Temptation (James 1:13-16)

Temptation - enticement to evil by arguments, by flattery, or by the offer of some real or apparent good. enticements to evil proceeding from the prospect of pleasure or advantage.

You can’t help that birds fly over your head. But don’t let them build nests in your hair. Temptations will come, but don’t entertain them. DRIVE THEM AWAY.

If the Son of God was tempted, you know you will be tempted.

The world today, and even some Christians don’t take responsibility for their sin. This dates back 6,000 years ago (Genesis 3) (The woman (Eve) whom thou (God) gavest me)(The serpent beguiled me)

Modern psychology has invented all kinds of ways for guilty people to shift the blame onto their parents, predicaments, partners, or other people in general. God does not let us try to evade our own sin.

Being a drunkard is now called alcoholism. They call it a “chronic disease”.

The sickness is SIN!!!!

The Source of Temptation (vs.13)

Lies of the Devil (John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” )

Satan only tries to persuade us. Satan cannot push us to sin. (The devil didn’t make you do anything, contrary to what modern versions say)

Lust of the Flesh (Ephesians 4:22 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;”

1 Timothy 6:9 “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

Lure of the World (1 John 2:15–17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” )

2 Timothy 4:9–10 “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.”

Philemon 22–24 “But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.”

The Seduction of Temptation (vs.14)

Drawn away (1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” )

Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you. We are to be drawn to God, not drawn away from God.

Deuteronomy 30:15–18 “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.”

Galatians 5:16–17 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

2 Timothy 2:22–26 “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

Enticed

to catch be a bait. To lure forth: in hunting and fishing as game is lured from its hiding place, so man by lure is allured from the safety of self-restraint to sin.

Fish comes out from the safety of the rocks to catch what they think will satisfy them.

The Singularity of Temptation (vs.14)

HIS OWN LUST

Lust - a desire form something greater than the reason, wisdom, or character of God. A desire for something that God doesn’t want for us.

A mouse doesn’t go for lettuce on a mouse trap. He goes for something with protein (meat, cheese, peanut butter)

Specific fish react to certain baits. Turkeys react to different calls. (can sound like a hen, but it sure ain’t!)

(2 Timothy 4:1-4)

Noah/drunk, Abraham/liar, Jacob/Trickster, Solomon/Womanizer

Satan will use your weakness to wreck you.

The Success of Temptation (vs.15)

For sin to be conceived, two things must fuse together (temptation and lust). When temptation and lust are present, everything is needed for conception (just as a husband and wife are needed to conceive a child) Our CHOICES determine whether sin is conceived through lust.

When we chose to sin, sin will grow in strength. Sin becomes “exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13)

The person who drinks becomes a hopeless drunkard. The person who smokes weed goes on to harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The person who indulges in fornication becomes a companion of pimps, prostitutes, and perverts. Just as a baby grows in the womb, sin grows in the heart of those that continue to let temptation and lust rule their life.

You may think you can handle sin, but sin can handle you.

The Seriousness of Temptation (vs.15b-16)

Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.

Sin kills. It kills physically and spiritually. Sin puts it hand upon character, and kills it. Sin puts it hand upon health, and kills it. Sin puts it hand upon morality, and kills it. God told Adam, “thou shalt SURELY die.” The serpent told Eve, “thou shalt NOT surely die.”

The fornicator can get diseases that kill. The adulterer can get killed with a knife or shotgun. The drunkard can get liver disease or killed while driving.

Sin also brings death to relationships. The death of a marriage, the death of a friendship, the death of a church, the death of a ministry. THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH.

David wasn’t planning on murdering someone when he woke up that evening. No one plans on sinning bringing death, but it does.

Err - to stray from what is right. To wander without direction or purpose.

To “err” happens when there is a refusal to hear the word of God, do the word of God, and listening to false prophets and seducing spirits.

2 Chronicles 33:9–10 “So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken.”

Psalm 95:10 “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, And they have not known my ways:”

Psalm 119:21 “Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, Which do err from thy commandments.”

Psalm 119:118 “Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: For their deceit is falsehood.”

Jeremiah 23:32 “Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.”

The Strategy for Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:12–13 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Romans 13:13–14 “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

2 Timothy 2:22 “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Titus 2:11–12 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”

Hebrews 4:15–16 “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

1 Peter 2:11 “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;”

2 Peter 1:4–10 “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:”

We cannot have too serious a view of sin or our own personal susceptibility to and accountability for sin. We cannot blame God, Satan, or others for OUR sins. Humpty Dumpty wasn’t pushed. HE FELL with A GREAT FALL. He had no business sitting on the wall: We have no business getting near sin, or giving into sin, or we will have a great fall.