James 1:13-15

All right, good morning, CFC.

We'll be in the book of James, chapter 5, starting in verse 13.

James 5 · chapter mention

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So James writes,

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

In seventh grade, I remember getting caught cheating on a homework assignment for a science class.

I don't even remember what science we were studying.

It shows you how much I cared about that class.

But we had an assignment where we had to go home and read this chapter

and look for sentences on the page that were on our sheet, you know, and fill in the blank.

Just to prove we had read it.

And I kind of thought, it's kind of a waste of time, you know.

And so I didn't feel like doing it.

And so I thought, you know, in all my seventh grade wisdom, I thought,

Well, I'll just copy my friend Alexander tomorrow.

He's a smart kid.

You know, he's in the orchestra.

Like, he's going places.

I'll just copy him.

He'll have it, because he's a book winner.

And so that's exactly what I did.

And the parapro caught me, and she didn't really like me.

And I was kind of a brat.

This is before I was a believer, by the way.

But Mr. Brown, the actual teacher, he did like me.

I'm not sure why, but he did.

And I knew I could talk my way out of it with him.

So when she caught me, she brought me up, you know, showed my homework assignment, all this kind of stuff.

And I just said, Well, you know, Mr. Brown, you assigned this thing, okay?

You told me to copy from the book.

I see no difference copying from my friend.

What's the issue here?

I had to read the sentences.

They're right here.

And he laughed, looked at the parapro, and said, Well, you know, he's got a point.

And it counted.

So that's how I'm here today.

Past seventh grade.

But, yeah, I essentially turned it on him, though.

I'm giving you the short version.

But when I really was kind of arguing with him, which is more playful, I basically turned it on him.

I said, You know, this is really your fault for giving me such a dumb assignment.

I didn't use that word at the time.

But, you know, I just thought, This is so ridiculous.

This is really your fault.

If you really wanted me to learn something here, do something right, or do something profitable,

you should have assigned a different type of homework.

And so I essentially blamed him for what I had done.

Right?

And I turned it on him.

And obviously, you all know the reality.

What I did that day was wrong.

My actions, my desires, my decisions were deceitful.

They were sinful in that moment.

But it's really telling, though.

I mean, this has been, to put it in the more abstract statement, right,

this has been the pattern of man forever.

We always shift blame throughout all of history.

The rebel left to himself never admits responsibility for rebelling.

And this is as old as the Garden of Eden.

When Adam is approached for his sin, he does not admit his wrongdoing to God.

Rather, he shifts the blame.

But not to Eve.

Specifically, he says in Genesis 3, chapter 3, verse 12,

he says,

The woman whom you gave me, God,

the woman whom you gave to be with me,

is the reason I sinned.

So he's saying, God, this broken vessel that you created did this evil.

With the subtle implication being,

God, you are responsible for what I did.

If you didn't want me to do this,

you shouldn't have given me this woman who made me do these things.

And everything that led to me committing this sin is external to me.

It's all you, not me.

Adam, essentially in that moment, was saying,

God does tempt, and he tempted me.

And of course, that is a blasphemous lie,

but a blasphemous lie that Adam believed nonetheless,

and a lie that all of us prior to Christ believed.

And this pattern didn't stop with Adam and Eve.

It continued all throughout the Bible and all throughout history.

Job chapter 2, verse 9,

Job 2:9

Job's wife was ready to curse God and die

as she exhorted her husband to do likewise.

In Ezekiel chapter 18, verses 25 through 26,

Ezekiel 18:25–26

the Lord rebukes the whole nation of Israel in the midst of her sin.

And he says of them,

Yet you, Israel, say,

So Israel says to God,

The way of the Lord is not just.

Hear you, Israelites.

God responds,

Hear you, Israelites.

Is my way unjust?

Is it not your ways that are unjust?

If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sins,

they will die for it because of the sin they have committed,

they will die.

And this pattern of shifting blame has always been true of fallen man.

This is why James is addressing the issue in his epistle,

because it's still an issue at his time.

It's still an issue in our time.

And he was clearly concerned that his audience was susceptible to such sin

during a time in which they are being trialed,

which we've talked about in the weeks past.

And so to start this text, James, what does he do?

He starts with a strong affirmation of God's holiness,

that God is without blame.

And that's point number one for this morning.

God is holy.

Point number one, God is holy.

He says in verse 13,

Let no one say when he is tempted,

I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil,

and he himself tempts no one.

It's a firm affirmation.

Holiness means to be separated from sin

and totally, entirely committed to God.

And that is exactly who God is.

The one who is perfectly committed to himself

and without sin.

Totally separate.

There's no blurring.

There's no lines touching.

Totally, totally separate.

The phrase,

God cannot be tempted with evil,

literally translates from Greek as something like,

God is inexperienced with evil.

He doesn't even experience it.

He's never sinned.

He will not sin.

And he has not sinned.

It is against his nature.

Now recall that James is writing to dispersed Christian Jews

throughout the Greco-Roman world.

These believers were facing hardships,

persecution, and trials of various kinds.

It could be easy for them to face that temptation at such a time,

such a time to blame God.

Well, I'm feeling angry because of my circumstance,

which sovereign God brought on me.

How often do believers question God in the midst of crisis?

How often do we try to shift blame to God in our hearts

when we cannot believe the evil we so quickly run to?

And it seems that James is concerned

that his audience would be tempted to do such a thing.

And so he reminds them of God's holiness to avoid any such foolish thinking.

I think one of the great proofs of God's holiness

and our sinfulness is found in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Go ahead and turn with me there.

We're going to be there for just a minute.

So keep your thumb in James.

But Isaiah chapter 6, starting in verse 1.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Isaiah writes, again, chapter 6, verse 1.

He writes,

In the year that King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,

high and lifted up.

And the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings.

With two he covered his face,

and with two he covered his feet,

and with two he flew.

And one called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the threshold shook

at the voice of him who called,

and the house was filled with smoke.

And Isaiah said,

Woe is me, for I am lost,

for I am a man of unclean lips,

and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,

for my eyes have seen the King,

the Lord of hosts.

So it's important to understand

when we're looking at this text

what a Hebrew thinks of

when he thinks about knowing something.

I'm talking about epistemology,

if you like big words.

How do you know what you know, right?

To know something was not merely

an abstract intellectual ascent for a Hebrew,

this kind of thing that you just have in the mind,

and now I know it.

Rather, it included the totality of the person

as an embodied creature.

To know something was to understand it

in the mind, in the heart,

in the eyes, and in the body.

This is why Moses often uses euphemisms

like Adam knew his wife Eve,

in the wholeness of his body,

in his person, in his mind,

in his heart.

This is why we are called to love the Lord,

our God,

with all of our heart, mind, soul,

and strength in Deuteronomy 6, 5.

Because we are to love him

in our totality,

or wholeness,

as Jane puts it in chapter 1, verse 4.

So we have Isaiah before the throne of God,

and Isaiah in verse 1 saw God.

Isaiah is beginning to know God as he is,

and this causes Isaiah to cry out,

Woe is me!

And this literally means,

Damn me to hell for all eternity.

And why would he say that?

Because that is the only response one can have

who encounters the Lord in his glory.

Isaiah didn't even see the Lord's face or feet,

only a glimpse,

and yet it was enough.

And the angels sing out,

Holy, holy, holy.

This is a grammatical function.

To write it in this way

takes it to the superlative degree,

meaning God is holy, holier, and holiest.

No one holier.

I can't help but say,

but anytime I hear that,

I hear that in Steve Lawson's voice.

Anybody else?

You know?

This takes it to the superlative degree.

Can't help it.

But by learning how holy God truly is,

Isaiah's only response could have been

to recognize that he himself is unholy.

That Isaiah deserves to be cut off from God,

who is clean and without sin.

Unlike Isaiah, who is dirty and filthy,

a filthy rag at best,

as he puts it later on in his book.

Isaiah did not say to himself,

I have been tempted by God.

He knew better than to say that.

And you can turn back to James with me.

So God is holy.

He is without sin,

totally separate from all evil and wickedness,

which is why it would be so foolish

for James' audience to say to themselves,

we are being tempted by God.

God cannot offer or entice

that which he has never experienced.

Now you all can imagine how James' audience

might have reasoned like Adam.

They might have said,

well, God is sovereign

and he has allowed these difficulties to surround us.

Therefore, he is behind the temptations I face.

He's the cause of it.

It is actually God's fault

that I'm thinking evil in this way.

And this would be wrong for them to do so,

as you have already seen.

But this raises the question,

where does temptation come from?

Who or what tempts us?

Is it Satan?

And this leads me to our second point,

point number two.

Man's nature is sinful.

Point number two.

Man's nature is sinful.

Looking back at verse 14 in James,

James writes,

but each person is tempted

when he is lured and enticed

by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived,

gives birth to sin.

James seems to be saying

that we are the source of our own temptation.

We are tempted when we are lured

and enticed by our own desire.

What he's saying here

is that we are born with a sin nature.

And this is all throughout the Bible.

David put it this way.

He said in Psalm 51, verse 5,

Psalms 51:5

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

The Apostle Paul said it this way

in Ephesians 2, 3.

He says that mankind is, quote,

by nature, children of wrath,

meaning our very nature is wicked and sinful.

God himself, who is all-knowing,

all-wise, and perfect judge

over the universe,

has said in Genesis 5, 6,

when he looked over the earth,

he said,

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man

was great in the earth

and that he only saw evil continually.

From beginning to end,

mankind is only evil continually.

But just sticking with James' wording to continue,

James says that we have these desires

as your ESV probably translates it

or other translations use that word as well.

The Greek word here is epithumies.

It is the same word that English translations

often translate as lust.

And typically when doing so,

it is because the translators identify the word

as specifically related to some sort of

sexual temptation or desire.

And this is often the case in Paul's writings.

However, it can be applied to anything.

And in its most basic sense,

it really just carries the idea of

a strong desire for anything,

whether that be food, drink, clothes,

or what have you.

In fact, in pre-Koine Greek,

which is the Greek of the Bible,

this word was used to describe

the sudden violence found in nature.

So a hurricane, a flash flood,

a volcano, earthquake,

these kind of things.

This violent, sudden urging,

this movement.

And furthermore, this word epithumies,

this word desires,

it can be understood as a strong,

violent urging that comes from within.

So it's not coming from without,

but from within, right?

Which is why it could be used to describe

an earthquake from within the earth, right?

A hurricane from within the earth

and the sky.

It is this powerful, quick,

seemingly dominating force

that has to be reckoned with.

It cannot be ignored.

So what is James saying?

He's saying that

when we have these sudden urges,

these strong desires,

and when we are enticed

and lured by them,

then at that moment,

we are being tempted.

And we are being tempted

because we are by nature sinners

who desire sin.

And sin occurs in verse 15

after we have gone through the process

of this enticement,

this desire,

and allow ourselves to be lured.

At this point,

we give birth to sin,

which we conceived

when we desired sin.

Just think about the implications

of this truth.

This means that

we are not murderers

the minute we have killed someone.

Rather,

we are murderers

the moment we are angry enough

to desire to murder someone.

We have already conceived murder.

Now murder is going to be born.

This means that

we are not adulterers

the minute we have slept with someone.

Rather,

we are adulterers

the minute we lust after someone.

We have already conceived adultery.

Now adultery is going to be born.

And this should all sound familiar.

It is what Jesus taught

in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said,

Matthew 5,

Matthew 5:21–22

verse 21 through 22,

You have heard that it was said

to those of old,

You shall not murder,

and whoever murders

will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you

that everyone who is angry

with his brother

will be liable to judgment.

Jesus also said

in Matthew 5,

27 through 28,

You have heard that it was said

you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you

that everyone who looks

at a woman with lustful intent

has already committed adultery

with her in his heart.

Now all of this means

that there is nobody

to point the finger at,

nobody to blame,

except ourselves.

Our greatest enemy,

our greatest opposition

in terms of temptation

is certainly not God,

but neither is it Satan,

the culture,

a political party,

or anyone or anything else.

It is us, ourselves.

We alone bear

the responsibility for our sins

and rightfully so.

Now this is horrifying news.

We are born as sinners.

We desire sin,

which means we cannot desire God

who is entirely separate from sin,

who is the entire opposite of sin.

And this news gets worse

because sin doesn't stop

at being born.

No, when sin is fully grown,

it produces something.

And this leads us

to the final point

for this morning,

point number three.

Sin results in death.

Point number three,

sin results in death.

I'm going to reread verse 14

through the end of our text.

James writes,

But each person is tempted

when he is lured

and enticed

by his own desire.

Then desire,

when it has conceived

its birth to sin,

and sin,

when it is fully grown,

brings forth death.

Now those terms,

lured and enticed,

were predominantly used

as fishing terms

in the Greco-Roman world.

In other words,

James is saying

that we, like fish,

will gladly bite the bait

and be carried off

by our own desires to death.

And that is a perfect picture

of this process.

We see something with our eyes.

We find it attractive in some way.

And then we go after it.

And to be honest,

there is a source of joy,

a source of pleasure

in that moment.

But it is just that

that,

a fleeting moment.

You can imagine

the fish enjoys

eating the worm so much

that the fish doesn't realize

it is hooked right away

until it is too late

and that fish is flailing about

as it dies a miserable death.

James is saying

that this is true of us.

We bite at what we see.

We are slaves to this.

And this is why

we will all die

apart from Christ.

Because our desires

lead only to death,

ruin,

and destruction.

This is what we see

in Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3:6

verse 6,

when Eve first sins.

Now this text is

written in what's called

the grammatical

va construction

for Hebrews.

So all you need to remember

with me mentioning this

is that is a cue

to the reader

to read quickly.

Right?

It's a way of saying

read this passage fast.

Because that's how quickly

this passage occurred

in real time.

Right?

That's the idea here.

So reading Genesis 3,

6 quickly,

Moses writes,

So when the woman saw

that the tree was good

for food

and that it was a delight

to the eyes

and that the tree

was to be desired

to make one wise,

she took of its fruit

and ate

and she also gave some

to her husband

who was with her

and he ate.

Right?

Sin,

sin,

sin,

moving,

rationalist,

evil,

wicked.

And it happens quick

in a moment,

fleeting moment,

the pleasure of eating

the apple and dead.

just like that.

And we already know

that God's word

of warning

to Adam and Eve

came true that day.

He said to them,

you shall surely die.

And when they ate

of the tree,

they did die.

Romans 6,

23,

for the wages

of sin

is death.

God's reaction

to sin

might seem like

an overreaction

to you at first.

It might seem like

God is making

a big deal

about something

that is small.

We can all see

why murderers

or adulterers

might need to be punished

to some degree.

Right?

But the person

who tells a little white lies,

is he really that bad?

The person who maybe

skimped on taxes

a little unknowingly,

are they really that bad?

The person who jokes

inappropriately now and then,

are they really deserving

of eternal conscious torment?

And don't get me wrong,

I do think some sins

are worse than others,

but at the same time,

I believe Paul,

when he says

the punishment

of every type of sin

is the same,

eternal conscious torment

in hell.

The wages of sin

is death.

But back to the question

I posed,

how is God's reaction

not an overreaction?

And this is where

we have to remember

the creator-creature distinction.

God is the creator

who created us,

the creation.

We exist by his will

and for the purpose

of his will,

which is chiefly

to glorify him.

Sin, then,

is doing the very things

for which we are

not created.

Every time we sin,

we are rejecting

God's rule as creator,

we are rejecting

our rule as creation,

and we are spitting

in his face.

Can you imagine

if a fork in your kitchen

wouldn't let you eat,

but it smacked you

every time you tried

to put something

in your mouth?

I mean,

what would you do

to that fork?

How would you feel?

Who is this little fork

that you bought

and maybe even you created

who thinks he has a right

to reject the purpose

for which it was created?

That fork would become worthless,

only good for burning.

I would be livid.

I would want to destroy

that fork in a heartbeat.

That would be so annoying.

Again,

we are created

to glorify God

by being his image bearers.

In other words,

we are to reflect

his glorious,

perfect image.

This image that has never

experienced evil.

And you're starting to see

how egregious

every sin of ours is.

And you're starting to see

that it's not just our sins

that God hates.

He hates our very sin nature.

Our being,

which is a result

of the fall.

And this is why sin

results in death

and rightfully so.

If we are not living up

to our intended purpose,

then we should not live

because we are worthless

in this state.

God makes this plain

in the Old Testament

and Paul tapes it all together

in Romans 3,

Romans 3:10–12

verses 10 through 12.

God says,

of all mankind,

none is righteous,

no, not one,

no one understands,

no one seeks for God,

all have turned aside,

together they have become

worthless,

no one does good,

not even one.

In so many ways,

death is the opposite

of holiness.

That is why it is so offensive

to our holy

and living God

to be with the unholy

and the dead.

That is why in the Old Testament,

man could not approach God

at their own whim

in the holy of holies.

The veil separated

dead men

from the living God.

To truly live

is to obey God

and to not obey God

is to die

because disobedience

is not living.

You want the good life?

And I don't mean that

in a health, wealth,

prosperity sense,

but if you want

the good life,

you have to learn

to obey God

for the joy

that is found in him

only.

Now, believe it or not,

I'm entering

the closing application.

It's kind of a downer note.

But three applications

and then there will be

one just concluding thought

because I do think

this text

sheds light

on the gospel

and should be cause

for us

to have great hope.

But I want to give

the three applications first

because I think

it would be more fitting.

Application number one,

do not play

the victim card

like our culture.

It is hard to go

anywhere in society

without everyone

telling you

that your actions

are the result

of something

external to you.

Oh, you were just

trained to do that

by your bad parents.

That's why you're

the way that you are.

Oh, that's your

classmates' fault

for enticing you.

That's why you did

that stupid thing.

Oh, you lose control

sometimes because

you face systemic issues

that are beyond

your control.

Not your fault.

Oh, that word

is a trigger for me.

That's why I'm angry

and I want to kill you

right now.

Or how about this?

I can't help it.

I was born this way.

And that's the age-old lie

again and again

and again.

But on judgment day,

God will not

allow anyone

to squeeze out

of anything.

He knows the heart

and He will judge

based off the heart.

It cannot play

the victim card.

It loses

every time.

Application two,

and this goes right

along with the first one,

repent.

And this is simple, right?

Simple to understand,

maybe hard to do.

By God's grace,

which He gladly

lavishes on His church,

we are able to repent

of our sins.

We are able to recognize

that we rightly deserve

to be punished,

to die as a result

of our sin,

which we desired.

But we are atoned for

by Christ,

who knew no sin,

that He bore the wrath

of God that we

deserve.

Jesus was not

responsible for our sin,

and yet He took

the consequence

on Himself,

and He died.

He died,

which means we

won't die

in the eternal sense,

because He was raised

on the third day.

And for those of you

who are not in Christ,

I urge you to repent

and believe in Him

as Lord and Savior.

This is your only way

of escape

from the wrath

to come.

But for the rest of us

who are already

in Christ,

I urge you still,

right?

The command to repent

still stands.

Repentance

is obedience.

So if we do not

continually repent

of our sin,

then our disobedience

is compounded.

Right?

As John says,

if we say we have

no sin,

we are liars.

So confess sin,

and we have an advocate

with the Father.

Now,

application number three,

prepare yourselves

for trials

and temptations.

temptations.

The Greek word

for tempted

that we saw

in verse 13,

we have actually

already seen

in the book of James.

In chapter 1,

verse 2,

text I preached

on a couple weeks,

the word appears.

It is perasmos.

It can mean

either temptation

to sin

from,

with,

or without.

And sometimes

it only means

trial or testing.

In chapter 1,

verse 2,

and in Clay's text

from last week,

it clearly means

trial.

In our text today,

it clearly means

to be tempted

to sin.

I mention this

all to say,

we prepare ourselves

for both temptation

and trials

in the same way,

though they are

different things.

We fill our hearts

and minds

with Scripture

to remain hopeful

in the midst

of trials.

And we fill our hearts

and minds

with Scripture

to remain faithful

in the midst

of temptation.

Easy to understand,

hard to do,

but we have

to do it.

So repent,

prepare yourself

for trials

and temptations,

fill your mind,

your heart

with God's word,

so that in the midst

of it,

you'll never be

tempted to question

God's goodness

or his holiness,

and you'll see

in his word

just how good

he is.

Now, as I said,

before we pray,

I want to offer

one more thought.

It is an encouragement

or perhaps better

to think of it

as a devotional

to conclude the sermon.

When I was assigned

a text,

I thought,

man,

this is going

to be a downer.

But it's true

and we have

to reflect on it.

It's important,

right?

All Scripture

is profitable,

so this is good

for us to hear

these hard things.

So you've heard me

talk about

how we are all

sinners by nature,

that God hates

our sin

and our sin nature,

how we are worthless

apart from Christ.

And that is

biblical truth,

but oh so hard

to swallow.

And there is good news,

right?

This is only

one side of the coin,

and the other side

of the coin is this.

God loves us

despite ourselves.

Now you can call

this point four

if you want.

It doesn't necessarily

come out of our text

directly,

but it's biblically

true nonetheless.

Romans 5, 8,

Paul says,

Christ died for us

while we were yet

sinners.

While we were yet

lured and enticed.

While we were yet

sinners,

Christ loved us.

He died for us.

You can read into that

while we were yet

worthless,

evil,

rebellious,

and so on.

You've heard me

reference this verse

many times.

It is a personal

favorite.

I've not had the

chance to unpack it,

and I still won't

today, unfortunately.

But just consider

this.

There's no reason

for God to love us

that is in us.

It's not our hair,

it's not our gender,

it's not our ethnicity,

it's not our intelligence,

it's not our wealth,

or our poverty.

And it's not even

our obedience

that stirs up

God to love us.

So what stirs up

God to love us?

And it's this,

God stirs himself

up to love us,

and that is such

good and freeing

news.

Zephaniah 3,

Zephaniah 3:17

verse 17,

The Lord your God

is with you.

He is mighty to save.

And notice this,

He will take

great delight

in you.

He will quiet you

with His love.

He will rejoice

over you

with singing.

It's not on account

of us that He loves us,

rather,

it's on account

of Christ in us

that He loves us.

And this is why

His love cannot fail,

because He loves Christ,

and Christ abides

in us who are saved.

Just as you should

not question

God's inability

to tempt us

with sin,

you should not

question God's

unfailing love

for His church,

for Christ's pride.

I didn't plan this,

but it worked out.

Nathan mentioned

Luke 22 this morning.

I was talking about

that word desire earlier,

how it's usually

translated as lust,

but it can be broad.

It's not necessarily

an evil word.

You could use this word

rightly to describe

your desire for God.

And it was a curious thing,

I never knew this,

but that's the word

Jesus used

that's translated

as earnestly desired.

So with that desire

and that extent

to which we seek sin,

Christ desires to partake

of the supper with us,

to be with us.

His love is for real

in that sense.

It's sincere.

It's genuine.

And turn with me,

this is our last text

and I'm not going

to comment on it.

I just want to close out

with reading this.

But turn with me

to 1 John 4, 16.

Again, I just want

to leave us on this note

of this gospel hope

that we have.

John writes,

so we have come

to know

and to believe

the love

that God has for us.

They believe

in his love.

God is love.

And whoever abides

in love

abides in God

and God abides

in him.

by this

is love

perfected with us

so that we may

have confidence

for the day

of judgment.

Because as he is,

so also are we

in this world.

There is no fear

in love,

but perfect love

casts out fear.

For fear

has to do

with punishment.

And whoever fears

has not been

perfected

in love.

We love

because

he first

loved

us.

Let's pray.