DON’T GET CARRIED AWAY

TEXT: JAMES 1:13-15

New American Standard Bible - NASB 2020 Chapter 1

13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.

RECAP

Good morning Beloved, I want to thank God for this opportunity to once more share my convictions about Christ. He is LORD!

Two weeks ago we started a sermon series from the book of James on the of theme: “Temptations, Tests, and Trials.” We learned that the Gk. word peiramos, when it is used by James means temptation, test, or trial. In the KJV, it is translated temptation, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language has it as tests and challenges, and the NASB 2020 renders it as trials.

This subject is important to us because the reality is that we all experience it everyday. It is a terrible mistake to fool ourselves into thinking that any of us is beyond it. Paul warned his readers in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall.”

And so, In week 1, we were made aware of the fact that since temptations, tests, and trials are inevitable (sure to come), we need to have the right attitude while experiencing them. The right attitude is Joy (James 1:2).

James 1:2 NASB 2020

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials,

Joy is possible because believers know that the challenges they face are not without purpose. God’s purpose for our pain is our perfection (James 1:3-4)

James 1:3–4 NASB 2020

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

On last week, the Lord told and showed us ”The Way to Conquer Temptation.” James says, “It takes wisdom.” Wisdom is not simply the acquisition of knowledge, it is the application of it (James 3:13).

James 3:13 NASB 2020

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

In the final analysis, wisdom is not something that a person arrives at on their own, it comes from God. The blessing is that He gives it to all who ask Him for it. Just a word for those who feel that they don’t need it: Proverbs 3:7 “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.”

INTRODUCTION

In 2021, Katie Donnell, a 28-year-old fitness enthusiast, known as the “Workout Queen,” suffered a fatal heart attack due to her excessive consumption of caffeinated energy drinks. Her craving for the “buzz” from these drinks tragically led to brain damage and her untimely death. Her mother is now on a mission to expose the dangers of energy drinks, and while I sympathize for her, I wonder if this tragedy could not have been averted by the deceased simply controlling her cravings.

So many people could avoid much of the sorrow that they experience if they would not get carried away by their own desires, cravings,and lusts. That’s the message that Lord wants to communicate to us through James today, at the end of the day people are caught in snares of their own making. Too often people seek to place the blame of temptations, tests, and trials on God or the devil and fail to put it where it really belongs: oneself. James says let’s get it straight...

GOD AIN’T THE BLAME

James 1:13 NASB 2020

No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

James 1:13 NLT

And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.

This statement has been challenged; leading to the conclusion that the Bible is somehow flawed. The flaw is not the Bible, it is the failure of people to study the nature and character of God. As we do so, we learn that it is theologically correct and doctrinally sound to assert that “God tests his people by putting them in situations which reveal the quality of their faith and devotion, so that all can see what is in their hearts (Gn. 22:1; Ex. 16:4; 20:20; Dt. 8:2, 16; 13:3; Jdg. 2:22; 2 Ch. 32:31).

Genesis 22:1 NASB 2020

Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

2 Chronicles 32:31 NASB 2020

Even in the matter of the messengers of the rulers of Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land; God left him alone only to test him, so that He might know everything that was in his heart.

By thus making trial of them, he purifies them, as metal is purified in the refiner’s crucible (Ps. 66:10; Is. 48:10; Zc. 13:9; 1 Pet. 1:6f.; cf. Ps. 119:67, 71); he strengthens their patience and matures their Christian character (Jas. 1:2ff., 12; cf. 1 Pet. 5:10); and he leads them into an enlarged assurance of his love for them (cf. Gn. 22:15ff.; Rom. 5:3ff.). Through faithfulness in times of trial men become dokimoi, ‘approved’, in God’s sight (Jas. 1:12; 1 Cor. 11:19).

THE DEVIL DIDN’T MAKE YOU DO IT

You would be correct to say that Satan tests God’s people by manipulating circumstances, within the limits that God allows him (cf. Jb. 1:12; 2:6; 1 Cor. 10:13), in an attempt to make them desert God’s will. The NT knows him as ‘the tempter’ (ho peirazōn, Mt. 4:3; 1 Thes. 3:5), the implacable foe of both God and men (1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12). Christians must constantly be watchful (Mk. 14:38; Gal. 6:1; 2 Cor. 2:11) and active (Eph. 6:10ff.; Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:9) against the devil, for he is always at work trying to make them fall; whether by crushing them under the weight of hardship or pain (Jb. 1:11–2:7; 1 Pet. 5:9; Rev. 2:10; cf. 3:10; Heb. 2:18), or by urging them to a wrong fulfilment of natural desires (Mt. 4:3f.; 1 Cor. 7:5), or by making them complacent, careless and self-assertive (Gal. 6:1; Eph. 4:27), or by misrepresenting God to them and engendering false ideas of his truth and his will (Gn. 3:1–5; cf. 2 Cor. 11:3; Mt. 4:5ff.; 2 Cor. 11:14; Eph. 6:11). Mt. 4:5f. shows that Satan can even quote (and misapply) Scripture for this purpose. But God promises that a way of deliverance will always be open when he allows Satan to tempt Christians (1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2 Cor. 12:7–10).

The NT philosophy of temptation is reached by combining these last two lines of thought. ‘Trials’ (Lk. 22:28; Acts 20:19; Jas. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:6; 2 Pet. 2:9) are the work of both God and the devil. They are testing situations in which the servant of God faces new possibilities of both good and evil, and is exposed to various inducements to prefer the latter. From this standpoint, temptations are Satan’s work; but Satan is God’s tool as well as his foe (cf.Jb. 1:11f.; 2:5f.), and it is ultimately God himself who leads his servants into temptation (Mt. 4:1; 6:13), permitting Satan to try to seduce them for beneficent purposes of his own. However, though temptations do not overtake men apart from God’s will, the actual prompting to do wrong is not of God, nor does it express his command (Jas. 1:12f.). The desire which impels to sin is not God’s, but one’s own, and it is fatal to yield to it (Jas. 1:14ff.). Christ taught his disciples to ask God not to expose them to temptation (Mt. 6:13), and to watch and pray, lest they should ‘enter into’ temptation (i.e. yield to its pressure) when at any time God saw fit to try them by it (Mt. 26:41).