The Pernicious Progression of Temptation

This letter, James, written by the half -brother of Jesus to Jewish Christians who were fleeing persecution, they had been dispersed abroad.

We see that in the first verse. This dispersion, though, was part of God's sovereign plan because as they were fleeing this persecution at the hands of King Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem, they went to other destinations, safer places for their families.

But as they went to these other places, what did they take with them? They took the gospel with them.

So this suffering was part of God's sovereign plan to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

And so given that setting, it is most fitting that James begins his letter to those who were persecuted believers by dealing with trials and suffering.

That's what we see in the first 12 verses. That's his topic, trials and suffering. James discusses the inevitability of trials and how even though the suffering in and of itself is not enjoyable, they can count their trials as joy, knowing that God uses these trials to sanctify us, to grow us, and indeed to test us.

Suffering is a test of our faith. In these times of suffering, conform us more and more into the image of Christ and ultimately serve as opportunities for us to glorify

Him. So that by way of the setting here.

In verse 12, as I said, kind of concludes James' treatment of trials, suffering, and testing.

In verse 12, James encourages his readers that their suffering, as severe as it may be, has a reward, the ultimate reward, the crown of life.

And when we looked at verse 12 our last time, we talked about how this crown of life is not a what, but rather a who.

The crown of life that James speaks of here is not a physical crown. The crown of life is

Jesus Himself. He is our reward. Remember that Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, and the what? Life. So Jesus is this crown of life.

Dear ones, one of these days when this short vapor of a life of ours is over, our reward is

Christ Himself. He is our reward. And so it is with this backdrop of the reward of all rewards,

Jesus Christ Himself, the King of glory, that James turns to his next topic, that of the ugliness of sin.

And though James is now beginning a new topic, don't think of this as a hard break.

It's not a hard break between verses 12 and 13. So in other words, James is not saying, okay, we dealt with trials and suffering.

We've mastered that. Now let's talk about temptation and sin. It's not really a hard break. No, rather verse 12 is a swing verse.

It's a hinge verse, if you will, from trials to temptations because every trial, every season of suffering brings with it what?

Temptation, right, temptation. Suffering is our opportunities for us to be tempted, for example, to get a bad report from the doctor.

Bad report from the doctor or maybe the untimely death of a loved one.

This is an opportunity for us to be tempted to question God's sovereignty, maybe to question

His control, even His goodness. When we see righteous people suffering and wicked people prospering, as Asaph did in Psalm chapter 73, that's the theme of Psalm 73,

Asaph saw the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper, and it was an opportunity for him to what?

To be tempted to question God's goodness, God's control. Trials of suffering or persecution, whether hard persecution like many people in the world experience or soft persecution like we experience here or should be experiencing, these are temptations for us to compromise, right?

Well, if I just compromise, then this suffering, this persecution will go away. Human suffering has always been an occasion for people to question

God's goodness and even to question His very existence. So we see that trials and the suffering that comes with them, though they are intended as tests of our faith and opportunities for our own personal growth and the glory of God, if these times of suffering are not handled well, they can result in an opportunity for us to sin.

So that as the backdrop. So let us go to our text now, verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted,

I am being tempted by God. God does bring trials and times of testing into our lives.

He did this with Israel. He tested Israel by surrounding them with pagan nations to test their fidelity to Him.

He tested Abraham in probably the most acute way than any of us could imagine being tested.

Abraham, take Isaac, your son, your only son, the son whom you love, and offer him to me as a burnt offering.

You want to talk about a test. That's a test. So God does test us, but God does not tempt us to sin.

James is very emphatic about this. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

Don't say that. We must not say ever that God is tempting us.

And yet this is what many people do, is it not? In fact, the very first humans,

Adam, right out of the gate, what did he do? He blamed

God. Adam and Eve sinned. They ate of the fruit of the tree from which God forbade them to eat.

And when they ate of that forbidden fruit, what happened? Their eyes were opened. We read about this in Genesis chapter 3.

In verse 8, it says this, the text says this, listen carefully, it says, then they, Adam and Eve, heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden.

Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said,

I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.

And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which

I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.

So when Adam sinned, he did what? He blamed someone else. He blamed his wife,

Eve. But who was he really blaming? He was blaming

God. God, the woman you gave me tempted me, and I ate.

It's not my fault. It's your fault, God. Is that not stunning?

This is Adam. This is the very first man directly handmade by God from the dirt.

God breathed life into him, and this first human, perfect, the moment he sinned, the very first time he sinned, what did he do?

He blamed his Creator. He blamed his Creator. Israel did the same thing.

The nation of Israel blamed God for their sin. In Isaiah chapter 63, verse 17, we read this, these are the words of the nation of Israel to God.

Why, O Yahweh, do you cause us to stray from your ways? Imagine that.

Rather than taking responsibility for their sin, Israel, the entire nation, blamed God. They blamed

God for their own sin. So just in case you thought surely only Adam ever did this, oh no, millions of Hebrews did it too, and you and I are not above this either.

Why? Because it's human nature. It's human nature to blame shift.

Oh, it's not my fault. Human nature is such that we would rather blame

God for our sin than simply owning our own sin, taking ownership of it and repenting from it.

That's human nature, that we would actually rather blame God. Proverbs 19, verse 3, reinforces this.

Listen to this, the words of Proverbs 19, 3. The folly of man subverts his way, but his heart rages against Yahweh.

Who subverts our ways when our ways are subverted? Who's responsible for that? Us. It says the folly of man, the folly of man subverts his ways, but his heart rages against whom?

Yahweh. Yahweh. And dear friends, to accuse God of tempting us to sin is to commit the sin of blasphemy.

Blasphemy. There is more than one way to commit blasphemy, to take God's name in vain.

Blasphemy does include saying things like OMG or even worse derivatives of that, but it's much more than that.

To ascribe actions or motives to God that directly contradict who we know

God to be from His Word is to commit the sin of blasphemy. The notion that God would tempt anyone to sin is utterly repudiated by James.

No one should ever say that. And then

James continues, for God cannot be tempted by evil. God cannot be tempted by evil.

This word in the Greek, apyristos, it literally means that evil is apart from God.

Evil has nothing to do with God. It is foreign to God.

It is alien to Him. Evil finds absolutely no place, no purchase with Yahweh.

He has nothing to do with it. This speaks to the holiness of God.

God's holiness is the summation of all of His attributes. When we think of the attributes of God, the characteristics, the perfections of God, His mercy,

His faithfulness, His gentleness, His goodness, His omnipotence, His omniscience,

His aseity, that He is self -existent, that He depends on no one, His justice,

His mercy, His wrath, combine all of these attributes, all of His perfections, and that is

His holiness, His holiness. Both the Hebrew word for holy, kadesh, and the

Greek word for holy, hagios, denotes being set apart.

God is apart from us. He is an otherness to us.

God is not merely holy, He is holy, holy, holy.

His holiness is the Mount Everest of His attributes, and it is only

His holiness that is repeated in this way three times with that kind of emphasis. He is holy, holy, holy.

And the holiness of God, dear ones, is one of the proofs of the inspiration of Scripture.

It's one of the proofs that this book is inspired. Pagan religions with pagan gods are anything but holy.

Think of some of the pagan gods that are out there. We look at the pantheon of Roman deities, and you've got

Zeus, you've got Ceres, you've got Neptune, Jupiter.

I really like space, so it kind of bugs me that many of our planets were named after pagan gods, but at any rate,

Diana, Minerva, you've got this whole pantheon of pagan deities, and they are anything but holy.

These pagan deities make mistakes, they're known for temper tantrums, they go to war with humans, they go to war with themselves.

They're anything but holy. There are a lot of things, but holy ain't one of them. And you look at the made -up god of Allah and the made -up god of Mormonism, these are pagan gods, and they are anything but holy.

You see, dear ones, when man makes a god, he makes a god like himself.

The human heart is an idol factory, and so when we make a god, we make a god that looks like us, but God is other than us.

God is other than us, and that speaks to the inspiration of Scripture. Man would not come up with this book.

Man would not come up with the God of the Bible. The God of the

Bible, Yahweh, is unlike us. He is other than us. Psalm 50, verse 21, is a verse that every time

I read it, every time I think about it, and there are times just in the normal course of a day

I will think about this verse, and every time I do, it makes me shudder.

It shakes me to my core. It's a good verse to know, Psalm 50, verse 21. God says, these things you have done, and I kept silent.

You thought I was just like you. Does that not just shake you to hear the words of Yahweh?

You thought I was just like you. God is nothing like us.

He is apart from us. He is holy. Man, being the sinful creature that he is, would never come up with the

God of the Bible. The God of the Bible, with all of his perfections, and holiness, and justice that burns against the sins of man is not the product of sinful man.

There is a chasm as wide as eternity itself between holy God and sinful man.

And this is why Jesus had to come to be our mediator, the

God -man. Jesus was human. He was truly human, but he was also

God, truly God. And Jesus stood in the gap between holy

God and sinful man, our mediator. Jesus himself is described in the same ways as Yahweh.

Jesus is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, other than sinners,

Hebrews 7 .26. Now, when the text says that God cannot be tempted by evil, maybe the wheels are turning in your mind a little bit because Jesus is

God. And Jesus was what? He was tempted. This is recorded in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

So how is it if God cannot be tempted by evil and Jesus was tempted? Well, doesn't that call into question the deity of Christ?

No, it doesn't. Jesus was tempted. Remember, after he had fasted for 40 days, he had nothing to eat, nothing to drink for 40 days, and then

Satan came to him to tempt him, turn these stones into bread. And Satan took him up to the temple, the pinnacle, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world.

And he said, if you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all of these kingdoms.

Everything that you see, I will give to you because it's in my power. By the way,

Satan was offering to Jesus that which he did not own. A lot of people take those words from Satan and they think, oh, that shows us that Satan is the owner of everything in the world.

Satan is the owner of the planet. He's in charge. He's in control. Oh, no, no, no, dear friends.

Satan is the father of what? Lies. Don't be getting your theology from Satan.

Satan was offering what was not his to give. But yes, he tempted Christ.

So how do we reconcile this? God cannot be tempted and Jesus was tempted. So how do we reconcile this?

Jesus was tempted, but like God, Jesus cannot be tempted in any way so that there is any possibility of him succumbing to that temptation.

Satan tempted him, but Satan had 0 % chance of success. It was not possible for Jesus to succumb to that temptation.

We refer to this as the impeccability of Christ. He was impeccable in that he was perfect.

It was not possible for Jesus to sin. God cannot be tempted as we are tempted.

There was nothing for Satan's hapless and pathetic temptations to connect to in Christ.

Satan, when he tempted Christ, he was on the ultimate fool's errand. He had zero chance of success.

We have a sin nature. Christ does not. Again, Hebrews 7 .26,

Jesus was pure, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners.

He was impregnable to sin, impregnable to temptation.

This is why we need a substitute and why Christ could be that substitute on our behalf.

This gets to the very heart of the gospel. Our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross.

The righteous wrath of God was poured out on Christ. He died on the cross satisfying

God's wrath, three days later bodily raised from the dead, proving himself to be who he said he was.

And when we repent of sin, turn from sin, our sins imputed to Christ, his righteousness imputed to us.

You may have heard it said that when Christ was on the cross, that God turned his face away.

That's even a line in one of our songs, an otherwise good song. And I'm happy to see that we in this church have changed that line because that one line is not accurate, that the

Father turned his face away. How deep the Father's love for us. You know, that one line, the Father turned his face away, that's not exactly accurate.

You can chalk that up to one of those things that people think is in the Bible, but it's not actually in the

Bible. It's a misunderstanding of Habakkuk 1, verse 13, which says this, your eyes are too pure to look on evil and you cannot look on wickedness.

And so people have misunderstood that and said when Jesus was on the cross, and our sins were imputed to him, that the

Father turned his face away because God cannot look upon evil. It's not that God cannot look upon it and that in that God is unaware of it, that God can't see it.

He's omniscient after all, right? He knows all things. There is nothing he does not see.

There is nothing that escapes his gaze. So it's not that God cannot look at evil, it's that he cannot look upon evil with favor, with approval.

And so God did not turn his face away from the Son. Rather, when Christ was on the cross, the

Father's face was turned towards him as he poured out his wrath and Jesus was our substitute.

So God cannot be tempted by that which he abhors and he abhors sin.

Sin is meaningless to God as far as temptation.

He cannot be tempted by that which he abhors. James continues, for he himself does not tempt anyone.

God does not tempt anyone. God does bring trials and trials bring suffering and these trials and times of suffering are tests of our faith and these tests do lead to temptation.

However, unlike Satan who wants us to fail the tests,

God desires us to succeed. You see, dear ones, Satan is the accuser of whom?

The brethren, Revelation 12. Satan is the accuser of the brethren, but Christ is our advocate.

When God brings trials, when he brings suffering into our lives, these do lead to temptations, but God does not lead us into temptation with the hope that we will fail.

God wants us to succeed. Satan wants us to fail. Not God.

God wants us to succeed. He wants us to grow through these times of trials and suffering.

The preacher, Robert Murray McShane, he was a pastor in the

Church of Scotland in the 1800s, died very young. He's only 26 years old when he died from a typhus.

But Robert Murray McShane, for such a young man, he had an amazing body of work. But he said this, and I quote,

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.

Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. Satan is the accuser of the brethren.

Christ is our advocate. Christ is interceding for you and for me right now, my brother, my sister, and Christ.

Right now, as I speak, as we sit here, this very moment, none other than Jesus Christ himself is interceding for us, praying for us.

Is that not an awesome thought? That the King of glory, the

Alpha and Omega, is praying for us right now?

What an awesome thought. Selah. Satan is our accuser.

Jesus is our advocate. And here,

James reinforces the previous point that God does not tempt anyone. God does not tempt anyone.

And another reason for this, dear ones, well, quite simply, it's not necessary for God to tempt us because he says we are each carried away and enticed by what?

By our own lusts. It's not necessary for God to tempt us. We have plenty of temptation in and of ourselves coming from our fallen flesh.

It's human nature. James says, but each one is tempted.

Each one. This stresses the universality of temptation. No one is exempt from it.

If Jesus was tempted, dear ones, you and I will certainly be tempted. It is an argument from the greater to the lesser.

Each and every single one of us will experience temptation. And that, in a sense, is good news in that when you go through temptation, know that you're not alone.

Every single one of us goes through temptation. So that's the good news is that we're not alone.

But the bad news, in a sense, is found in the next words, is tempted. Is tempted.

This is in the present tense. And so what that tells us is that temptation is not something that's going away anytime soon.

Temptation for us as believers will be a present reality for the rest of our lives.

You don't get over it. You don't get to a place where you're no longer tempted. As long as we draw breath on this earth, dear ones, you and I will face temptation.

So that's the bad news. It never goes away. But the good news, remember, we have an advocate.

And there is nothing that we will face, no temptation so severe that God does not provide a way of escape.

And then James says, each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed. Carried away and enticed.

These phrases carry connotations. They're metaphors of baiting an animal or luring in a fish.

Baiting an animal or luring in a fish. Carried away and enticed. Do you like nature shows?

I do. I like to watch nature shows. And I remember a number of years ago, I was watching this particular show when they were trying to catch, capture a bear, a grizzly bear.

And so these researchers, scientists, biologists, whatever, they had this big metal cylindrical tube that they put out in the middle of the woods.

And at the front end of that tube, it had a trap door that was like propped up so the tube was open.

And at the back end of the tube was this big chunk of raw meat that they put in there as bait.

And they set up some cameras. And sure enough, it wasn't too long before this grizzly bear meandered up to the tube and could smell that meat.

Now, you would think that the bear would see this and think to himself, huh. Reckon how come this big metal cylindrical tube's out here in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere.

Reckon how it got here. Reckon how come there's a big chunk of meat in the back of this tube that's been de -boned and de -haired for my dining pleasure.

This is odd to me. I find this curious. Perhaps this is an occasion which

I should be a little bit circumspect and be cautious before I walk into this big metal cylindrical tube out here in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, no. The bear walked right into it, enticed by the meat, tripped the wire, and the door shut, and he was trapped.

Baiting an animal, luring in a fish. I'm from Mississippi, and down in the south, we have alligator snapping turtles.

They're not any snapping turtle. They're alligator snapping turtles. They are 200 pounds of ugly.

And if you've ever seen one of these things, the way they hunt, they just lay at the bottom of the lake, river, whatever.

They open up their mouth, and they have this tongue that looks like a worm. It's a little pink bifurcated tongue.

It looks like a worm. They sit there with their mouth open, wiggling their tongue, and a fish sees it drawn in, lured in, gets close to the mouth, and then lights out.

This is the metaphor that James uses here. The bait is too attractive to resist.

It looks good. It's enticing, but it is deadly.

Turn with me to Proverbs 5. Proverbs 5, verse 1.

Solomon says this, my son, pay attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my discernment, that you may keep discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.

For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech.

But her end is bitter as wormwood. Verse 8, keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house.

Verse 15, drink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well.

The lips of a strange woman drip with honey. Her speech is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood.

Look over a few pages, chapter 9, Proverbs, beginning of verse 14.

Solomon continues the theme here of the adulterous woman. Verse 14, Proverbs 9 says this, she sits at the doorway of her house on a seat by the high places of the city, to call to those who pass by that way, who are making their path straight.

Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. And to him who lacks a heart of wisdom, she says, stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But he does not know that the dead are there, that those she called are in the depths of Sheol.

Stolen water is sweet, bread eaten in secret is pleasant, and there are many men and many women out there eating bread in secret, drinking water from other wells, and it's pleasant for a time, but the end is death.

The dead are there, the deadly dangers of temptation.

They are carried away by their own lusts, James says. There is no blame shifting with James.

Dear ones, when we are carried away and enticed, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Boy, does that go against the prevailing thought nowadays of modern culture.

It's not my fault that I am the way I am. Have you ever seen this show on TV called

My 600 -Pound Life? I will admit to you that that has been one of Kathy and my guilty pleasures.

Sometimes we'll lay in bed at night and we'll watch My 600 -Pound Life. I'm thoroughly convinced

My 600 -Pound Life and that other show called Hoarders, I'm thoroughly convinced the reason those shows are on TV and the reason they are apparently so popular is because it makes us feel better about ourselves, like at least

I'm not like that. But you look at these people, they have these stories about these morbidly obese people.

They always give background stories. Well, you know, I had a hard childhood.

My mom didn't like me, my dad didn't like me, the dog didn't like me and I can't help it that I am the way

I am. It has nothing to do with the fact that I ate three dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts for breakfast and washed it down with a gallon of milk.

No, it has nothing to do with it. It's not my fault. It's someone else's fault. Blame shifting.

That's human nature. Here's another one. The devil made me do it.

It's not my fault I did these horrible things. The devil made me do it. Those of you old enough to remember

Flip Wilson, Flip Wilson, I'm sure he's a nice guy, but he had terrible theology. The devil didn't make you do anything, dear ones.

There's this whole new crop of so -called deliverance ministers out there doing deliverance ministries.

If you've got something going on in your life, if you're looking at pornography, oh, it's not your fault.

You've got the demon of pornography in you. If you're an alcoholic, you're a drunk, oh, it's not your fault. You see, the reason you're a drunk is because your great, great, great, great grandfather was a drunk and the demon of alcohol has just been passed down through your bloodline and you just can't help it, so you need to have the demon of alcohol exercised out of you and then you'll be all better.

It's a bunch of nonsense. You don't have a demon issue, you have a sin issue.

In Celebrate Recovery, this has been real popular in evangelical circles, Celebrate Recovery, all that is is a baptized version of Alcoholics Anonymous to help you with your, and I quote, hurts, habits, and hang -ups.

Let's not call it sin, no, no, let's, hurts, habits, and hang -ups in the 12, or 11 or 12 steps, 12 steps

I think it is, 12 steps to recovery. Sometimes people ask me what do I think about that? I think it, I'll say,

I think it's far too complicated, 12 steps, that's 11 steps more than what's necessary.

There's only one step and that is to repent, that's your step. But it's not my fault, it's someone else's fault.

Have you ever heard someone say, I'm sorry I did this, but here's why I did it. Yeah, I'm sorry

I did this, it was wrong, but let me tell you why I did it. Anytime you hear someone say,

I'm sorry, but, whatever follows the but negates the

I'm sorry. If you're truly repentant, there are no buts, it's just,

I did this, I'm sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me, and move on.

There is no blame shifting with James, we are carried away by our own lusts.

David in the Old Testament when he was caught in sin, egregious sin, sin of adultery, sin of murder to cover up the adultery,

Nathan went to him and did what a good friend should do, he confronted him in his sin, Nathan pointed his finger at him and said, you are the man

King David, you did this. What did David say? He didn't blame shift, he cried out in repentance against you and you alone, oh

Yahweh, have I sinned, my sin is ever before me. You are righteous when you speak, you are blameless when you judge.

In other words, David was saying, I'm undone, I have no excuse, you are righteous when you speak

God, you are blameless when you judge, it's nobody's fault but mine.

We are carried away by our own lusts, our sin is nobody's fault but our own.

Verse 15, James says, then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

James switches metaphors here in verse 15, he switches from the metaphors of hunting and fishing to that of giving birth.

Lust here, desire may also be translated as desire and it certainly includes sexual sin, when we think of lust we almost always think of just sexual sin and it certainly includes that but lust is not limited to that.

We can lust for other things as well, we can lust for material things, we can lust for the approval of others over and above that of God, we can have a lust for power.

So there are other manifestations and expressions of lust than just sexual lust.

When lust has conceived, when desire has conceived, this word lust or desire as some translations have it, epithumia in the

Greek and that word epithumia is neutral, it's neutral.

It's neither good nor bad. If I desire something that is not necessarily a bad thing, okay, desire is not always bad.

Just because I desire something doesn't mean that I have sinned, at least not yet.

There is a progression from the neutral however to the sinful. So let me illustrate, if I'm walking in the mall and I pass by a jewelry store and I see a watch on display and I think man that's a good looking watch,

I'd like to have that watch, that's okay, you know there's nothing wrong with me desiring to have a watch that I see.

That's okay, it's neither good nor bad, that watch is amoral, okay, it's not immoral, it's not, it's just amoral, it's not good, it's not bad, it's just a watch.

However if I make plans to steal that watch, then

I've moved into sin. Or if I plan to get that watch to use it for nefarious purposes, for example, let's say

I want to get this watch to serve as a timer for an explosive device to blow up the vault on the bank so I can go in and rob the bank, then that watch has become sinful, right?

So it depends on how you plan to acquire this object of your desire and what you plan to do with it.

But desiring something in and of itself is not bad, but it can move into that if we use it for immoral ways.

John MacArthur says this, and I quote, Food and sleep are wonderful and necessary gifts of the

Lord, without which we could not live. But when we desire and covet them in extreme ways, they become gluttony on the one hand and indolence or laziness on the other.

Sleep and food are good things, but taken to extremes they become sinful things.

Some things that can entice us, however, are not neutral. Some things are always bad.

Lying is always bad. Lying is always a sin. Slander is always a sin. Gossip is always a sin.

Desiring another man's wife, that is always sinful. Or desiring a relationship with someone of the same sex, it's always sinful.

So some things are always sinful, and we are to shun these things.

When lust conceives, James says, it brings forth sin.

When lust conceives, it brings forth sin. This inner craving of temptation demands an action one way or the other.

When we are tempted, and by the way, it's not a sin to be tempted. It's not a sin to be tempted.

The sin comes when we succumb to that temptation. The inner cravings of temptation demand from us an action one way or the other.

It will either be rejected or it will be indulged. When we reject temptation, when we resist temptation, these are opportunities for us to grow in sanctification, grow in holiness, grow in the grace and knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ and honor Him, grow in our Christ -likeness. When we indulge in temptation, however, a dreadful chain of events is engaged.

When temptation is indulged, it yields to sin.

Notice the language, when lust has conceived. Lust here is presented as a harlot.

When we surrender our will to the harlot of lust, the ugly offspring that is produced from that is sin.

And then James says, when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.

Once sin is born, that sin has its own development. This ugly child of sin left unrepentant of grows until it is full grown into death.

When sin reaches its full maturity, it results in death.

The Greek word for death is thanatos. Some of you who have seen some of the

Marvel movies, you know the main antagonist, the main villain, is named

Thanos. It's a play on the Greek word for death, thanatos.

Remember Thanos, he snapped his finger and half of everybody instantly died. That's where it comes from.

Only with sin, not half of everybody dies, all die.

All of us die. Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 5 .12, therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.

Why? Because all sinned. Death spread to all men.

In Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is death. What sin pays us, the wages of what sin pays us when we commit sin, the wages it earns us is death.

And then James says in verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Do not be deceived by this.

Do not be deceived that sin has no consequences. Do not be deceived that there will one day be a reckoning.

This is both a stern warning and yet it is also an affectionate warning because notice how he ends it.

He says, do not be deceived, my brothers. My brothers, he appeals to them.

Do not be deceived by this. He cares about these people. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Do not be deceived by your own heart. Our hearts are deceitfully wicked, desperately wicked.

Above all things, our hearts are wicked, Jeremiah 17 verse 9. Do not be deceived by temptation.

As I said, it's not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin when we yield to that temptation.

Temptation is not something to be taken lightly. And dear ones, don't wait until you get into the place of temptation before you decide how you're going to handle it.

Remember in Daniel chapter 1, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, they had been, long story short, they had been kidnapped basically and they were brought hundreds of miles away to serve the pagan king

Nebuchadnezzar in his kingdom, the Babylonian kingdom. And it said that Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or the wine which he drank.

Daniel and his friends made up their minds, we're not going to defile ourselves.

Make up your mind now how you're going to handle temptation. Don't be passive about it.

Don't wait until you get to the place of temptation before you decide what you're going to do with it.

Because if you wait until you get to the place of temptation to deal with it, you will fall.

Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived by sin and its deadly offspring. 1

Corinthians 6, verse 9, the apostle Paul picks up on this theme, it's very similar to what

James says. Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul says, do not be deceived. If your life is marked by these sins, do not be deceived.

You will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is not, dear ones, that as Christians, we do not sin.

As Christians, we do sin. By God's grace, I am a

Christian. He has saved me. I've been adopted into the family of God, but that doesn't mean I'm perfect.

I still sin, but here's the difference. When a Christian sins, he stumbles into it, he doesn't swim in it.

Christians stumble into sin, we don't swim in sin, we don't relish sin, we don't look for opportunities to sin, we don't plan out our sin.

When we, as Christians, sin, it grieves us. A lost person can sin and enjoy it, but not if you're a

Christian. If you belong to Christ, you and I, we can and we will sin, but we will not enjoy it when we do.

That's the difference. That's the difference. We don't plan it out. We don't look for opportunities to sin.

Recently, there was a very well -known preacher, and he was known for being quite the expositor, and there's videos of him from just a couple of years ago, and he was doing a

Q &A, a young man in a seminary setting. He asked this well -known preacher about sexual sin or sexual temptation, how to handle that.

And this preacher went on this probably 12, 15 -minute answer about the dangers of succumbing to sexual sin, and he said, if you do it, you are the fool of fools.

You will throw away everything. You will throw away everything that you've worked for, your reputation.

You'll throw it all away for just a few moments of pleasure. You are the fool of fools.

And it turns out that even at the time he was giving that answer, he himself was doing these very things, planning it out actively, hiding it from people, people who trusted him.

And this is why Paul writes, do not be deceived, my brothers. If your life is marked by these sins, do not be deceived.

You will not inherit the kingdom of God. This man was deceived. John Owen, the

Puritan preacher, said this, I quote, let no man think to kill sin with a few easy or gentle strokes.

He who has once smitten a serpent, if he follows not on his blows until it be slain, may be sorry that he ever began the quarrel.

And so he who undertakes to deal with sin and pursues it not constantly to death, don't pursue sin with a few easy strokes.

It's like hitting a snake once. If you don't follow through, you may be sorry you ever hit him in the first place.

As Christians, dear ones, we must be going to war with our own sin.

We must shed the blood of those sins that shed Christ's blood.

Owen continues, he says, do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work?

Be always at it while you live. Cease not a day from this work. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

As Christians, we must not cease a day from putting to death the deeds of the body,

Romans 8 .13. We must go to war with our own temptations, go to war with our sin because when we cease from that daily work, we become easy prey and we succumb to it.

Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10. I tell people often, especially men who will email me, and because of the ministry that God has given me,

I get emails, I get people that come up to me at conferences and quite a bit, and they say something like this,

Justin or Mr. Peters, whatever, da -da -da -da -da, you know, appreciate your ministry, blah, blah, but I've got this one sin, and I always know what it is.

I always know what it is. They say, I just, I can't break it. And my response to them is, it's not that you can't, it's that you won't.

There is no temptation that God will allow to come our way where he does not also provide the way of escape.

You and I can't help what we see. We all see things that we wish we hadn't seen, you know, something pops up on a commercial or, you know, or out and about, whatever.

We all see things that we wish... You can't help what you see, but you can help what you look at.

You can't help these maybe shooter thoughts, but you can help what you think on, what you ponder on.

Don't rationalize your way around sin. Don't justify it, kill it.

This well -known preacher of whom I was speaking, he began to rationalize it, justify it in his mind.

Oh, it's not that bad. He began to convince himself in some twisted way that he deserved it, and it cost him everything.

And if he does not repent, it will cost him his soul. If you're playing these games in your mind,

I urge you, I implore you, I beg of you, stop. Don't be deceived.

Take every thought captive. Do not be deceived, my brothers and my sisters. Philippians 4, verse 8, kind of end this on an uplifting note, a hopeful note.

The Apostle Paul writes this, he says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is dignified, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think on these things.

Think on these things. Don't entertain temptation. Put it to death.

Think on these things. As I close, I just want to close with the gospel.

Has the miracle of the new birth taken place in your life? Has there been a time when you have been convicted by the deadly dangers of sin, that you are a sinner, that you have broken

God's laws? All of us are liars. We have all told lies, every single one of us, myself included.

Every single one of us has told lies. We're all liars. We're thieves because we've taken something at some point that does not belong to us.

We're liars. We're thieves. We're blasphemers. We've taken God's name in word and in deed and in thought.

We are adulterers at heart at least. And just like when we break laws on earth, there's a penalty to be paid.

How much more so when we break the laws of God? But because we have sinned against God who is eternal, the punishment of that sin is also eternal.

And if we die in our sin, we will very rightly and very justly go to the lake of fire where the worm will not die, the fire will not be quenched.

There will be wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth, and God's fury will be poured out against your sin for all of eternity.

We have sinned against one who is infinite and eternal, and so the punishment of that sin is also infinite and eternal.

And that's what we deserve. That's what you deserve. That's what I deserve. But there is good news, and the good news of the gospel is this, is that God sent

His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to make a way for us to escape His own wrath.

Jesus came as the perfect man, the God -man, the Son of God, the second person of our triune

God, came to this earth. Jesus took upon Himself a robe of human flesh, added to His deity,

His deific nature, a human nature, untainted by sin, the perfect man, the

God -man, one person with two natures. And as the God -man, Jesus lived a perfect life to the perfect pleasure and satisfaction of God the

Father. And then Jesus willingly gave His life on the cross. His life was not taken,

He gave it. And on the cross, our sin was imputed to Him, and God treated

His own Son as though He were a sinner even though He was not. But God poured out

His wrath that burns against sin on His Son, and Jesus drank in every last drop of it.

A perfect person offered His perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy

God's perfect wrath. Died on the cross, satisfied the righteous wrath of God.

And three days later, on the third day, bodily raised from the dead, proving Himself to be who

He said He was, God in human flesh. And if you will repent of your sin, turn from sin, turn towards Christ, place your trust in Him, not in yourself, not in your works.

Our works will profit us nothing, but trust in Him and what

He has accomplished. Seeking not only a Savior from hell, but seeking a

Savior from sin. If you will come to Christ in that posture, empty -handed, wanting

Him, His forgiveness, seeking Him, He will save you.

Jesus says, the one who comes to me, I will in no eyes cast out. He will save you,

I promise you. And I can promise you that on the authority of His word. He'll take out your heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh with new desires, new affections, and Jesus Himself will be our crown of life.

He is our reward. That is the good news of the gospel.

And Jesus stands willing, ready to receive anyone who will come to Him.