Bait that Covers Your Hook / James 1:13-16

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: How to Handle Temptation (James 1:13–18)

A temptation is an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way, out of the will of God.

Voice Phishing and Scams are happening all the time.

Introduction: Desire, Deception, Disobedience and Death

James 1:13–16 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Desire

Name desires for eating, clothing, possessions, abilities, career, friends, marriage, travel, experiences, and power/authority.

Natural desires are not bad in themselves.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: How to Handle Temptation (James 1:13–18)

These desires must be our servants and not our masters; and this we can do through Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 20:12 ESV

12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.

Deception

James speaks a picture into our minds by mentioning two experiences: 1) lured & 2) enticed and the event from those two experiences is described as pregnancy. It is like the egg and the sperm have met and you are now pregnant.

Every temptation always appeals to our natural desires.

Optical Illusions do not tell you the truth.

Often people lie to you

Occasionally you lie to yourself

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Temptation

One three-year-old’s explanation for being in the kitchen atop a chair, eating cookies: “I just climbed up to smell them, and my tooth got caught.”

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Proverbs 16:2 ESV

2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.

Romans 13:14 NIV84

14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: How to Handle Temptation (James 1:13–18)

A temptation is an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way, out of the will of God.

Disobedience

Here we have moved from the desires (emotions) and the deception (intellect) and now the will goes into action.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: How to Handle Temptation (James 1:13–18)

Christian living is a matter of the will, not the feelings.

Proverbs 3:5 ESV

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Temptation, Protection from

In a supermarket one day, a mother was pushing a shopping cart with a small child in it. As she was not paying attention to where she was going, she turned down an aisle and suddenly realized it was the candy aisle. Immediately she turned completely around and went the other direction. She knew the small child would not be able to handle the situation. In the same way, God protects us from things we can’t handle.

1 John 2:16 ESV

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Death

Disobedience gives birth to death.

After sin is born it may take years to mature and die, but it will bring death.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Conclusion

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching A Wrong Is a Wrong!

Reverend Kyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist minister who had miraculously survived the Hiroshima conflagration. The pastor asked to meet Albert Einstein, the man whose knowledge had much to do with the construction of the first atom bomb. Einstein was pleased to welcome the minister from Japan. Imagine the high drama and excitement as the two men met in the professor’s home at Princeton, New Jersey! It was reported that Einstein suggested the bomb should never have been dropped on a city. Graciously Tanimoto countered, the Japanese would have dropped it on America if they had possessed the bomb.

With firmness and moral conviction, Einstein answered, “Even if you might have done it to us, this would still have been no excuse for us to drop the bomb.”

Wrong is wrong even when you were told something else, or if you have justified it to be right to you.

Song: Oh be Careful Little Eyes