The problems inside
Context: James shows that God is good, and we are not!
Text: James 1 : 13-18
@ Nelson Road on 26th August 2007
Introduction
Last week we had James discussing trials that originated from outward circumstances.
He concluded with the declaration that those who persevere faithfully under such afflictions would receive the crown of life that God promised to those who loved him.
Now this week he addressees trials that come from within, specifically, temptation and sin
And he reminds us of one the most the important things we need to keep in mind during times of trial
And that is we need a correct view of God for this will help us understand what is happening around and help us to make the right choices
Choices that will help us to grow and be the people that God want us to be
A) Who is to blame?.
So often the most natural response to being confronted by our failings is to not to deny it but excuse ourselves by blaming somebody or something else
It is everywhere in human life
We say we are not really responsible, for God made me this way or allowed this to happen to me
Ultimately we are saying “God is to blame”
He is responsible for the bad things in my psychological make-up, my environment, my friends …..Everything
Its Gods fault
But James draws a line under this kind of thinking and says …no…no one should say that!
The word of God shows us any attempt to blame God for our failures is to be rejected, these are no more than attempts at self-justification
And by doing so they are denying the prefect righteousness of God….because the fact is he never ever does evil!
And it is crucial for us to remember always that God tests people for good; he does not tempt people for evil….he does not want us to blow it!
Even during temptation we can see God's sovereignty in permitting Satan to tempt us in order to refine our faith and help us grow in our dependence on Christ not to encourage us to sin
As with the children of Israel in the wilderness…Gods desire was for them to learn to cling onto him and not to rebel….
Excuses for sin come right from the beginning…Eve blamed the serpent…Adam blamed the Eve
. Excuses can include:
"It's the other person's fault."
"I couldn't help it."
"Everybody's doing it."
"It was just a mistake."
"Nobody's perfect."
"I didn't know it was wrong."
"The devil made me do it."
"I was pressured into it."
Like by the little boy who was caught eating cookies out of the cookie jar after having been told he could not have any. His response to his mom; "I really wasn’t going to eat any mom, I just climbed up to smell the cookies, you didn’t say I couldn’t smell them, and while smelling them somehow my teeth got caught on several of them and the cookies wouldn’t fall off!"
I would like to read a Don Francisco at this point called “it’s your fault”
It’s your own fault-you went ahead and did
It’s your own fault-can't blame no one but y'self
It's your own fault-you went ahead and did it
No matter how you wanna you can't blame nobody else
Everyone's an expert at passin' the buck
Blamin'society, parents and luck
We're pointin'our fingers. Blamin’our tools
Somebody else is gonna look like the fool
The devil made me do it:'
I heard somebody said
Or maybe it was God himself, instead,
Even John Calvin's turning over in his grave
Hearing all our excuses for the way we behave
Now I hear you been wondering' why the heaven's turned to brass
Well, there ain’t no point in looking for that snake in the grass
Don't yell at your wife and don't kick the cat
Just tell God the truth you know He'll listen to that
Say. It’s my own fault. I went ahead and did it
It's my own fault-can't blame no one but myself
It's my own fault. I went ahead and did it
No matter how I wanna I can't blame nobody else"
A Christian accepts responsibility for his or her wrongs, confesses them, and asks God for forgiveness.
James stands against the pagan view of god where good and evil coexisted.
And says our God is totally good!
And because God is totally good, he cannot be the author of temptation.
God does not wish evil on people; he does not cause evil; he does not try to trip people up.
Our failures are not God's fault. God may test believers in order to strengthen their faith, but he never tries to induce sin or destroy faith.
God does not want us to fail, but to succeed.
At this point, the question may be rightly asked: "If God really loves us, why doesn't he protect us from temptation?"
Well a God who kept us from temptation would be a God unwilling to allow us to grow. In order for a test to be an effective tool for growth, it must be capable of being failed.
God actually proves his love by protecting us in temptation instead of protecting us from temptation.
He provides a way to resist: "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Cor 10:13)
B) Its your fault
To answer the idea that since God allowed trials, he must also be the source of temptation.
James says temptations come from within.
James highlights individual responsibility for sin.
Each one is tempted by his own evil desires, desires that are contrary to Gods will for your life
These desires can be either fed or starved.
The longer you think about it, the more likely you will move toward fulfilling your desire.
If desire is nourished it will grow until it is birthed into existence! Stop feeding it if you want it to die!
As someone has said, "There are two dogs within us; one is white and one is black, and they both try to bark through the same mouth, the secret is the one you feed the most is going to be stronger
We overcome temptation by letting God renew our minds as we feed on him through his word. A transformed mind produces a transformed life. God works from the inside out.
It is up to us we can either encourage our desires, and they will soon become actions or with Gods help we can resist them
We must continually place ourselves under God's protection
We must reject the enticement or temptation by recognizing it as a false promise.
We must bring into our life those activities that we know God has provided for our benefit -- knowledge of Scripture, fellowship with Christ and other believers, good music, appreciation of all God has made -- activities that expand our awareness in life.
But the blame for sin is ours alone.
For years scientists were puzzled about apples that had worms in them but had no breaks in the surface of the apple! How did they get inside when there did not appear any outward signs of entrance? What they discovered was that a certain worm lays its eggs right on the apple blossom in spring, and as the apple develops it encases the egg right from the beginning. Later when the apple nears it complete maturing process so does the insect egg, it hatches and eats its way out from the inside!
The seed of sin was planted in us by Adam and Eve, ever since then it has been found in the heart of each human at birth, eating its way out in our thoughts and actions as we grow!
James makes it clear that we don’t need anyone help us to sin
When we give into temptation we are being drawn away by our own desires and enticed to enjoy the deceptive pleasures of sin
We are being dragged away or being lured, like a fish to bait
Temptation comes from evil desires within us, not from God. We can both build and bait our own trap.
It begins with an evil thought and becomes sin when we dwell on the thought and allow it to become an action. Like a snowball rolling downhill, sin grows more destructive the more we let it have its way. The best time to stop a temptation is before it is too great or moving too fast to control.
Because if we don’t the desire will give birth to sin.
Desire in itself is not sin, but assenting to its enticement eventually gives birth to sin.
And sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death
God wants us to have abundant life now and for eternity….life in all its fullness as we enjoy him forever
But sin is does not bring life but death….
And leads to spiritual separation from God…..
When we yield to temptation, our sin sets deadly events into motion.
Events that will really hurt your relationship with God and with others
The rewards of resisting temptations include the freedom from the many consequences of our sin.
While God will forgive our sin, we still have to live with the consequences. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8 NIV)
James therefore is warning Christians to see the danger, and so to detest sin, and therefore to deny the evil desire from which sin comes.
He is saying sin is totally destructive and to those who don’t the enjoy genuine salvation that comes by repentance and faith it “really kills” it really separates people from God for eternity
.
So why do you want something that kills and separates you from God to come into your life….you don’t
C) For He builds not destroys
Now James is ready to explain the fact that God a constructive not destructive God
Do not be deceived. The Greek expression means "stop being deceived" -- deceived about what God's real business is….he says I want clear this up
He says look, God is not against you he is for you!
He is not just a bystander when you are faced with struggling against sin
He is actively involved in providing you with a way out
He is actively involved is providing you with alternative life style
And providing you with all you need to lead a good and fulfilled life
God is the source of good gifts; (1:18).
He is the author of salvation, not temptation.
God does care, he will help us, and he never works against us.
If we come to believe we are alone, we have been deceived. If we distrust God, we have been deceived. And if we dare to accuse God of being the tempter, we have been thoroughly deceived.
By doing so we deny that God is the Father God of the everlasting covenant who loved the world so much that he sent his only son
Believing in God is important, but it also matters what we believe about him
And believing the right things about God and his commitment to his children can keep us from falling into temptation as we rest in securely in his loving arms knowing he for us not against us
As we allow God word to reveal to us who he really his it will lead us to see clearly that God doesn’t give bad stuff to us but only good stuff, for every good and perfect gift is from above.
A accurate thrust of these words in verse 17 would be “Every act of giving that is good and every act that is perfect ….comes from above”…this expresses the completeness of the goodness of God….both what he does and the way that he does it…When God gives he gives he gives lovingly, and he gives perfect gifts
God is the source of everything good, and God's good gifts are also perfect.
That means his gifts are always given at the right time, for good purposes.
God withholding a good gift from means that would not be perfect for us.
But that same gift may be perfect for someone else. This truth should help us rejoice with others when they receive good gifts from God even though we have not received the same ones.
We can be assured that God always wills the best for us -- not good things today and bad things tomorrow. Whatever happens is for our best.
God is not like the well-meaning relative who gives the beautiful, warm coat we have always wanted, but that is unfortunately several sizes too small. God's gifts are very good, and they also fit us perfectly.
Coming down from the Father of lights is a phrase that pictures God as the sovereign Creator of the sun, moon, and stars
The giving character of God is written into his creation.
There is no variation or shadow due to change
God's character is always trustworthy and reliable
Nothing can block God's goodness from reaching us.
He is always a good giver
He is undaunted by our inconsistencies and unfaithfulness.
And the greatest of all gifts is new birth; this is the gift that all believers can enjoy
He gives us this new birth by the word of truth,
The word of truth is the gospel, the Good News of salvation
We hear about the gift of birth through the reading and preaching of the gospel, and we respond to it. We apply the message to ourselves and our needs. We receive the offered gift. It is God's gift as he gives it and becomes our gift when we receive it.
And the purpose of this gift of new birth is that we might be a kind of first fruits for the Lord
Jewish leaders would be well aware of the practice of offering the first crops to ripen just prior to harvest as an act of worship and as a blessing on the rest of the harvest
Believers are first fruits because we are a new creation in Christ; we are no longer sinners separated from God, but God's own children
The rest of all he created must wait for God's plan to unfold, but those who have been given spiritual birth have been welcomed by the first, first fruit, Christ into the kingdom of God and are part of the new creation that he has established.
Though we have been given spiritual birth we live in a world that has not yet been transformed. Living as first fruits (examples of God's goodness and role models of what he can do in a life) in a fallen world ought to be our overriding desire.
Conclusion
Life is hard….there is temptations around every corner….but if we realize where the temptation is coming from….and respond by clinging onto the truth that God has a way out…then we can overcome the temptation
If we run away form that temptation and towards our fathers loving arms we can overcome
If we realize that God is always good and does not want us to fall but wants us to grow as we cling onto him we will overcome
If we always keep in mind that we are sinners “save sinners” but still sinners then we will always be the guard against our own evil desires
Remembering all that we are his children we have already receive his best gift of eternal life and overriding desire should be to be an example of God's goodness as we allow him to make us role models of what he can do in a person’s life