Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Read .

Explain the context

Talk about the blaming

I do not know when was the last time you ever blamed God for anything.

After God created Eve from Adam’s rib, and after they’re married, a serpent, who was Satan, came and tempted Eve.

So, let’s read .

READ.

What happened to Adam and Eve is not uncommon.

Eve was tempted by Satan to sin.

Eve was tempted by her own desire to eat the fruit, and she shared it with Adam.

After they sinned, God spoke to Adam.

Notice that after Adam fell into temptation, He blames God for giving him Eve because she was the one who tempted him to eat the fruit.

I do not know when was the last time you ever blamed God for anything.

Financial difficulty can tempt us to question God’s providence in our lives.

The death of a loved one can tempt us to question God’s love for us.

The suffering of the righteous poor and the ease of the wicked rich can tempt us to question God’s justice, or even his existence.

Thus testing almost always includes temptation, and temptation is itself a test.

When you’re in the midsts of trials and hardships, you might have questioned God, “God, why are you doing this to me?

Why is this happening to me?” But, I wonder if you have ever blamed God for tempting you to sin.

Please turn to .

You may remember that we have been going through the topic on trials for the past few weeks.

So now, James is going to address a problem that the Jewish Christians were encountering in the midsts of trials…and that is temptation to sin.

Let us now read and see what James is going to teach us.

READ.

Big Idea: To triumph through trials, we must triumph over temptations.

As Christians, when we are in the midst of trials and hardships, it is easy for us to experience temptation to sin.

Temptation - the pressure to give in to influences that can lead people away from God and into sin.

Temptation -

Sin - the act of rebelling against God and His word.

These two words are important Bible terms for you to know when you read the Bible, because those concepts are repeated again and again.

As Christians, practical Christianity teaches us to overcome sin and temptations.

The world is filled with sin and temptation that always try to influence us to walk away from the Lord.

As teenagers, it is easy for you to be influence by the world.

You will be tempted to commit sexual immorality, watch pornography, taking drugs and hurting your bodies, compare your image to another person, and other things.

In summary, you may be tempted to do whatever your heart and desire tells you.

And the world is telling you to follow your heart and pursue your desires.

But, Paul instructs Timothy:

These two verses in the Bible teach us to NOT trust our feelings, don’t always follow whatever your heart tells you, and don’t pursue whatever your desire tells you.

Because, your feelings, heart, and desires may trick you, deceive you, and tempt you to commit sin.

I have three points to make from today’s passage

Let me state the obvious as clearly and bluntly as possible: you will not triumph as a Christian if you do not overcome sin and temptation.

If you call yourself a Christian, and you are consistently and habitually falling into temptation and sin, and you’re not fighting against it, then you are in danger.

,

The Bible does not mean that Christians will be completely free from sin in this life.

But, genuine Christians, those who are truly God’s children, have been so transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ that they cannot continue living in a pattern of continual or habitual sin.

They’re the ones who overcome sin and temptation.

When temptation appears, they’re the ones who will say “No” and walk away from it.

When the sinful desires of their hearts make them feel like sinning, they’re the ones who will kill sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And, when Christians do sin, they’re the ones who are heartbroken, quick to repent of their sins, ask God for forgiveness and renew their commitment to walking in obedience to God.

Thus the hearts of genuine Christians (those who are truly children of God) have been so transformed that they cannot live in a pattern of continual sin—though this does not mean that Christians are ever completely free from sin in this life

So now that I’m done with my introduction, let us begin studying the passage.

To triumph over temptations, James will teach us to identity three things about temptations.

On your handout it would say this:

To triumph over temptations, we must know:

1.

The Source Of Temptations (v.13-14)

We are not tempted by God (v.13)

What I mean is the origin or the beginning of temptations.

This passage is still connected with the overarching theme of trial.

Back in verse 12, James declares that the Christians who perseveres through trials will be blessed.

When there are trials, temptations will come in the same package.

The Jewish Christians, who were experiencing trials, might have said, “God is tempting me to sin in the midsts of trials!

He’s the one who is testing my faith so He must also be tempting me to sin!” Therefore, because trials tempt them to sin, they blame God for it.

But...

We are not tempted by God (v.13)

When James heard that the Christians were blaming God for tempting them to sin, he commands them not to say such a thing!

It is a ridiculous thing to say about God.

And James is going to teach us two things about God.

First, God cannot be tempted with evil.

God does not have weaknesses nor does God have the tendency to be taken advantage of by temptation.

One of the characteristics of God is that He is Holy, Pure, or Perfect.

There is absolutely no sin in God.

And because God is holy, temptation cannot even come close to Him.

Second, God does not tempt anyone.

Indeed, God does put us in a difficult situation where our faith will be tested and refined, but those situation is not meant to encourage us to sin, but to grow our character and to depend on God.

In other words, James is saying that God is NOT the source of temptations.

One commentator said:

First, Jesus Christ claimed to be God.

And if Jesus is also God and God cannot be tempted by evil, then how could Christ be tempted at all?

How can God the Son be tempted and not be tempted by evil at the same time?

But while God may test or prove his servants in order to strengthen their faith, he never seeks to induce sin and destroy their faith.

But while God may test or prove [the Christians] in order to strengthen their faith, he never seeks to induce sin and destroy their faith.

Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000), 73.

So, what is the source of temptation?

Look at verse 14.

READ.

We are tempted by our own desire (v.14)

The source of temptations begins in the weakness and sinfulness of the human desire.

Verses 14-15 uses the language of fishing.

That is the picture James wants us to think about.

The overall temptation is like a fish seeing the juicy worm on a hook of the fishing rod.

The fish is enticed by its juicy and delicious taste because maybe it is starving.

But the worm is meant to lure the fish closer to the fisherman.

Lure literally means to be dragged away.

And once the fish take the bait, well, the fisherman will do his best to capture the fish.

That’s how temptation works.

And James is going to point out some painful truths that would get me into a lot of trouble because they are countercultural.

And I want to carefully word so that you don’t misunderstand me because what I’m about to say is in the context of sin.

Our society seems to have forgotten this important principle of “Taking Responsibility For Your Own Actions.”

We tend to make excuses for our sinful behaviours and shift the blames to other things, such as people and environment.

For instance, we tell white lies because we do not want to offend anyone or someone told us to tell a lie.