Blame in Trials

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Tonight, we're going to be looking at James chapter 1.
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We're going to be looking at verses 12 through 15.
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I have had my brother here hand out our worksheet for the evening.
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We start on the page that has the different translations.
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The title, however, is on the back page.
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So you'll notice the title for tonight is Blame in Trials.
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That is the title and the focus of the lesson.
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I'm just going to put the word blame on the board.
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Last week, we addressed the subject of the paradox.
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Do you guys remember what a paradox is? Yes, two things that appear to be in contradiction with one another until upon further investigation, you find that they are not in contradiction with one another.
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And we said that the paradox that we saw last week in James chapter 1, there, looking back at verse 11, if you want to open your Bibles, because this wouldn't be on your worksheet, but in James chapter 1, he tells us, let the lowly brother, this is verse 9 rather, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation.
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We said that seems like a contradiction because he's saying let the person who's low boast in the fact that he's high.
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And let the person who's high boast in the fact that he's low.
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And the idea that James is getting across to us, again, it looks paradoxical, but it's really not, because the idea that he's getting across to us is that at the foot of the cross there is an equality.
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There is no man who is more important than another man at the foot of the cross.
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For every man comes to the foot of the cross condemned by the law of God and saved by the grace of God.
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No man brings anything to Christ to merit his own salvation.
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Is that true? I hope we would all say amen.
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No man brings anything to merit his own salvation.
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And there is never a man that's ever been saved that can look to God and say, yes God, you were lucky to have me.
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You should just be happy that I came along because before I got here your whole program was messed up and I brought to you this great and wonderful thing called me.
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So we see this paradox in the passage, but it's really not a paradox at all.
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It's just calling us to understand that the person who is of high esteem and maybe of high value, high worth, and earthly things needs to understand his humility at the face of Christ.
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And the person who comes with nothing needs to understand that in Christ he has been exalted to heavenly places.
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He sits at the right hand of the Father in Christ.
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The Bible says we are seated in heavenly places with Him.
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So that's the paradox of verses 9 through 11.
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Tonight we're going to see another seeming contradiction that God would not tempt us to sin, yet He is certainly the one who brings into our lives trials for the purpose of building us up.
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So there is in this some inherent tension that I want us to at least be able to address as we study.
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So let's begin by simply reading James 1, 12 through 15.
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We're going to read it in the ESV.
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You have three translations and then the original language text that I placed there for you because I like to show you some of the words there.
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And even though I know you can't read it, I like to point out a few things.
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And I don't know, some of you may be able to, but I understand the vast majority of you probably can't.
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But that's okay.
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It doesn't hurt anything to be able to see it.
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Blessed is the man.
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And by the way, just to throw this out there, this is a very similar construction to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
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Remember the Sermon on the Mount? When Jesus comes out and says, Blessed are you who are poor, blessed are you who are this, blessed are you who are that.
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This is a very similar construction.
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In fact, it's from the same word, makarios.
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If you look over to the Greek here, you can probably read that first word, m-a-k-a.
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And that what looks like a P is an R actually in Greek.
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I-O-S.
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And that is makarios.
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That's the same beginning word that is used in the opening of the Beatitudes.
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Blessed.
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Blessed.
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And here James says, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
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For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.
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Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.
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For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.
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But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
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Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.
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And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
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So those are the verses we're going to look at tonight.
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And as I've said already, we see in here a sense in which there can be in our heart somewhat of a paradox.
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Because is it true that God is sovereign over all things? Don't we as a church identify that even in our very title? Sovereign Grace Family Church.
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We identify that we believe God is sovereign.
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We believe that God has a decree that He has established from the beginning of time.
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And that He is working out His plan and purpose for all things.
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And this is why we can have confidence.
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The Bible says that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
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Only a sovereign God can make such a claim.
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As R.C.
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Sproul said, and I believe it, he said if there was one molecule in this whole universe that was not under the control of Almighty God, then that could be the molecule that ruined everything in God's plan and ultimately brought about the destruction of God's entire program.
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It's the nail in the shoe of the horse that threw the shoe that lost the horse.
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It was the soldier on the horse that fell that lost the battle.
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It was the battle that lost the war and it was the war that lost the country.
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And we understand how one thing can have the power to affect everything.
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And so we don't believe that there's anything that's outside of God's sovereign decree.
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God is, in fact, sovereign over all things.
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So, we now have to address the fact that, well, we are placed in situations that are tempting to us, and yet the Bible tells us God is not the one who tempts us to evil.
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But God is certainly sovereign over the situation.
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I remembered on the way here a story of a man.
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Sometimes I'm preparing messages as I'm on the way.
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Actually, I prepared this message, but I was thinking about the story on the way here of a man who was a minister and he abandoned his family.
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Now, this man was not a man who was given, at least, I don't know him personally, but from those who did know him, was not a man who was given to things of foolish theology, such as the theology of what I would call the TBN theology or sort of the Joel Osteen slash Benny Hinn slash you name it, I claim it type theology.
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He was a man of Reformed teaching.
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A man who had taught solid biblical teaching, at least from everyone I know of him.
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And so, a woman came into their life.
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He chose to abandon his family as a result of the woman.
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And what was his statement? God must have wanted it this way.
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God must have...
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He must have...
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And in fact, maybe not exactly how he said it, this is what he said.
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He said, I'm angry with God for putting this situation this way.
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I think that James is speaking to people just like that.
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I think that that's the situation.
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We cannot allow our understanding of God's sovereignty to rob us of our responsibility.
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You see, the proper understanding of what we would call Reformed theology is that God is sovereign and yet we are still responsible for our own lives and our own actions.
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God sends us to hell, hopefully not us, but I mean in the sense of God sends a person to hell because of their sin and they're responsible for their sin.
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Now, they're born in sin, absolutely, but they're sinners.
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I've often said they're sinners by nature because of the relationship with Adam, but they're also sinners by choice.
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They wanted to sin.
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I've never seen anybody who just had to be forced to sin.
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It was just what they wanted to do.
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And so, we have to find the balance in what might be seen as a paradox, between God's sovereignty and our responsibility, and never use God's sovereignty as an excuse for sin.
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Never use God's sovereignty as an excuse for sin because in this passage it's shown clearly biblically that, no, no, that doesn't work.
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That does not work.
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And we're going to see more clearly as we go, but just from the very beginning, no, no, that doesn't work, just so we know.
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Let's begin, though.
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I want to go back a little ways.
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I want to go back, actually, a lot of ways, and this should be good for Jack's Sunday School class because they've been doing Genesis for quite some time.
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I want to go all the way back to Genesis 22.
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And I want to remind you guys of a story.
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Now, everybody has favorite passages of Scripture.
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Most of us have what we call a life verse.
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Some verse of Scripture that has profoundly affected our life.
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I have actually several verses that have affected me in different ways.
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If you had to nail me down and say, what verse has most affected you theologically, I'd probably say it's Ephesians 2.8 or Ephesians 2.8, 9, and 10, if you wanted to put it into context.
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But if you ask me what Old Testament narrative do I find to be most life influencing, I would say it's Genesis 22.
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And this is the story of God calling Abraham, who's Abram, He's calling him to do something that most of us would be absolutely broken if we were called to do such a thing.
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Most of us love our children.
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I think all of us, I can speak for all of you in this room, you all love your children.
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And those of you with multiple children probably do not have favorites, at least that they know of.
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I'm just teasing.
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But you all love your children and you love all of your children, right? But you know in the household of Abraham, there was a child who came by way of promise.
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You know Abraham had Eleazar of Damascus, who was an adopted child.
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And then after that he had another young man, Ishmael, who was through a relationship with his wife's handmaiden.
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And later he would have a wife after Sarah died named Ketorah and he would have many sons and daughters through her.
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But there was one child that came through the wife that he loved, the wife that he had been with the whole time that we've read about him all the way back to Genesis 12.
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We know this woman's name was Sarah and God made them wait decades before He gave them this child and he would be called the son of the promise.
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Romans 9 tells us this was the chosen child.
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He's chosen by God.
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He's the one that Abraham's waited on.
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This is huge.
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And yet we read, it says in Genesis 22, after these things God tested Abraham.
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Now if you have a King James Bible, which I think one of you do, it says tempted, didn't it? It says God did tempt Abraham.
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Verse 1, 22 verse 1.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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Does it say tempted? Do you have King James? It says tested.
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It says tested.
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Okay.
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All right.
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It says did tempt.
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Okay.
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All right.
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You guys are in IV.
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Yours says tested.
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But the King James says tempted.
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And this is one of those times where if you ever speak to somebody who thinks they know more about the Bible than you, they might say, well, hey, the Bible's filled with contradictions.
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It says in James chapter 1, God never tempts anyone.
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But it says in Genesis 22, God tempted Abraham.
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There you go.
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There's a contradiction.
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Wipe your hands.
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The whole Bible's false because I found one chink in the armor of God.
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And so it's all over.
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I do think the modern translations do render the vernacular more correctly when they say test, that God did test.
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I do think the King James using the word tempt does introduce a contradiction between Genesis 22 and James 1.
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That's unnecessary linguistically, but it is forced in there.
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We need to understand that's why we have these translations because the Bible wasn't written in English.
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I know.
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It's amazing.
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The Bible wasn't written in English.
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It was written in Hebrew in the Old Testament.
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It's written in Greek in the New Testament.
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And it has certain points where you'll find Aramaic, which is a derivative of Hebrew, which is probably the language that was spoken by Jesus and the apostles, which is why there are certain times, like when Jesus says, little girl, arise.
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Talitha kumi is the word that's there, and it's translated from the Aramaic.
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So we see that.
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But anyhow, the point is, it does mean to test.
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God put Abraham to the test.
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And what did he do? What was the test? It says, after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here am I.
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He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
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Now, if you're familiar with the story, and I wish I had time to go through all of it, but I won't if I want to get to the rest of what we're going to do in James.
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If you're familiar with the story, you know what happens.
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Abraham takes his son as God commands, and he goes to the mountain.
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He leaves his servants behind, and he takes the wood, but no ram and no lamb, and even the child asks the question, Father, where is the lamb? And he says what? The Lord will provide.
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He takes him up, he binds him, he lays him on the altar, he raises his hand to take his son's life, and the Bible says God stays his hand by the angel who says to him, now it is clear that you do believe.
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You know, it's a test of his faith, and a test that I don't think any one of us would want to take.
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I don't think a test that any one of us would want to have to take.
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But it is proof positive of one thing.
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Well, there's a theological thing in here.
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I would be remiss if I don't mention it.
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God provides a substitute in the ram that's caught in the thicket, and so Isaac gets to come off the altar, and the ram goes on the altar, and that's a picture of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ is pictured in the ram because he is the substitute.
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Isaac was the one who that altar was intended for, just like the cross was intended for every sinner, but God takes us down from the cross, and he puts the lamb of God on the cross, and he sacrifices him for us.
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That's the beauty of substitutionary atonement.
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And we see that picture, and that's why I love the story.
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The narrative is so beautiful, that there's a sacrifice made, but it's not the one whom it was intended for.
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It's a substitute who is sacrificed in his place.
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So knowing all that, the key word I wanted to show you is the word test.
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Does God test us? Yes.
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Yes, we know that.
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But is there a difference? Where's my marker? Okay.
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Is there a difference between testing and tempting? Huh? Sure.
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Yeah.
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Well, to probe would be to test.
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It would be a type of testing.
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Yes, sir.
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Yes.
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And that's what I want to show you tonight.
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That's exactly right.
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That's the simple answer, is that both of these things can come in the same way, but the motivation behind it, for instance, I'm trying to think of a way to make this not sound weird.
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If a man is tempted by a woman, it's not necessarily her who's doing it, because he may have those lustful thoughts in his heart.
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She's just there, right? And the idea that the temptation is her fault, no.
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But the idea of it being a test of the situation of his heart, where he has an opportunity to say no to that lust, no to that desire, could be a good thing.
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But if he gives in to that lust, if he gives in to that desire, even if she's just something, she's not involved at all.
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But he gives in to the lustful thoughts, he gives in to the lustful desires of his heart, what was a test becomes the temptation, and it becomes evil.
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She had no motivation in it at all.
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Where did the motivation come from? In him, and that's what James is going to show us, that really the problem is not from God, the problem is how we respond to the test.
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Because in us is the desire to rebel.
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In us is the desire to do the evil.
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God never has the desire that we do the evil.
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And therein lies why it can be said of Him that He never tempts us to evil.
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Though He sets before us test after test after test, it is never His desire, the desire of the heart of God, that His people would do evil.
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Where does that desire come from? According to James, it comes from within us.
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You cannot be Flip Wilson and say, the devil made me do it.
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Now you might say, the devil put that woman there, or the devil put that money there that I could steal, or the devil put that opportunity there.
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But where does the desire come from? From within.
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It is, and I'm going to show that in a moment as well.
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It's the context and the motivation.
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When God put the situation that Job was in, God was showing Job's character, and the devil, through the same thing, was testing or tempting him to evil.
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Job's wife was even used by the devil to say, why don't you just curse God and die? Why don't you just die, man? Look at all you're going through.
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Just curse God and die.
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Even his wife was used as part of the temptation to just give up.
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So let's go back to James now.
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I appreciate you bearing with me.
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I just want to show you in the Old Testament this narrative because it's very important, I think, in this story.
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Beginning at verse 12, he says, Bless the man who remains steadfast under trial.
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Now that word trial there is the same word that will later be used for tempting.
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But within the context, there is a difference between a trial that we're going through and a temptation to do evil.
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But the word is not different.
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It is the same root.
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Perosmon is the Greek.
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Perosmon is actually the way to pronounce it.
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And it says, bless this man who stands fast under that trial, who doesn't give in to the temptation to do evil.
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For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised those who love him.
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Now I do want to make a quick note because if I don't say it, I'll forget it.
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There are several times in the New Testament where crowns are mentioned.
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And there are certain theologians who have identified them as being the rewards of the faithful.
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But they are not necessarily to be equivocated with salvation because salvation is not a reward, it's a gift.
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Salvation is not something you earn, it's something you're given.
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So anytime when it talks about rewards or crowns or things like this, this is the blessing of being the overcoming person.
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This is not the promise of salvation.
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And I think that even though it's called the crown of life and it's given to those who love Him, I do think that this is speaking to something further than just our salvation because our salvation is come by grace, not of works.
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So we could go further into the different ways that crowns are mentioned.
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I know Richard, you've probably heard of that before, haven't you? The different crowns.
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And it's not talking about a kingly crown either.
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It's talking about the laurel that was given to athletes who were in the games, you know, the Greek games when they would run these races or do these things.
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They were given laurel crowns as rewards or awards having won the race or having kept, you know, what Paul says, I've run the race, I've kept the faith, you know.
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That's the type of crown that's here.
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This is not a crown of kinghood.
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It's a crown of victory.
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You've had victory.
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And that's what this is talking about.
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We sing the old song, Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever, you know.
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And that's where we ultimately find our victory.
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And then he says, Let no one say when he is tempted, same word as the word for trial earlier, but in the context it does mean to be tempted to do evil.
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He says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted.
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And I think that's an interesting word because it takes the same root word and puts the A at the beginning.
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And we all know, I think I've shared with you guys what that means.
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Anytime you take a word and you put an A at the beginning, it makes it the opposite of whatever it is.
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So if you say, the easiest one is theist and atheist.
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Atheist believes in God.
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Atheist doesn't believe in God.
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There's other words that you can use there.
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But in this particular context, the word that means that he cannot be tempted is essentially the opposite of us.
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Everything that we have a feeling for in temptation to evil, God doesn't have that.
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God has no temptation in Him to do evil.
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Isn't that amazing to even think about? That God has never been tempted to do evil.
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I just, I can't imagine.
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But I try to help people understand by kind of sharing a little illustration.
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I don't know if this will help you, it's always helped me.
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Oh yeah, to even think of Christ being sinless.
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Sure.
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Here's something that I think about.
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If you think about righteousness as a scale, if you have a picture of God having to rise up to that scale, then you don't understand God.
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Because God is the scale.
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And here's how that works.
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I'll talk to people.
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And they'll say, well I don't like the God of the Bible because in the Old Testament He chose to destroy every man, woman and child in this group.
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And He chose to do that.
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I don't think that that's righteous.
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I don't think that that's good.
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I stop and I say, okay, so what you're telling me is that there's a standard of righteousness that God must reach and He didn't reach it.
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And they say, yes.
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I say, you don't understand God.
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You don't understand the way the Bible describes God.
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The Bible doesn't describe God as having to reach a standard of righteousness.
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The Bible describes God as the standard of righteousness.
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Everything He does is good.
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Everything He does is right.
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He answers to no one.
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And He has to justify Himself to no one because He created all things.
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He is the line.
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He is the standard.
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And so everything that's opposed to Him is evil.
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So how is it possible if He is the standard that He could do evil? He can't do that which is opposed to Him.
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You see, that's the point of all this.
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It's not only that God can't do evil, it's impossible because He is the standard.
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Whatever He does, even if you don't like it.
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Even if you don't agree.
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You know what? Jimmy cracked corn and I don't care.
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It doesn't matter if you agree.
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It doesn't matter what you think.
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What matters is what God does and thinks and believes.
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And see, that's the problem.
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We don't like that because we're Americans.
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And in America, everybody gets a vote, right? In God's economy, there is no vote.
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He is the standard.
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He has counsel in who? Himself.
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Ephesians 1 says He does all things according to the counsel of Himself or His own will.
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He doesn't ask man, Hey, Lee, what did you think of that? Was it okay? Like Lee would have the standard or Keith would have the standard or Don would have the standard.
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That would be foolish.
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God doesn't ask us.
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We don't have the ability to introduce any type of goodness.
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God is the standard.
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So having said all that, I just like the fact that it uses that is that He cannot be tempted because any evil, anything outside of His nature is what evil is.
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Yes, you.
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Jesus was tempted.
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Yes, and I do think that we...
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Because this actually came up last night.
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I was at the seminary last night auditing the Greek class.
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And while I was there, the argument of impeccability versus impeccability comes up.
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And that is whether or not Jesus could have succumbed to sin.
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And of course, somebody used that passage and said, well, the Bible says He's tempted in every way as we are.
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And I said, yes, but it also says in the very same sentence, and yet was without sin.
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The temptation put upon Christ was not to show that He could sin, but was to show that He couldn't.
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It was to show that He did not have the capacity to go against His nature, His nature being the very nature of God.
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So the trial of Christ in the wilderness, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness is not from an evilness inside, but from an external source, which was Satan tempting Him, saying this and that and the other.
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Yes, that's true.
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Because it says He was tempted in every way as we are.
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So, having said that, this is just interesting.
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There's a lot here.
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This is why I'm only taking three or four verses at a time.
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I mean, I could have probably stopped at just the first verse, dealt with crowns all night.
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But there's just so much in just these few little passages.
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But he goes on to say, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
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It's not God who's introducing the temptation.
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It's not God who's introducing the desire to do evil.
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It's coming, and I like the fishing metaphor here.
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If you're a fisherman, which I am not, but you may appreciate it even more than I do, when He says lured or enticed.
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The picture there is that there is a lure.
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There's a desire within us.
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It's an enticement to do that which is evil.
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And that's what lures us away.
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Most of you have seen this before.
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I do like the picture, though.
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The Bible says we have three great enemies, and they are the world, the flesh, and the devil.
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And as I've said many times, a lot of people think of those as three things.
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They think they've got the world over here, they've got the devil over here, and they've got the flesh right here.
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That's not how the Bible describes it working.
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The Bible describes it working as the flesh is influenced by the world around us, and the world around us is influenced by the devil.
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So the way that the world influences you is through the desires of your flesh.
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It's not as if the world uses some other way.
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The world influences you through what you want.
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You're not tempted by things you don't want.
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You're tempted by things you do want.
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If it weren't so, it wouldn't be a temptation.
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Right? You're not tempted by things you don't want.
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Now you may not know you want it yet, because it hasn't been put on your plate yet, but there may come a time, you know, I've often said I'm not tempted by alcohol, because I don't have that temptation.
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I know men who do, and I understand, but to me alcohol doesn't taste good, it's not enjoyable, and I've been, you know, I've been sick before, and I understand that when you drink a lot of alcohol, you get sick, so it kind of becomes, I don't really want to do that, it doesn't have desire for me.
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But that's not to say that that could never ever become a temptation, but right now in my life, that's just not it.
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And that's not to say I don't have other temptations, but that's not the one, that, you know, that if I was going out tonight, or going home tonight, and somebody was dangling a bottle of Jack Daniels in front of me, I wouldn't be, you know, I wouldn't be the thing.
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You know? But there are other things that could be dangled that I would be more.
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A Snickers bar.
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Hey, now.
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Yeah.
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You know.
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Snickers bar is not necessarily sinful.
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But we understand, right? We have these things that each one is, and it's unique to us.
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The temptations are unique to us.
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Temptation is something we're called to battle against.
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And because of verse 15, it says, when lust is conceived, or when desire has conceived, and I do like the NASB uses the word lust there, because in the Greek, it does simply have the meaning of lust, or desire, fleshly need, or want.
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It says, when this desire has been conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death.
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And that's just the natural progression.
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We see something we want, we desire it, because that's where sin comes from.
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Sin doesn't sneak up on us.
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Sin comes from a want, and we desire it, and then we do it.
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And after we do it, there is that consequence.
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Now, thanatos is the Greek here.
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Thanaton is the word for death.
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We could argue and say that this is speaking of eternal death.
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I don't think that this is talking about someone losing their salvation, even though I think that it has been misunderstood to mean that somebody, if they sin, then they're going to lose their salvation.
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I don't think that that's what it is referring to.
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But there is a sense in which there can be a sense of death, and pain, and suffering, which accompanies giving in to sin.
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I don't know if you've ever experienced that.
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Hopefully you have, because that's part of the discipline of being a believer.
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If you can sin without impunity, if you can sin without the desire to repent, or the discipline of the Spirit, which Hebrews 12 tells us, if we don't have that discipline of the Spirit, then we're not God's children.
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If we can continue to sin, and sin, and sin, and it doesn't affect our heart, then that says something about the condition of our heart.
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Right? So, let's turn our paper over, and I'm going to give you the fill-in.
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From creation, man has been seeking to find someone to blame for his sin.
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By the way, this is a more than one word blank.
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So the phrase is, blame for his sin.
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You remember again, I mentioned Adam earlier.
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What did Adam do? He blamed it on God.
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He said, The woman whom Thou hast given me.
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That's pointing his finger right at the Almighty.
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He's not pointing at the woman, he's pointing at God.
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If you just wouldn't have given her to me, if you would have chosen somebody, if you would have given me a better woman, if you would have given me a woman who didn't want that fruit, I wouldn't be in this predicament.
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Right? We've been looking, ever since the creation of man, we've been looking for someone to hang our guilt upon.
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We've been looking for someone to hang our responsibility on.
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Part of coming to Christ is full understanding of personal guilt.
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Do you understand that? That's why I think that we have such a big problem in the world today of the church, is we have so many people who say, quote unquote, they've come to Jesus, have no understanding of their own sin, no understanding of their guilt before God.
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They would never own up to the fact that if apart from the cross they would be worthy of hell, they won't say that, they won't admit to that, they won't agree to that, and yet they say, but I believe in Jesus.
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What is Jesus for if not the one who took our place under the wrath of God? We can't keep blaming people.
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We can't keep...
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And I tell you what the problem, and I could go for days on this, but I'll make it short and sweet.
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The problem in our world today is everyone is assigning blame to everyone else and everything else rather than taking personal responsibility.
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You know? It wasn't...
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And we do that for other people too.
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It's not the guy who shot the person's problem, it's the gun that's the problem.
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It's not the person who's eating this bad thing that's the problem, it's the person who made the food's problem.
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It's always somebody else.
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We're always blaming someone else.
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We always want to do that, and that's part and parcel of our problem as sinners because we don't want the responsibility.
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So what is the ultimate easy target? God.
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Because He's in control of everything, so it's His fault.
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James doesn't give us that.
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He says that's the wrong way to think.
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So, from creation we've been looking to find someone to blame for sin.
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Number two, God does not tempt anyone to sin, but He does test our obedience.
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We saw that with Abraham.
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Will you take your child and sacrifice him to me? Now, we would later learn in the law of God that God does not accept human sacrifice.
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The law of God actually says that that's an abomination to Him, that human sacrifice is not a godly thing.
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But remember, the time of Abraham is given before the written law of God.
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It's before the time of Moses.
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So Abraham couldn't look at God and say, wait a minute, hold on just a second.
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Your law says I can't do that.
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You know, Abraham didn't have that.
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But he certainly had the law of his conscience, which would have said I'm not supposed to kill my child.
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But he had faith in God, and God gave him the blessing of the picture of that substitutionary atonement so he didn't have to take his son's life.
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God tests us.
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Number three, the testing of our faith is ultimately for our own benefit.
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That's what James is trying to get across to us, is don't look at trials and problems and tests as something that's necessarily bad.
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If you've never gone through a trial, you'll never know that you can get through the next one.
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That's part of what trials do.
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They build us up, and they create in us a steadfast strength.
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They create in us an ability to know that the next hurdle we come to is no worse than the one we came off of, and now we can get over it as well with God's help.
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Because He didn't abandon us at the last hurdle, He won't abandon us at this hurdle.
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Number four, temptation to do evil comes not from God, but from our own desires.
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We've already addressed that a lot.
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If you want to put a few Bible verses there, I think Matthew 26, 41 is a good Bible verse.
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Jesus is talking to the disciples.
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He says, Watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation.
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The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is what? Truer words, huh? Never spoken.
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Truer words are never spoken.
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The Spirit wants to do right, but the flesh is the battle.
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So take heed regarding the flesh.
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In Galatians 5.17, For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
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For those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
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You have this desire to do what's right.
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You have this desire to follow after Christ, but what is it that's holding you back? It's not the Spirit.
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It's the flesh.
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So there's this battle that's raging.
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I've often said, the person who's not a Christian doesn't have the battle.
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They enjoy the sin.
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They love the sin.
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They live in the sin.
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They want the sin.
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The person who is battling, it's part and parcel of what it means to be a believer.
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Finally, The result of a life given over to fleshly desire ends in eternal death.
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I do think there's a reference to eternal death here.
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I don't think it's referencing losing salvation, but I think it is a picture of what the life looks like.
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The life that is lived in sin.
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Perpetual sin.
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The desires are just given into over and over and over and over.
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That eventually is going to bring forth eternal death.
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We are called to recognize God's provision and His protection.
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We are called to fight the battle against sin.
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1 Corinthians 10 tells us, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
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God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with every temptation He will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
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God gives you ways to endure temptations, but you still are responsible for those ways.
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You are responsible to lay claim to them, lay hold to them.
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Ephesians 6.11 tells us, Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to do what? Stand against the schemes of the devil.
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That is what we are supposed to do.
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We are supposed to put on the armor of God.
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We are supposed to take up the armor of God.
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The helmet of what? Salvation.
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The breastplate of righteousness.
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The belt of truth.
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The shoes that are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
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The sword which is the word of God and the shield of faith.
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And each one of those, if I had time I could show you why each one is important, but that is the ultimate reality for the believer, is you are not a spectator sitting on the sidelines watching someone else do this.
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You are a battlefield soldier who has been armed because it is going to be a battle.
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I want to end with a quick story and then we will close.
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You guys ever read Ulysses? The old stories, you know? A long time ago.
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Well, legend has it that sirens, which were sea creatures that would entice sailors, that mermaids, yes, could charm the listening sailors with a song.
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The listener is seized with an irresistible desire to cast himself into the sea and would ultimately die as a result of drowning.
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Ulysses, once passing their coast, ordered that the ears of his seamen would be sealed with wax and cause himself to be bound to a post and under no pleading or threatening to loosen him.
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As they approached the enchanting coast, ravishing music came over so that Ulysses struggled and begged to be freed.
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He was tied to the post but he was screaming, let me go, let me go.
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But instead, his sailors bound him even more tightly.
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When they had finally passed, Ulysses' wisdom was restored, he was unbound, his sailors' ears were unsealed, and they were all safe.
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Why would I share this story? Well, I wonder how many of us are willing to bind ourselves to the post of God's Word when temptations come.
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What is it that Jesus used when he was tested in the wilderness? The Word of God.
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Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God.
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I encourage you to read that this week.
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Read how Jesus addressed temptation.
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He always answered with the Word of God.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity to study together.
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I pray that it's been fruitful for your people.
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I pray that it's been used to help them understand even better that we are responsible for our sin, we are responsible for our desires, and we are responsible to lay claim to the promise of Scripture that there is no temptation that has overtaken us that is not common to man, and that with every temptation you provide also the avenue of escape, and we are responsible to seek that.
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We are responsible to find that way that we not continue to sin against you.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.