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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip. It is a process, and there are no other verses in scripture where. The process of temptation is so Simply and lucidly explained as these two verses.
So what I'm gonna do. with verse 14 and 15, this course of temptation. is give you Step By step How temptation in your life works. And I'm going to give you a set of words. All of them begin with the letter D, the first.
Word is desire. This is where it all begins: desire. Verse 14: Each one is tempted. When he is drawn away by his own desires, and enticed. We all have desires.
Good desires. You have a desire to be happy, you have a desire to be peaceful, you have a desire to experience joy. You have a desire to be loved. You have a desire to be accepted. You have a desire to be significant and valued.
All of those are good desires, and even more basic than that, you have the desire for food, water, and shelter. Without those desires, You die. Unless you get hungry, you would never eat. Unless you got tired, you would never sleep. These are God-given desires.
But that's where the problem begins. And I say that's where the problem begins because though they are God-given desires, they then also must be God-governed desires. If God-given desires are not God-governed desires, you will seek to get your desire fulfilled. In a way that is not only displeasing to God, but is detrimental to you.
So, for example, we have a desire for love and acceptance. But that can lead to sexual immorality. We have a desire for significance. But that can lead to jealousy, gossip, and lying. We have a desire for happiness, but that can lead to selfishness or theft.
or pride.
So, like Spurgeon said, Satan dangles the carrot. down the wrong path. And basically says, Look, I know you have this desire. I know you want something. I'll give it to you.
You don't have to wait on God. You don't have to go God's way. I'll give it to you right now.
So here's another set of examples. You go to school, you're taking an examination. Is it wrong for you to pass the test?
Now, is it wrong for you to cheat in order to pass the test? Yes.
Okay.
Okay, you're hungry. Is it wrong for you to eat? No, is it wrong for you to steal in order to eat? Yeah.
So we have desires, they're legit. Nothing wrong with them. But when you seek to get them fulfilled or you offer the lure that you can get it fulfilled a different way, they can become wrong.
So that's the first stage, desire. The second stage, also a D word, is deception. After desire, in temptation, comes deception. Look at verse. 14 again.
Each one is tempted. When he is Drawn away, notice those two words: drawn away by his own desires and. Enticed. Drawn away. Enticed.
Those are terms that come from the great outdoors. Drawn away is a hunting term, enticed is a fisherman's term. Drawn away means to set a trap. to capture an animal. Enticed Is a word that means to bait a hook, to cover up the hook.
with a piece of bait.
So, if you're a hunter or a fisherman, or anybody here like to hunt and fish, raise your hand.
Okay, do you know that you're deceivers? Let me explain that. Yeah.
The hunter and the fisherman embark on a mission of deception. That's what it is. They are appealing to the natural desires of the animal or the fish, which is to eat food. And you Are disguising the trap that you have laid for them. That's what it is.
So when you wake up in the morning, First thing that Satan says to all his demons is, boys, let's go fishing. And he takes the hook. Puts bait on it, and he knows you. He has studied human nature for thousands of years. Satan knows people better than people know people.
He's been at it a long time and he knows you individually. And he knows exactly what it will take to distract you and to bait the hook.
So he will camouflage his intention as he appeals to your desires. David looked out of his palace and saw Bathsheba bathing. One evening. The bait was the woman that he saw. What he didn't see was the hook underneath the bait.
And the hook that would destroy him. That would cost him. Uh his marriage would cost him um His son's life, et cetera, came later on. He didn't see any of that. He only saw the bait.
So there is desire followed by deception. Third, in this course of temptation is decision. After the desire is there, And after the deception is given. At some point, you make a choice.
So notice in our text In verse 15, then Then When desire has a desire. This is where you make the choice. This is where you take the bait. This is when you decide not to look for the way of escape. Not to turn your back on what you know is an allurement.
But to Be curious about it. Linger a little while longer. Study it a little further. I'm really curious about this.
So David looked up and he saw Bathsheba. bathing on that evening. That was an accidental glance. It was not His fault. And when he first saw her and glanced at her, that was not a sin.
He couldn't help it. But then David's will Cooperated with David's desire. and he made a choice. And what choice did he make? Simply that the glance Become a gaze.
And the gaze Became a willful stare, and the willful stare became an invitation to his bedroom, and the invitation turned into an affair. He took The baby. Wilbert Chapman writes this, Temptation is the tempter looking through the keyhole into the room where you are living. Sin is your drawing back the bolt and making it possible for him to enter.
So that's when the choice is made.
Something else I want to notice before we move on to the next. Look at the word in that verse conceived when desire has. Conceived.
Now that sounds like A woman giving birth to a baby. It's Mother's Day, you might think, oh, it's just a human mother giving birth to a baby, except. Just like he used animal terms before, drawn away and enticed, hunter's term. fisherman's term.
So too this word here. conceived literally is spawned. It comes from typically in Greek the animal world, like the previous terms.
Now, why is it that James feels the need to use all of these animal terms in dealing with temptation? Here's why I think it is: when you live your life on the level of giving into all your desires, you're no better than an animal. You are living the most basic animal. biological form of life. You're not living on a higher plane, you're living on the lowest possible plane, like that of an animal.
So desire, deception, Decision. There's a fourth D word, a fourth. stage in the course of temptation, and that is the delivery. When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.
Now the baby is born.
Now the choice is made.
Now the sin is hatched.
So desire, deception, decision, delivery, but there's more. The fifth word is development. Development. Because it says this. When desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin.
When it is What does this say? Full grown. You mean sin grows? It's exactly what It is saying, sin grows. You see.
Some people talk about, well, it's just a little sin. It's not a big deal. People do this all the time, just a little sin. There's no such thing as a little sin. Once it's birthed, it grows.
It demands more. It is never satisfied. It grows. A little gossip can become division. A little anger can become hatred.
A little lust can turn into adultery. A little sip. can turn into an addiction. Or as Paul would sum it up, A little leaven. leavens the whole lump.
So The road to life. Shattering Sin. You know, the kind that just breaks marriages up, breaks families up. The road to life-shattering sin is paved by little sins. Little sense, individual decisions, choices that shape our desires, our habits.
and our futures.
So, desire, deception, decision, delivery, development, and the final stage. You guessed it is death. Sin, when it is full grown, brings forth Death. Do you see the lure? Do you see the lie?
You see the genius of temptation, for lack of a better term? It looks so good. What could be wrong if it feels so right? It looks so good. It'll kill you.
It'll bring forth death. This is Connect with Skip-Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, have you ever wondered what it really means to grow up spiritually? In Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip Heitzig walks you through 21 powerful teachings that show you how to live a mature, Christ-centered life, one shaped by conviction, consistency, and character. This practical and encouraging series is yours when you give $50 or more to support ConnectWithSkip Heidzig and share teaching like this one today with more people around the globe.
Request adulting as a CD package or digital download at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Let's return now to today's message. I was reading uh a while back of a little spider in South America. And it's an interesting little spider, it can emit light, it flashes. From its tail, little emissions of light.
And so moths who like light get really dazzled by this and they get curious and get closer and closer. That's the design of the allurement. And when the moth is close enough, It's over. It's captured. 'Kay.
It gives birth, or brings forth, Death.
Now, I do need to explain this. I don't think he's referring literally to physical death. I don't think he's referring here to eternal death. Because he's speaking to brothers and sisters. He's not saying, you know, if you've sinned, you're going right to hell.
He's saying, Not Physical death, not eternal death, but I think he's speaking here of. Relational death, separation from God. You're living a death-like existence. The idea is that short-lived pleasure will be followed by a deeper sense of emptiness. A separation from God.
Sin always produces something dead, it kills. Yeah.
brings the death of a marriage. of a friendship. The death of joy. hope meaning the death of abundant life. It separates you from the will of God.
It separates you from the life of God. That's the death I think he is speaking of. But. I just want to throw this out as well because I am a Bible expositor, and there are other truths in the Bible that I think need to be brought to bear. There's a very interesting verse of scripture in Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he talks about people in the church who are.
Dishonoring the Lord's table? In the manner that they're acting and being very flippant about it. And he writes this: For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many have. Died. And the implication and the interpretation by most scholars is that it means that if you allow sin to take root in your life as a believer and you refuse to repent, God may physically take you out.
As a mercy. To you and to those around you.
Now, I'm very careful in saying that because I don't want you to think that everybody who dies, oh, God's mad Adam, God punished him. No. Last time I checked, everybody on earth dies. All right, so that's not it.
So it is the exception, not the rule, but it did happen in the church at Corinth. Here's the point. The greater point is this: the wages of sin. Is always some kind of death. At first, it's just little, at first, it's just a little baby, but just wait till that thing grows up.
It becomes a monster.
So, desire, deception, decision, delivery, development, and death. That's the course of temptation as mapped here. Let's go now to the third thing you need to know, and that is our resource in temptation. Verse 16: Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and perfect gift is from above.
and comes down From the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation. or shadow of turning. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth. That we might Be a kind of first fruits to his, or first fruits of his creatures.
So get the flow of the passage. Temptation doesn't come from God. Perish the thought. What does come from God is only every good and perfect gift. That's his nature.
Because God is good, because God is perfect, what comes from Him is every good and every perfect gift. As Peter will write, God has given us. all things that pertain to life and godliness.
Now look at how James describes God. He calls him in verse 17. The father of Lights That's a Jewish title for God. Choosed a few times. Father of lights.
And it is a description in Judaism. Hearkening back to the creation when God created the heavens and the earth. God said, Let there be light, and God put in the Atmosphere, the celestial. Heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, God created all those. Yeah.
But In all of those sources of light. There's a variation. There's a shadow. The sun comes up, casts a shadow, sets at night. You get benefit during the day.
You lose that benefit at night.
So it goes through its daily. Course, it's daily journey. But these things are varying.
So his point is this: unlike those heavenly bodies which eventually fade and burn out. Our good and gracious God never changes. He never changes.
So, his greater point, he's not saying now, here's how you battle temptation. Here's the one, two, three thing you need to do whenever you're faced with temptation. That's found in other places in Scripture. What he's simply doing is trying to compare. How dumb it is to fall to temptation because of how good God is.
He's making the comparison. He would be saying this, since we have a Father who is willing to shower us with so many good things, why should you let anything evil ever attract you? When God wants to pour out every good thing in your life, why would you settle for anything but that? You know what this is like when I was first a young believer. I got Went through high school, got saved that summer right before college.
And I went back to tell my friends that I was saved, I was a Christian. And they didn't get that. They didn't understand it. And they said Come on, why why? I mean, I don't what Come and have some fun.
You're not going to have any fun anymore.
Now that you're a Christian, you have like sworn off all fun. You're going to go to church and read your Bible and pray. That's not fun. Come with us and party. And I just could not explain to them.
how much better I felt and was living than how I used to. They didn't get it.
So I said. Guys? All my life I've been eating T V dinners. One day, somebody turned me on to a steak and lobster feast. It's really hard for me after eating this to go back to what y'all are serving in TV dinners.
So that is James' point. God's good gifts are better than Satan's shiny lures. God's a good God. He gives good gifts. Yeah.
When David sinned with Bathsheba, A prophet came in named Nathan, pointed his finger at him, said, You are the man. David gets all remorseful. God says this through the prophet to David. I gave you your family. I gave you a kingdom.
I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I've given you your wives. And if that wasn't enough, I would have given you. More. I'm the God who gives every good and perfect gift, and you settle for that.
You grabbed the hook behind the bait for that.
So, the resource that we have are found here. If you look in verse 17 and 18, verse 17, you have the certainty of God's unchanging power. Character, he's the father of lights, there's no variation. You have the destiny in verse 18 of God's unchanging choice. You have his nature.
He brought you forth. You are a firstfruit of his creature. You share. in that Nature of God.
So the best way To sum it all up, the best way to say no to temptation is to say yes to something better. If you're always thinking of Saying yes to something better, you're going to get so into that, you won't have a whole lot of time for saying no to that. Yeah, that's the point of Paul in Galatians. A chapter five where he says, walk. In the spirit, And you will not or shall not.
fulfill the lust of the flesh. He didn't say, walk in the Spirit, you might not. Walk in the Spirit, and it's possible that you won't. He says, if you walk in the Spirit, you will not. fulfill the desires of the flesh.
So when you get tempted at any juncture along that course. Up until the point where you decide to cooperate with it. You have a choice to look for an escape route. Here's what temptation is like. Yeah.
If you were to open the lid of a piano, an acoustic piano, like a grand piano, open the lid. And you push the right pedal. which is the sustain pedal. And if you were to sing a note into the piano. If you sing loud enough, And listen.
The piano will sing it back to you. That's how temptation works. You are vibrating a string. with your voice. Satan calls and you vibrate.
That's temptation.
However, a piano was not meant to have you sing a note into it. A piano was meant to have a Real musicians sit at the keyboard and play a song through it by hitting keys that hit hammers that strike the strings.
So What do you do when Satan calls? Hmm. Close the lid. Close the lid. and walk away.
Because when you close the lid, you are closing off the opportunity. Close the lid and let the master play. His song through your life.
Well, you say, well, how do I close the top? Run. Run fast. Did you know what Joseph did? When he was confronted with Temptation from Potiphar's wife.
He didn't say, well, let's negotiate. Let's talk about this. I'm really interested in why you would feel this way. He didn't do that. He just.
Streaked out of the house. Quite literally. Run away from the trap. The Bible says, flee temptation. Flee temptation.
The trouble is, some Christians flee temptation. But they leave their forwarding address. No, run away from it. Every time you see it, you can't help but see it, turn away from it. You can't help but hear it or smell it.
Or be around it. but walk away from it. Close. The lip. Flee temptation.
And don't just run away from it. Flee to... The father's arms. Because he's a good God. He gives good gifts, be enthralled, enraptured with.
focused on. The goodness of God. We're so glad you joined us today for Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go. Don't miss this opportunity to request Pastor Skip's series Adulting, a study through the book of James.
This 21 message series dives deep into what it means to live a spiritually mature life. full of faith, character, and Christ-like purpose. Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God.
Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heidsek. That's true. Make a connection never Of the crossing castle burden. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
