metaphor has to do with fishing - enticed in the original Greek
means “to bait a hook.”
A) It pictures the fisherman skillfully casting his bait near the
fish,
B) Giving it just the right tug against the current and refracting
light, so that the fish is enticed out of his hiding place to inspect the lure.
C) The fish finds it attractive,
But the lure isn’t what it appears to be – it is shiny and pretty, it is
attractive but in the end it is deadly
Temptation
works the same way:
A) Temptation
always carries with it some bait that appeals to our natural desires.
B) Inwardly, man
has the desire and the potential to sin;
1) Outwardly, he
is surrounded by enticements, allurements, temptations.
C) The bait not only
attracts us, but it also hides the fact
that yielding to the desire will eventually bring sorrow and punishment.
1)
It is the bait that is the exciting thing.
D)
But The bait keeps us from seeing the
consequences of sin.
Lot
would never have moved toward Sodom had he seen the affect it would have on his
family
A) David would never have committed adultery had he
seen the tragic consequences: the death of a baby (Bathsheba’s son), the murder
of a brave soldier (Uriah), the violation of a daughter (Tamar).
B) So Satan used our own
desires to bait us into doing something we know we shouldn’t
1) The attractiveness of the
bait is meant to blind us to the consequences of Sin
C) And that is what James
wants us to see next – there is a progression in Sin.
It
starts with desire – desire is not sin – but then comes the bait – the bait is
meant to lure us in – attract us –
A) James moves from the
analogy of hunting and fishing to Child birth
B) 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
C) It starts
with desire – then comes the bait – that leads to a thought – what about that
1) The question
is – will the thought be conceived
D) “Is it really
that big of a deal if I cut some corners on this job.” Really save – need the
money
1) Just a quiz –
matter if I cheat
E) She is a nice gal –
if I wasn’t married I would be attracted to someone like her
1) I wish my
husband was more like him
Those
thoughts come but they need to be immediately aborted – if not, conception
takes place
A) The thought
has the potential to develop and like a baby in the womb it is going to grow
B) Give birth to
an action = SIN
1) Weeks,
months, even yrs to mature
C) Nature of sin
– Desire – conception – growth
1) And James
says when the sin is full Grown it
brings forth Death
Death
to your credibility & your reputation in the Business world or in the
office.
A) Death to your marriage –
death to your family
B) Death to the trust in a
friendship
C) Death to your intimacy
with God!
D) All of that can be
restored – God is a God of restoration – but takes time –
1) At the expense of
considerable cost and scars
Never repaired over night
James
is painting a vivid and horrible picture here
A) The animal gets trapped –
the fish – gets caught the human heart gets ensnared – the end result is the
same = DEATH
B) Fear can be a healthy
deterrent – Growing up wasn’t so much the fear of God – fear of Tony
C) James gives us three
deterrents to giving into temptation: The first is “consider the consequences”
Sin leads to death
D) Is it worth it?
Denise, every man – Dad
abandoned – 2nd killed – good thing, 3rd in prison
Toby
So
the first deterrent is Death – 2nd
is the goodness of God V.16-17
“Do not be
deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation
or shadow of turning.”
A) The goodness of God is a
great barrier against yielding to temptation.
B) Since God is good, we do
not need any other person (including Satan) to meet our needs.
“It
is better to be hungry in the will of God than full outside the
will of God. God’s gifts are always
better than Satan’s bargains.”
C) Satan never gives any
gifts, because you end up paying for them dearly.
“It
is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it”
(Prov. 10:22, nasb).
Moses
warned Israel not to forget God’s goodness when they began to enjoy the
blessings of the Promised Land (Deut. 6:10–15). We need this warning today.
James presented
three facts about the goodness of God.
God gives only good gifts.
A)
Everything good in this world comes from God.
He gives constantly. “Comes down” is a present
participle: = “it keeps on coming down.”
A)God
does not give occasionally; He gives
constantly. Even when we do not see His gifts, He is sending them.
Spiritual
hindsight is always 20/20
God does not change. comes down from the Father of lights, with
whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
A) Living here on earth we are subjected to constantly changing light.
B) The sun rises, and our
shadows fall long to the west; it stands high at noon, brightening all;
1)
and as it sets, our shadows are to the east, until they fade to nothingness.
C) Day and night light
perpetually changes.
But
it is not so with the goodness of God.
A) God “does not change like
shifting shadows!” God’s goodness is always at high noon.
B) He has never had and will
never have more goodness than He has now. He is unchangeably good.
C) In Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning. That is, He’s not moody.
1) He doesn’t have bad days. He’s not generous with
me one day, but grouchy the next—as I can so often be.
D) We go up and down. God doesn’t. He can be nothing but
good.
1) He doesn’t react to me according to how I’m doing
with Him.
E) He is faithful when I am faithless (2 Timothy
2:13). He is good when I am grumpy.
1) He doesn’t change. He’s locked into His nature.
That is one of the things I really love about the Lord He is
consistent - He’s solid as a Rock.
A) And I can just enjoy my relationship with Him
without worrying about Him being ticked with me or tired of me.
B) He gives nothing but good
gifts, for He is a good God.
C) The older I get in the
Lord the more I appreciate that God is not like me – but the more that I want
to be like Him
O
taste and see that the Lord is good
A) When we give into
temptation, it’s a direct attack upon the goodness of God
B) When we give into
temptation what we are saying by our actions is God I really don’t believe you
are good
1) I really don’t believe
that you have my best interest at heart
Bb)To give into temptation
is really to do what Eve did in the garden – believed the lie – God is holding
out on you.
C) The Life that the Bible
portrays for the believer in Jesus is simply not good enough
D) But that is not God – God
is good – Always moving in a good way toward those He loves ‘
1) Even in discipline –
Kindness seeking to lead us to repentance.
E) God gives good gifts –
all the time – He is good
The first
deterrent against temptation is a negative one: the judgment of God – Sin brings death
The second deterrent is positive: the goodness of God
3rd
deterrent is the Life of God in us – V.18 – Born of His word
18
Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a
kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Look
ahead and see the consequences of sin = death
“Look around and see how good I have been to
you.”
Then God says,
“Look within and realize that you have been born from above and possess the
divine nature.”
His seed is in us – New
Propensity to live
How tragic would it be to
take a man who was a pauper, whose whole existence revolved around eating out
of garbage cans to satisfy his hunger
Take
that man off the streets and make him a prince – living in a palace – lacking
for no earthly desire
How tragic would it be if
that man insisted on every night going out and finding a garbage can to eat out
of
A) What James is saying goes
beyond that – beyond status and resources
B) Whole new desires built
in – The old desire was to live for self – please self
1)
New built in desire for God – Know God – live for God – intimate with God –
things of God
Spirit
crying abba father
Everyday
is a choice – how respond – Give into the desire of my flesh – or give into the
spirit
A) Flesh – says sleep extra
20minutes – spirit says get up and spend time with God
B) Flesh says – stay home
Wed night watch tv
Spirit says go to Church,
seek God
C) Temptation comes and the
flesh says this will make you feel better or you deserve this –
1)
Spirit says Run – flee
Here
is the thing, the more you flee the urges of the flesh, the weaker it gets –
A)
The more you say yes to the spirit, the stronger it gets
B) Here is what happens, you
lose your appetite for the enticements of the flesh – not as appealing.