James 4

James 1:12

In the book of James so far we have been dealing with the trials of life and some of the hardships we face. We have learned how to face these trials with the strength and wisdom given to us by God for His great glory in all seasons of life. Now though we are switching it up a little from trials, which remember are something we fall into, things sent by God to strengthen us and enable us to better glorify Him, to temptation. We will get more into the distinction between the two later in the message but for now lets jump in at verse 12.

James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

There are several things in this verse that we need to unpack so we will take them one at a time. First, is “Blessed is the man who endures temptation”. What does it mean to endure temptation and who is the one who does this? To endure temptation does not mean to live a sinless life. What James is not talking about here is blessed is the man who never falls to temptation. There is only one who did that and though Christ is truly blessed this is not referring to Him. If you look at the definition of endure on Google then the first one that pops up is to suffer patiently. This is the battle of the believer with sin and temptation in our lives. The Christian life is one filled with endurance, patiently suffering through the sins of the world as well as our own sinful heart. I was listening to an interview from John MacArthur, a wonderful preacher who recently passed away, and in the interview they were discussing a believers feeling of guilt and shame when they sin. The way that MacArthur put it was harsh but truthful. He stated that as a Christian grows closer to God they will sin less and feel worse about it. His point is that as we grow close to God we recognize the weight of even the smallest of sins against God and it hurts us to disobey our Father and we are burdened with the weight of our sin. This is the temptation that we are enduring in this life that sadly no matter how close to God we get, here on Earth we will always fall short and sin and it will continue to weigh on our conscience and we will continually struggle with temptation.

Do not think this is a bleak and burdensome life as a believer though. Look at

Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Fortunately for us we do not endure on our own and while the weight of our sin may burden us for a time, Christ has sent the great Comforter the Holy Spirit to live within us to fill us with hope and peace and joy so that we are not weighed down into despair by our sin but are spurred on to further deepen our relationship with God and help others to do the same.

Our second break down of the verse will be “when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life”. So what does it mean by when he has been approved? Is there some kind of mark we have to get to? A secret goal we are supposed to be shooting for as Christians? No, what this is referring to is when we stand before the Father and are found blameless through the blood of Christ. We are talking about when we have died and went to our judgement all people will either be approved or denied essentially. If you come in on your own merits then you will fall short and all of those sins that happened in the past will be judged and you will be sent out from Heaven and cast into Hell. If instead you come into judgement trusting not in what you have done, but in what Christ did then you will be approved and entire into eternal life to receive the crown of life.

What then is meant by the crown of life? Is this a physical crown that we will be wearing in heaven? Again, no, what we are talking about here is far better than any crowns or riches or Earthly treasures. Remember we said here on Earth we must endure, suffer patiently, through the sin in our own life and the world around us. The crown of life is the completion of our sanctification where we will no longer suffer but instead will be made perfect as He is perfect as we see in verses like

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Hebrews 12:23 “to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,”

This is the greatest hope of the believer that one day when we get to heaven we will no longer have to deal with the pain of sin, but will be free from it totally able to serve God with no more war within us no more battles with the flesh but only a will to serve the Father and glorify Him. You see as Christians today we have this language of “being saved”. That is a much more modern way of putting it and let me tell you why it isn’t the most accurate. You see salvation works in three parts within the live of the believer. In the first sense yes I can say I have been saved as He has called me into His arms and paid for my sins. I have made a profession of faith and been baptized as a believer and so yes I was saved, but at the same time it is an ongoing process. I am still living in enemy territory and need Christ to save me from my sin daily. Salvation does not stop at baptism but begins the process which we call sanctification which is Christ saving you daily from falling into the temptations of sin. Then in the most complete sense I will only truly be saved from my sin on this day when I am made complete and struggle with sin no more.

Now for the final part of the verse who will receive the crown? The ones to “which the Lord has promised to those who love Him”. Who are the ones who love Christ though? There are many within the world who would claim to be within this group, but hear Christs words in

Matthew 7:21–23 ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

There are many who outwardly profess a love for Christ but have no inward true love for Him. This is something that only the Lord Himself can instill within a person

1 John 4:19 “We love Him because He first loved us.”

Out of His great love God reaches out to us and gives us a love for Him and promises to us that we will one day be with Him in heaven and feel pain no more.

As we now move into verse thirteen this is where we see more of the distinction between trials and temptation. As we talked about in previous sermons trials are things that God is doing or allowing in our life to strengthen us. They are things that we fall into in life as James 1:2 states. Trials are not inherently related to sin but are just events of life. We now are moving into temptation which is of course our temptation to disobey God and sin against Him.

James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

There are two ways that we will often say something to the effect of “I am tempted by God”. The first is an honest mistake but should still be corrected. We can often in todays culture treat language and wording as if it does not matter and will say things such as God is trying me when we are discussing our temptation to sin. Maybe we are struggling to not have outbursts of anger or struggling with a sexual temptation and we suggest that it is God trying you. We say it not truly thinking of what we are saying and while we do not say that intentionally we are still shifting blame to God especially for those around us who may not know the truth as we do so we should be careful with our words.

The other way that we do this is much more dangerous as it is truly shifting the blame to God. Truly blaming God for the temptations in your life. It is human nature to want to shake off responsability and find someone else to blame for our own failures. And it is tempting to point the finger at God asking why did you make me like this why are you letting me sin why don’t you do something to stop me. These are all excuses that we will throw to avoid owning up to our own sinfulness and working to repent and correct the mistake. James is clear here that God cannot be tempted by evil and cannot tempt anyone else to do evil. This goes into what we call God’s omnibenevolence. He is all good all the time. Not only are we saying that God would not do something like tempt you to disobey Him, by His very nature it is an impossibility for God to do so. Where does this temptation come from then?

James 1:14 “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

If you are looking for the source of your temptation then pull out the mirror and take a good look. We are the problem. We want to blame God, Satan, the world around us, but at the end of the day James is very clear here that we are tempted by our own desires and that is how we fall into sin. We as Christians must be constantly on guard not just for the world around us but for our own will and desires within us. We are at war with the flesh fighting against what we know to be fun and pleasureable in the moment. Let’s continue with James’ warning against our desires.

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

This is the logical train of desire when left unchecked. If we do nothing then it starts with just a thought “oh it would be fun to go to that party” “oh it would be fun to drink tonight” “oh it would be fun to lie about this” “oh it would be fun to sleep with whoever I want”. At first though we don’t act it is just a desire in our heart and we have two options. The first and one many take is to feed the desire, to start dipping our toes into the water and seeing what we think and when we find it is fun we dive straight into the sin and while the sin is fun for a time when it has reached its peak in our life we look back at the wake of destruction and see all the ways it has ruined our lives.

The second option is much better then though often painful in the moment

Matthew 5:30 “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

When the desire arises to go against what we know God has called us to we are to act swiftly and cut off whatever has caused the desire to arise. If I notice that everytime I hang out with this person I have a desire to lie, drink, gossip, or sin in any other way then I need to get out of that situation. If it is that everytime I am alone with my phone I get tempted then I need to set some boundaries. Whatever it might be that is causing the desire to start while it might cause a little pain in the moment I promise if you can stop it in the desire stage before it reaches action then it will save you a world of pain.

While this is a difficult task this is what it means for us to endure the temptations that we are faced with to continually choose the harder option in the moment for the glory of God and the joy of our salvation.

But do not think that you are alone and forced to fight this out without aid.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

No matter what temptation you are facing in your life right now no that number one you are not alone. Someone else has been tempted like this before, someone else is being tempted like this right now, and someone else will be tempted like this after you. There is someone who has defeated this temptation and known how to help you defeat it too, there is someone who can walk beside you and keep yo accountable, and there is someone in the future who will need your help to get over the same thing that you went through.

Not only that though we are promised here that God in His great faithfulness has provided a way of escape and will not allow for us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. Whatever temptation you are facing right now know that God has given you exactly what you need to overcome it and you have what it takes to do so. All it takes is you deciding today that you will not allow this temptation to control you but you will fight daily to crush the sinful desires and run to the God of love and mercy who waits for you with open arms.