VIDEO
Are You Tempted? (AM Sermon Notes)
GIST: Yes, and your heart is the cause, so seek His gracious rescue.
SCRIPTURE: James 1:13-18
This morning, we’re continuing our journey in James. Honestly, these past few Sundays have been such a blessing to me, and how God has used these passages to speak to my heart as I’ve moved through my “normal life” throughout the week has just been incredible. I encourage you to look for that this week, as well. Be conscious of the fact that what we’re coming to this morning is not by chance. You stumbling on this blog post is not by chance. God wants to use His Word (not mine) to speak to your heart. Let Him. That’s my prayer today.
The verses we’re coming to this morning have stuck with me for a long time now. We’re actually just going to look at six verses, but within these verses, we’re going to see both a very hard, though practical, reality and an incredible truth. This comes after James telling us to find joy in trials because they can be used to grow our faith and, because this won’t be easy, to seek wisdom from God rather than letting our circumstances blind us to His purposes. Right after that, we’re told→
“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.”
This passage is packed! Here James moves from trials to temptations. While God allows trials to come your way, He will never deliberately entice you to sin. In fact, that is in direct opposition to both His nature and His plan for your life. So where does temptation come from? Our guiding question this morning was “Are You Tempted?” The answer, and our gist, is: Yes, and your heart is the cause, so seek His gracious rescue. Let’s break that down.
I. YOUR HEART IS THE CAUSE (13-15)
Look at that first verse again. “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.” There are two big observations to be made here. First, temptation is a →
When. It’s not an “if”. Just like with trials, temptations are an inevitable part of life. None of us are exempt from them. I don’t think I even need to try and make that case. Just looking at your life you’ll see this. However, unlike trials which God can use to help you grow closer to Him, temptations are→
Not From God. Oh, it’s really easy to try and blame Him for them. Maybe you haven’t thought about it in these terms before, but there is a really good chance you’ve either thought this or heard others express this thought: “Well, I’m only struggling with this because God made me this way”. When things are going well, we like to pretend like He had nothing to do with it. That’s all us. But when we’re struggling? Oh, now we want to talk about Him. It’s so much easier to push off responsibility and try to make our struggles with sin about Him. It’s His design flaw, so it’s not my fault. But, that’s not how sin works.
In fact, sin is contrary to the nature of God. He doesn’t fall into temptation like we do, and cannot tempt anyone. When Jesus was on earth, He faced every temptation we do, but what was the defining difference between His reaction and ours? He didn’t sin. He overcame every single time. God is good. Your temptations to sin don’t come from Him.
Many of us here would be quick to agree with this actually, but we’d still want to push them off and claim, instead, that the “devil made us do it”. But that’s not where James tells us sin comes from either. Look at the next two verses. “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.” First here, we see sin’s→
Source. It’s an inside job! The devil and his demons might nudge us toward sin, but they can only use what’s already in our hearts to do so. Sin isn’t some external problem we have to deal with living around. Sin is the result of our own evil desires. We are only tempted by things something inside us wants. Otherwise, sin wouldn’t be... tempting.
I want to make sure I’m clear on this. We’re led away by sins because we already have desires within us that make us susceptible. Some of those desires aren’t even inherently bad. Hunger is a good desire because it helps ensure eating...which keeps us healthy. Pursuing that desire to the point of gluttony is sin. God designed sexual desire to be enjoyed in the fulfillment of a marriage relationship. Pursuing that in any other context though— sleeping with people before marriage, viewing pornography...etc— is a corruption of that desire. The fact remains, we are led away...by ourselves. In fact, what this passage goes on to describe, which is actually incredibly helpful, is that→
Process. First, we see the process begins with being lured and enticed. Both of these words are connected to bait. It’s what a lure does when you’re fishing. It entices the fish because it looks like something they want. We’re no different. We see something or hear something or smell something (☺️less often on that last one), and we want it. If it stops there, we could avoid sin.
However, when it moves beyond the fleeting thought and starts consuming our heart or is acted upon, then we’re moving to the next part which is sin being conceived. Obviously, the metaphor here is childbirth. Now, an action has been performed. Here we’re moving from desiring something to being captured by it. And don’t think this capture is only done if you physically go through with something… or if you get caught. If your heart is consumed by sinful desires, if your mind is flooded with thoughts that you know do not honor God, that is sin consuming you as well.
And what happens when we follow through, when we act upon our corrupted desires or allow them to consume our minds? Any pleasure is fleeting and just leaves us destroyed. Not only does sin often result in negative outcomes here, but even if you think you’re getting away with it now, the end result of living consumed by sin is Hell. Without exception, the end result of a life lived for sin is always death.
Therefore, we need to realize this and→
Be Aware & On Guard. Let me just read four verses to you guys real quickly here→
John 3:19-21 “19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."”
1 Corinthians 10:12 “12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Ephesians 6:13 “13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
Man, we could camp out on all these verses all day long, but let’s just make this clear. We’re in the midst of a spiritual war. Passively living the Christian life is simply not a reality. We must be vigilant. We must be purposeful. And NONE of that comes from us being tough enough or strong enough. That all comes from us giving every single day to Him. We must live seeking Jesus every moment, knowing we need Him, and clinging to His guidance constantly…. not just on Sundays.
The source of sin is our own corrupted hearts→
II. SO SEEK HIS GRACIOUS RESCUE (16-18)
Oh, how I love these next verses. “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.” I know I went long on that first point, so I will try to be brief here with a few observations. First, →
“Don’t Be Deceived” Is A Cry Of Love. It’s just so beautiful here. James is pleaded with his beloved brothers and sisters, Christians scattered across the known world, and warning them not to be deceived. Why? Because it’s so easy to get this wrong. It’s so easy to blame God for all the terrible things we see happening all around us. This perspective is wrong, but it’s also destructive. It’s robs you of the joy of knowing, contrary to being the cause of your sin, God is→
Source of ALL Good. Every. Single. Blessing. In. Your. Life. Is. From. God! (Please pick up on the emphasis here ☺️!) And there is SO much good around us. I know I hit this a lot, but I never want us to miss out on it. Our default perspective is to major in the despairs and heartbreaks of life and skim over the incredible blessings that pursue us every day. Don’t. Don’t miss them. Don’t take them for granted. And never forget where they’re from. I know I talk about living with joy a lot, but I’m not advocating some kind of generic optimism. There are blessings, and they come from God who is the creator of all good. Apart from God, no good could exist. (Do we remember that?). He’s the source of all good→
Because He Alone Is Perfect. I’m not. You’re not. He is. And unlike earthly light, His light is never diminished by shadows. Nothing can detract from His goodness or change it in any way. He is perfect now and forever more! Man, that’s awesome, but there’s even more here.
After this wonderful picture, we’re given another beautiful truth. In this perfection, → “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.” Let me break this down like this:
The God Who Made Us…
CHOSE To Rescue Us… By His will. He wanted to do this!
And Give Us LIFE... Contrast this with the death which results from sin! Sin brings death. Jesus gives life! How? →
Through His Word Of Truth… This is the Gospel working in us. Knowing we need Him and coming to Him. This is the message we should be carrying to the world because He did this→
So We Could Be Firstfruits… What are those? Firstfruits are that which are set apart for God! He came to give us life, so we (those who are the sources of our own sinful corruption) could be His! Amazing grace!
TAKEAWAYS
1. Seek His rescue.
2. Guard your heart by clinging to Him and fleeing even opportunities for sin to entice.
3. Look for His goodness and rejoice in it!
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