NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
› Engagement
The sunset camel rides advertised on TripAdvisor’s Viator website offer a leisurely guided tour through the Moroccan desert, with breathtaking views and stops at a traditional berber house for a snack over mint tea. But in late 2019 a New Jersey woman filed a lawsuit that claimed the serene image was just a mirage. Instead, she claimed she was placed on a pregnant camel that broke away from the tour and tossed her to the ground, resulting in serious injuries. I guess in her mind the website should have included images of people falling off the camels and breaking their arms.
That particular lawsuit is just one example of the fact that we live in a culture where it’s always somebody else’s fault.
› Tension
Unfortunately the church is not immune to that same mindset when it comes to our sin. One of the consequences of sin is that it makes us delusional. It will convince us that it is everyone else’s fault except our own:
• My spouse doesn’t make me happy so I’m going to get a divorce
• Money is tight, so I had to cheat on my income taxes
• It’s not my fault that I lusted. That woman shouldn’t come to work dressed like that.
• Or the one that’s in the news right now. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I took out those student loans, so I shouldn’t have to pay them back now.
But even worse we go one step further and we blame God for our sin. I know right now most of you are probably thinking I’d never do that, but my guess is that you have probably done it without even realizing what you did. And that shouldn’t be a surprise since that is the very first thing that Adam and Eve did when they sinned. Look at Adam’s response to God when he sinned:
Genesis 3:12 (ESV)
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Adam is obviously blaming Eve for his sin, but He is also blaming God, because God is the one who had given him Eve.
Eve doesn’t do much better:
Genesis 3:13 ESV
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Eve blames the serpent, but in truth she is also blaming God since He is the one who created the serpent and allowed it into the garden.
None of us will probably ever say the words “God caused me to sin.” But there are two things that we say or think that are essentially making that claim:
• The first way we do that is to say something like this: “God created me; He gave me my temperament, knowing I would be weak in resisting this sin; it is not my fault I fell into sin; God is at least partly responsible since He made me this way.”
• Here’s the second way we can essentially blame God for our sin. If, as we saw last week, God is sovereign over every circumstance that comes into our life, then, we reason, when those circumstances cause us to sin, then it must be God’s fault.
› Truth
But, as the passage we’re going to study this morning teaches:
When I yield to temptation, I have no one to blame but myself
Let’s pick up where we left off last week in James 1, beginning in verse 13:
James 1:13–18 ESV
13 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.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 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.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
As we pointed out last week, the verb that is translated “tempted” here in this passage is the verbal form of the word that was translated “trials” back in verse 2. We said then that the underlying word carries neither a positive nor negative connotation so we have to look to the context to know how to translate it.
In verse 2, James uses the noun to describe external affliction, so it is correctly translated “trials”. And we saw last week that God brings or allows those trials into our lives for the purpose of proving the genuineness of our faith. So in verse 12, James writes that the man who remains steadfast under trials is blessed.
Beginning in verse 13, he uses the verb form of the same word to describe an internal solicitation to sin and evil. So it is correctly translated “tempted” there. I think at least one of the reasons that James ties these two sections together by using the same word is that if we don’t handle those external trials properly they can become a temptation to sin. But that still doesn’t mean that I can blame anything or anyone else for my sin. As we said just a moment ago...
When I yield to temptation, I have no one to blame but myself
As we’re going to see, the ultimate responsibility for my sin lies completely with me - not with anyone or anything else and certainly not with God.
I want to do two things with this passage this morning:
• First, I want to show why God can’t possibly be the cause of our sin. Until we have a clear understanding of that, we’re going to have a really hard time with the second part of the message.
• The second thing I want to do is to develop some very practical principles to help us make sure that our temptations don’t become sin.
WHY GOD CAN’T BE THE SOURCE OF MY TEMPTATION
We’re going to answer that question by looking at verses 16-18
• Because of who He is
This is the essence of James’ argument. Because of who God is – holy and good – He cannot violate His own character and have anything to do with evil. And He is certainly not going to do anything to cause someone else to be drawn to evil since that would violate who He is.
James further underscores that idea when he points out that God gives only good gifts. In fact, in verse 17, the verb “coming down” is a present tense verb which emphasizes that God is continually showering His children with gifts that are good and perfect.
So clearly anyone who in any way suggests that God is the cause of their temptation to evil is deceived because if He did that He would be acting in a way that is completely contrary to His character.
• Because of who He has made me to be
In verse 18, James reminds his audience that it is because of God’s own will and not anything that they have done, that they have been brought into a relationship with God. James makes it clear that it was by God’s original design that He chose to bring us into a relationship with Him through trusting in what His Son, Jesus, did for us on the cross. And by doing that for us, God has made us to be His firstfruits.
That idea of being God’s firstfruits is so deep that at best, we’ll barely scratch the surface today. At a minimum, that concept reinforces the idea that God has called us to be His ambassadors here on earth and to reproduce our relationship with Jesus in the lives of others. And because of that, God would obviously never do anything that might cause us to sin and damage our ability to fulfill that plan for our lives.
Hopefully you have a firm grip on the idea that God can’t possibly be the cause of our sin and why I am 100% responsible for my sin whenever I give into temptation. With that in mind, we’re now ready to deal with the practical teaching in the first part of the passage.
› Application
HOW TO TRIUMPH OVER MY TEMPTATIONS
• Understand the process of sin
We tend to think of sin as a single act. But James very accurately shows us that sin is the result of a process. In this passage, he lays out for us the four steps in that process. That is really helpful to us because it enables us to identify where we are in that process and to then take the appropriate steps to make sure that we don’t succumb to our temptation and enter into sin.
• Step 1 - Desire – an act of my emotions
The first step in the process is “desire”. The Greek word that James uses is compound word that describes a strong passion of the soul. In fact, many of our English translations translate that word “lust”. While that is certainly an accurate translation, we tend to think of lust only in terms of sexual desires, but the word can describe any kind of strong desire.
This kind of desire begins with a feeling, with our emotions. We want something that we think will satisfy us or give us happiness or make life easier. Often the underlying desires themselves are neither good nor bad. In fact many of these desires actually arise out of the way that God designed us. I have a desire to eat and drink because I need food and drink to sustain my body. I have a desire to sleep because my body needs rest. I have sexual desires because God designed me to multiply and fill the earth.
But what often happens is that we take these good and perfect gifts that God has given to us and we pervert them. As we’ll see more in a moment, we often take these God-given desires and we try to satisfy them in a manner that is not consistent with God’s plan for our lives.
• Step 2 - Deception – an act of my mind
Once we move beyond the emotional desire, the next step is to begin to justify in our minds our right to have that which we desire. In our mind we believe that fulfilling that desire will bring satisfaction and happiness.
James uses two pictures to describe how that occurs. He says that a person is tempted when he is “lured and enticed by his own desire”. The first verb – “lured” – is a hunting term and it describes luring an animal into a trap. The second verb – “enticed” – is a fishing term that describes catching a fish with bait.
I really enjoy fishing, particularly stream fishing for trout. In order to be successful I have to entice the fish to bite my hook. I usually do that with a variety of lures, like the ones I showed the kids earlier. Those lures are designed the deceive the fish into thinking that they are about to get a meal when in fact they are about to be a meal.
Temptation is just like that. We get deceived by something that looks really good, but which in fact is harmful to us. The fact is that no temptation ever looks like one at the time. But if we go for the bait, we get hooked and are going to suffer the painful consequences that come with that sin.
• Step 3 - Disobedience – an act of my will
James turns to another picture here – that of childbirth. When a child is conceived, unless something intervenes in the process, it will inevitably lead to the birth of the child nine months later. As we have already seen, our desires are a lot like that. If we don’t allow God to give us the right desires, it will inevitably lead to deception and if we don’t deal with that deception, it will inevitably lead to disobedience.
Disobedience takes us to the next level. It is not merely an emotion or even just a thought in my mind. It is an act of my will where I make a conscious decision to act upon the thoughts in my mind. I actually take the bait and become ensnared by sin.
• Step 4 – Death
My first inclination was that James was describing spiritual death here. But we need to remember his audience. He is not writing here to unbelievers, but rather to believers who were once spiritually dead, but who are now alive in Christ. So if he’s not writing about spiritual death here, what is he referring to?
There seem to be two possibilities. First, both Paul and John describe that sin can lead to physical death:
1 Corinthians 11:29–30 ESV
29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
1 John 5:16 ESV
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
I can think of some sins that could certainly result in physical death – the one that immediately comes to mind is drunkenness that either leads to liver disease or gets someone killed while they are driving. But there are certainly others.
But the greater danger for most of us is what I would call “operational death.” When a believer allows some sin to become a lifestyle, if that person is a genuine believer, he or she does not lose his or her salvation. But that person does lose the ability to function under the power of the Holy Spirit and to live as an effective ambassador for Jesus. He or she can’t produce anything of lasting value. So everything that is produced becomes wood, hay and stubble that will be burned up when that person faces Jesus one day.
The reason that it’s important to understand the process is that there are appropriate steps I can take depending on where I am in the process. We’ll take a brief look at some of those practical steps:
• Let God change my desires
It seems like we’ve looked at this verse a lot lately so I won’t tarry too long here:
Psalm 37:4 ESV
4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The more I get to know God - not just know about Him - the more my desires will begin to line up with His character. The more I saturate my life with His Word, and pray and worship, the easier it is for God to take my own selfish desires and transform the way I think about them so that I will want to satisfy those desires in a way that is pleasing to Him.
• Focus on God’s truth
It’s important to point out that desire is not sin. But since it is the first step in the process of sin we want to make sure that we subject those emotions to the truth of God’s Word. Paul provides us with some important guidance here:
2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV
5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
Since the second step in the process of sin - deception - takes place in my mind, I need to evaluate my desires and emotions based on God’s Word to make sure that I am attempting to satisfy those desires in a God-honoring way.
Let me give you an example. God created us with sexual desires. But the Bible makes it clear that those desires are only to be satisfied within the marriage of one man to one woman. So anything we do to satisfy those desires outside of that is sin - everything from pre-marital sex to adultery to pornography to homosexuality. So when I have those desires the first question I have to ask is, “Is the way I plan to satisfy these desires consistent with what God has revealed in His Word?”
• Know where the exits are
Every time you get on a plane flight, the flight attendants always tell you to make sure you know where the exits are in case of an emergency. To be honest, I don’t always heed that instruction. At least until one flight I was on had a problem with the landing gear and they told us to assume the crash position when we finally landed after several passes by the control tower. That day believe me I knew where the closest exit was.
Fortunately for us, God has promised that every time we face temptation, He always has a way for us to exit before we make the decision to disobey Him:
1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Paul uses the same word for “temptation” here that James uses in the passage we’re looking at today. He promises that God is faithful to provide a way of escape. Sometimes the exit is pretty obvious. If I’m an alcoholic and tempted to get drunk, at least one of the exits is not to go to the bar with my friends. If I’m tempted to look at images on my computer that I shouldn’t, one of the exits is to make sure I’m not on my computer when I’m alone. If I’m tempted to be a glutton, one exit is to not go to Golden Corral.
But sometimes the exits aren’t nearly as apparent. That’s when I pray and ask God to make that exit clear to me.
Most of us know that there are certain temptations that tend to trip us up, so we need to know ahead of time where the exits are and then use them when the temptation comes.
• Get some help
While it is true that when I become a genuine follower of Jesus, I have been set free from slavery to sin, that doesn’t mean that I won’t need some help from fellow believers in struggling with sin in my life. As we’ve discussed frequently, one reason that Jesus makes all of His followers a part of His body, the church, is so we have a support group already in place to help us deal with our struggles. That’s why later in his letter James will instruct us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another.
But the principle of getting help with our struggles is not limited to the New Testament. The writer of Ecclesiastes also shows the value of getting some help.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 ESV
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?
12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
What a great picture. A threefold cord is not easily broken. When Jesus is that third strand and I get help from a fellow believer, it is possible to get control over any sin in my life.
We’ve seen this morning that...
When I yield to temptation, I have no one to blame but myself
› Action
Most of you are familiar with desert broom plants. They will grow just about anywhere in this area where even a small patch of ground has been cleared. When those plants first germinate they are relatively easy to pull out of the ground, especially if the ground is wet. But once those plants get larger they are virtually impossible to remove. And even if you manage to get rid of most of the plant it will come back even bigger than before. So they key is to get rid of it before its roots develop.
Sin is a lot like that. As we’ve seen this morning, sin is a process. And the earlier in that process we short-circuit the process the more likely we are to avoid having our temptations become sin. It’s a lot easier to stop the process while we’re still at the desire stage as it is when we get to the deception or disobedience stage.
So I want to encourage all of us this morning to consider the temptations we might be facing right now and apply what we’ve learned this morning before those temptations put down deep roots in our lives and become so much more difficult to resist.
› Inspiration
Even if you apply all these principles to the very best of your ability you are going to fail at times in your life because you are a sinful human being. But the good news is that when that happens, God is there waiting for you and He desires to restore you as long as you’re willing to humble yourself and confess and repent.
