James 1:13-18

Alright, guys, good morning.

Today we will be in the book of James, the letter of James, and we will be in chapter 1, and we will be looking at verses 13 through 18.

James chapter 1, verses 13 through 18.

James 1:13–18

And our passage this morning deals with the nature of temptation in relation to God.

If you remember from our last study a few weeks ago in James, we learned all about trials in the first 12 verses.

If you remember, James is writing to Jewish Christians who were being persecuted.

And so he tells them and us to consider our trials a joy.

And he tells them that their response to trials should be asking God for wisdom and to do that in faith, not in unbelief.

And he reminds them to boast in their gospel position, not their financial position, not their socioeconomic position, but to boast in their gospel position.

And then in verse 12, he concludes this whole teaching on trials by saying, Blessed is the one who overcomes trials, for he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

And this is a beautiful teaching on trials.

So it is fitting then that James would now shift his attention to the subject of temptations here in verse 13.

And he doesn't do this arbitrarily, he does this intentionally because he knows that our external trials, which is meant for our spiritual benefit, can also create in us during those times internal temptations, evil desires.

So in other words, trials can create temptations.

Take, for example, a Christian man who's facing a financial trouble.

Let's say COVID has ruined his small business, and he's not sure how he's going to provide for his family.

So although this is a time for this guy to exercise his faith and to trust in God and to lean on the church and to pray diligently for provision, there's also a temptation to lie on his taxes.

There's now a temptation to embezzle money.

There's now a temptation for this guy to pursue a get rich quick scheme.

Or take, for example, a recovered heroin addict who's now sober and following Jesus.

But a couple years later, he experiences a physical trial, a severe, undiagnosed back pain.

And the doctors can't seem to fix the problem.

So although this is a time for this person to pray for wisdom, to lean on the Lord, and to be patient, there's also a temptation in this person thinking, maybe I should just go back to drugs.

Maybe I should just go get high and get on cloud nine so I can get rid of this pain.

Or I'll give a personal example.

A month ago, I was driving down a back road, and I accidentally almost hit this car that had its blinkers on.

And I spun around the person, and this guy got out of the car.

He came up to my window, he was cussing at me, screaming at me, he was like three inches away from my face.

He I think even there was spit coming on my face.

He even pounded on the top of my hood.

And although this was a time for me to be Christ-like and forgiving and gentle and demonstrating to this guy the fruits of the Spirit, there was also a temptation in me sizing this guy up.

I mean, I was having flashbacks of high school wrestling.

I was like double-legged takedown into a headlock.

I can take this guy.

And so what we see is this that external trials, which God uses to develop our faith, can also be an occasion for internal temptation, which is meant to make us to sin.

And so James wants to make it very clear where God is in all this.

Okay, we see, we've seen already that God was involved in our trials, he's over our trials, he's in control of our trials, but can we say the same thing about temptations?

Does God participate in our temptations like he does in our trials?

And James expected this kind of objection, and so he answers this question rather sharply in verse 13.

He says, Let no one say that God is tempting me.

So James immediately rejects the idea that God would tempt us.

And the fact that James even brings this up suggests that we, fallen humans, are prone to blame God for our temptations.

So we are quick to take God's sovereignty and twist it in such a way that makes him ultimately responsible for my evil desires and temptations.

In fact, we see this throughout Scripture.

It's as old as sin, literally.

After sin entered the world in Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God confronts Adam and he says, Adam, what have you done?

And do you remember Adam's response?

It was, God, it was this woman you gave me.

And then God confronts Eve.

And what does she say?

Well, it was this serpent that you allowed God in the garden to tempt me.

And so one of the most common displays of sin is blaming God for our evil desires and choices.

Because sin seeks self-justification.

It refuses to take personal responsibility.

As Romans 9 says, we make evil choices and then we look at God and we say, Why did you make me like this?

Or as Proverbs 19:3 says, we ruin our lives by our own sin, then we're mad at God about it.

Proverbs 19:3

And so whenever we are drawn to evil or we experience moral failure, or we're put in a situation that provokes our flesh, we're so quick to look at God and say, You could have prevented this, you allowed this to happen, you could have protected me, but you didn't.

And we make God the bad guy.

He was the one who allowed me or caused me to have evil desires and to pursue them and to commit sin.

No, says James, don't say that.

Just because God is involved in your trials doesn't mean that he is involved in your internal wickedness.

Just because God is working all things for our good doesn't mean that God is working sin in you for your failure.

That's deception.

And we need the wisdom to make that distinction.

And so maybe you're like me saying to yourself, well, I would never say that.

But a lot of the times we do this indirectly.

We might not be bold enough to directly blame God, but a lot of the times we blame him indirectly.

Have you ever said, Satan made me do it?

Or maybe we said, I'm tempted in this area because of my family genetics and my biological makeup.

Or maybe we blame others and we say, I'm tempted and I fall short in this area of my life because my parents never taught me.

Or maybe we blame our environment and we say, well, if I didn't live in such a bad place, surrounded by bad people, I wouldn't be tempted.

Or we blame our past, which is very common.

This if this thing didn't happen to me in my past or as a child, I wouldn't struggle with this temptation today.

And listen, some of these circumstances might be true.

I don't want to take away from that, but what we are doing is we are shifting blame to anything other than ourselves.

And in each case, we are ultimately blaming God.

And we are drawn to this type of thinking because it gets us off the hook.

If God is responsible for my failures, then he has no right to judge me.

In my temptations, if they're God's fault, and if they're not my fault, then God has no right to judge me.

In fact, I have a right to judge him.

That's often why we think that way.

And it is amazing how often, even as Christians, we do this.

And the application and the call to us this morning is simple.

Church, may none of us ever say that God is tempting us to sin.

Don't think it, don't entertain it, don't say it, because it's inaccurate, it's unbiblical, it's bad theology, it's blasphemous, and it's unfitting for the children of God.

And James gives us two big reasons why we should never say this.

Look at verse 13, the end of it.

He says, God is not tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone.

So God cannot be involved in your temptation for two reasons.

One, because of his character.

He is untemptible, he's unversed in evil.

He is infinitely good, he is perfectly pure, and he is absolutely holy.

So he isn't like us.

Sin isn't appetizing to him.

He hates it, and the fury of his wrath burns against it.

And the second reason is this it's impossible for God to tempt anyone with sin.

In other words, temptation goes against the activity and the ministry of God.

God doesn't solicit evil, he has never, and he would never condone or encourage sin.

So God would never promote that which killed Christ.

So let me just for a moment remind us of who God is this morning.

According to Isaiah 6, God sits in heaven and he radiates holiness in glory and majesty.

He is so pure that even the angels and the cherubims must shield themselves from his radiating manifest holiness and purity.

According to Genesis 7, this is the God who flooded the entire earth because of sin.

According to Revelation 20, this is the God who hates evil so much that he will condemn people for an eternity over it.

And according to the Gospels, this is the God who sent his one and only Son into the world to pay the price of our sin.

Our sin killed Jesus.

And God sacrificed his son to bear our sin so that he might kill sin and the penalty and the power of it that it has in our lives.

And so, in light of all this truth, why would we think that God encourages evil desires?

Why would God esteem the murder weapon that killed his beloved son?

Why would God dress up sin and make it look attractive to us?

He can't and he doesn't.

God is not drawn to evil desires and he does not entertain them.

And therefore, he is not involved in the ministry of temptation.

On the contrary, God is in the business of killing sin.

God's ministry is calling us away from sin, setting people free from sin, destroying the grip of sin in our lives, and promoting holiness and life.

That is God's ministry.

And so the only involvement that I can see in the New Testament that God has in our temptations is assisting us to escape our temptations.

According to 1 Corinthians 10, 13, God provides a way of escape.

And he's giving us divine provision if we want it to escape our dark desires.

His ministry then is not soliciting sin, but helping us to hate evil more fervently and to love him more obediently.

So God is not dangling sin in front of his children, seeing if we'll bite it.

God's not putting a bottle of booze in front of a recovered alcoholic saying, Let's see if I can get him to sin against me.

That goes against all of Scripture and that stands against every attribute of God.

And so we must rid ourselves of such a thought.

Because that's not who God is.

That is not what God does.

But the question still remains: if temptations do not come from God, then where do they come from?

Glad you asked, said James.

And he answers that for us in verse 14.

He says, but each person is tempted when they, underlined they, are dragged away by their own, underlined their own evil desire and enticed.

So where does temptation come from?

Who is responsible for our temptations?

According to James, you are in your evil heart.

And we learned already that trials come from the will of God for the purpose of testing us and refining our faith.

But temptations come from the will of man, the heart of man, for the purpose of sinning.

And that's why God commands us to endure trials, but to escape temptations.

And Jesus taught this in Mark 7.

He said, From within, from out of the heart, proceeds evil thoughts and adulteries and fornications and murders.

And Jeremiah tells us that the human heart is deceitful above all things.

It's desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

So temptation comes from within us.

You know, every time I drive by Dunkin' Donuts, and I think to myself, I really want to buy 10 donuts and eat them back to back until I'm sick.

And by the way, if you don't believe I can do that, ask Molly.

Or when I drive by Apple Valley and I see this beautiful house next to the next to the lake, and I find myself leaning towards it, coveting, saying, I want that.

Or when I'm having a conversation with someone difficult and I'm tempted to treat them unfairly and to treat them poorly.

These evil desires, they're not coming from God.

This isn't a test from God.

What is this?

It's my evil heart craving sin, wanting to satisfy the desires of my flesh.

It's my sin nature drooling and entertaining sinful fantasies that are contrary to the person and the will of God.

It is my heart wanting to chase after dark desires, enticing me to exercise my will over God's will.

So temptation comes from within us, not outside of us.

You know, there's actually religious groups out there who believe that temptation can be avoided if you just physically or socially distance yourself from objects or any kind of object or form of temptation.

Monks and separatist groups have literally left society and culture and they've isolated themselves from anything that might provoke sexual sin, gluttony, idolatry.

And some of them have even castrated themselves.

They've gone so far as to try to remove the temptation by castrating themselves.

And it's interesting if you read a lot of their writings, or if you read about Luther, what we learn is that they were still tempted to disobey God.

They still lusted, they still had evil desires, temptation was still there.

They did everything externally to try to purge themselves from evil.

But what they realized is that temptation does not come from the outside in, it comes from the inside out.

And don't get me wrong, Satan, who is called the tempter in the world, they certainly encourage sinful behavior, but they are not responsible for me choosing sin.

They are not putting evil desires in me.

My heart does that.

It's verses like this that force us to take ownership of our sin.

It is verses like this that force us to look in the mirror and say, I'm the problem.

And as we play the blame gain and we point fingers, saying, Well, if God would have protected me, if he would have answered this prayer, I wouldn't have been tempted.

And God knew this would happen, and he didn't do anything, and then Satan tricked me, and then my spouse was being difficult.

And as we seek self-justification and trying to soothe our conscience and pointing fingers, James grabs our fingers and he points them right back at us and he says, You are tempted because you have evil desires.

So this might be hard for some of us to hear, but it's something that we need to hear.

We need to understand this.

Because if we have any chance of overcoming our temptations, we need to stop blaming the one who can help us and admit that there is something in us that is twisted and dark and perverted.

And then and only then can we then begin to experience the transforming power and the enabling grace of Jesus Christ who gives us victory over the power of sin.

You have no chance of slaying sin and serving God if you're unwilling to take responsibility for your sin.

So we need to have a biblical understanding of temptation.

We can't get this doctrine twisted.

We need to have a tight grasp on where temptation comes from and where it leads, because it's not good.

Look at verse 15.

So we are tempted, then after the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is full-blown, gives birth to death.

So here we have the progression of temptation.

Temptation starts with an evil desire.

For example, I could cheat on my spouse.

Then the evil desire makes root in our hearts and in our minds.

I'm going to treat on cheat on my spouse.

And then that desire gives birth to sin.

I'm committing adultery.

And then once that sin grows, it gives birth to death.

And in this case, relational death.

So James uses this pregnancy terminology to help us understand this.

A seed is sown, conception happens, a baby grows, and then there is birth.

Except in this case, birth is not life, it's death.

And so this is where temptation can lead.

It's not hyperbole, it's not an exaggeration.

When you yield to temptation, the end result is death.

Let me give you an example on this.

Let's say I'm leaving for work in the morning, and as I walk out of the door, my wife makes a rude comment to me, and my feelings get hurt.

So I get in the car and I'm driving to work, and an evil desire grows in me.

And I say to myself, I'm mad at her.

How dare she say something like that to me?

I'm not willing to forgive her.

In fact, I should text her back a really hurtful text.

I should get even.

Now, in that moment, there's this temptation, I can either kill the evil desire through the power of the Holy Spirit, or I can allow the evil desire to grow until it conceives into full-blown sin.

And let's say I allow the sin to grow and I send the mean text, and Molly receives it, and she's hurt by it.

There's now unforgiveness, there's now tension in our marriage, and perhaps there's far more future consequences than ever expected.

And so my sin fruited forth death.

Now, someone might uh chuckle at that illustration and say, Jimmy, it's not a big deal.

You know, death, that's a bit extreme.

And I'm sure you two will figure it out, and the next day you'll forgive each other.

And my response to that is, yeah, maybe, hopefully, I hope that would be the case, but that's not what sin wants.

Do you think sin just wants to knock me down for a day?

No, sin wants to consume me.

It wants to destroy me.

As John Owen says, if I'm not killing sin, sin will be killing me.

It wants to fruit forth spiritual death, relational death, physical death wherever it can.

And so we must realize that it's small seeds like this that lead to broken marriages.

It's small seeds like this that cause a lifetime of unforgiveness towards a spouse.

It's small seeds like this over a period of time that lead to things like affairs and domestic abuse, divorce, and even murder.

This is the progression of sin.

It wants to spread death to me, to everyone around me, and to have its influence even into the generations to come.

And this all comes from what?

Where did this all come from?

It came from my evil desires and me yielding to them.

So think of Cain, who was upset that his sacrifice was not accepted by God.

He became jealous of his brother Abel because God accepted his offering.

Cain had an evil desire and it began to grow and grow in him.

And God warned him, he said, Sin is crouching at the door.

Don't let it consume you, Cain.

He told him, You should rule over it.

But Cain didn't listen.

He yielded to his self-created to this evil desire and allowed it to grow.

And what was the result?

Death.

See, sin is not happy and it is not satisfied until it grips every cell of your being so that you might be its master.

And the wage for serving sin, according to a Romans 6.23, is death.

And by the way, death isn't just referring to physical death.

Okay, it's a term used to describe a condition.

Okay, deadness.

And so does this sound like a ministry that God would participate in?

No.

But unfortunately, this is a destructive ministry that we are involved in when we exercise our will above God's will and yield to our independent desires.

Now, as Christians, the good news is this that we serve a God who has given us everything we need to overcome temptation.

As 2 Peter 1 says, we serve a God who has given us everything we need to live a godly life.

We serve a God who has given us his spirit.

He has given us divine strength from above to say no to sin and yes to Christ.

We serve a God who's given us his Son.

He's given us His word, His promises, His church, and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

We have every piece of armor, every divine provision and 24-hour divine access through Christ.

And so as we look at all this and we stare at it and we meditate on it, we can begin to see how bad we are and how good God is.

And what James does next is awesome.

He gives us an example of a ministry that God does do.

After showing us this horrible progression of temptation and making it perfectly clear that God is not in this, he then turns our attention back to God and he says, Let me show you what God does do.

Look at verses 16 through 18.

He says, Don't be deceived, my brothers and my sisters.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits among what he created.

So he starts by saying, Don't be deceived.

Don't be confused about where evil comes from, and don't be confused on where goodness comes from.

God, if you're attributing God to evil processes, that's deception.

You are deceived.

But God is good, says James.

Every gift on earth and in heaven is good that comes from God.

In other words, everything in this life, from the beauty of birth to the sun in the sky, to the gift of marriage, to the blessing of children, to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to all the spiritual blessings that He has bestowed on us, all of it, every single thing in this life that is good and pure and life-giving and wholesome and lovely comes from one source, and that's God.

Luke 18, 19.

No one is good except God.

So God is only capable of performing that which is 100% good.

Everything he does is good.

He created the world and he said, it is good.

He is incapable of doing anything bad.

The Father of the heavenly light sits on his throne and he showers down on mankind good gifts, gifts of mercy, gifts of life, gifts of joy, gifts of beauty, and the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

And we are reminded that God will never change.

He will always be good and he will never stop doing good.

He doesn't change like shifting shadows.

A thousand years from now, God's not going to change his mind and say, I think I'll start doing bad things.

He's immutable.

He will never do that.

He doesn't improve.

There's no hints of change.

There's not even a shadow.

There's no alteration, no variation, there's no equivocation in God.

God is immutable in his will, in his knowledge, in his nature, and in his purpose.

Nothing can be added or subtracted from God.

He learns nothing, he needs nothing, he always is and he always will be.

And that means that God's goodness will never change.

He will eternally be good and manifest goodness forever.

And that's good news to us.

And James gives us an example in verse 18 of what this goodness looks like.

He says that God chooses sinners.

He gives them new birth through the word of truth, and he gives them a standing above all the rest of what he has made, the first fruits of creation.

Now notice the contrast here.

We have evil desires through sin that give birth to death.

But God has good desires for us.

He chooses to give us new birth in Christ through the word of truth, which brings forth life, making us as hard as it is to believe, the first fruits of all creation.

So behold the will of man, evil desires, temptation, sin, death, and behold the will of God, goodness, new birth through the word of truth, and giving sinners a standing above all of creation.

So, church, what do we do with a passage like this?

What's the application this morning?

I think the application is, the main application is clear.

If you have been blaming God or accusing him of being involved in your temptations or your evil desires or your failures, you need to get rid of that lie.

And that's what repentance is.

It's changing your mind.

It's renewing your mind, it's thinking differently.

We need to change our minds.

We need to renew our minds in God's truth, which says that you are responsible for your evil desires and God is responsible for everything good.

We need to own that and we need to believe it.

And if you're confused in a trial, whether you're experiencing a trial or temptation, thinking to yourself, is God in this?

You can ask Him for wisdom.

As I talked about last time when I preached, God is eager to give wisdom.

And just a side note, too, if you're struggling to believe that God is good this morning, as you observe life and experience life and wrestle through biblical theology, I just want you to know that you're not alone in that.

We all have seasons where we doubt God's goodness.

And if that's the case this morning, I do not want you to feel condemned for that.

On the contrary, I would encourage you to open up with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

You know, when you are doubting God's goodness alone, that's a scary place to be.

And we need each other and we need the church and we need to lock arms and talk scripture with one another and remind ourselves daily that God is good.

And so don't be embarrassed if you're struggling with that.

And don't wallow in condemnation.

I guarantee if you come up to me or Rick or Ron and you say, hey, I'm struggling.

I need prayer because I'm struggling that to believe that God is good, I promise you, all three of us will say, I one, I've been there, two, I get it, and how can I help?

Let me pray for you and let me encourage you.

And if you're struggling with temptation this morning or you're in a season where you are yielding to temptation, remember where it leads.

Know the cost of sin.

Know the cost of it.

And know this that the only way that you're going to escape your temptation is through the Spirit of God and through the Word of God.

We're not able to fight temptation alone.

We need Jesus, we need his spirit, and we need each other.

And so, church, to summarize all this, let no one say that God is tempting me.

Recognize where temptation comes from, and that is you.

And remember that God is good, and that He has given us new birth in Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.