Spiritual Jiu-Jitsu (James 1:13-21) | Adult Sunday School

Well, come on in, find a seat, we'll get started. Welcome, we return again to the Adult Sunday School at Kootenai Community Church, and let's pray. Our Father, we just come this morning and ask you to help us to focus our hearts and our minds on the task at hand, which is the Word of God.

May we have receptive hearts this morning to what we hear. Lord, there's clearly things have happened that could occupy our thinking and thus take us away from what in the moment is of supreme importance, and that's hearing from you through.

Your Word.

And so I pray your Spirit to help us to focus and please grant clarity in thought and speech. We ask for the glory of Christ, Amen. Well, we all, I suppose, have childhood memories of television series.

Me being a product of the 60s and early 70s have my favorites, and a few of you can probably.

Relate.

But one of them premiered on September the 9th of 1966, and it was called The Green Hornet. And that series introduced to the American audience the Kung Fu master Bruce Lee. He served as Cato to The Green Hornet, and I loved, unfortunately it was a short-run series, but I loved every single episode of that series.

And Bruce Lee went on to achieve stardom of sorts, and introduced in the 1970s, the early 1970s, to the American audience full-length feature films. And with it, stimulated America's fascination with martial arts.

That really is kind of where it all began. And today, at least according to what I've been able to discern, there are over 6 .6 million Americans who are actively involved in martial arts. And they participate for a variety of reasons, things like exercise or building self-confidence or self-defense or things like that.

I think there are over 40 ,000 martial arts studios littered throughout the United States. So it clearly has gained traction in this country. And as its popularity grew from the 70s, so did the various forms of martial arts that were introduced to America.

And one of those forms is called Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu originated in Japan, although most of the Jiu-Jitsu, again, I think I understand correctly here in the U .S., is a Brazilian form, but it is a Japanese origin, Jiu-Jitsu.

It teaches a set of maneuvers which turns an opponent's strength and body weight against them in order to subdue them. So it takes and flips them onto their own head, as it were, in the realm of self-defense.

Spiritual Jiu-Jitsu in James 1:1-21

So open your Bibles to James Chapter 1, because we're going to return there, to James Chapter 1. And I've entitled this morning's session, Spiritual Jiu-Jitsu. Yes, that's why I did all of that stuff about the Green Hornet, other than I really do like it.

Spiritual Jiu-Jitsu this morning from James Chapter 1. Now last week we began, and we noted in verses 1 through 12 of James Chapter 1, that James is exhorting them, and by extension, us, to make a decisive decision to consider life's external trials as unadulterated joy, to consider them to be pure joy.

Why?

Because they're being used by God to mature us in our Christian faith. That's why. And in the midst of the trials, James further says, we are to pray for God's wisdom and to help us to endure and to focus our true hope on the coming kingdom, and not to seek to evade the lessons that are available for us there under the trials that clearly come through the hand of God and to us.

And the word translated trials is an ambiguous word, that Greek word translated as trials can also carry the meaning of temptation. So it can mean trials, it can mean temptation, it's well within its semantic range to mean both and as we'll see this morning, that last week we were talking about testing or trials and this morning, James is going to turn a corner and we'll turn with him to the topic of temptation.

So it's the same Greek word translated trials last week in terms of the external things in that can so easily grab us around the throat and threatens to choke out our life. So let's take a look at the word together and we'll just read beginning in verse one of chapter one, we'll read all the way through verse 21, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.

Consider it all joy or pure joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect or mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass, and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So to the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among His creatures. This you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.

How do we break the grasp of sin?

How do we do that?

How can we prepare for the inevitable wrestling match that will occur? James wants to teach us spiritual Jiu-Jitsu this morning in the text before us. And so here he will give us in verses 13 through 21 a strategy of self-defense, a three-fold strategy of self-defense, that's your outline, a three-fold strategy of self-defense for breaking sin's grip so that we might live out practically the Christian life.

We are all engaged in this wrestling match. And so a strategy to be successful at it is welcome news for all. The first of the three-pronged strategy is found in verses 13 through 15, and it is this, to recognize sin's pattern.

The first strategy is to recognize sin's pattern. Now as a student of the human condition, there are many things I've observed that are common to all of us, many things common to all, and one of those is that we are blame shifters.

We are blame shifters. Our first impulse is not to look inward, but instead to look outward to find the source of our troubles, that's who we naturally are, to blame others for our sins and our shortcomings.

And it begins at a very early age, you know, Susie, why did you hit your sister? She was bugging me, is the answer. She was bugging me, so yeah, I hit her. Or another question, why did you hit her, Susie?

Well, because she won't give me my toy. And so I decided that the best thing for me to do is to hurt her, and so yeah, I hit her. No, she won't tell you that, she'll just say, I hit her because she wouldn't give me her toy.

Well, notice in both of those very common answers from young children, what we find is that the fingers are always pointed towards the other person. It's their fault. If they'd have given me the toy, I wouldn't have hit them.

They hadn't bugged me, I wouldn't hit them. So it's always that blame shifting. And we come by this moral deformity of blame shifting naturally. There's nothing that a parent has to teach to their child.

We come to it naturally.

Why?

Because we've inherited it. And we inherited it from whom? Oh yeah, we inherited it from that guy way back in the garden. Remember his name?

Adam.

Who, when confronted by God over his disobedience in eating that which was forbidden to him, immediately, immediately sought to shift blame from himself, right? First to Eve, and then ultimately to Yahweh himself.

So his failure to love and obey Yahweh ultimately, in Adam's mind, became Yahweh's own fault. It became Yahweh's own fault, right? Genesis 3, verses 11 and 12. Yahweh says, have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat?

Adam, the woman whom you gave to be with me. She gave me from the tree, and I ate. The woman you gave me, she gave me, right? Not my fault. Blame shifting. We're great at it.

We're great at it.

Now, in light of this, in light of this natural tendency among all of us, James needs to quickly and decisively crush all excuses regarding the source of our struggle against temptation, and that's what he does in verse 13.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. In other words here, no one should say when they're tempted by God that God is the one doing the tempting.

Because why? Well, because God has no part in evil. God has no part in evil. He is unversed in it. It has no appeal to him. Therefore, James says, and rightly so, that God tempts no one, period.

Just period.

God tempts no one. What does it mean? It means simply this. It means we can never, ever blame our environment for our sin.

Why?

Because our environment is from the hand of God. We cannot blame our environment. We cannot blame our circumstances. We cannot blame our opportunities. We cannot blame our associates. We cannot blame our family members.

We cannot blame any external factor for our temptations. It is our fallen, corrupt nature which turns into evil that which God intends for good.

Jesus says it, right?

Where does it originate? It all comes from the inside out. Proverbs 19 .3 says, The foolishness of man ruins his way, and his heart rages against Yahweh. The foolishness of man ruins his way, and yet his heart rages against Yahweh.

Now, we need to think clearly about this. Just as we would reject the excuse that an open cash register is the cause of a person's theft, so we must ruthlessly reject the idea that a pretty woman is the cause of sexual sin.

We must ruthlessly reject such an excuse. And by the way, we know that intuitively because we reject the burka. We reject the burka.

Why?

Because we know that the burka does not prevent male lust and sexual sin. So where do the temptations come from? Where do they really come from? And how do we defeat them? In verses 14 and 15, James lays out sin's pattern for us.

And he uses very vivid language. And he uses language drawn from both fishing and childbirth. So he will use the analogy of fishing and he will use the analogy of childbirth so that we might understand both the power of temptation and the inevitability of sin once we give in to or entertain the temptation itself.

Once we give a place to the temptation, once we begin to entertain the temptation, it is inevitable that sin will follow it. Now, before we begin, it's important to understand the pattern of sin. In order to understand that, we first must understand the process of human behavior.

So let's talk for a minute. This is a process, by the way, that occurs every single time whether we recognize it happening or not. And it is the, I'll call it the fourfold pattern of sin. So here it is for you.

We deliberate, we desire, we decide, and we do. In other words, we deliberate, we think, the mind becomes engaged. Then we desire, the affections now become engaged. Following that, we decide, the will becomes engaged.

And once the will becomes engaged, we do.

The behavior occurs.

It's a link in a chain. What we think is good, we desire. What we think is good, we desire. It captures our affections. And whatever captures our affections, we necessarily decide to pursue. In other words, once our affections have been captured, we will necessarily decide to pursue this.

Because why? Because we think it's good. Our will now becomes captivated. The mind, the affections, the will, whatever captivates the will determines the behavior.

We will do it. We will do it.

Our problem is that we're often fighting against sin at the last link in the chain. That is way too late.

Way too late. All right, with the background of this,.

Let's take a look at what James lays out here in verses 14 and 50. Verse 14,. But to each one, excuse me, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. This expression, carried away and enticed, is, in the original language, a fishing term.

These are fishing terms. And it speaks of a fish being drawn out of hiding by means of bait dangled in front of it. So you're luring the bass out from under the log by dangling the bait in front of its face.

Temptation occurs when we are confronted with a test or a trial in life. If we have been previously deceived in our thinking so that we do not believe that God will either provide for our good or punish our sin, then that temptation will inevitably turn to evil.

It will inevitably turn. Because why? Because at that moment, evil appears good to us. In the moment, the evil appears good to us. And then lust kicks in. Once it appears good to us, then lust kicks in.

And now our affections crave or desire the evil. And our minds have been deceived into thinking that there is no hook. In other words, no consequence to this. No hook attached to the temptation. And then we allow the lust to dominate us.

All right, let's do this.

Let's make it really concrete. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 11. I don't get lost here, but it's worth it. 2 Samuel 11. This is David's sin with Bathsheba. We all know it.

We're all familiar.

But let's pause and take a look. Verse 1. Then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah.

But David stayed at Jerusalem. David is about 50 years old at this time.

So he's about 50.

He's not a young man anymore. Pardon me. He's about 50 years old, probably feeling the miles. And he decides to stay behind in the city of Jerusalem rather than go out like the rest of the kings to war.

He's deliberated.

He's made a decision here. I will not go.

I will stay.

Why?

We don't know why. We could certainly speculate why. I'm old. I'm tired. I've had a lot of wounds in battle. You go do it. You go do it. I'll stay behind. You know what? The chair is a lot more comfortable here in the palace than it is sleeping in a tent in the battlefield.

Whatever it is, he decides to stay. Now, when evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the top of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

He decides to go to the highest point in the city, walk around on the house at night, perhaps gaze over his kingdom. We're not really sure. But whatever it is from this vantage point, what does he see?

He sees this woman bathing. And she is very beautiful in appearance. His affections are now engaged. His affections are engaged at this point.

By the way, he's lost.

He lost it right there. Right there. So David sent. He sent and he inquired about the woman. And one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Isn't this the wife of one of your mighty men?

Again, we could have some interesting thoughts.

And speculation here.

Did he not know who this woman really was? She's living within eyesight of the castle. I suspect he did. David sent messengers and took her. And when she came to him, he lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

And the woman conceived.

And she sent and told David and said, I am pregnant. And you know how the rest of it spills out, right? Nathan confronts him. He said, for the man who killed the little lamb, right? Fourfold, it should be returned on him.

It's returned fourfold on David. He loses four sons because of this. We think, we desire, we decide, and we do. And that's exactly what David did. It's exactly what he did. Now, back to James. We're in verse 14.

Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. In other words, each one is tempted when the bait is dangling in front of us. But I think it's helpful at this point to notice something.

That James speaks here of lust as belonging to the individual. Take a look at that again. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed.

Look at that.

By his own lust. By his own lust. The Greek word that he uses here, idios, we get the English word idiosyncrasy from that. Idiosyncrasy. What is an idiosyncrasy? It is something peculiar or unique to a certain individual.

And that's exactly what James is communicating here. These lusts are idiosyncratic to each and every one of us. They're our own lusts. You ever looked at somebody and wondered why they do what they do?

Like, you go, I wonder, like, why did they do that? I mean, I wouldn't have done that. And the answer is because it made sense to them. It made sense to them. That's why they did it. They thought, they desired, they determined or decided, and then they did it.

That's why they did it.

All people are born with innate desires for nourishment, for protection, for sexual satisfaction, for a sense of well-being. These kinds of things are true of all of us. And they're gifts from God, really, for which he provides many good things.

But the way in which these desires are fulfilled, sinfully fulfilled, is unique to each individual and results from both nature and nurture, I might say. And I should be careful, not just sinfully fulfilled, but fulfilled.

We have an innate desire. Let me try to illustrate it this way. We have an innate desire for food. All babies desire food given to them from God. But the desire for a certain kind of food is a learned behavior.

That's a learned behavior. Figure that out as soon as you get married, young people. And then you realize, oh, wait a minute. I thought this was a normal menu. And, oh, well, she thought that was a normal menu.

We could say, we could say accurately, I think, from verse 14, that each of us has what I would call designer lusts. We have designer lusts. In other words, they're common to man in a general sense, but they're very specific to us in their particular attraction.

What attraction?

You may not attract him. By the way, Madison Avenue knows this. This is not news to them. They spend billions of dollars every year doing what? Appealing to your lusts. Attempting to move and manipulate your designer lusts and to convince your minds first that you need a product that they make in order to be satisfied.

And they're really good at it because they understand the process. And yes, it does move us to buy things. Advertising works. It moves us to purchase things. Now, ask any fisherman you know to look into their tackle box and what will you find?

You will find a vast assortment of lures of various shapes, sizes, and colors.

Why? Why?

Well, it's because any fisherman knows that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to catching a fish. There's just not one lure that is universally going to capture the fish for you. The art of fishing is figuring out which lure will entice this fish on this day.

That's the art of fishing.

And James is appealing to this common knowledge and using it, applying it to the way sin works. But interestingly now, verse 15, he switches metaphors. He switches metaphors midstream and he goes from fishing to childbirth.

And what he says here essentially is, is as assuredly as conception produces children, so lust produces death. Verse 15. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Once we've taken the bait, back to the fishing metaphor, once we have swallowed the bait, in other words, by yielding to the lust, then, switching the metaphor, conception has occurred. Conception has occurred.

And the child of lust is a sin baby. It's a sin baby. And when this sin baby is brought into the world, it results in death. That's what James is saying. The child of lust is a sin baby. And when the sin baby is born, it produces death.

Both physically and if this becomes the pattern of our life, eternally. Notice again the reference back to verse 12. This is all in the same context here where we're holding up on the trials.

Why?

In hope of the promise of the crown, which is life, the Lord gives. So it's a temporal reality of death, but if it continues, that becomes the pattern of the life. It will result in eternal death, separation from Christ.

One commentator wrote this, and he quotes, sin itself is pregnant with death and delivers a stillborn child. Sin itself is pregnant with death and delivers a stillborn child.

Illustration.

Achan from Joshua 7. Again, you're familiar with the story of Achan, right? They come into the land and they are sacking the city and they're told to burn it all, not to take anything. But one guy by the name of Achan, he can't help himself.

And he steals and he hides it. And the Lord calls Israel together and by lot, he separates down. You know, you can just feel it, right? First this tribe, then this family, then this father. And you know, he's got to be thinking, well, odds aren't getting better.

It's really coming at me. Finally, he is selected by the lot and Joshua says to him,.

Give glory to God.

What have you done? So he can answer Joshua and he said, truly, I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel. And this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, 15 shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them.

Do you see it working out? It's that fourfold chain. It's just working out. I coveted them and I took them and behold, they are concealed inside the earth under my tent with the silver underneath it. And of course, you know, he is stoned.

He's executed.

It brings forth death. Jim Berg, B-E-R-G, in a really, really fine book entitled Changed Into His Image, Changed Into His Image, Jim Berg, he wrote, there are just two choices on the shelf. Pleasing God or pleasing self.

I like that.

It's easy to memorize.

There are just two choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self. So how do we defeat temptation? The first prong of the strategy is to, whatever I just said, that's terrible. Here I am with my own outline and I can't remember it.

It's to recognize sin's pattern. There we go. Second, there we go. Second, remember God's generosity. To remember God's generosity in verses 16 to 18. Verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. This is a common restraint or common refrain among New Testament writers, right? Do not be deceived. We can hear Paul saying such things. Do not be deceived, and it often occurs when they're discussing sin.

Do not be deceived, and then it'll go on to a discussion of sin. Why is that? Why does he warn us about being deceived with regard to sin? Because defeating sin begins in the mind and is a result of how we think.

And deception occurs in the mind as a result of how we think. So this is where the battle for sin begins in the hidden recess of our minds. Paul tells us in Ephesians that when we were saved, verses, chapter 4, verses 17 and 18, he says, we formally indulged the desires of the mind.

Sorry, that's 2, 3, chapter 2 and verse 3. We formally indulged the desires of the mind. And then over in chapter 4, verses 17 and 18.

Why?

Because we were futile in our thinking and we were darkened in our understanding. Why does the pagan engage in sin constantly? Because their minds are dark. Their thinking is futile. The mind desires it, and so they do.

It's what they desire. It's what they think. It's what they desire. It's what they do. Jesus said in John 8, 32, that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. We would know the truth and the truth would set us free.

Why?

How?

As it cleanses the mind. Paul in Romans 12, 2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, the renewing of our minds. And the renewal comes by remembering that God is not a tempter, but the source of all good things.

That's the renewal process. God is not the tempter. The temptation is arising from within me. God is a source of all good things. Verse 17, every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

In other words, God's goodness is an essential aspect of his character, and that reality can never change, can never change. Unlike the natural sun, which because of its varied position, I know it's the earth's position, but stay with the metaphor.

Because of its varied positions, the shadows move. The shadows move. God is a father of eternal light who never moves, never moves. He's firmly and reliably the eternal gift giver. That thinking is what transforms us.

It's on in verse 18, and in the exercises, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among his creatures. In other words, God's greatest gift, he is the eternal gift giver.

All good things come from him. But the greatest of those things and the basis upon which we can be absolutely confident of all his other goodness is the gift of salvation. He brought us forth by the word of truth.

It's the sovereign choice of God that we have been given new life through the power of the gospel, the word of truth, James calls it.

Why?

So that we might be set apart for God, the idea of the first fruits, that's a Jewish concept, the first from the harvest. We would be set apart for God. Salvation is a gift of God, right? We'd say that.

Salvation is of the Lord.

Salvation is of the Lord. If he gives us that, will he not give us everything? Beloved, sin begins with deceit. Sin begins with deceit. We swallow the lie that God has not given us something essential to our happiness and our well-being.

And then it continues to lie to us by saying, if we can just get what God has withheld, then we will be satisfied. If we can just get that, just that, that's all I need. God is not giving it to me if I have that, though.

Whatever the that is, could be something good. I mean, in the natural realm, it could be good, but when it's fixated on, it becomes a source of sin. And this discontentment, it just further lies to us by saying that there is no hook inside the bait.

There's no hook there. And as we focus more and more on the bait, it becomes irresistible.

Irresistible.

And at that point, sin has its hands around your throat and it is choking the life out of you. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise,.

Do you see what is happening?

She is now fixated on the bait. She's believed Satan's lie. You shall not die. She took from its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate. The only way, the only way to break this grip is to cultivate a thankful heart by consciously focusing on God's goodness to us and the place of the greatest density of the goodness of God is in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do we pray before we eat and thank God for what he has provided for us?

Yes, we do.

Do we do it with a grateful heart?

Yes, we do.

Is that helpful in fighting against sin?

Yes, it actually is.

But it's not the source of the greatest density of the goodness of God. That lies in the gospel. As Paul says in Romans 8 too, he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

See, if he'll give us Christ, there is no good thing he will deny us. No good thing he'll deny us. That means we never outgrow the need to hear and meditate on the gospel.

We never outgrow it.

Because it's in and through the gospel that we hear the word of God as it is taught to us. It's where we read it, we sing it, we meditate on it, and we hear it preached, taught. This cultivates the heart of gratitude.

And it's the heart of gratitude that battles the grip of sin. So recognize that sin's a pattern. We remember God's generosity and third and finally, in verses 19 to 21, we respond to God's word. Verse 19, This you know, my beloved brethren, but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Now, we know that. We love that verse. We pull it out. We use it to rebuke anger and rightfully so. But in its context, it's talking about hearing the gospel.

Because we have been brought forth by God's word, verse 18, right? The exercise of his will, he brought you forth by the word of truth. We need to be quick to hear the same word, right? Is this good, helpful advice in interpersonal relationships?

You know, like God, my mother used to say, God gave you two ears and one mouth. Yeah, but that's not his primary purpose in being here. We've been brought forth by the word of God.

In other words, we should be quick to hear it. Quick to hear that word.

Because it's the gospel that saves us.

It saves us eternally.

It saves us temporally as we hear it, receive it in humble faith. Problem comes when we're being tried and we're failing by falling into sin. Usually the last thing we want to hear is the gospel. It's usually the last thing we want to hear.

If you find yourself trapped in sin or you know someone trapped in sin, it's a money bet that they spend no time with the word of God alone. They don't want it. They can't deal with it. So they pushed it away.

And this is as senseless as a person being infected with a deadly disease saying, nah, I don't want the antibiotic.