When Trials turn to Temptation and Temptation Turns to Sin

James 1:12-18

Good morning. Our text today will be in James 1:12-18 if you would like to go ahead and find that in your Bibles. The title for today’s message is “When Trials turn to Temptation, and Temptation turns to Sin.”

I want to begin with a recap since it has been a few weeks since we went through the first part of James 1 together. I know I spoke on verse 12 last week but it is used as a transition between the discussion of trials and the discussion of temptation on the letter so I want to read it again this week as well as part of our text.

In the beginning of James we see this is a letter to the Jews that have been dispersed from Jerusalem and James is writing to instruct them on how we, as followers of Christ, should walk through and act in, the trials that we experience in life. James outlines in the first section of the letter 4 ways we should act when we experience these trials.

First we should COUNT - James 1:2 “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,” When we go through trials we should have a joyful attitude

Second we should KNOW - James 1:3 “3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” We should have an understanding mind that we know that our testing and our trials brings something that is good in our lives

Third we LET - James 1:4 “4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” That we walk through these trials with a will that is surrendered to the will of God. That we seek Him first and His will above our own.

Fourth we ASK - James 1:5 “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” We seek after wisdom from God when we go through trials to make sure we walk through them appropriately and we apply the knowledge we have of God’s goodness to these trials through the gift of Wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

As James continues in the section that we will cover today we transition from trials or testings on the outside, and he gives instruction on handling temptations within. The word for temptation in the Greek is periasmós which means literally “to put to the test” or “to go through”. Tempted here in the greek is the verb form of the word trial in verse 12 but the context here shows that they are intended to have different meanings. To tempt means to entice, assay, examine, or try. To take this and look at the word temptation it means “a putting to proof - for good, or an evil solicitation - for bad.” Literally our response to temptation determines whether it is for our good or whether it is harmful.

I want to make very clear it is not a sin to be tempted. It is a sin only when we give action to that temptation. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days by Satan (Luke 4:1-13) but He did not give in to that temptation and remained without sin. Instead He overcame that temptation with the Words of God that had been given in what we now call the Old Testament. Jesus answered the temptations put before him, by Satan, with scripture. This is why the Psalmist wrote in

Psalm 119:11 “11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

It is vitally important that we enter into battle, against temptation, with the Word of God stored in our hearts and this is why it is so important that we read and study scripture.

God will use that time we spend in His Word to not only speak to us through His Holy Spirit, but when we are tempted, when we are asked questions, when we are asked did God really say, God will use the Holy Spirit to bring to our memory the words He has given His people. Charles Spurgeon has this to say about scripture study:

“Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul soak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

We spend and devote time to the Word of God and pray that it saturates our heart so that we are always ready with an answer

(1 Peter 3:15 “15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,” )

and so that we have a defense against temptation, when we are tempted, so that we will not sin against God.

When we go from trials to temptations we must be careful that the testings we experience do not lead us to temptations and that those temptations are not fallen into or put into action. When we experience difficulties or trials, we may find ourselves in a different situation if we fail to find the joy in those trials. If we begin to blame God, or question His love, or even resist what He is calling us to, Satan will use that against us and present an opportunity to escape, and in that opportunity of escape the temptation to sin against God is found.

We see examples of this happening throughout the Bible, whether in the many times as Israel wandered through the wilderness, and they would experience a difficulty and immediately turn to questioning God. When they were thirsty and the only water was bitter, or when the Egyptians pursued them right after leaving slavery, or even when God was giving the law to Moses on top of the mountain and they, in rebellion, built an idol of a golden calf to worship.

We can look at Abraham who failed to trust God when he arrive to Canaan and there was famine, so instead of trusting what God had told him and remaining in Canann, he went to Egypt and lied about his wife, saying she was just his sister, not only once but twice during his journeys, allowing her to be taken by the rulers of these countries to be their wife. God does not want us to fall into temptation but He doesn’t spare us the experience either. For spiritual maturity we must face trials and temptations or we will never grow spiritually. The way we respond during these trials determines our outcome when they are completed.

Once again our text is James 1:12–18 and this is the word of the LORD to His people.

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

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 is the Word of the LORD, AMEN

I began with verse 12 as a reminder that those who remain steadfast, or those that remain joyful in the knowledge of God’s goodness as they walk through these trials that come from God, and those that love God, will receive a crown of life. That as we walk through trials and tests that are given to us we remain steadfast looking not at the immediate but at the eternal. We know that these trials and these tests are simply for a short period of time and that in the eye of eternity we have a promise from God that we will emerge triumphant and will receive life eternal with Him. We are promised that we do not walk through these trials alone but that God is with us and that whatever comes, if we will find joy and peace in the joy of our salvation, that we know that whatever comes, it is for God’s glory and for our good and in that we find a rest like no other.

These trials grow us to spiritual maturity and further sanctification to become more like Christ. James lets us know in this section that there are three facts that we must know and look at if we are to overcome temptation. There are three points if you will to ensure that we do not fall into temptation and by so doing, fall into sin, as a result of our reaction to these trials.

First we consider God’s judgement (James 1:13-16)

Secondly we consider God’s goodness (James 1:17)

Finally we consider God’s Divine Nature Within (James 1:18)

First we consider God’s judgment.

This seems like a negative approach to the situation but it is a good and important approach. James tells us in verse 13-16 that God will test His people. That He will bring trials and tests to grow us in our faith but that God will NEVER tempt His people to pursue sinful actions.

There are multiple examples of God testing His people. Whether it was Abraham in Genesis 22 who was told to take his only son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice to God, or the way God tested Israel when He fed them with manna and He told moses in Exodus 16:4 that this was a test to see if they would follow His instructions and His law. God tests us to strengthen our character and to further sanctify us making us more in the image of Jesus but God will never attempt to lure us into sin.

We serve a Holy and Righteous God, that cannot stand to be in the presence of sin. God because of His holiness has no attraction to evil and we know that God is good and perfect and because of that He is the source of all good things. Evil is completely contrary to the very person of who God is. John tells us in

1 John 2:16 “16 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.”

All that is good is from God and all that is evil is of the world. Yet as humans we always have a tendency to want to pass the buck or the blame. The popular saying “the devil made me do it” has been uttered many times throughout man’s history. We have this hollywood image of the devil popping up on someones shoulder and talking them into doing wrong.

Even going to the garden of Eden, Adam attempts to pass the blame for His sin to Eve when He says the Woman you gave me made me do it. Then Eve attempts to pass the blame to the serpent. There is a natural tendency in our flesh to not take the responsibility for our actions or our sin. We are told in Romans that ultimately we will be held accountable for our actions good or bad.

Romans 14:12 “12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

While we think of a sin as a single act or occurence, God sees it as a process and James lays out that process here in four stages.

First there is the stage of desire or lust. Our thoughts when we hear the word lust in todays society automatically leans to thoughts of sexual desires but the word here means any type of desire. It is not wrong to have desires. God has made us with desires in our lives that are both necessary for actual life and desires for things that bring us happiness.

If we did not desire food and water then we would die of malnutrition and dehydration. If we didn’t feel tired and desire sleep then we would die of fatigue. If we didn’t desire time with our spouse then there would be no continuation of the human race. But if we take these desires and we go beyond the normal and we allow these desires to rule us and become our masters then we enter into sin with these desires.

If we are guilty of gluttony, hoarding all of our resources for ourselves and only for ourselves, if we are lazy and we don’t work or have any purpose in our lives, if we allow our desires to rule us and we don’t keep ourselves holy for our spouse and we sleep around, then we are being ruled by these lusts and we are not submitting to Jesus as our master. We are slaves to our sin.

Sower Krant summarized temptation and the dilemma it causes well when he said

“If temptation struck no responsive chord, it would not be temptation.” (Sower Krant)

If temptation did not cause desire or lust in our lives, if temptations did not appeal to what our flesh wants, then there would be nothing to entice us to follow it. We would immediately turn our backs but instead we must pray daily as Jesus instructed us, Lord deliver us from evil. We cry to God as Charles Wesley wrote in the hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”;

Take away our love of sinning; Alpha and Omega be; end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.

This stage of desire then turns into the second stage in the process, deception. James uses a fishing analogy here in verse 14. That temptation doesn’t appear necessarily as temptation. Enticed here in the original greek is deleázo which comes from the base “to entrap.” It in english can be translate to mean “to bait a hook.”

When you go fishing you put something on the fish hook to draw the fish to it. The fish doesn’t see the hook floating there but they see the bait attached to the hook and by the time they go after that enticement or that bait, it’s too late and the hook is there.

It would be great in this life if Satan appeared to tempt us the way he is portrayed in so many movies. Little red guy with horns and a pitchfork battling it out on one shoulder with an angel on the other shoulder to get us to do wrong. Instead Paul writes

2 Corinthians 11:14 “14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

That Satan doesn’t appear as himself to tempt us but he disguises himself as an angel of light. That temptation doesn’t appear to always be something bad, but it might even seem good. Temptation always has bait that appeals to our natural desires. It might seem exciting, or comforting but in the end it only gives us sorrow and punishment. It only leads to separation from God. The bait can keep us from seeing the result if we follow through in temptation.

If we are immature and we go by our feelings, or our hearts, to make decisions then we will easily fall into this deception of temptation. It is one of the most said phrases in current culture to just follow our heart. Whatever you heart says you should do is whats right for you, and this could not be farther from the truth and is one of the biggest lies Satan uses to deceive today! The Bible tells us in;

Jeremiah 17:9 “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Jesus says in

Matthew 15:19 “19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”

Our hearts are deceitful, they are not naturally fixed on God, they are naturally set to lead us into sin and it is only through God’s grace giving us new mind and a new heart that we can fix our thoughts and desires on God alone.

Romans 12:2 “2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God transforms our minds and renews them so that as we walk through testing and trials we can know His Will which is always good, acceptable, and perfect!

The third part of the process of temptation and sin is disobedience. We have moved in the process from (emotions) desire and lust, and (deception) our intellect, to the will, or disobedience. We move in the process of temptation from Desires to deception to disobedience. James here in verse 15 changes the picture from that of fishing to the process of birth.

James 1:15 “15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Disobedience is the resulting birth, sin is the result of giving in to desires and being deceived on the outcomes of those desires. Just as Gods way, following the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit will always lead to good, submitting to our lusts and our desires to rule over us will always result in sin and evil.

While there may be temporary benefits or we may temporarily feel good we will always be left empty in the end. Just the like the drug addict that is always longing for that next fix and each time they shoot the needle in their veins the dose grows so they can achieve that same high, and then they crash and are left desperate seeking that next fix and that next high, that is what our lives are like when we seek after sin and we are disobedient to God.

Our lives as Christians are a matter of will and not feelings. Those that are mature adults will act on the basis of what is right no matter how they feel. We continue to do what we know we are supposed to do because we know it is right and God is working in us. When we are spiritually mature we know we must die to our feelings. When we don’t feel like reading our Bibles, we don’t feel like praying, we don’t feel like getting out of bed and going to church, we do it anyway because

Philippians 2:13 “13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

God is at work in the life of the believer to complete His plan. It is nothing we do in and of ourselves but it is God at work in us. That even when we don’t feel like it in our flesh our spirit demands that we will still obey God and seek His will.

The final stage in temptation and sin is death. We go from desires to deception to disobedience, and finally to death.

James 1:15 “15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Disobedience to God and His statues and ways gives birth to death, never life. We are told clearly in

Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The only result of our disobedience is death. We are dead spiritually in our sin without the redemptive work of Christ in place over our lives. Without the promise we have as believers of victory in our trials and the love of God, we follow this pattern that results in death of our souls. These four stages are seen perfectly in the very first sin recorded in the Bible in Genesis 3.

The serpent used desire to interest Eve in eating of the fruit of the tree, Eve gave into the desire with the bait that the fruit was good and there was nothing wrong with gaining knowledge right? She then disobeyed God’s one and only statute at the time by taking of the tree and eating the fruit and then giving it to Adam, her husband, and He disobeyed God as well. This resulted in immediate spiritual death as they were removed from the garden and separated from God and ultimately their physical death.

Paul described this in 2 Corinthians 11:3 “3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

Whenever we are faced with the bait and enticement of temptation we must look ahead to the consequences of sinning against God and the resulting Judgment. We are promised

1 Corinthians 10:13 “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.”

God will always give us a way out of our temptation! God is faithful! We should not be deceived, we should know that the source of evil is always Satan and we should not be deceived, but know, the source of all good is God. He is committed to working all things for our good and His glory!

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

That is the first fact, that we must consider God’s judgment when we are tempted.

The second fact we must consider to overcome temptation is we must Consider God’s Goodness

James 1:17 “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.”

James contrasts here that all evil comes from Satan and everything good and everything perfect comes from God.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 1:17–18

The words, every good and perfect gift is from above, have a poetic cadence in Greek. They are literally, “every good act of giving (dosis) and every perfect gift (dōrēma) is from above.”

The word perfect here in the greek, téleios, is the same as the word perfect in

James 1:4 “4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The word means perfect, consummate, complete. God is perfect and everything He does is perfect so therefore all of His gifts are not just good, but they are perfect. Satan would want to trick us by making us think that God is holding out on us. That God doesn’t really love us or care for us, that we are merely unimportant play things that He toys with.

While God is mentioned many times with different terms to deal with light this is the only verse where He is called the “Father of Lights.”That with Him there is no variation or change in who God is. He is constant, His goodness does not change, His perfectness does not change, that He only gives gifts that are good to His children. Jesus told us this analogy in the sermon on the mount;

Matthew 7:11 “11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

When God gives us gifts it is always in love, it is always perfect, and it is constant. They are coming down from the Father of Lights. There is not an occasional gift, there is not a one and done, even when we can’t see these gifts as we walk though the very valley of the shadow of death, God is continuously giving good and perfect gifts to His children and this doesn’t change because God doesn’t change.

When we realize who God is, when we begin to understand the very nature of who God is we realize the first barrier against temptation is negative as it is the judgment of God, but the second barrier is positive because it is KNOWING the goodness of God.

We should have a healthy fear of God but it is balanced in knowing that He is a good Father and knowing the love of God. We can obey because we may receive punishment or we can obey because God has given us so much and we obey in love for our good and perfect God.

One purpose of temptation is to teach us patience to not fall into sin and take matters in our own hands but wait on God and His time. Abraham and Sarah fell into this trap when they were promised a child in their old age. Sarah was 90 years old and doubted God and instead gave her slave to Abraham to take as his wife and have a son. Because of this Ishmael was born and then true to Gods promise in His time Sarah gave birth to Isaac. We still see the long reaching affects of this sin in todays world with the constant fighting between Israel and Palestine.

When we are tempted to take matters in our own hands, to not wait on God, to give in to that temptation we must remember the goodness of God and what He has done for us. We find peace and rest in the assurance of His promises and we are matured spiritually in waiting patiently on His time for His gifts to be given. We don’t take the bait but we wait on God!

First we consider God’s judgement (James 1:13-16) Secondly we consider God’s goodness (James 1:17)

Finally to overcome temptation we must Consider God’s Divine Nature Within

(James 1:18 “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.” )

In the first step to avoid temptation we look ahead and are aware of Gods judgment, in the second barrier to temptation we look around at how good God has been to us, and with the third barrier God tells us to look within and realize we have been born again from above and have been adopted as sons and daughters of God. That we are joint heirs with Christ and that we now live our lives with a divine purpose.

1 John 3:9 “9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

Being born again doesn’t mean that we no longer sin at all. It doesn’t mean we are beyond the possibility of sin. It means the grip that sin had on our lives, the slavery it placed us in is broken and it no longer has any dominion or power over our lives. That we are given freedom in Christ and we are given assurance of our salvation in Christ!

John tells us that God has imparted His very nature into our lives. This birth is a divine birth. When Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3 he did not understand when Jesus said you must be born again. Jesus explained that this is not a birth of flesh but a birth of water and the spirit. This is a divine spiritual birth that can only be orchestrated by God. There is nothing we can do to be saved and adopted, it is a good and perfect gift from above.

John 1:13 “13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

You can’t be saved because you were raised in church or because you were baptized or because you are a good person. You can only be born again through the gracious mercy of God. We are born again through both the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

We hear the Word of God, the Gospel message of what God has done for us and given to us, and while that message is preached the Holy Spirit moves on our lives and breaths life into our dead soul. We are totally incapable of coming to God unless He opens our ears, He opens our hearts, and He removes the blinders from our eyes so we can see His truth, the Word of truth.

James writes here that we are the first fruits of His creatures. This would have great meaning to the Jews as they were raised and ordered through the Old Testament Law to bring the first fruits to be offered before God. That the very best of everything they harvested, the very best of all their livestock, the very best of everything the received, should be brought to God and given to Him as an expression of their devotion and obedience to God.

The New Bible Commentary 1:12–27 Second Part: Testing, Gifts, and Listening and Doing

His goodness is seen in that he chose (it was not an accident) to give us birth, meaning new birth, by means of the gospel (the word of truth). His goal was to make us firstfruits of all he created. The firstfruits were viewed as the best of the harvest, so God is making redeemed human beings the apex of all creation. Here we see another chain: God—word of truth—birth. Desire and the devil lead to death. God, by way of contrast, produces life.

By giving us this new birth, this new life, God declares that He cannot accept the old birth.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: How to Handle Temptation (James 1:13–18)

Throughout the Bible, God rejects the firstborn and accepts the secondborn. He accepted Abel, not Cain; Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau. He rejects your first birth (no matter how noble it might have been in the eyes of men), and He announces that you need a second birth.

This new birth is what allows us to overcome temptation. If we yield to our old nature, our fleshly desires and lusts that feed our bodies but not our souls, then we will fail, but if we follow God and the new nature He has given us then we will succeed because Christ has given us His nature, His righteousness, that we are no longer clothed in the rags and filthiness of our sin but we are clothed in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ and He has already fought the battle and won the victory for us.

We look forward to what is ahead and not back to what is behind us because, while we still fight battles on this earth, and we still walk through temptation and trials, we know the ending to the story, that the war has already been won and Christ is victorious!

The story is told of a child in Sunday School that explained; “Two men live in my heart: the old Adam and Jesus. When temptation knocks at the door, somebody has to answer. If I let Adam answer, I will sin; so I send Jesus to answer. He always wins!”

This new nature must be fed and nourished. We must spend time in the word of God, We must spend time in prayer and communion with our Father in Heaven, just as the Word of God is used by the Holy Spirit to give spiritual birth, it will be used to give us spiritual strength, and the Word of God, hidden in our hearts, marinated and drenched in our souls, is our defence against sin and temptation so that we don’t sin against our Holy and Perfect Father.

God is never to blame for our sin, but He has given us these barriers to guard us from sin, and if we love Him and we run from sin then we will win a crown of life as verse 12 told us.

James 1:12 “12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

This world will pass away, the things of this world will fall and crumble to the dust they came from, the temporary will leave but God has given us life eternal. Death no longer has dominion over us but now, because of Gods grace and mercy, when we leave this earth we will spend eternity with our God and our perfect Father.

If you are here today and you have not stepped forward into this new life, I urge you, if you are feeling the pull, if you are feeling the desire, that is God calling you and breathing life into you through His Spirit. Please talk to me or talk to Paul or any of the leaders here. We would love to walk with you into new life, into what it looks like to follow Christ and to love Him. He has paid the price for the sins of all those He calls and has given us the good and perfect gift of salvation and adoption through His son Jesus.

I want to end with the entire 2nd verse to Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”, that I quoted earlier.

2 Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast! Let us all in Thee inherit, let us find the promised rest. Take away our love of sinning; Alpha and Omega be; end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.

We find our promised rest and our liberty in Christ alone!