Chico Alliance Church
April 22, 2018
Pastor David Welch
“Don’t Blame God for Temptation”
James provided instruction to his reader that would serve as a test of their faith. True faith manifests in specific ways. James tells us how a person who claims to live by faith should be living. One of the main things that tests our faith is trials. James called them “various trials that we encounter in life”. A trial can be anything that might cause pain or pressure in such a way that we act contrary to the revealed ways of God.
These trials come from circumstances of life.
These trials come from internal struggles.
These trials come for difficult relationships.
James recorded numerous instructions and insight regarding how we should respond to such trials.
I. Faith’s response to trials 1:2-18
A. Consider it all Joy knowing trials produce endurance.
B. Continue enduring knowing endurance produces maturity
C. Confidently ask God for wisdom knowing He will give it.
D. Focus on your spiritual riches. (Instruction #4)
E. God rewards endurance 1:12
Today we will explore verses 13-18 for further instruction and insight regarding faith and trials. In this section James illustrates how failure to endure temptation leads to death. He issues another pointed instruction regarding faith and trials.
F. Don’t blame God for temptations 1:13-18
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
1. Instruction: Don’t blame God for temptation
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God.”
OR
Continually resist or stop saying “I am being tempted by God” when tempted.
James used same word he used earlier concerning various trials. Greeks used the word to indicate a circumstantial trial or test. They also used it regarding a solicitation to do evil. Translators differentiate the two ideas by using the word trial and temptation. A solicitation to do evil appears to be the focus here. For some, a circumstantial trial quickly becomes an opportunity for Satan to turn it into an actual solicitation to evil.
How many times has an encounter with difficult life circumstances turned into a rant against God or others or cause us to do something not in accord with God’s will? What began as an event precipitated by a fallen world turns into an occasion for sin by our faithless response. Sometimes a general life trial exposes an internal issue. Rather than count it all joy, we grumble and complain or rant and rave or retaliate. What might have been an opportunity for growth through endurance became a stumbling block to growth through a fleshly response. It appears that some searched for some excuse for their failure to endure. Rather than take personal responsibility for their lack of godly endurance, they sought somebody to blame; even God.
Adam tried that i.e. “the woman YOU gave me”.
It seems no one wants to take responsibility for their own sin anymore. It is always someone else’s fault i.e. my parents, the government, the schools, the church, my spouse, my kids drive me crazy, the devil made me do it. James plainly instructed them to stop accusing God and included insights as to why blaming God is never an option and clearly identified who is ultimately responsible.
2. Insights into why we can’t blame God
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. James 1:13
God is untemptable, unable to be tempted. God cannot be tempted by evil because He is Holy and righteous. His holiness absolutely separates Him from anything contrary to His moral law. His righteousness absolutely conforms to His own moral law. In other words, God is absolutely sinless, and Jesus is absolutely sinless. These essential characteristics set Him far above and beyond all others. God’s holiness is an attribute usually associated with frightening manifestations. Usually encounters with God’s holiness dropped people to the ground. Isaiah – Ussah – Moses - Joshua
a. God does not tempt anyone with evil
While God allows our faith to be tested by life circumstances, it is NEVER an attempt to derail us but to deliver us and expose our own deficiencies. “Lead us not to temptation but deliver us from evil.” This prayer pleads for deliverance from anything that might derail us. Don’t lead us into temptation like Satan and his sorry soldiers do but, unlike them, deliver us from evil. The emphasis points to a contrast. It is like pleading with someone not to reject you like everyone else rejects you.
God does not tempt ANYONE. God DELIVERS. So, stop blaming God! If God isn’t doing it, then who is?
Where does temptation come from? James emphatically answers that question.
b. Temptation arises from within
James pinpoints the source and course of temptation. If it isn’t God, who is it? If it isn’t God, it must be Satan.
James, at this point blames neither. It begins with a dull soul and ends with a dark soul.
Step one: Temptation comes from unbridled passion or desire.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. James 1:14
Now this isn’t the only source of temptation, but it is one of the big three. Temptation or solicitation to evil can come from world, the flesh or the devil. James includes instruction on how to fight all three in his letter.
First, we need to define “desire”. It comes from the term often translated “wrath” or “hot anger” plus the preposition “upon” resulting in the idea of a strong internal burning passion or desire.
It can refer to either a healthy strong desire or an unhealthy desire.
Jesus had a strong desire to celebrate Passover with His disciples Luke 22:15
Paul expressed a strong desire to “depart and be with Christ”. Philip 1:23
Paul expressed a strong desire to see the Thessalonians face to face. 1 Thess 2:17
Prophets strongly desired to see the coming of Messiah Matt 13:17
The strong desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. Gal 5:17
To desire the office of elder is a noble thing. 1 Tim 3:1
The writer of Hebrews desired the readers to show a desire to serve. Heb 6:11
Angels strongly desire to investigate the good news. 1 Peter 1:12
All the rest of the 55 occurrences of the term all reference evil or destructive desires. The Greeks used this term to translate the Old Testament word found in the ten Commandments translated “covet”. Scripture indicates Adam and Eve’s rebellion twisted our original God-given selfless longings effecting all subsequent generations.
Selfish unhealthy desires became the driving force in every human heart.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17
An interesting passage in Revelation describes the passing away of worldly desires. The context is the announcement of the fall of Babylon.
“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!” Rev 18:11-14
Paul described the human condition without the transforming work of Christ.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the desires of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3
Everyone without Christ functions according to unbridled self-centered longings energized by Satan in a devil-designed and directed world system. We enter this world with an inclination to sin and spend a lifetime cultivating sinful desires. Paul described the kind of behavior that results from this condition.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Galatians 5:19-21
At regeneration, God imbeds a new set of longings in the fore of our being totally opposed to the old ones.
We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should live in them. Ephesians 2:10
The devil propagates his “system of living”, God promotes His. Regeneration enables us to choose, each moment, which system we live by. This sets up an intense internal conflict for the born-again Christian.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you really want to do. Galatians 5:17
The old longings, still embedded in our mind and body, don’t completely disappear at new birth, but God offers the means to live by the new longings and not the old.
But I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
The result of living by the power of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14
You put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to became renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:9-10
Continually consider yourselves dead to sin living to God in Christ Jesus. Stop letting sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Stop presenting your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Romans 6:11-13
James describes what happens when we fail to constantly address those old desires still lurking around in our body.
But each person is continually tempted being continually dragged away and enticed by his own desire.
Those unbridled desires continually drag us away (from the right path) and entice us (to the wrong path) like a fish to a baited hook to live contrary to our new God-imbedded longings.
When we don’t aggressively address those desires, they gain the power to derail us. Many addictions start out innocent but gain greater and greater control when we allow them to continue unchecked. The intensity of those rampant desires causes us to forget about the hook. Sin always hides a hook. Satan always presents the snapshot of temporal gratification, never the full movie of future desolation.
Step two: Temptation plus desire births sin
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin… 1:15
When we allow these desires to go unabated and they encounter an opportunity (conception) a baby results; sin is born. When unchecked desire and the object of desire connect, sin is conceived and born. Neglecting soul maintenance provides a landing field for temptation. Cain harbored anger towards God. (Gen 4)
The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must dominate it.” Genesis 4:6-7
An undisciplined life generates weeds and desires that choke out the effectiveness of the word of God.
And others are the seeds sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19
Let’s say I allow bitterness to go unaddressed. Along comes an opportunity to do harm to the offender. Because of that unaddressed evil desire, I am more easily tempted to sin. I have no desire for coffee. Since I have no passion for coffee, I can’t be tempted with a double shot espresso. Neither am I tempted with sweet potatoes or rutabagas or cucumbers. The more we keep our sinful fleshly desires under the control of the Holy Spirit the less issue we will have with temptation.
Jesus faced Satan’s continual hammering for forty days and nights straight and successfully resisted. Satan appealed to the big three: possessions, prestige and fleshly pleasure. Three things enabled His resistance.
1. He harbored no passion for any of these apart from His Father’s will.
2. He continually lived by the direction and power of the Holy Spirit.
3. He directly applied the truth of implanted Scripture to each temptation.
What should we do when we succumb to temptation conceive and “birth” sin. ABORT IT!! We kill that sin by repentance and confession. James warns us what happens if we fail to deal with it right away.
Step Three: Unaddressed sin leads to death
…and sin, having come to full maturity continually brings forth death.
Death here can reference actual physical death or death in terms of separation and darkness in any aspect of our life. Hebrews addresses dulled spiritual hearing due to a failure to practice right living. God warned sinless Adam and Eve about the consequences of death if they sinned. Physical death did not come directly after they sinned, but devastation immediately invaded their existence in multiple areas i.e. relationship, family, environment and eventual physically.
Notice the contrast to what James instructed regarding endurance.
Endurance leads to our maturity leading to quality of life.
Indulgence leads to sin’s maturity leading to death.
she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 1 Timothy 5:6 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins Ephesians 2:1
What promised to bring about a new life birthed death not life.
In the next section, James wrote about the power of the word of God to generate LIFE.
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness (deal with unaddressed desires) and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21
This salvation references a deliverance from the temporal ravages of sin in all aspects of our life.
James also referenced salvation of our “soul” at the end of the letter in a summary of how we can come along side one another in our struggle against temptation.
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20
Paul, along with James wanted them to know that sin brings consequences.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8
James wanted them to know that temptation, in the sense of solicitation to do evil, absolutely does not come from God. Stop blaming God. Because God cannot be tempted by evil. Because God does not tempt anyone to evil. Temptation comes from our own unbridled, unaddressed passions or desires that make us more susceptible and vulnerable to temptation. When unbridled passion encounters opportunity, sin is conceived and later born.
When we allow that sin to mature, it brings devastation and eventually death. James provides additional instruction and insight for bridling the flesh all through his short letter. He ended this section with one more insight refuting the notion that God tempts us.
c. God only gives good things
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:16-17
Don’t believe the lie that God is not good or does evil. That is one of Satan’s “go to” deceptions. Either God is not strong enough or good enough or smart enough to deal with evil. We can be sure that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, absolutely righteous and holy and all-loving or good. Whatever good happens, comes from God’s hands. Evil does not fall from His hands.
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Psalm 86:4-5
You are good and do good; teach me your statutes. Psalm 119:68
Today, I want you to think about your unbridled unhealthy passions. Have you given up? Are you feeding them? Are you living by the power and direction of the Holy Spirit daily? How many sin babies have you conceived this week? Do you deal immediately deal with sin or do you allow it to “grow up”?
Remember!! Live by the Spirit and you will NOT fulfill the desires of the flesh. It doesn’t say stop fulfilling the desires of the flesh and you will live by the Spirit. The evidence of a life driven by the desires of the flesh is clear. The evidence of a life directed and empowered by the Spirit is equally clear. Which list in Galatians 5 best describes your life?
