The Price of Temptation
Victory Temple A/G
Po box 911
Waco Tx, 76703
Pastor Danny Williams
James 1:13-18
Last week we discovered that whenever you encounter a trial, you are to count it all joy.
Not because of what is happening, but because you know why it is happening…. Amen
And that is that God is taking you to the Next level of Spiritual maturity.
So when you encounter Trial’s and Life Falls apart, God is up to something….
And if you miss that you will develop the wrong attitude toward trials, you will become bitter, angry and get made at other people.
But you need to ask God what are you up to take me to the next level.
Now having addressed the purpose of trials, James brings us to vs. 13 to now address the Price of temptation.
The hinge vs. is vs. 12
He says when you have responded correctly, and passed the test, God will give you the blessing that goes along with passing the exam.
If you fail the test, you get to retake it…. So as long as you rebel against testing…you will get tired…and you will, before he does
Now look at Vs. 13 let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.
So lets look first of all at the Substance of Temptation
When he uses it in a negative way in vs. 13 as opposed to a positive way in vs. 2,
Vs. 2 dealing with your growth
Vs. 13 dealing with your destruction
Example: It is good to pass a test, but it is wrong to cheat on the test you are trying to pass.
Your test may be a trial, but your decision to cheat is a sin!!!!
And in Vs. 13 he is making a distinction between the trial that is to grow you and the test that is to destroy you.
Now listen to me:::::
Satan seeks to take the trials of God to grow you and to turn them into the temptations of Satan to destroy you.
Here’s the catch …
And it maybe the same event…
You remember that Job was tested by God and Tempted By Satan all at the same thing.
Example: Testing of a car…by Ford and G.M.
If you buy a G.M. They test the car, to let you know that this car is drivable; it will stand the test of Roadwork.
But, If G. M. Test the Ford car, it is testing to show its inferiority, it cannot stand the test, of a G. M. car.
The test their cars to prove their worthiness.
They test other cars to show their weakness.
God test you to show his Glory in you, Satan temps you to show weakness and to bring you to defeat.
So the substance of temptation is the attempt to bring evil in your life.
Now understand this, if you don’t know how to love God in testing, you will be angry with God and that will lead to sin.
Put another way, if you don’t learn VS’s. 2-12 you will inevitably enter into Vs. 13…
That is what Israel did, God tested them and they grumbled, Instead of using it as an opportunity to grow, they turned it into an occasion for sin.
Now lets look at the
Source of Temptation
Vs.13 for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
If you are sinning, don’t blame God for your sin.
And don’t say, “If God didn’t want me to do it he wouldn’t have put it in front of me”.
Food, lust, gossip,
When you are tempted to do things out side of his will don’t blame God.
God does not lead people into sin…
Listen: There is nothing in God that can receive sin, and nothing in God that can send sin.
That’s what Vs. 13 is saying.
So if you sin, blame someone other than God,,,,,And I will show you who to blame in a moment….
YOU and I sin because we chose to.
Not only can you not blame sin on God, You can’t even blame sin on Satan.
Now unlike the famous “”The devil made me do it”””
The devil cannot make you sin. A lot of people don’t know that…….
He is not dragging you into sin…
YOU SIN because you want to……
^^^^^ But let me tell you what the Devil can do,,,,,
He can place things in front of you that he knows you will respond to.
SEE: he can’t make you do it, but he can get you to like it, so that you want to do it….
Sin is born out of our own desire,,,,,, we have the receiver for sin….
AND it is CALLED The Flesh!!!!!!
And even when you get saved you do not eradicate the flesh.
But for you to sin, you have to decide to do it.
Example: I was talking to a friend that said, I drove by Churches chicken and it was calling my name. I said I have heard that chicken say that to…….
Like the guy that said my wife made me hit her……
When you sin that shows that something is wrong with you.
All Satan did was set up the right play to produce the tendency that you already had.
AND IF YOU ARE SINNING TODAY< IT IS YOUR FAULT.
But Satan always wants you to blame something or somebody else.
Like Adam, who said this women who you gave, me
Eve said it was the snake that did it….
You can’t blame God, or Satan,
You will have to say something is wrong with me….
Because until you say it, it can’t be fixed….
Drug pushers are bad, but something is wrong with you that will make you want to take those drugs.
Example: 3 yr, Old boy eating cookies….
And that’s like us we give excuses instead of saying something is wrong with me…
Why?????
Because, Jesus only came to heal sick people…..
So if your not sick,,,, He can’t help you………
The source of Temptation is you, in term’s of executing it.
What are the
Steps of Temptation
Vs.14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
What he is saying is that sin is never an event, it is a process.
Follow me, Sin is not an event, Sin doesn’t just happen.
A set of circumstanced have been placed in motion to produce sin in the life.
Let’s look at them,,,,
SIN START”S with desire
In Vs. 14 every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust
Now, most of us think of lust as just a bad word, and it is not necessarily a bad word.
The word lust, simply means desire…..
And God has given us desires,
1. for food
2. for sleep
3. for sex
all of those are desires that are given to us by God and those are not bad.
Those are all Good,
With out them something would be lost,
With out eating, you could not live.
With out sexual relationships there would be no a procreation.
With out sleep, you could not function properly.
All of these are desires given by God.
Desire in and of it’s self is not bad.
Desire, becomes bad when you seek to satisfy it in an illegitimate way.
You only sin when you are,, look at his words,, you are carried away by his own lust, and enticed
Enticed, to an illegitimate use of a very legitimate desire.
Now let’s talk about what that means….
The word’s carried away and enticed is used in sportsmanship.
Like a fisherman….
Fish don’t go hunting for hooks, they are responding to worms.
What is his point?
The point is that Satan lays a trap by hiding the consequences.
Any body have any mouse traps or Rat traps in your house?
Your not going to raise you hand because then we will know….
Now I guarantee you that you wont catch any mice unless you have some cheese or something on that trap…..
Because they are not going trap hunting….
Now when a fisherman goes fishing….
You put the bait on the hook, not just to catch the fish, but also to hide the hook.
Now the fisherman is no where in sight of the fish, he is in the boat or on the bank hidden.
And he trough’s out the line that has been bated on the hook.
And the worm is his enticement, to lure the fish away from his safety.
Where do you think they came up with the name Lure form????
And he will pull the line and bob it to draw the fish to the bait, that is covering the consequences.
When the fish sees his meal, he is carried away and enticed by that meal.
But when it bites the meal,,,,It bites more than the meal.
It bites the intention of the fisherman…and the fisherman does not have a good intent for the fish. He will be caught, sliced and fried…
That fish is biting the meal of death.] he doesn’t get just a worm, he gets a fisherman that doesn’t care how cute he looks.
Satan, doesn’t care about how cute you are…or about your family
He is up in the boat hidden and all he wants to do is reel you in….
But, he is not going to reel you in by letting you see a hook, He reel’s you in by letting you see the bait.
So it is the bait that gets you.
Now, I used a fisherman and some of you can’t relate.
But a bunch of you are in debt.
Master card through in the line……..American express,
Buy now pay later ,,,,, we aren’t going to talk about 18%
All we will tell you is that we have raised your limit…..from 500 to 5000…spend….. spend ….spend….Sale….Sale….
SEE: enticement is what you can get now, but no reference to the consequences.
SO<<<<
Food becomes evil when it’s gluttony
Sex becomes evil when it’s immorality
Sleep becomes evil when it becomes Laziness
Satan, in the garden.
So we started with desire and we got to deception,
Now we go from deception to disobedience.
NOTICE what he says.
Vs. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it has a baby……
Notice the language,,,, gives birth
Sin, does not happen just because you have the desire,
Sin, does not even happen when you have been deceived about your desire
Sin only happens when you disobey with your desire…….
That is when your will connects with your desire to apply it illegitimately.
Then that desire becomes sin.
So sin has a will, It is when you chose to do it.
That is why Jesus said, any man who looks at a woman,,,,,,and then lusts after her sins.
The sin is not looking, but lusting after,,,
It is committing in your heart what you may not be able to do with your body.
It is engaging the will, it is the will that makes something sinful.
Now some people say, well it is only a little sin,
But having a little sin is like being a little pregnant\, it will al show up after while.
SO, Christian living is a matter of the will, not a matter of the emotions…….
Now don’t get me wrong emotions are very important, but they are not the standard for the decisions.
Emotions can be a result of the decision and but not for the decision.
Saying, No is the honoring answer to God, Even is you feel yes….
God is not commanding your feelings, he is commanding your will…..
God is not dealing with your feelings he is dealing with our choices.
A child washing dishes;;;;;;; I don’t feel like it……
Now you have to understand this because when disobedience is finished it leads to death.
Vs. 15 it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death
Sins advertised a price is always lower than the actual cost….
Sin always advertises a lower cost that the actual payment that is due.
AND IT”S Goal is Death, spiritual death and if he can get you going long enough physical death,,,, dying before your time as some would say.…..
We saw desire leading to deception, which causes disobedience, which ends in death.
Finally lets look at the
Solution to Temptation
Three things
Follow me: I don’t care what sin your faced with today, these three things can fix it.
I will give you a manufactures Guarantee
Now matter what it is
Mental sins, social sins or physical sins
He says If you do this you will grow in your testing rather than dying in your temptation.
He wants you to remember of meditate on three things
1. Remember God’s Character –
Vs. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Now that sounds a little confusing but lets just lay it out….
GOD he says is good, everything from God is good
Anything that is not Good did not come from God….
Everything that God gives is Good because God is Good…..
And the gifts God gives are good all the time
And it comes from above…..
But he needed an Illustration to make this point stick
Look what else he says
Vs. 17 he says it comes down from the Father of lights
Now what does he mean by light.
Sun, Moon, Stars the luminaries in the heavenly’s.
Those are the lights
Now let’s talk about the luminaries.
Question?
Is the Sun Good?
Do we not benefit from the suns light, do we not see during the day because of the sun?
And some light at night because of the stars?
Question?
How consistent is the Sun goodness in giving light?
Very consistent, because no one in this room wonders whether we are going to have sun light the next day, because even on a cloudy day the sun is still shinning.
So God is saying, you pick the most consistant thing in nature that you can bank on, the sun will shine and the moon will glow…..
And God says, guess what?
I made them……..
Now follow the logic,,,,,,,, I ‘am the Father of the lights,,,,,
Or the source of the light.
YOU SAY<<< Ok pastor what does that have to do with temptation and the problem I’m facing?
Everything,,,,, why?
Because look at the end of the verse…..
Vs. 17 with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Now this is very important….
I’t is beautiful outside right now, I can see the Sun shinning throught the windows, but come 8:30 tonight, dusk will set in,,, and it will begin to get dark.
Why?
Because, the earth will be rotating on it’s axes, now the darkness doesn’t come as a result of the sun, but of the turning of the earth from the sun.
So if you want to stay day time all the time, you have to keep the earth from moving, away from the sun.
God is saying If you are not experiencing his Goodness, or presense or greatness it is not because the Sun stop shinning, and he stopped being good.
It’s because you keep turning…..
So if you have a shadow on your life stop turning, keep facing the Son, His name is Jesus…………………
See: don’t love God on Sunday and be your own man on Monday.
You just turned…..
Love God on Tuesday and be secular on Wednesday, you just turned.
And every time you turn there is a shadow over your life but the son is still shinning.
If you want to enjoy the goodness of God keep facing him.
Stop turning, stop being inconsistent, start looking at God through the trials of your life, because in him there is no shadow casting.
HE SAYS FOCUS ON GOD”S character.
See if you forget the Character, and the goodness of God you will live as though you are free to disobey God,
If every morning you get up and say ”Lord, you have sure been good to me.
Lord I just want to praise you,,,,
That is why praise is so important,,, it reminds you of the goodness of God.
And because he has been Good to you through praise, you want to be good to him through obedience.
2. Remember God’s Word,
Vs. 18 Of his own will brought us forth by the word of truth,
In other word’s you will be delivered by the Word of God.
Why is he saying this?
because
God uses his word to give birth to life
Satan uses temptations to give birth to death.
Question??
Now let me ask you this………
When was the last time that you were tempted to sin, did you quote the word to the devil?
You didn’t even remember there was a word…..Because sin can make you forget
What did Jesus say when he was tempted?
It is written…..
Why would we do any different?
And the bible says that the devil fled from him?
Why?
Because the devil is allergic to the word.
If you can’t quote it, pick it up and read it to him…….
And finally
3. Remember Gods Plan.
Vs. 18 that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
The first fruits means the first parts.
When people give offering it is the first part,
The bible says when we give to God we shouldn’t give left overs but the first fruits.
It is a way of putting him first and honoring him as God.
God is saying I put you first of all my creation,,,,
Be the somebody that I made you to be.
I blessed you so live like it,…….a higher life requires a higher trust.
It is time to start looking at God…..
When things go bad
Remember what God said not what’s happening around you…….
What are you trusting him for?
What dreams will you allow him to repair?
Close>>>>>>>>>>>
