BS: James 3 (2)
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HOW TO HANDLE TEMPTATION
HOW TO HANDLE TEMPTATION
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
CHAPTER THREE
HOW TO HANDLE TEMPTATION
The mature person is patient in trials.
The mature person is patient in trials.
Sometimes the trials are testings on the outside, and sometimes they are temptations on the inside.
Trials may be tests sent by God, or they may be temptations sent by Satan and encouraged by our own fallen nature.
It is this second aspect of trials—temptations on the inside—that James dealt with in this section.
We may ask, “Why did James connect the two?
What is the relationship between testings without and temptations within?” Simply this:
if we are not careful, the testings on the outside may become temptations on the inside.
When our circumstances are difficult, we may find ourselves complaining against God, questioning His love, and resisting His will.
At this point, Satan provides us with an opportunity to escape the difficulty. This opportunity is a temptation.
There are many illustrations of this truth found in the Bible.
Abraham arrived in Canaan and discovered a famine there.
He was not able to care for his flocks and herds.
This trial was an opportunity to prove God; but Abraham turned it into a temptation and went down to Egypt.
God had to chasten Abraham to bring him back to the place of obedience and blessing.
While Israel was wandering in the wilderness, the nation often turned testings into temptations and tempted the Lord.
No sooner had they been delivered from Egypt than their water supply vanished and they had to march for three days without water.
When they did find water, it was so bitter they could not drink it.
Immediately they began to murmur and blame God.
They turned their testing into a temptation, and they failed.
Certainly, God does not want us to yield to temptation, yet neither can He spare us the experience of temptation.
We are not God’s sheltered people; we are God’s scattered people.
If we are to mature, we must face testings and temptations.
There are three facts that we must consider if we are to overcome temptation.
1: Consider God’s Judgment.
1: Consider God’s Judgment.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
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This is a negative approach, but it is an important one.
This is a negative approach, but it is an important one.
James said, “Look ahead and see where sin ends—death!”
Do not blame God for temptation.
He is too holy to be tempted, and He is too loving to tempt others.
God does test us, as He did Abraham (); but He does not and cannot tempt us.
It is we who turn occasions of testing into temptations.
A temptation is an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way, out of the will of God.
Is it wrong to want to pass an examination?
Of course not; but if you cheat to pass it, then you have sinned.
The temptation to cheat is an opportunity to accomplish a good thing (passing the examination) in a bad way.
It is not wrong to eat; but if you consider stealing the food, you are tempting yourself.
We think of sin as a single act, but God sees it as a process.
Adam committed one act of sin, and yet that one act brought sin, death, and judgment on the whole human race.
James described this process of sin in four stages.
Desire
Desire
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
The word lust means any kind of desire, and not necessarily sexual passions. The normal desires of life were given to us by God and, of themselves, are not sinful.
The word lust means any kind of desire, and not necessarily sexual passions. The normal desires of life were given to us by God and, of themselves, are not sinful.
Without these desires, we could not function.
Unless we felt hunger and thirst, we would never eat and drink, and we would die.
Without fatigue, the body would never rest and would eventually wear out. Sex is a normal desire; without it the human race could not continue.
It is when we want to satisfy these desires in ways outside God’s will that we get into trouble.
Eating is normal; gluttony is sin.
Sleep is normal; laziness is sin.
4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
“Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” ().
Some people try to become “spiritual” by denying these normal desires, or by seeking to suppress them; but this only makes them less than human.
These fundamental desires of life are the steam in the boiler that makes the machinery go.
Turn off the steam and you have no power.
Let the steam go its own way and you have destruction.
The secret is in constant control.
These desires must be our servants and not our masters; and this we can do through Jesus Christ.
Deception
Deception
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
jamed 1 14
No temptation appears as temptation; it always seems more alluring than it really is.
No temptation appears as temptation; it always seems more alluring than it really is.
James used two illustrations from the world of sports to prove his point.
Drawn away carries with it the idea of the baiting of a trap; and enticed in the original Greek means “to bait a hook.”
The hunter and the fisherman have to use bait to attract and catch their prey. No animal is deliberately going to step into a trap and no fish will knowingly bite at a naked hook.
The idea is to hide the trap and the hook.
Temptation always carries with it some bait that appeals to our natural desires.
The bait not only attracts us, but it also hides the fact that yielding to the desire will eventually bring sorrow and punishment.
It is the bait that is the exciting thing.
Lot would never have moved toward Sodom had he not seen the “well-watered plains of Jordan”.
When David looked on his neighbor’s wife, he would never have committed adultery had he seen the tragic consequences: the death of a baby (Bathsheba’s son), the murder of a brave soldier (Uriah), the violation of a daughter (Tamar).
The bait keeps us from seeing the consequences of sin.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He always dealt with the temptation on the basis of the Word of God.
Three times He said, “It is written.”
From the human point of view, turning stones into bread to satisfy hunger is a sensible thing to do; but not from God’s point of view.
When you know the Bible, you can detect the bait and deal with it decisively. This is what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
Disobedience
Disobedience
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
We have moved from the emotions (desire) and the intellect (deception) to the will.
We have moved from the emotions (desire) and the intellect (deception) to the will.
James changed the picture from hunting and fishing to the birth of a baby. Desire conceives a method for taking the bait.
The will approves and acts; and the result is sin.
Whether we feel it or not, we are hooked and trapped. The baby is born, and just wait until it matures!
Christian living is a matter of the will, not the feelings.
I often hear believers say, “I don’t feel like reading the Bible.”
Or, “I don’t feel like attending prayer meeting.”
Children operate on the basis of feeling, but adults operate on the basis of will.
They act because it is right, no matter how they feel.
This explains why immature Christians easily fall into temptation: they let their feelings make the decisions.
The more you exercise your will in saying a decisive no to temptation, the more God will take control of your life.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Death
Death
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” ().
Death (v. 15).
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Disobedience gives birth to death, not life.
Disobedience gives birth to death, not life.
It may take years for the sin to mature, but when it does, the result will be death.
If we will only believe God’s Word and see this final tragedy, it will encourage us not to yield to temptation.
God has erected this barrier because He loves us. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” ()
These four stages in temptation and sin are perfectly depicted in the first sin recorded in the Bible in .
The serpent used desire to interest Eve:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Is there anything wrong with gaining knowledge? Is there anything wrong with eating food?
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” ().
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Is there anything wrong with gaining knowledge? Is there anything wrong with eating food?
Eve saw that “the tree was good for food” (), and her desire was aroused.
Eve saw that “the tree was good for food” (), and her desire was aroused.
Paul described the deception of Eve in
. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Satan is the deceiver, and he seeks to deceive the mind.
The bait that he used with Eve was the fact that the forbidden tree was good and pleasant, and that eating of it would make her wise.
She saw the bait but forgot the Lord’s warning:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Eve disobeyed God by taking the fruit of the tree and eating it.
Eve disobeyed God by taking the fruit of the tree and eating it.
Then she shared it with her husband, and he disobeyed God.
Because Adam was not deceived, but sinned with his eyes wide open, it is his sin that plunged the human race into tragedy (read ; ).
Both Adam and Eve experienced immediate spiritual death (separation from God), and ultimate physical death.
All men die because of Adam.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The person who dies without Jesus Christ will experience eternal death, the lake of fire ().
The person who dies without Jesus Christ will experience eternal death, the lake of fire.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Whenever you are faced with temptation, get your eyes off the bait and look ahead to see the consequences of sin: the judgment of God.
Whenever you are faced with temptation, get your eyes off the bait and look ahead to see the consequences of sin: the judgment of God. “For the wages of sin is death” ().
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.