857 Jas.1.1-18 Trials and Temptations Amidst a Panic

David R. McAllan

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- Due to the Coronavirus we are meeting online

Date: 29-03-20 857 Echuca

- We are all fearing how far this virus can go & what eventual impact it will leave in Australia & the world

- Due to the Coronavirus we are meeting online

- We are all fearing how far this virus can go & what eventual impact it will leave in Australia & the world

C.S. Lewis was no stranger to fears regarding pandemics. During his childhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland, more than a million people a year in Europe died from tuberculosis (TB), making it “one of the most feared diseases in the world.” In Ireland itself, more than 11,000 people a year died from TB, many of them young people. Due to TB, youths aged 15 to 25, accounted for 55% of all deaths in Belfast. Years later, Lewis’s brother Warren still recalled the fear that permeated every upper middle class home in Belfast, and the elaborate measures people took to prevent infection. His parents were especially concerned about allowing their sons to be exposed to the rain and getting wet, worrying that TB might develop as a result.

Q. How do we react in times of crisis & even panic?

- We have seen some examples as shoppers empty shelves of toilet paper & pasta leaving little or none for anyone else

- Times of crisis & even panic tends to, mostly, bring out the worst in people

- Typically, when a person is drowning they don’t think much about other people, only on how to survive

- Who can blame them!

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- Yet, when other people who are likely in the same boat, are also struggling, then it becomes a moral issue

- I recall the movie “Titanic” & when that great ship was sinking the order went out that women & children were the first to get onto the life boats, yet their was a selfish gentleman who made sure he got himself on one of the lifeboats

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- As Christians, we can’t just throw out the window, even in a crisis that says “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”

- We never know how we will react when faced with difficult choices

- That’s why I’ve chosen this passage today

- It speaks to the issue of how we deal with the trials & temptations in life & how you fit this in with the picture of a loving God

1. Joy in the Struggle

- From our perspective, there is no joy in times of struggle

Q. But hang on there – is there any joy for the athlete who struggles against the body’s desire for more oxygen & the legs desire to stop running? There is joy in that, isn’t there!

- I remember the Scottish Olympic champion “Eric Liddell”, a committed Christian, who went on to become a missionary to China

- Before he entered the mission field, Liddell chose not to run in the Olympics on a Sunday & missed out on running his favoured race, the 100 yard sprint which he could run in 9.7 secs

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- Yet, he decided to train for & enter the 400 yard race instead, a race that he originally he thought he was not suited for

- He went on to win that race & record an Olympic record for the time

- In the movie, “Chariots of Fire”, they quote Liddell as saying, “God made me fast & when I run, I feel His pleasure”

- He probably didn’t say that in real life – it was from a movie, but let’s assume it for this illustration

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- He believed he was built fast by God & the effort & struggle he put into the race was about “feeling God’s pleasure” in his running

- That’s a take on knowing joy within a struggle

- When we know that we have pleased God in how we are living, we also can “feel His pleasure”

- When we struggle with the temptations of life, there can be real joy when we say NO to those temptations & push on passed them

a. Endurance

- Now the ESV says that the testing of your faith produces “steadfastness”

- The word means “remaining”/“enduring”

- You would have to say that the sense is remaining in the faith

- Staying steadfast in the faith

- Its the ability to see the Christian life through to the end

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- Most translations refer to the “trials” Christians face

- But the word for trials is the same word for temptations

- It’s the context that dictates which one of these is appropriate

- Now you may say, how can a word have different meanings like that

- Well English certainly has an abundance of different meanings too for the one word

- Someone might say that a person is revolting

Q. Is that person a disgusting person, or is it a person who’s rebelling?

- One word with, at least, two different meanings

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- I suggest to you that it could well be “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet temptations of various kinds”

- The KJV has “temptations”

- As a kind of refrain, the ESV has in v.12...

—12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12 ESV

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

- Yet, note the New Revised Standard Version

—12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.(NRSV)

James 1:12 NRSV

12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

b. God’s Wisdom

- I’ll give you another reason for seeing this as “temptation” (of course, temptation is also a trial)

- But in verse 5, James says that if any of you lacks wisdom, to ask it of God

Q. What has wisdom got to do with what he has just said regarding trials or temptations?

- Sure, I can see how wisdom would be helpful in a trial, but I think it far better explains the need for wisdom when under temptation

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- When a person is facing temptation, usually that person feels trapped

- The person doesn’t know which way to turn for the escape route

- That is a real dilemma, especially, when the person who wants to please God is so sick & tired of letting God down

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- Yet, here is another reinforcement to my choice of the word “temptation”.

- God will give this wisdom without finding fault (as the NIV says)

- In other words, He will never ever rebuke someone for asking for His wisdom – not only that – we can say that He will give it unconditionally

- God is willing to give that wisdom without condition

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- I’ve never liked the saying that “God loves us unconditionally” because it is simply not accurate – because when it comes down to it, there are conditions upon His love

- That He loves us is undeniable, but that He loves us unconditionally is simply false!

John 15:10 NASB95

10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

—10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

- It’s not semantics – you need to abide in His love & that is done by obeying Jesus – by remaining in the vine

- The fact of the matter is that the phrase “God loves us unconditionally” does not help people toward the understanding that they need to remain “steadfast under temptation”

- If God loves them “unconditionally”, then there are no conditions upon remaining in His love which means, of course, that there are no incentives to escaping temptation

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- The person who asks for God’s wisdom, can be said to get it unconditionally – even the person caught up in terrible sin, God promises to give His wisdom – without a rebuke: that is, even for hypocrisy or unworthiness

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Q. Why is this? Why would God be so generous at this point?

- Simply because it is His wisdom that can point us, to the way out of temptation &, therefore, the way out of sin against God & neighbour

!!! How good is that!

Q. How could God deny any of His children the wisdom to help them, who want out of sin, to get out of sin

- God sent Jesus into the world for this very purpose

- To reconcile the world to God

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- This is also why in v.12-15, James makes it clear that the source of temptations is not from God, but from a person’s own desires

James 1:12–15 NASB95

12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

— 12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 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.

2. A State of Blessedness

- I think it is safe to say that every Christian does not feel blessed in enduring through temptations

- We suffer guilt, disappointment with ourselves, feeling of hypocrisy & uncertainty that we are at all worthy to be involved with God & God’s people

- But are you surprised to find that the opposite is true!

- That the person who endures through temptations is “Blessed”

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Q. How can that be, you ask?

- Consider if you were never troubled by temptation – what is the end result of that?

- The end result is that sin will be your domain

- You prove that you are not there with God or Christ because you are insensitive to the things that offend Him

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- When a person is deeply troubled by temptations, they can be certainly sure that they love God

- They can be sure that God is working in them through His Spirit to drive you forward through those temptations

- This person is “blessed” because this person has God written all over them

- The troubled conscience helps the Christian move forward in dealing with temptations

- And through endurance, they are becoming adept to learning how to avoid temptation & how to find a way through it

3. Temptation Isn’t Sin

- I dare say that all of us, when we feel tempted, we feel guilty merely for the fact that we are tempted

- This thought that temptation is sin has caused some Christians to say that Jesus could not have been tempted - that He was too superior to be tempted

- That He was too superior to be tempted

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- But that is wrong on several fronts

- For starters, the Scriptures do point to Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness

Matthew 4:1 NASB95

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

—1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

- Notice that the Spirit led Him into places where He would be tempted

- Notice that the Spirit led Him in places where He was tempted

- The Spirit wasn’t tempting Jesus but the Spirit led Him into situations that made the temptations more tempting - and Jesus proved Himself faithful to the Father in all situations

- We also see in the book of Hebrews that Jesus was tempted at every point, yet without sin

—15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15 NASB95

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

- It is clear here that temptation is to be distinguished from sin

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- Furthermore, in our passage today, temptation is clearly made distinct from sin itself

- There is a process that James defines here in v.15 that is very instructive

James 1:15 ESV

15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

—15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

- Playing with temptation is like walking along the face of a cliff

- You may not fall the first day or even in a week, but you increase the chance of it happening by not enduring against it or walking away from it

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- I’ve already gone over the time I’ve allotted for me to talk because I’d like to break you up into groups to discuss the questions I have raised

- But I want to discuss a couple of more points quickly

a. The Source of Temptation

- It is clear here that the source of temptation does not come from God

- Two sources can be blamed: the desires of the flesh & Satan

- Satan wants our downfall so, naturally, he wants us to spite God & sin against Him & His wishes

b. The Remedy

- In our weaknesses, we are prone to the flesh & Satan

- In this fallen world, the power of flesh can dominate, but Christians have been released from the “power” of the flesh through Christ disarming both Satan & the flesh in His sacrificial offering

- We are not released entirely from these influences since we know that the new heavens & the new earth & our resurrected bodies are not yet a reality

- At present, we are still in a fallen world where the flesh still wants its way & Satan still uses it to his advantage

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- But for the Christian, God has through Jesus freed us from the shackles of the flesh

- Yes, it is still there, but the Christian now has a choice

- To walk in the flesh or to walk in the Spirit

- God’s power is now available to us through Christ

- We have been released to operate in the Spirit & not be enslaved to the flesh

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- Consider this illustration...

- You have a car that runs on petrol

- You fuel up your car at the petrol station where you grab the noozle from the bowser & stick it into the opening of your gas tank

Q. But which bowser nozzle will you grab?

- You have the choice of using diesel or petrol

Q. You know which one to use, don’t you!

- You know which one will ruin your car’s engine & which one will make it run well

- I know there may be different sizes that prevent this, but you get what i mean

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- There are 2 pumps available for the Christian life – The Spirit pump & the Flesh pump

- Believe it or not, you have the choice of which one to draw from

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- With the help of the Spirit & the unconditional wisdom of God, we can avoid the harsh, uncharitable language we use; the unkind words; we can avoid elevating ourselves over our brothers/sisters in Christ

- We can avoid boasting & selfishness

Luke 6:31 NASB95

31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

—31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

- The temptation to treat people in ways other than the way we would like to be treated can be overcome through enduring through these temptations & by walking in the power of God’s Spirit

- The temptation to treat people in ways other than the way we would like to be treated can be overcome through enduring through these temptations & walking in the power of God’s Spirit

Questions:

Once in your breakout group, nominate someone to lead the questions through, remembering that we have 10 minutes to discuss both questions.

1. Discuss some temptations that are unique to the 21st century.

2. Relying on this passage, list some ways James says we can deal with the temptations we face?

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