Blessed Endurance: Part 4

Redeeming Grace Church

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study now, and James, what a wonderful epistle this is, and what a wonderful study this is that we're in, and we continue our series through this wonderful epistle on how we can love

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God under trials, and how we are right, really, right in the middle of how we are looking at how believers in Jesus Christ can overcome temptation, how to overcome temptation.

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I'm telling you, there's a lot of sermons out there on this, and you have some bad ones, and you have some good ones, but there's nothing like the

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Word of God when you really study it into its context, verse by verse, and helping us how we can overcome temptation, and God gives us the answers, doesn't

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He? It's a very, very important subject, I would say, from our text, and it's important for us to understand it biblically, from a biblical viewpoint and from God's viewpoint, so that's what we desire.

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So, as I'm saying that, please open your Bible to the book of James, as we continue to look at this,

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James chapter 1, we're going to be looking at verses 12, we looked at verse 12, but I like to include verse 12 here, through 18, we're not going to cover every verse, verse 18, but there's a path that James has taken us in this, verses 12 through 18, so hear the word of the living

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God, verse 12, "'Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the

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Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted,

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I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does

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He Himself tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

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Then,' notice very closely, "'Then,' something happens, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

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Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.'" See who he's speaking to, isn't that beautiful? "'My beloved brethren.

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Verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift, good and perfect gift, is from above and comes down from the

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Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will,

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He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.'"

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May God bless the reading of His word to our hearts this morning. Let's pray. Father, as we seek

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Your help and Your blessing, and we continue to do so, as Your word says,

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Father, our hearts are longing and thirsty after You.

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Just as the heart, the deer, pants after the water brooks, so pants our soul after You, O God.

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The living God, when shall I come and appear before You, O God?

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So Father, as we study on how we can overcome temptation that we will all be faced with, as each and everyone has in this room,

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Father, we would pray that we would be victorious only through Jesus Christ as we yield our members to You.

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Father in heaven, we praise You and we do thank You for Yours is the greatness and the majesty and the glory.

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We pray, Lord, to keep us hidden behind the cross. Help us within this hour of study and to Your word that we turn our complete concentration upon You.

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Father, I would pray now, help each and every one of us, as Scripture says, lay aside every weight, every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto

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Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.

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He despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of You, O God, the majesty of the throne of heaven.

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Father, let us consider Him, as Scripture says. Let us consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest we become weary and discouraged in our souls.

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And Father, I would ask this in His mighty name this morning. Amen and amen. J. I.

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Packer, the English theologian, said, temptations are

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Satan's work, but Satan is God's tool as well as his foe.

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I love that. It is ultimately God Himself who leads

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His servants into temptation. Now, that sounds like a contradiction, but it's not.

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And he quotes Matthew chapter 4, verse 1. How does it say? Then Jesus was led up by the

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Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Packer goes on to say, permitting

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Satan to try to seduce them for benefit purposes of his own.

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However, though temptations do not overtake men apart from God's will, the actual prompting to do wrong is not of God, nor does it express

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His command according to James 1 .12. And he goes on to say, the desire, this is important, listen to this, the desire which impels to sin is not

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God's, but one's own, and it is fatal to yield to it.

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That's what we're looking at today. In the text before us, in verses 12 -18, as we continue to look at this text, last

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Lord's Day we looked at, first of all, into overcoming, to overcome temptation, we must recognize three things.

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Its source, first of all, in verse 13 speaks of the source, and I must say this,

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Brother Keith asked me about this outline, and I personally cannot take credit for it. I wished

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I could. It's such a good outline. I told Brother Keith the only thing original about it is sin, and he said, good answer, and amen to that.

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Anyway, I give the credit to retired pastor, Bible commentator Stephen Cole for that. He did a good job.

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It's a great outline, and it's easy for us to remember, isn't it? It's source, it's force, and it's course.

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That's what we're going to look at in verses 12 -13, especially 13, as we looked at the source of temptation, and we looked a great deal into that, that God is not the source.

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It is our own depravity. It is our own sin. Today we will look at the second part, and Lord willing, the third.

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We'll see how that goes. But the force, basically, is to overcome temptation, is to recognize its force.

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We must recognize its force, verse 14. And then the last and final point would be to overcome temptation, we must also recognize its course, found in verse 15.

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So we're going to look at verse, we've looked at verse 13, let's look at verse 14 and 15.

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Now, very quickly, just for a brief overview, in verse 12, there's the promise that God gives to us through James, blessed is the man who endures, perseveres under trial.

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He perseveres and endures under trial. Here in the context, James is speaking of a way, of the way,

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I should say, in which many things come into the lives that are trials and tests of our faith.

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That's what James is talking about. James recognizes also that he delights to prove to us that our faith is real.

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That God puts us to the test and see if our faith is genuine. For he says, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the

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Lord has promised to those who love him. He's been approved, he passes the test. That's a trial.

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Temptations is a totally different thing. But I couldn't help but think about that last portion, and this is the key to enduring the trial, is, and what is it?

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It is to love God. Notice what he says, that he will receive the crown of life, the crown of life opposite of the death which sin, the sin produces as a child later on as we look at it.

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The crown of life is what the Lord has promised. When God promises something, he keeps it, right?

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He will give a crown of life to those who love him.

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I could not help but think of Romans 8, 28, 29, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love

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God. To those who are the called, that's the elect of God, that's the effectual calling according to his purpose.

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Verse 29, what's the purpose of things working out for the good? What is

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God doing in the midst of that? He's building character. How's he want us to look like?

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Jesus, verse 29, for whom he foreknew, he predestined basically, he also predestined, he marked out, he picked, he chose those to be conformed to the image of his son.

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That's what he's doing. You see, he's working us to be like Jesus. He will love us so much, he will take us through a fiery trial to purge us, to make us more like his son, and God loves us that much.

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Now remember that. Don't think God doesn't love you. It's the opposite. He loves you so much.

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You see, you have to see it from God's viewpoint. Sin has so blinded us that we cannot see the purpose that God is doing.

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But here in Romans 8, 28, 29, that's the purpose. All things work out.

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We know, see, that all things work together for the good to those who love God.

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What's the purpose? To be like his son, Jesus. God says, that's the way I want you to be like. You're going to look like my son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

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I couldn't help but think also the 1 Corinthians 2, 9, that the apostle Paul is actually quoting the prophet

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Isaiah. There's a little difference that Paul adds, but if you look at it, he quotes

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Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 2, 9, but as it is written, I have not seen nor heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which

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God has prepared for those who love him. You see that? Paul added that.

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Isaiah didn't say that, but the apostle can do that because God, the same

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Holy Spirit was breathing upon him, was breathing upon Isaiah. And I love that because it's to those who love him.

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You see, you have to keep this in mind because what is it? It's the promise that God has when

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God takes us through the trials. You see, there's something glorious that waits on the other end.

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Jesus saw this when he was going through the crucifixion and during the cross. And I'm telling you, that was a very heavy, horrible thing that Jesus had to undergo.

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And Jesus endured it. Why? He saw the joy, the reward. And you, my beloved, are that reward that Jesus saw.

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Many sons of glory will come into his kingdom. And it is given by the Father. You are a love gift from the

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Father, those who have been given to Jesus. So there, look at the promise. The promise is for those who endure to the end faithfully, who make it through the trials after trials.

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It's not going to be one trial. It's going to be a lot of trials. I've seen that. And it's amazing.

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Sometimes God turns up the temperature a lot. And I'm thinking, well, if I know God has his hand on that temperature, he's not going to get it too hot.

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But he's got it hot enough for me. But you know something? He knows what he's doing. And he loves us.

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And he will purify us. He will purge us. And what's that purging? Cleanses us from all this filth and sin that's in our hearts and minds.

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That's what we're going to look at. God approves. And he approves of those who love him that pass the test until they reach the end here and begin the victor's crown and glory, right?

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They are the overcomers. You do a little study on what it takes to be an overcomer in Scripture.

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There's a lot there. That's another sermon in itself. But those who love

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God will receive the crown of life, which God has promised. Isn't that glorious? So that's the glorious promise.

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That's what I said before you. So then in verse 13, the focus of the chapter turns from trials to temptations.

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Verse 2 through 12 is talking about trials. Temptation then he begins to look at in verse 13 through 17.

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And then in verse 18, he talks about what it means to be born again. I love that. Now, James is speaking of the source of temptation.

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We looked at that, right? Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God for God underscore this, cannot be tempted by evil.

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God is absolutely holy. There's nothing within God that will go after sin.

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Nothing. Matter of fact, I say if he's going after sin, he wanted to kill it.

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It's not that he loves it. That's why he sent Jesus. It's to destroy. It's an enemy.

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The last enemy is death, sin. Okay. Then, what does he say?

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Nor does he himself tempt anyone to sin. You see? He cannot be tempted by the evil, nor does he himself tempt anybody.

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Now, we've got to get that straight. So, we saw last Lord's Day in this passage that James speaks and means by the word tempted, the particular solicitation that leads us to fail the test, right?

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Not pass the test. So, what's the test? The test is the test of faith.

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It is the test of faith. There's a race of faith. There's also the test of faith.

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And to be drawn away into sin, and here God has no part with it whatsoever.

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And then when one yields to sin, it is because of his own evil and his own depraved, wicked heart.

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Notice the text in verse 14, but each one, each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

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Notice that. So, to overcome temptation, we must recognize its force. Its force.

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So, let's look at the force of it. Verse 14 and 15, James gives to us God's commentary on the consequences of sin.

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It is God's commentary on the consequences of sin. 14 and 15 says, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and is enticed.

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Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

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Now, what I just read is a lot packed in there. We're going to have to break it up. And this is going to take the remaining of my time, believe me.

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So, I don't know if you noticed, and if you've gotten to it yet, but how far along has your brother been on the book by MacArthur, Slave?

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We're on chapter 8 or 9. Oh, wow. So, you're there. If you remember reading in page 121 that John MacArthur defines sin.

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You notice the definition of sin that people are a slave to sin. He talks about the fallenness of people being a slave to sin.

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And I love the quote there. And I put it down as a small quote, but he said this, Sin is a cruel tyrant.

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Listen to this. It is the most devastating and degenerating power ever to afflict the human race.

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That is great. Such that the entire creation, he gets this from Romans, the entire creation groans and suffers from the pains of childbirth together until now,

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Romans 8, 22. And then he says this, It corrupts the entire person, infecting the soul, polluting the mind, defiling the conscience, contaminating the affections, poisoning the will.

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It is the life -destroying, soul -condemning cancer that festers and grows in every unredeemed human heart like an incurable gangrene.

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I had to put that down because that's what James is talking about. James is talking about, and I mentioned that to Teresa, and she said,

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Isn't it interesting that he said something like cancer? And she can really hit home to her now since she's got cancer within her body.

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You see, it grows. It must be killed. The cancer must be killed.

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That's the way sin is. Sin has to be killed. It has to be put to death.

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It has to be destroyed. And the only thing that can destroy it is the word of truth, the word of God, to mortify it, to kill it.

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And that's something we're going to look at and we must do. So true. Wise parents do not let children play with dynamite, do they?

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I've never seen a parent say, Okay, here's a stick of dynamite and play with it and give them some matches while you're at it.

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And what's going to happen? Obviously, you know what dynamite does. It will blow a person to bits and pieces.

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It's obvious. How dare a parent do something like that, giving them some dynamite to play with?

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It's powerful and dynamite's a destructive force. What James shows to us, in a way, in the text, that that's the way sin is.

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It's destructive, isn't it? There are three ways that temptation is powerfully destructive, powerfully destructive.

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Let's look at some of them. Now, this is dealing with the force of temptation.

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First of all, the first is that the force of temptation is that it dwells within our hearts.

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Get that. It dwells here within our hearts. This is not an outside enemy, beloved.

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This is an inside enemy. It's a birthday gift we have gotten from Adam. It's not a good birthday gift.

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By the way, have you ever noticed you never have to teach a child to say no? You never have to teach a child to act ugly.

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It naturally comes with them. They may have a face like an angel. I think about that little one right there.

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She is just as cute as a button. Her eyes is big and blue. She can have tears in her eyes.

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Boy, sometimes she can be a pistol. That comes naturally, doesn't it? There's love that's behind in correcting, in curbing that self -will and that nature, that natural bent to do wrong, right?

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That's something you never, ever have to teach a child. It comes natural, doesn't it?

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That's evidence right there that we are naturally born into sin and that Adamic nature comes with the birth in which we are.

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That's why Jesus said you've got to be born again. You've got to have a new birth so you can deal with this.

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That doesn't mean sin is eradicated, but it has to be constantly mortified and crucified.

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It's there. So we're talking about indwelling sin. It's not an outside enemy. It's within us.

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Indwelling sin that lurks there until the day we die and go home to be with Jesus in glory.

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The prophet Jeremiah testified this in Jeremiah 17 .9. The heart is deceitful.

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It is more, is so deceitful than all else and is what? Desperately wicked.

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It is sick. It is sin sick. Our psychologists will go a long way if they look into the word of God and they would learn a great deal about humanity if they knew why people act the way they do.

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It's because of sin that is in the heart. Jesus said this. Jesus said this in Matthew 15, 18 and 19 that the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart.

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He doesn't stop there, does he? Then he says, and those defile the man.

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It's not on the outside. It's what's on the inside that is corrupt. Then he says this, for out of the heart come what?

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Evil thoughts. Number one, evil thoughts. Imagination of people's thoughts are evil continually.

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Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

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Now Jesus stopped there. He probably could have kept going on, but he named some of the main sins, didn't he?

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And look around you. You see this constantly around us. It's like a cancer.

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It's something as God said to the children of Israel when Moses, and I mentioned this last week, when

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Moses was spending forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai receiving the law of God and God told

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Moses, your people have corrupted themselves. You see that? Corruption.

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Depravity. Now, and then, and knowing that his apostles, Jesus' apostles would be subject to temptation and to evil because of their remaining unredeemed flesh,

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Jesus even admonished him in Matthew 26, 41. Keep watching and praying.

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You don't stop doing that. You keep watching and praying that you may not what? Enter into temptation for what?

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The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We might as well admit that.

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How dare anybody take he least he thinks he stands, he's going to fall. When one starts bragging he's already licked this thing, this person's getting ready for a fall.

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I can guarantee it. The more we recognize and know that we are weak in the flesh, we will never ever be able to overcome temptation.

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Period. So that's why we throw ourselves in prayer to God just like we sung. Are there trials and temptations?

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Take it to the Lord in prayer. We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. I remember years ago, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that, and when

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I was first converted to Christ and I was going to seminary in Baton Rouge, LA, I took a break home and there was this two mentally retarded guys.

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They were wonderful to be with and they were converted. They really were. They weren't all there.

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They had the brain of a 45 -year -old and I thought bless their heart.

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I love being around them because it was so cheerful all the time. They had such a wonderful way. Both weighed about 300 pounds.

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They loved to eat. They were just old country boys. They'd go to church all the time and they'd come back just joy.

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He said, the spirit came today, pastor. Well, he didn't say pastor. I'm sorry. They said brother.

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I wasn't a pastor at the time, but they said the spirit came down today. Guess what we sung? I must tell

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Jesus. I said, hey, you got it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, does it?

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They were talking about the battling against sin and their hearts and the sin nature that was remaining.

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He said, brother, I must tell Jesus. I said, you got it. Keep on telling

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Jesus. I love them. Guys, Barry and Larry, I think, that was their name.

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I really miss them as years, years ago. As though we've had gloriously been saved and made partakers of the divine nature, as Peter says.

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We have the Holy Spirit within, don't we? We nevertheless retain an enemy within.

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It is the enemy within. That is our enemy. The flesh, that's a constant battle in the form and still sinful, corrupted longings and passions and desires and lust.

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Even that which is in itself is good and even in that which is itself is honorable can be lusted after for sinful reasons and turned for good.

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That's how sinful we are. We can make something good and touch it and make it terrible.

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John Calvin said this. He said in his commentary, James's object here is to teach us that there is in us the root.

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Listen to this. The root of our own destruction within our own hearts.

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If we ignore the danger within, beloved, or think that it has been eradicated by any way, we're in serious trouble.

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Very serious trouble. Well, the next point I would make here is the force of temptation is that it has a powerful and not only is something within, as we looked at right there, that it dwells within our own hearts, but it has a powerful and a deceptive emotional element.

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It is emotional. There's an emotional element that goes with it. Again, the text says each one is tempted when he is what?

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Carried away and enticed. Let's look at those two words. The word carried away and enticed both translate participles and closely, or describe,

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I should say closely related, but different aspects of temptation's process, the process of it.

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The first term in the Greek, carried away, and we looked a little bit at this last week, has the meaning of dragging away as if compelled by an inner desire.

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Dragging away as if compelled by an inner desire. It was often used as a hunting term.

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A hunting term to refer to a baited trap designed to lure an unsuspecting animal into it.

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The second term, enticed, is related, but it's a little different. It's from the

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Greek, which is commonly used as a fishing term. Isn't this interesting?

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First, it's a term from the Greek, the use of hunting, then one that enticed means like a fishing term to refer to bait whose purpose was also to lure the prey from safety to capture eventually to its death.

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That's animals. Animals and fish are successfully lured into traps. Have you noticed that?

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And hooks because the bait is too attractive for them to even to resist.

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See, they don't see the hook and they don't see the consequences and they don't see the danger, they see the food.

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And that's all they think about, their appetite. Doesn't this relate to the human race?

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Oh my goodness, it does. It looks good, it appeals, it even smells good.

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It's pleasant to the eye. You see? It looks like, you know,

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Satan was crafty. He knew what he was doing. And he appealed to Eve and then eventually to Adam.

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He knew how to get to Adam because he was going through Eve, the weaker vessel. And the fruit looked appealing, luscious fruit.

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Oh, the devil doesn't come with the horns and pitchfork and tail and snarling teeth and snorting fire and all this.

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He comes sometimes in a suit, looking awful nice, preaching a false gospel.

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You know what I mean. Looks good, smells good, appeals strongly to their senses.

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That's the way Satan works. And he appeals, he knows what he's doing. The desire for the bait is so intense that it causes him to even lose caution, to overlook and to ignore the trap of the hook and its dangers until it's too late.

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The temptation of sin is like that, beloved. We think that sin will satisfy us. Don't we think that?

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We justify it. We think it'll be satisfying to us and give us something that it doesn't promise.

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It promises really death. That's what it promises. But instead, see, the hook drags us into destruction.

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There's always that deceptive element, see, to temptation. It's strengthened by the powerful emotions that are involved in it.

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That's why believers are not to live by their feelings, beloved. We cannot live by feelings, but by what?

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Faith. We live by faith. We cannot live by sensationalism. We cannot live by faith.

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I'm sorry, we do live by faith, but not by emotions. But there is an emotional element that is into temptation.

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So, we live by truth of the Word of God. No matter how strongly our feelings pull us in different directions, we must be grounded in the truth of God.

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Period. That is our bulwark. Third is, the force of temptation is that is this, is that a life of,

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I'm sorry, it has a life of its own. The force of temptation is that it has a life of its own.

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Now, what do I mean by that? I mean this. Scripture says very, notice very closely, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

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Sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. James shifts the metaphors of how we live hunting and fishing, now he uses the process of childbirth.

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Notice that. Something is given birth to illustrate his point.

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Now, we're going to look at this. Lust is depicted as the mother conceiving and bearing a child, which is sin.

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Now, I was reading MacArthur's commentary, so this is not all original with me, so I put it in my own words, but his commentary basically said it.

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I must give him credit. He does a spectacular job on breaking this down. I know Brother Keith heard a good message from this too as well, but I must share this with you.

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So, what is it? Bearing a child, which is sin. The child is sin.

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That's what he's referring to. Whose ultimate destiny is death.

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You get that? There's a process. We're going to look at it. So, through James, the

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Lord here makes clear that sin is not isolated, an isolated act, or even a series of isolated acts.

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What does it mean? But rather, it is the result of a specific process.

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A process which is explained. Notice how it explains. I like to break this up.

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Like I said, this is Pastor MacArthur here. It's explained. It can be explained in four basic steps with the word, and you like to write something down.

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Write this one down. The word that starts beginning with the letter D. We're going to look at it.

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The first is desire. Desire. Boy, I wish I came up with this, but I did put it in my words here, and he says this.

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Translated, that's another word for lust. So, when you read the word of God, you find this word a lot.

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The word lust means desire. Desire, basically to sin, begins primarily as an emotion, a feeling.

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It can be a feeling. A strong pull. A longing, that's lusting, for something that at first may be largely subconscious.

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You see what I'm saying? Then it develops from somewhere deep within us.

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Deep within our hearts, a longing expressing a want.

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I call it coveting. It's a strong pull, beloved, after the things of the flesh because that's what it desires.

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It acquires to achieve it and or to possess it, something or whatever it may be that we do not have.

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That is coveting, brother and sisters. This desire can be sparked.

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It can be sparked by any number of things and types of things. Through the eye gate,

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I would think. From the mind, out of the inner being of our heart, our soul, comes this animal.

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Let's look at it like it is. It is an animal that must be crucified.

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Now, the desire to sin, basically, eventually will lead to breaking

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God's law and crossing the line to trespass. We'll see that in a minute. But first of all, it is desire.

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That's the first D. What's the second? The second one is deception. Deception.

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Deception is closely related to the mind than the emotions. You see, the desire first is more related to the emotions, but the deception is related to the mind.

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You see that? When we think about a designed object, or a desired object, I'm sorry, of our mind, it begins to rationalize.

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This is the way sin comes about. We start to rationalize it. We start to justify it.

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You see what I'm saying? I touched on this a little bit last week, but forgetting it. Some way or another, we will rationalize and make excuses and say, well,

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God will forgive me later on. I mentioned that. He's sovereign. He knows what's going to happen.

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He knows my frame. He knows that I'm dust. He knows I'm weak, and He is strong.

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It's okay. I can get it this one time, just a little bit, and do a little sinning, and God will forgive me.

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You see what I'm getting to? That's the way the mind is. We're so depraved, we will rationalize it to justify of getting it.

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How do you think people fall into adultery? They just don't instantly, bam, a little at a time, a little here, and a little there, and a little rationalizing here, and justifying it here, and oh,

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God understands I'm lonely. God understands I'm by myself, and God knows it's okay for me to do a little lusting, and my wife isn't meeting my needs, or my husband isn't meeting my needs, and God understands that I must have my needs met.

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Do you see what I'm saying? It's sin. It's sin.

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Satan lies. Satan's a liar. He's a masterful liar. All this is within.

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It's within and without. Do you see what I'm saying? James is really pointing on the within because of the depravity.

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That's virtually an automatic part of the process of temptation. We don't have to tell our minds to rationalize.

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It starts to do it immediately, automatically. Do you see what I'm saying? Our lust because we're already, in a sense, presupposed by our fallenness.

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An animal or a fish that goes after the bait, the desire, or the fish that goes after the bait, or the desire to have what we want, to covet after, is so strong, beloved, that we are inclined to discount possibly the dangers of the very harm behind it.

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You think Samson thought the consequences that he was going to have his eyes took out?

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But he fell right into the lap of Delilah, and told her all of his heart.

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He was deceived, but that's something he chose to do, and he fell right into it. He didn't think about the consequences.

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It is at that point, James says here, lust has conceived, basically, the life of sin.

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The third D would be this, is the design, the design. First is the desire, then the deception, then the design.

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When the plan starts to be made to fulfill the emotional desire, that we have rationalized it and justified it with our mind, this stage of design involves our will, our conscience' decision to pursue the lust until it is satisfied.

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Do you notice that? How the world appeals? You cut the TV set on and look at the commercials?

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What are they doing? They are going after your senses for you to buy something.

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Do you see what I'm saying? For you to covet after it, for you to go after it, and they know what they're doing.

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I hate beer commercials. They're the world's worst. They'll place a half -nude woman out there. They'll place something that, oh,

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I'm telling you, the flesh love it. Guys love it. They're in Super Bowls. Ben knows what

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I'm talking about here. I'm not saying you like it, Ben. I'm not saying that. He knows about the

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Super Bowl commercials. I'm not trying to put Ben on the spot here. But if you know Super Bowl, hey, that's right, that's right.

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But you know, it's during Super Bowls, they know how to go after the guys. You see what

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I'm saying? What do they do? Car commercials. Truck commercials. You have multiple, probably hundreds of commercials on trucks and cars.

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Women don't care less about the trucks and cars. They like clothing, okay, and the mall shopping.

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Hey, look, the devil knows what he's doing. He knows how to make you covet. He knows, and you know something?

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He knows you're falling too. You know something? We've got to be wise to his strategies.

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We have to be wise to his strategies. Well, that was an example there. That's a pitiful example. Sorry, Ben.

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I had no offense there. So anyway, I just threw that in there.

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Yeah, that's right. He's family. I'm sure Ben cuts the commercials off, you know, if he's watching the

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Super Bowl. Okay, this stage is, honestly, this stage is where the guilt lies.

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The guilt. It's been longed for. It's already been rationalized.

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Now, what's going on? Consciously pursued as a matter of choice. You see that?

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Now, this leads to the fourth. The fourth stage is, the

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D is disobedience. Now, write this down. This will take you a long way in overcoming temptation.

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The fourth and final stage here is disobedience to God's law. Then, this leads to transgression against the law of God and breaking

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God's law. That is sin, beloved, is when we transgress God's law.

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We cross the line. We allow the process to continue the design inevitably and produces disobedience to God's law when it gives birth to sin.

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There you have it. A child is born and it's called sin. It is to transgress the law of God and that which is desired, rationalized, will lead, is actually done, committed and accomplished and desire leads to deception, deception to design, design to disobedience and then you have sin.

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I'm telling you, this is what you've got to watch out for. The child is born, that child is named sin.

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It goes without saying that the earlier in the process we determine to resist, the greater the likelihood we will have to avoid the sin.

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And conversely, the longer we delay resisting it, the more likely in actual the sin becomes.

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That's why we have to deal with it, beloved. You cannot delay it. You have to resist the sin, resist the devil.

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You have to flee these things or they will pull you in. You have a heart.

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I have a heart of that remaining sin within us that is magnetically drawn to things of this world.

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That's why Paul says in Colossians, you set your affections on things.

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Notice he says your affections and your mind on things where? Above, above, not on the earth but above where Christ is.

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You see that? Where earthly creatures will fall in.

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So even in redemption as a redeemed child of God and only by the way the Christian, the child of God who is able to control his emotional responses to temptations will be the ones when this sin pops its ugly head up, will know how to effectively deal with sin in its life.

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It's called, I like to put it this way, what Barney Fife said, nip it in the bud.

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You remember those episodes? Nip it, nip it, nip it, nip it, nip it. And I'm thinking, you got to nip it in the bud.

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That's right. You know he's right. I always like that. Nip it, nip it, nip it.

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It has no better application than right here. Put it to death. Mortify it. Kill it.

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And I'm telling you if you don't kill it, it's going to kill you. That's what John Owen said. The only truth, the only thing that can kill it is the truth of God.

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It's the Word of God. It sanctifies you, it sets you apart, it purges you, it cuts, it takes care of the sin.

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And that's why we must constantly be renewing our mind day by day and letting the Word of God take a hold and root us into his truth.

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God's truth will activate the conscience, the soul's warning system, beloved, and give us a clear conscience to wash away the sin.

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And if we ignore it, we're in trouble. No one can fight the battle of the mind and imagination except the believer.

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To lose this, there is no way to move into the design stage.

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And that's actually where the execution of sin is planned. The mind. The mind.

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So where's the battle? The battle's in the mind. That's where you got to take, as Paul says, take every thought captive by the obedience of Christ.

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Right there is the battle. That's the battlefield. And people talk about warfare as demons and angels and all this.

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Forget it. That's spiritual warfare right there. In the mind.

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That's real spiritual warfare. We must be on guard at the level of our minds and train our minds to keep watch over our emotional desires instead of rationalizing temptation and prepare in advance to oppose him with the word of God.

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Just as Jesus did in the wilderness, right? He went after the devil. The devil didn't come after him.

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He went after the devil. Jesus was on the offense. I think it's interesting too that Jesus went, and the scripture says it, that the

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Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness. Isn't it interesting that Jesus, this last item, went into the wilderness to deal with the temptation, okay?

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And there was nothing in Jesus to want to sin, beloved. He did this for the believers.

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You see what I'm saying? It's a man full of the Holy Spirit. And he won the victory. You know why?

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He knew what he was doing. After fasting. Now there's something right there. Some things don't come about fasting and prayer.

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Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights, led into the wilderness by the

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Holy Spirit, the last Adam. The first Adam failed where? In the garden.

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There's something there. And it's not accidental. But the battle over temptation was won by the last

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Adam. And we're going to look at that in just a minute in our application. But Paul also admonishes believers in Romans 12 too, do not be conformed to this world, but what?

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Be transformed. Oh man, I can stay right there and preach all day, beloved.

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I'm telling you, we must not have a conformity to the world, but be transformed.

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There has to be a transformation. And that starts in the mind. And he says this, by what?

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The renewing of our mind. To renew your mind. And he tells us, so that you may prove what is the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

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That's what he's talking about. Now, how can we do this? Paul says in Philippians 4a, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good report, if there is any excellence, is anything worthy of praise, think on these things, dwell on these things.

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You see what he's saying? Break that down. Have I thought of something true today? Am I meditating on something honorable today?

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Am I meditating on what is right today? Am I meditating on what is pure and lovely and good report?

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See, this is the battlefield. This is where it takes place. It's not incidental that the first and greatest command is to love

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God with all your heart.

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Look at Psalm 119. Look at just a few of these verses.

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Psalm 119, 9 -11. These are great.

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Thank you Keith, I appreciate that. Starting at verse 9.

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A great verse. This is the Hebrew alphabet. I love this wonderful chapter because it's a commentary on God's word itself.

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Meditation, these are meditations on the excellencies of the word of God. Verse 9, how can a young man cleanse this way?

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Question. Well, he tells you right away. This is how you do it. By taking heed according to your word.

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You obey God's word. You take heed. Take heed. Notice how many times in scripture he talks about take heed.

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And then he says in verse 10, with my whole heart I have sought you. Oh, let me not wonder from your commandments.

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Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

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Right there. You hide the word of God in your heart and that way you will not sin against God.

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And then he says, as blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth.

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I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches.

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Anytime you see testimonies, judgments, the word, the law, that's the word of God. I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways.

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I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

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You see, there you have God's recipe for overcoming temptation.

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Well, I've got to hurry up here. My time's almost gone. But there's much more

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I got to say. The last is, it's course. It's course. I hope

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I got time to finish this. If not, I'm not, I'm going to have to wait till next Lord's day.

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Very quickly, what's the course he talks about? Sin is accomplished. It brings forth death.

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The child is conceived by lust, which is desire. This is how we came into the world.

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Believe it or not, look at it. It's born, then sin is a murderer. It's a murderer, it's a killer, it's a destroyer.

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To use another figure, Paul says the wages of sin is death.

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Sin brings forth physical death, separating the soul from the body. Spiritual death, separating the soul from God.

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Eternal death, separating both body and soul from God forever and ever. You don't want that.

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It's very serious. It's devastating. There you have the consequences of sin. James shows that sin is never stationary.

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It moves steadily in a course of direction. It is ultimately hideous, and its end is death itself.

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For example, an illustration. Sins are like a kind of small crack in a dam.

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You know, you've got a small crack in a dam, and at first it doesn't seem threatening, does it? Until that leak begins to grow and the pressure starts to begin more and more.

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But if it is not repaired soon, it can lead to the collapse of the entire dam until the dam is over -swelled and it bursts from the pressure and it explodes.

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And this has happened, destroying lives and cities. And it comes down on people.

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That's the way sin is, causing terrible, terrible destruction and death. It stands in contrast to the crown of life, doesn't it, in James 1 .12.

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Two totally separate destinies at first, and two paths that may seem like a fork in the road, because sin is so deceitful.

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Doesn't the proverb say, there's a way that seems right unto man, but the end is death?

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You see that? There's a way that seems right unto man, but its end is death.

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Just read Jesus' conclusion on the Sermon on the Mount. He makes his point very strong. He brings it to an application, this greatest sermon ever preached.

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And then he comes down to it. Are you going to obey? He says, those that hear my word and don't do it.

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It's like a house that's built on sand. And then Jesus talks about what?

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Those who hear my word and do it. Where do you think James is going? Be doers of the word.

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Where do you think he got that? The Sermon on the Mount. You see that? Doers of the word.

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In other words, we can sit here and we can listen to all this truth. And if we don't apply it and obey it, we're going to be like the house on sinking sand.

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There's a lot of people in hell right now, beloved, that know the truth, but never, never practiced it and obeyed it.

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You know why? Because they didn't love it. I'm telling you, if you love it, it's going to drive you to obey it more than anything else and fight up against the sin.

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You see what I'm saying? So see, Jesus taught this. Jesus also taught something wonderful to his disciples and it was called the

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Lord's Prayer. We call it the disciples prayer. I preached on this one time at Berea in a whole series.

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Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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Another translation would be from the evil one. Well, let me give some application very quickly on this.

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In addition to asking God not to lead us into temptation, we must be aware of instances in which we walk headlong into ourselves.

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We must partake heed. Ask God for spiritual strength to avoid those very familiar forms of sin that we too often approach without fear.

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You see what I'm saying? Are you ready to start gaining victory through Christ over those sins?

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You must be serious about it. Further, we must know that trials can promote our spiritual growth and maturity, yet we do not want to be in a place where we experience an increased possibility of sin.

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Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we should pray, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but thy will be done.

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You see, Jesus threw himself. That was a temptation for him to bypass the cross, beloved. Yeah, that's right.

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But Jesus, I'm telling you, if you think of what he was up against, the battle was won for him to go to the cross right there in Gethsemane when he rose up after sweating, and his sweat became like drops of blood.

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In other words, he was perspiring in prayer so much. The sweat,

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I'm telling you, it's incredible enough to see someone pray and sweat and perspire, but his praying, beloved, was so powerful that it literally became blood.

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His, what do you call it, someone in the medical terms, something was bursting within him.

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Yes, the cup of layers was literally bursting within him. You see, that's how much he had to pour his life into going to the cross.

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He knew he came for that one purpose, so he went all the way and set his face like a flint to the cross.

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You see, the prospect of taking sin upon himself repulsed our Lord and Savior.

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Sin was repulsive to him, but he was willing to do it to fulfill the

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Father's will no matter what the cost and to secure the salvation of his people.

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He did it. Isn't that wonderful? Whatever testing that you might be having to endure is nothing by comparison, is it?

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If we realize the great danger that temptation poses to our soul, if we understood it, this petition, lead us not into temptation, will be a plea for us to God to provide protection.

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You see, we can't give for ourselves, but only God can give us. So ask

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God to watch over your entire being so that wherever you do and whatever you see, wherever you go, whatever you hear, whatever it is to keep you and to guard you from sinning and falling into that sin delivers from evil.

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But let me also mention very quickly that we must submit to the protection from sin.

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God's word in James 4 -7 says, James gets right to the point.

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Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Submitting to God is the essence of submitting to his word. Your word have

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I treasured or hid in my heart that I may not sin against you. We just looked at it. One more application. Oh, by the way, very quickly,

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I'd like to also say you cannot do all this in your own strength. It takes the strength of God.

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You know, that's why you fall on your face and say, I'm too weak, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the

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Lord of hosts. Okay, what's Martin Lloyd -Jones said this?

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No, I'll tell you what, I'm going to bypass Martin Lloyd -Jones. How about that? I don't have enough time.

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I'm looking at this clock and it is clicking fast. The last application

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I would have is this. When we are tempted and enter into temptation, look unto

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Jesus. Look unto Jesus. Remember, it is the strength of God that will keep you, but you must voluntarily make a deliberate choice to look to Jesus, the crucified risen

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Lord, Jesus who was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin and on the basis of which was necessary for Jesus to be tempted in all points directly by the devil himself.

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He overcame every temptation as a man, as I said, full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not have a sinful nature as we do, so he could not be tempted by a sinful nature.

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Neither could he be tempted by the world directly because the sins of the world are pride and arrogance and desire for dominance and competition.

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Jesus didn't have that in him, on and on. But Jesus had no foreign contrast in himself with these, but yet Jesus was the overcomer.

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And that's why I say we must go to him, right? Go to him. I don't have time to go into his temptation.

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I'll probably do that, Lord willing, next week. I'll probably touch on that. But study it in your devotional time when

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Jesus was led into the wilderness, driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, and three waves of temptation came on him.

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And each of those were a primarily serious triumph, you see, for our

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Lord to overcome in our stead, for you and me.

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Well, I've got to drive this home. Take these things with you.

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James Montgomery Boyce, I do have one time, one for a quote, very quick quote. Boyce says this, at the same time, however, we notice as we read the account of Christ's temptation, that each of the temptations did relate to the one of these three areas, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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The temptation to turn stones to bread was a fleshly temptation. This is Boyce. The temptation to throw himself from the temple in Jerusalem was a temptation to gain the world's esteem and the world's way.

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The temptation to worship Satan was an outright spiritual temptation that would have placed the

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Lord in a direct opposition to God the Father. Thus, although, Boyce says, all the temptations come originally from the devil, they were nevertheless temptations to the sins of the flesh, the world, and the devil, those three enemies.

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He goes on to say, they show us that Jesus was tempted in all the ways that we are. Of course, those temptations were far more subtle and stronger than our temptations because of their source.

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Well, I think of a song, and I love it. We don't have it in the hymn book, but it's an old gospel song, and it says this, just a closer walk with thee.

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I am weak, thou art strong. Jesus, keep me from all wrong.

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I'll be satisfied as long as I walk close to thee. Through this world of toils and snares, if I falter,

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Lord, who cares? Who with all my burden chairs? None but thee, none but thee.

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When my feeble life is over, time for me shall be no more. Guide me safely, gently over to that kingdom, shore to shore, just a closer walk with thee.

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Isn't that your desire, to know him? By this, you draw closer to the

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Lord. He will give you the strength to overcome temptation. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time of study in your word.

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It seems like such a simple application and the simple words, but Father, they are really, your words are profound.

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Let us take these words to heart, and Father, as we've, it's already been said, help us to be just not hearers of the word, but to be doers.

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Father, and as we obey, we show our love to you. Father, we pray that we would be careful and not to be like Martha.

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So busy, not that service is wrong, because Lord, you've called us to be your servant, but she did overlook something very, very important, that Mary chose the better part.

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She was drawn close to you. She was at the feet of Jesus, drawn closer and closer to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the keeper of her soul, the one she knew that she was safe at the feet of Jesus, and that's what pleased you,

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Father. Lord, preserve us from all evil, I pray, and preserve our soul.