The Anatomy of Temptation

A lot of times when you teach
or when you, thank you, in a group teaching, you say
things that, you know, people go, duh, okay. Well, one of them is, and this
is what I’m going to tell you today, the grace of God is an amazing
thing. You can say, duh. Kevin can tell
you, Trey can tell you, Ron will tell you, and I’m going to tell
you, that when you go into a passage and you immerse yourself in it
to speak on it, you can’t help but live with it. And in some particular cases,
you can’t help but feel like a failure. And this
is one of those passages that looks fairly simple on the outside,
Now, Ron asked me a few weeks ago, how’s it going? I said,
oh, it’s a fairly straightforward, fairly simple passage or whatever. I was cutting the lawn yesterday
with my little MP3 and listening to music. And that song we just
sung was on and lots of others similar to it. And I almost just
fell on the lawn. What a wretch am I? Then I noticed
the guy down the street working on his car, and my inclination,
knowing the things that have gone on in that house, I said,
okay, compose yourself here. And the thought was, he has no
clue of the grace of God. Yes, that was partly a judgment
on my case, but again, knowing the Parties that have gone on
at that house, I was just taking a guess. We’re continuing on in James.
And we are at verse 13. Up till now, James has been talking
about trials. Remember, consider it all joy
when trials come. And we looked at that and we
saw that trials are promised. It says, in this world you will
have trouble. They have a purpose. That purpose is to grow our faith,
grow our dependence upon Christ, give us endurance in the Christian
walk. It also takes a unique perspective
to have joy through trials. It’s not a natural thing. A trial
comes your way. Your first inclinations go, yes.
No, it’s not. But consider it all joy, because
God is working in you to do something. We don’t see it at the beginning.
We may not see it for a long time. But God is working in us. So he’s talking about trials.
And in verse 12, he kind of ends that section, it seems, by saying,
Blessed is the 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. Verse 13, let no one say
when he is tempted. You go, whoa. That seems like
an abrupt break. But really, it’s not so abrupt.
The word temptation in the Greek can mean trial, testing, or a
temptation to do evil. One said if we resist temptation
in God’s power, it is a test that proves our faithfulness.
If we do not, then it becomes a solicitation to sin. The word
for temptation, as I said, is used both ways in the Bible.
When Jesus was led into the wilderness, God and Satan participated. God
using it as a test to show his son’s righteousness and faithfulness. Satan wanted it to induce him
to evil. We see the same thing with Job. Satan goes to God and
says, Job’s just faithful because you’ve blessed him so much. And
God says, no. And they work that Okay, well,
if you do this, or if I do this, He’ll renounce you, all that.
And they go through all that and God says, okay. And He puts stipulations on each
little thing that Satan brings. So Satan can only do what God
allows. And no more. When Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan wanted to induce Him to
evil. To tempt Him. But God, Jesus Christ, passed
that and it was a test and it proved His faithfulness. James
is writing this book to show what real faith looks like. God’s tests are never an invitation
to evil. God brings tests into our lives
and our response proves our faithfulness or our unfaithfulness. John MacArthur
wrote, God’s holiness and goodness will not allow his leading anyone,
certainly not one of his children, into a place or situation in
which they will be purposely induced to sin. Temptation is
something we can all relate to because we’re all tempted. It’s
a common experience for every human being. So let’s read beginning
in v. 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. But each one
is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then, when lust is 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 first fruits among his creatures.” Let me
move this a little bit. Alright, as we get into this,
and as you look at your notes here, this is my fault. Poor Barbara has to deal with
me every week as we go put this together. If you look at your
notes, it says temptation is blank. Temptation is each person’s
blank blank. Perfect so far, except when you
get to involving the, And then those blanks, that should go
after the next one. So when we get there, and I don’t
fill those in, it’s because I told her to put them in the wrong
place. First off, for that first fill in, temptation is pervasive. It affects everybody. Now before
you say, I don’t have an issue with sensual temptations as the
word lust in this passage might intimate. Lust is a word that,
yes, has been associated with that mostly. When we hear that,
we think of that area. But all it is, lust is a strong
desire, a passion, a pull. So temptations are different
for each of us. What tempts one does not have
to tempt another. In fact, what tempts one might
repulse another. We all have a pull, we all have
a desire, we all have a passion for something. Maybe you don’t
recognize it as something bad or sinful because most times
the temptation or lust for something is what one described as a perversion
of a God-given gift. Food is a good thing, but one
can have a passion for it and abuse it. Sports is a good thing, either
as a participant or as a fan, but it can get to the point where
it just consumes your whole life. Where now, I’m missing Sunday. I’m missing my fellowship with
God, fellowship with other believers, because I’m off doing this. I’m
watching this. Knowledge is a gift from God,
but I have seen people with knowledge and they get more and more and
all of a sudden they’re saying things that basically blasphemies
against God. It’s like they’re too smart. So temptation is something everybody
has to deal with. No one’s immune. The passage
starts out saying, let no one say when he is tempted. When
he is tempted. It didn’t say, let no one say
if they’re tempted. It says when. So that means everybody. Also, in verse 14, it says, each
one is tempted. There’s a lot of examples we
can look to. There’s one we’ll look to right
now. Joshua. Chapter 7. Israelites have just invaded
Jericho. They’ve taken it. In that attack
or taking of Jericho, the Lord said, the silver and gold are
holy. They are to be in the treasury
of the Lord. Don’t take them. They defeat Jericho. Now they’re
going after Ai. And all of a sudden, what should
have been a rout is a defeat. And what we see is somebody has
violated the ban that God put on the spoil. Joshua 7.21, Achan
was found with the items. And he said in Joshua 7.21, when
I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shanar and 200 shekels
of silver and a bar of gold, 50 shekels in weight, then I
coveted them and took them. And behold, they are concealed
in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” He
saw it, it looked good to him, it was a temptation to take it,
and he took it. So not only does temptation come
to all of us, but falling is common to us also. So temptation
is pervasive, it affects everybody. Not only is it pervasive, but
temptation is everyone’s personal responsibility. It’s on us. Falling to temptation is on us. James writes, he wants to make
this point very clear. That we don’t err in trying to
assign blame to God for our failures. Let no one say when he is tempted,
I am being tempted by God. In verse 16, he says, do not
be deceived. He wants us to understand that
God never leads us into temptation and sin, but that sin finds its
beginnings in us. And what follows is a very clear
explanation of how the whole process evolves. He says, let
no one blame God. Who would blame God? Would anybody
have the audacity to blame God? Unbelievers. If you’re a senator
from Nebraska who just tried to sue God for all the things
that He’s done, maybe in a joking way, but I wouldn’t do that.
Some people have a flawed theology thinking that since everything
comes from God, He created everything, then He’s the author of sin also. Wrong. Remember, James writes this book
to show what real faith looks like. So he wants to make sure
we do not fall into the trap of finding fault in God. Again, how would we blame God?
We would never say directly, God’s doing this. However, knowingly
or unknowingly, we put the onus on God indirectly. as the cause
of our sin. Again, 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. The word,
by, I am being tempted by God. The word, by, has two meanings
in the Greek and can be used two ways. One, as a direct agent,
saying God is the direct cause of my sin. The other is as a
remote or indirect cause. James uses the second one here.
Carrying the thought or idea that God is an indirect agent
of the temptation. Again, James is here writing
to make sure we don’t even suggest or hint that God is in any way
responsible for our sin. But again, how do we blame God
indirectly then? We have several examples, but
let’s look at the first one. You know what? It starts off
right at the beginning. Genesis 3. The first one confronted. Let’s go back. Genesis 3 9-13
The Lord is looking for Adam and Eve, but they’re
hiding because they realize that they
are naked. And Lord knowing the answer says,
who told you that? Have you eaten from the tree
which I told you not to eat? And here it is in verse 12. The
woman whom you gave me told me not to eat. Adam here puts the
blame on God directly. You gave her to me. You’re the
one who put her here. So from the beginning, even those
with a close and unique relationship with God have done this. We also blame God indirectly
by saying, you know, God made me like this. He put me into
this position. What was I to do? He knows me
and here I am in this position. What else is going to happen?
Robert Burns is a Scottish poet and he once wrote Thou knowest
thou hast formed me with passions wild and strong. And listening
to their witching voice has often led me wrong.” Another wrote, don’t look at
yourself as a poor victim of God’s providence. The thief blames
his poverty for his actions. We blame our upbringing. The
unfaithful spouse blames The other spouse blames the situation,
the job situation. Proverbs 19.3 says, the foolishness
of man ruins his way and his heart rages against the Lord.
In his commentary, Charles Bridges, whom you heard Ron mention many
times, says, Adam, as the author of his own misery, it was reasonable
that he should fret fret meaning being irritated or annoyed, at
himself. But such was his pride and baseness
that his heart fretted against the Lord as if he, not himself,
was responsible. This has been the foolishness
of Adams ever since. We blame God. Adam charges his
cross as not to his own perverseness, but on the injustice of God. Ezekiel 18.25 says, yet you say,
the way of the Lord is not right. Hear now, O house of Israel. Is my way not right? Is it not
your ways that are not right? We ask, why didn’t God do this? Why didn’t He step in and do
that? Putting the blame on someone else is man’s favorite pastime. And it starts early. I love my
children. But when I say, why did you do
this? What’s the first thing that usually
comes from their mouth? Because he or she did this. Well, okay then. No, we’re always
looking for a reason to blame someone else for our actions.
Personal responsibility is a thing of the past. We can find it in so many places.
We can find in so many places people who will justify our actions. It’s not your fault. Unfortunately,
some of those places include churches. In an age where there
is no truth, what is right or true for someone, that’s what’s right and true.
If it’s right and true for you, then hey, good. It’s right and
true. Sin has now been downgraded to
just a little misstep or error in judgment. I had an instance
in California where a gentleman came to me, probably been a Christian
a couple of years, and man, there was a great transformation in
him. And at first, he just wanted to help. He wanted to help with
the sound. He wanted to help with anything
around, lights or whatever, because that’s what he had done. He had
traveled with earth, wind, and fire and done all these things.
So, hey, can I help you? And so, yeah, great to have, we’ll
love to have his help. And he wanted to join the group
up front and he played bass for us for a while. And one day he
walks into my office and says, his wife was not a Christian
and he had been trying to get her to come to church. He had
brought her to different events And then when they’d go home,
he’d say, you know, she, she really enjoyed it. I could tell
she wanted to talk about, but then she just, she just shut
it off and go away. So one day he walks into my office
and said, I left my wife. I said, Rick, you can’t do that. I mean, that’s not right. Okay.
And anyway, we, I had to excuse him from, from ministry. That
was not a popular decision, by the way. And He, time went on,
he came back and he said, I’ve been seeing a psychologist, Christian
psychologist. And she says, what I did before
I became a Christian does not bind me now. So my vows, I can’t
be held responsible for those. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that
way. Okay. And he wanted to get back
in the ministry when I wouldn’t allow that. I said, that is not
correct what she told you. We are responsible for our actions.
God will hold us responsible. Just because we were not a Christian
then doesn’t mean we can compound the error now. A couple weeks
later, comes into my office, slams down a magazine. He said, I found this in the
van. Okay, and it’s one of those magazines where you look for
apartments. He said, she was going to leave
me. And I said, Rick, whether it’s semantics or whatever,
God was going to work something out for you, whether it was her
conversion or whether she left you or what it was, but you erred
first. God will help us through situations. Not that He wants a separation,
but if the unbelieving spouse is unfaithful or leaves, That’s a different situation.
But he just, and then he took up with another lady in the church,
but he just kept coming back with excuses and excuses. And
the Christian psychologist even put a name on what he did and
said, you’re justified. We want to put the blame on somebody
else. And so James is going so strongly
after this type of thinking, that of blaming God or others
for our circumstances because it is an affront to God. Who
are we? What audacity do we have to blame
God for our sin? He saved us from sin. It wasn’t
anything we did. By grace, you have been saved
through faith. Not by any works, so that any
man can boast. No, He saved us. So why then when we fail, when
we sin, do we go back and blame the One who did what we couldn’t
do? And that is reconcile ourselves
to God. It’s saying that God is not holy.
That’s why we sang this morning about God’s holiness. A holy
God cannot have anything to do with sin or evil. Any kind of
evil, as one wrote, repulses God. Tempting someone to sin
would imply a delight in sin or evil, which is impossible
for God. God always acts in a way which is consistent with his
character. Sin is why Christ came to die.
One wrote God’s holiness And again, this is a repeat from
earlier. God’s holiness and goodness will not allow his leading anyone,
certainly not one of his children, into a place or experience in
which they would be purposely induced to sin. Matthew Henry
said he cannot be a promoter of what is repugnant to his nature. And finally, another wrote, absolute
freedom from the power of temptation precludes that possibility of
tempting others. God is not going to lead us into
something that’s going to have us fail. Evil cannot penetrate
the nature of God. Leviticus 19.2 says, speak to
all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, you
shall be holy for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. Just a chapter
later, Leviticus 20.26, thus, you are to be holy to me for
I, the Lord, am holy. And I have set you apart from
the peoples to be mine. And finally, from 1 Peter 1.16,
because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. We are called to be a holy people.
Why would God call us to be that kind of people and then lead
us into temptation? Why would God lead us into a
tempting situation which He knows would cause us to sin? The sin
which required the blood of the sinless One, Jesus Christ. Remember,
He knows us better than we do. He knows what we can and cannot
handle. Now you might say, hey, Lord’s
Prayer, lead us not into temptation. No. One wrote, the meaning of
this is don’t lead me into a trial that is more than we can handle,
that would be cause to us and lead us to be tempted and therefore
sin. It speaks of a heart desire and
an inclination that cause a believer to want to avoid the danger that
trouble and trouble sin can create. It’s the expression of the redeemed
soul that it wants to escape all prospects of falling into
sin, choosing to avoid rather than having to fight or defeat
temptation. One wrote that the idea is that
the Lord stop us before Satan can turn a test into his temptation. No temptation has overtaken you
such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will
not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the
temptation will what? Provide the way of escape also
so that you will be able to endure it. Before it gets to that point,
God will provide a way out. It’s then on us to take that
way or continue down the road. David numbered the people of
Israel. That was a sin. 2 Samuel 24 says, The anger of
the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against
them to say, Go and number Israel and Judah. The word incited,
you would think, would mean the cause of. However, in 1 Chronicles
21.1, we see the real cause. First Chronicles 21.1, then Satan
stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. Satan
did it. God allowed it, just like the
situation with Job. You might say that I would never
blame God, but we do want to blame Satan. He is called the
tempter. And if you remember Geraldine
Jones from the Flip Wilson show, which we have mentioned in here
a couple of times, the devil made me do it. The devil may
have put it in front of you, but you did it. He put the temptation before
us, Satan did, but we are the ones who either avoid or fall
into it. And James spells it out clearly in verses 14 and
15. So when we look at temptation, we see that it’s pervasive. We
see that it’s everyone’s personal responsibility. And here’s the
part that just gets me. It’s a process. Temptation is
a process. And it involves the heart, our
desires, the soul, our will, and our mind. So it involves
the heart, soul, and mind. And this is what gets me. When
we look at this, it’s a process. It just doesn’t happen like this.
But our minds rationalize things. We have to get the will involved.
It’s a conscious effort. It takes a little time. We can’t
just say, oh man, it was right in front of me and I fell. It’s a process. Each one is tempted
when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust
is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished,
it brings forth death. When we think of sin, we usually
think of the act. We think of the person stealing.
We think of the unfaithful person. but we are shown here that the
act is just a culmination of the whole process. Our desire
comes from the heart, then the mind gets involved and gets consent
from the soul, or our will. James shows here, as one wrote,
through James, the Lord makes clear that sin is not a single
act or a series of isolated acts, but rather a specific process.
He uses two illustrations here again. Verse 14 is kind of like
a hunting illustration. Verse 15 is obviously a childbirth
illustration. But each one is tempted when
he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Each one is
tempted, not by God, but when we are carried away by our own
lust, our own desires, that pull, that passion, which come from
the heart. Each one is tempted. Again, making
the point that everyone is tempted. No exceptions. We are lured into
sin. The idea is to be drawn away
or let aside. When an animal or a fish sees
the bait, they see what’s good. They don’t see what’s coming. Or else they wouldn’t go in.
But they see what looks good to them. They don’t see the danger
because they’re drawn to the bait. Enticed is a word referring
to the bait that draws you. What is the bait that draws us? What gets our desires, our passions
stirred up? Our desires begin the path to
temptation and if we are not careful, they lead us into sin.
The real source of the temptation is within us. Our lust, our passion
draws us towards things that are appealing because of our
fleshly desire. Because of our flesh, sin can
look attractive and pleasurable and usually is, at least temporarily. Otherwise, it would have little
power over us. Psalm 141. Verses 3 and 4, it
says, Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the
door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any
evil thing. To practice deeds of wickedness
with men who do iniquity. And do not let me eat of their
delicacies. The delicacy, it looks good.
Our desire makes sin look attractive. So as we can see those desires
within each one of us, that’s what gets us started down the
wrong road. Once we’ve been drawn away and
enticed, it brings about sin, which brings about death. We’re
drawn away and enticed. Our strong desires spring up
and our mind then gets involved. Thomas Manton wrote, the order
of the Gospel is to first keep us from sin and then to relieve
us against it. Sin deceives the mind and changes
the order, saying, hey, there’s relief for sin. There’s grace and mercy available,
and the drawing away has begun. Paul asks in Romans, shall we
sin so grace can abound all the more? The answer is absolutely
not. But our desires and our emotions
are so strong that the mind is deceived. And it begins to reason
why we should fulfill these desires. It begins to rationalize that.
Have you ever gone back and forth in your mind about something
you know is wrong, All of a sudden, you’re having this discussion
about it. Your mind is beginning to rationalize why you should
have that. Your mind is now deceived. Then we go to verse 15, and he
changes the illustration to a childbirth illustration. Lust is seen as
a mother conceiving or giving birth. Then when lust has conceived,
it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings
forth death. The heart has a strong desire.
The mind wanting to fulfill that desire is deceived and is now
trying to convince the soul or your will to bring that about. The will is where the desire
is conceived into committing sin. Conception of sin is brought
on when the will consents. It says, okay, let’s go. After
the will gets involved, there’s nothing left to stop it. And
there are two types of consent the will can give. One is total,
absolute consent. Again, Manton said, with this
total and absolute consent, it’s the type of consent the soul
goes into sin as a ship before the wind with all its sails displayed. Nothing hindering it. Let’s go.
That is the soul or the will of the unbeliever. The second
type of consent is that of the believer. The one who has received
the gift of saving grace from Jesus Christ. Here, the consent
of the will does not come without some resistance. Although there
is enough of a consent to commence the sin, the consent is not total. Again, Manton said, there cannot
be absolute consent of the will of a believer unto any sin. So,
if you find that, you need to examine your faith. Because of
the grace we have received, there is within our soul a principle
fixed on good. The grace we have received inclines
us to do good. To want to do good. Grace is
what rules and not sin. So, full consent of the will
is not possible in the believer. Not only is there a general dislike
for the principle of sin, but it does not want to give consent.
But what’s the problem? We’re not perfect. In times,
the flesh wins over the spirit. Galatians 5.17 For the flesh
sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may
not do the things that you please. However, repeated consent of
the will to sin may bring with it a disposition in the will
and even a readiness to sin. The consent of the will is affected
by the mind and the desires and it will only choose or give consent
if something’s good. That’s the natural way. If something’s
evil, the will’s not going to say, yeah, go for it. It’s not
going to do it. It’s only going to give consent
to something that is good. Something is tempting because
temptation is the representation of a thing as a present good,
which is really evil. The mind breaks the will down
little by little, proposing the advantages that are gained by
going after this and sinning. A broken down will is taken away
from its hesitancy and from the ramifications that sin will bring. and instead now focuses on the
advantages gained by sinning. Eve told Adam, it’s good for
food. It’s pleasant to the eyes. Proverbs
23, 31 through 35 reads, do not look on the wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. At
the last, it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your
eyes will see these strange things, and your mind will utter perverse
things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle
of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.” Be careful of appearances. What
looks good is not always good. I mentioned John MacArthur earlier,
and he described this process with four Ds. So I’m going to
steal from him this morning and give you what those four Ds are.
The first one is our desire. This is just kind of a wrap-up
of this process. The first D is desire. It’s the
emotion or the feeling. It brings about a desire or a
longing to have or achieve something that we don’t have. And it can
be triggered by just about anything. A great car, a picture, a smell. Smell is very powerful. And all of a sudden, that’s all
we think about. That leads to the second D, which
is deception. This is the mind. It plays on
the mind. It’s a thought process that justifies
having the object. The deception then leads to design,
and that’s where the will gets involved. Plans are made to acquire
the object that has been rationalized in our mind. What is desired
and rationalized is now consciously pursued as a matter of choice.
And that leads to the last D, which is disobedience. If the
process continues, design produces disobedience to God’s law. The
object desired, rationalized, and willed is actually acquired. Desire to deception, deception
to design, design to disobedience, which is sin. Sin leads to death. Destruction is always the result
of sin. We as Christians do not lose
our faith. but we lose fellowship with God
at that point. It needs to be reconciled or
fixed. It can result in great loss.
So how do we avoid falling into temptation? Well, it’s got to
be early in the process. The earlier in the process we
can get control of our desires, the better. We need to know where
we are weak. We need to avoid circumstances
or places that will energize our desires. When I was working
with college kids in California, I wasn’t trying to be legalistic,
but I’m saying, why are you going there? Why are you going to see
that? Why are you going to that party? Why are you doing that?
It will just bring things up in your mind. If you go see that,
you’re going to have images in your mind that will all of a
sudden pop up years later and you’ll go, where did that come
from? What do we fill our minds with? We have to be able to deal with
the issue at the level of desire because once it gets to the will,
it’s very difficult to stop. Another thing we have to realize,
Satan is stronger than us and more crafty than us. However,
then we need to remember that Jesus Christ has overcome Satan. He has overcome the world. Only that spirit is power. With Jesus Christ can we overcome
the ploys of Satan. Jesus withstood and was victorious
in the wilderness over Satan. Our power then to resist temptation
is to be in close fellowship with Jesus Christ. Jesus used
Scripture against Satan. And we can use God’s Word to
help us when temptation comes. Psalm 119.11, Thy word have I
hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. When we pray, Jesus resisted
Satan. Again, after 40 days in the wilderness
of praying and fasting, preparing for ministry, the better we know
God’s Word, the more in prayer, the more confident we can be
when that situation comes. Without prayer, we can be sure
a test will be turned into a temptation. Mark 14.38 says, keep watching
and praying that you may not come into temptation. The Spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak. When we’re praying, then
we need to trust that God will answer. Remember, He has a purpose
for our trials and those tests we saw earlier. There’s a reason
for it. He’s trying to increase our faith. He’s trying to give
us perseverance in our Christian walk. He will hear and answer
us. What do we fill our minds with?
What things do we dwell on? Philippians 4, 6-8, be anxious
for nothing. But in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute,
if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things. Our hearts and our minds and
our souls must be given over to God. We have to have the mind
of Christ. Set your heart on things above.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your
mind. Trey mentioned this earlier. Take every thought captive. Let
the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. And then finally, he
brings our focus back to Christ. Verse 16, 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. Oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. Why do we go after that which
does not satisfy? Why do we desire that which is
only temporal when we have the goodness of the Lord eternally? He is the fountain of all good.
And one wrote, why do we allow ourselves to be carried away
and enticed by things that necessitated the sacrifice of the spotless
Lamb, the sinless One, Jesus Christ? One of the fruits of
the Spirit is joy. When you look at that, it’s translated
contentment. Knowing that your relationship
with Christ is good. Is that enough for us? Are the
promises that we have enough for us? Last time we looked at
the brother of humble circumstances needs to glory in his high position. To see all we have in Christ.
If you don’t remember, look at Psalm 103 and Ephesians 1. God is able to give us so much
more. Yet so often we desire and we settle for creation over
Creator. Eve bought the lie and she birthed
sin. When Nathan confronted David
about his sin with Bathsheba, He told David, you are the man
who has done this. And then he goes on to say, thus
says the Lord God of Israel, it is I who anointed you king
over Israel and it is I who deliver you from the hand of Saul. I
also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into
your care and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And
if that had been too little, I would have added to you many
more things like these. Why have you despised the word
of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? Are the promises of
God enough for us? It refers to Him as the Father
of life. And just so you know, that’s
just an ancient title for Him as Creator. God made us to be
like Himself. He would not lead us into evil.
God gives new life to us. We are new creations. Why would
He tempt us to go be back like the old? How then are we so easily trapped
and enticed and carried away to sin? because evidently our mind gets
deceived and says that’s not enough. I had us sing, Come Thou Fount
of Every Blessing. Because when you look at this,
the process that goes on and how repulsive we are to just
rationalize sin and want it so badly that we’ll forget about
our fellowship with God. We see then how amazing grace
is. Come Thou fount of every blessing.
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. That should be the theme of all
we do. Everything comes back to His grace and mercy. Streams
of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. The
last verse, O to grace, how great a debtor daily I’m constrained
to be. Let that goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee, prone to wander. Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart. Take and seal it. Seal it for
Thy courts above. I hope this passage will have you gained a greater appreciation
for the grace that we have, knowing that we are the ones who get
carried away and enticed. It’s our responsibility. Yet,
God is faithful. We need to be overflowing with
praise and eternally grateful that our calling and election
is sure and is not dependent upon our success or failure rate
of dealing with temptation. Let’s pray. Father, thank You
for Your goodness to us. Thank You for Your grace And
I pray that you would bind our wandering hearts, that which makes us prone to wander, bind
them to Thee. Lord, we just thank you again.
And I pray that your grace would just be more of a theme in our
thoughts and mind, knowing that When we look at this process,
we are sinful. We are low. And we can be repulsive in our sin,
in the process that it goes through to sin, and then blame you for
it. Blame you who provided the way
to be forgiven for sin. Forgive us. And Lord, I just
pray that you would guard our hearts and minds. In your name,
Amen. Oh! Thanks for doing that last week
though.