Temptations
James 1:12-18
6-Sep-09
“Making Sense of Hard Times”
INTRO
All of us are acquainted with temptation
- As the bumper sticker puts it, “Lead me not into temptation – I can find it myself”
But how do we deal with it?
- How can we get a grip on victory over this beast – that has some of us defeated?
- In 1:12-18, James shifts from his discussion on tests to the subject of temptation
- Giving the journey of SIN
- to WARN AND RESCUE
1 – First we need to see TEMPTATION’S SOURCE – vs.13
- James begins here, perhaps because…
A. OUR TENDENCY IS TO BLAME GOD FOR OUR MORAL FAILURES
- Maybe not overtly – But subtly, we do
- Like Adam – confronted by God for his actions declared – “The woman
YOU put here with me made me do it.” – Gen 3
- If I had not been made this way – with these obsessions and addictions
– I would not have sinned
Illustration:
Some time ago, Time ran an article on adultery – suggesting that it can be explained on the basis of our genetic make-up
- It’s not my fault – I’m genetically programmed to get in bed with numerous women
- Blame the Creator – He made me this way
- Like Aaron, we sometimes explain immoral behavior as something that just happened
- Ex 32:24 – “They gave me the gold, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf”
- Must be Your fault God, after all you are in charge!
- Parents live with this every day
- I didn’t do it – it just happened
But James corrects such misunderstanding –
- God is not tempted by evil – and He cannot tempt anyone to do wrong
- Temptation is completely contrary to His nature
- It begins somewhere else – as we will see in vs.14 – It begins with us
James might be starting here as well, because –
B – WE TEND TO CONFUSE TEMPTATION WITH TESTING
- The reality is – GOD IS BEHIND OUR TESTS
- Gen 22:1 – God tested Abraham’s faith when He ordered him to sacrifice his son Isaac
- 2 Chron 32:31 – God tested Hezekiah’s humility – when envoys from
Babylon came to view his kingdom – to see what was in his heart
- And God will occasionally test us – bringing all kinds of events, trials, even hard times – to refine us, find how deep our faith is, how sturdy are our hearts
BUT THE POINT JAMES IS MAKING IS THAT HE DOES NOT TEMPT
- This belongs to another author with contrary intentions – the devil – who loves to confuse the two by hijacking God’s tests with his temptations
Have you noticed how they seem to occur simultaneously? Shade from one to another?
1 – God may test us through loss (job, relationship, loved one) – test our resolve to trust Him
– And Satan will tempt our flesh to lose heart
2 – God may use success to test our willingness to give Him the glory – congratulate Him
– While Satan will tempt our flesh to self-congratulate
3 – God may use difficult people to test our patience
– Satan will tempt our flesh to go ballistic
4 – God may use persecution to test our determination to hope
– Satan will tempt our flesh to become hopeless
5 – Hard times will test our desire to be intimate with God
– Satan will tempt our flesh to become distant
6 – Good times will test our dependence on God
– Satan will tempt us to forget God
This is because he (satan) offers nothing on his own
- he hijacks what is good
James warns – Make sure you are clear about the differences – clear about the SOURCE
Having established SOURCE – James now focuses on…
2 – TEMPTATION’S COURSE – vs.14-15a
- Moving into the interior – James reveals temptation’s progression
A. It begins with DESIRE – vs.14a
- Each one is tempted by ONE’S OWN desire, craving
- That is – each of us comprise a unique set of desires
- For some of us - there lurks a desire for alcohol
- For other of us - there remains a craving for donuts, or food in general
- For many of us - there is a hunger, a want for sex
- Some have a deep longing for wealth
- Others a want for recognition, attention
Hence we are all tempted in different ways
- The traps out there are “personality coordinated” – designed for each one’s set of wants
- And temptation sets its sights on these desires
B. The intent is to ALLURE, DRAG AWAY – vs.14b
- This is temptation’s course
- James uses a metaphor from fishing
- Temptation aims to hook up with desire, with one’s affections, passions in order to take possession and carry off
Then…
C. Once temptation connects with desire – there is the potential for
CONCEPTION – vs.15a
- When temptation has been given permission to enter into a relationship with desire…
- …the two procreate to make sin
In this verse – James is correcting some common misunderstanding regarding temptation
1 – While our tendency is to look externally – to blame someone else – to blame the other person, blame the circumstance, blame the devil, blame God…
– James wants to highlight, underscore individual responsibility for sin
– It’s not as if he is unaware of the deceiver – Satan will be mentioned later
– But James wants us to face up to our culpability
EVIL GAINS NO GROUND until WE FIRST GIVE IT
2 – While our tendency is to focus on temptations that lurk around us – the real focus needs to be on our desires
– What is going on inside our interior
– For temptations can go nowhere without desires
We tend to approach life like this --
– Watch out for credit cards – they can tempt you into all kinds of debt
– Watch out for pornography on the internet – it can really bring you down
– Watch out for drugs – they can mess up your life
When the real focus issue – what we must center on is OUR desires, affections, passions
– Prov. 4:23 – “ABOVE ALL ELSE” – for this comes first! – Watch over, PAY ATTENTION TO your hearts with all diligence – for from it flows the spring of life
– Which ones are we feeding? Which ones need to be starved to death?
3 – While our tendency is to refer to moral failure as “falling into sin” – much as a blind-folded party guest stumbles into a swimming pool
– James makes it clear sin is about an intentional decision to dive in
– head-first, eyes open
– To willingly give permission to temptation to come in and co-habit with personal desires
4 – While our tendency is to consider temptation as itself sin
– To assume that continued temptations are a sign that we are out of fellowship with God
– Temptation only becomes sin when it is invited to mingle with desire
Martin Luther – “You can’t stop the birds from flying overhead, but you can stop them from nesting in your hair”
The implication of course is this – When temptation comes, will you invite or resist, yield or withstand?
– Will you allow temptation to take its course – or close it off before it begins?
Finally –
3 – TEMPTATION’S FORCE – vs.15b
- When desire and temptation connect – when sin is conceived
- This birth is not a celebration of life – but the emergence of death
- While we might not always take sin seriously – that sin on occasion is okay
- As something to trivialize or glamorize
- The reality is – sin ALWAYS carries with it the sentence of death
- Once temptation entices and drags away desire …
- Once there has been conception, incubation, gestation, birth, and growth – sin possesses an appalling force
- We not only transgress and fall short …
- WE ALSO DIE
- Death, as Paul noted, becomes sin’s wages – Rom 6:23
- Spiritually, relationally, emotionally, even physically
- Wherever there is sin, some form of death takes place!
So what must we do?
– James is clear – DO NOT BE DECEIVED! vs.16
– Don’t be naïve, blind, brain-dead when it comes to temptation
1 – Don’t confuse the tests of God with the temptations of the adversary
TESTS TEMPTATIONS
Origin GOD Satan
Motive Good Bad
Objectives Refine Entice
Aim Perseverance Sin
Goal Life Death
Response Welcome Resist
2 – Don’t assume you can make it through this life without a Saviour – without spiritual disciplines
3 – Don’t assume you are the exception – that temptation is not out to destroy you
4- open your eyes, see where you are weak, ask God to help your with the desires of your heart, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
No comments:
Post a Comment