Concerning Temptation (Part C)

Christ does love you, but Christ will judge you, and you do not have to be judged if you would come. And so each one, he says, but, again, verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. You do not have to go to seminary to know what that means. You do not have to be a Christian for too long.

It takes two years to know what that means. You just have to be conscious of life. Here's Pastor Rick with his continuing study called Concerning Temptation, taught from James, Chapter 1. Jesus said, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. How many of you, or maybe I'll ask it this way, have any of you ever read The Temptation in the Wilderness and not been impressed? Every time I read it, I'm impressed.

It's so simple and profound. God cannot be tempted by evil, and Christ was every bit of God, even with his humanity. Nor does he himself tempt anyone, he goes on to say. God does not entice us to sin. Again, the point is you can't blame God for our sin. God allows it to develop us, Satan, to destroy us.

Two different motives. When God says I'm going to let this temptation come your way, because you have a sinful nature, and the only way to fight against that nature is to have it engage evil with righteousness. What would happen, again, I ask this question often, what would happen if Christians didn't sin having a sinful nature?

They would be the meanest people, and sometimes some of them are already there almost, but we would be so self-righteous, so smug. Some of you, some of you who maybe have a problem with self-righteousness, maybe you criticize your wife too much. Maybe you criticize others too much. Whatever it may be, you know what you struggle with. What if God treated you that way?

You couldn't handle it. So you pitch it off, and you treat others that way. You're making a mistake, you're playing into Satan's hand. Stop being a blamer of everybody else. I mean, certainly there are times people do wrong, and blame is necessary to close up the, clean up the mess. So many times it's not. So many times the other person knows they did wrong, and they're ashamed of it.

They don't need you to rub their nose in it. Patience and love, grace kicks in, you know, that's what grace is for. What do you think, grace is for those who are perfect?

Hello, honey, you've never done anything wrong in the family. I'm going to show you grace. That's not what grace is for.

I just paused some of it, of course. Grace is that kindness that's not deserved, and if I can get it, I can give it. And I don't know what you do with the preachings of sermons that are spot on, but I know what I do with them, whether I'm listening or giving them, is I try to practice what is preached that is right with everything in me, no matter what. And so, you know, incidentally, the Roman gods, the Greek gods, they were petty, because they were man-made. They were humans on, you know, supersized human sinners.

They were vindictive, they were cold-hearted, they were murderous. Everything the sinner does, they did with more intensity. And James is saying, our God's not like that. He does not tempt anyone to try to get them to sin, though he allows sin. You know, Elijah, a man with a nature like ours, he had to face these things. He had to drive down the road with other bad drivers, too. And when there were no drivers on the road, there was no temptation. When there were other drivers on the road, there was heightened temptation, but God did not try to force him to sin in letting those other drivers on the road.

It comes with life. And so, to test to develop us and create a testimony that is used to save others, and then Satan to tempt to destroy. Which one of you reads a biography of a Christian, other than Jesus Christ, who's perfect?

No, when you read a biography and you hear about their hardship, their struggles, their personal struggles, we identify with that, and we grow from it, and we see the fruit of why God allows such things in this world. Deuteronomy 13, if there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul. And we read about men such as Phinehas who wouldn't put up with it. He would not put up with those who went after other gods and flagrantly disobeyed the Lord.

And so verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Now remember, God put one tree in the garden, a whole bunch of others, any of those, but this one leave alone. But he didn't follow Adam around with the tree.

He tried to get him to stumble. Eve, of course, found herself not only where she didn't belong, but dialoguing, debating God's Word. We're not called to debate. Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Paul asks. We are here to deliver a message. We are witnesses of what we have seen, and we are saying, here's a message for you, lost sinner.

Christ does love you, but Christ will judge you, and you do not have to be judged if you would come. And so each one, he says, but again verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. You do not have to go to seminary to know what that means. You do not have to be a Christian for two years to know what that means. You just have to be conscious of life, aware of what's going on. You have to live life. You have to go out and try not to sin.

You will find that this is something very easy to understand. We are drawn away by these impure desires that are discovered within us and enticed, he adds, by the idea of satisfaction. So I like this proverb, and you will too, I think. Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? You get too close to that which is sin, you are going to suffer. Sin causes pain to everything it touches. Eve, as soon as she became a sinner, she went about corrupting her husband. That is the nature of sin. It is a corrupting influence, and we must fight it all out, all the time. No need to itemize the things we go up against.

You can do that on your own. Well, Satan, of course, in dialogue with her, she's taking his advice, Genesis 3.6, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, at that point, she should have said, I am out of here. Knowing what we know now, not being too critical of our sister Eve, that it was pleasant to the eyes. You see the enticement?

She's being drawn in. You know, we have a saying, eye candy, and then we have a counter saying, it will rot your soul. Those things that are forbidden, that are sweet. And a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave it to her husband, and he ate. So again, no sooner was Eve a sinner, and she became a seducer. Temptation. It is no joke.

It is not something that we become so skilled at defeating that we do not have to post triple guards. You young Christians, it's waiting for you. Temptation. More and more of it. But, you are made strong in Christ, that you can face it and overcome it through your life.

And don't you believe for one second that you are helpless and defenseless against these things. The best antidote for temptation is to get away from it immediately, instantly. Don't allow yourself the satisfaction of a second take. Verse 15, and when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. Then when desire has conceived, that word conceived is to clasp, to seize hold of, to take it up.

Here we have the right ingredients, the perfect storm, you could say. The illicit desire is entertained in the mind. That's when it now becomes a conception. The temptation is no sin, not in and of itself. It is basking in the temptation that leads into sin, the feasting of the eyes. Jesus put it this way, again, Sermon on the Mount, I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It's not just you admire something, now you're going to entertain it. And some of you men say, oh man, who can fight against these things? You. That's who. You.

Set up protocols as best you can. I hope some of you women noticed I tried to be cordial and friendly with you, but not too much. Let the other women minister on those levels. It's not that I don't like you or anything like that. It's just that you have to keep your distance from things that are known to be used against the flesh.

There are other areas too. I talked about this Sunday, kind of Wednesday, pressed for time, but I'll quickly go over it. I heard a sermon over 30 years ago by Chuck Swindoll. He's still alive and preaching.

He's old. He's preaching for 30 years before. Anyway, he's warning what pastors are susceptible to. And my rule, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, my rule is if the pastor is susceptible to it, guess what?

You are too. Elijah was a man of like passions. He was susceptible to every sin, so this is for you too. It's just more heightened. The pastor's weapons of mass destruction are aimed at the pastors.

Because they bring down more people. Someone in the congregation stumbles into immorality and it's, man, that was bad. When a pastor does it, it is catastrophic. The first one, four S's. Self. Yeah, self-promotion, me first. You know, you can fill in a lot there.

Pastors have to watch out for that, you know, that they're a celebrity pastor, more important than what they really are, always trying to be right, know-it-alls, on and on it goes. The next one would be silver. That one is never, you know, money bores me almost. I need it, my wife, you know, not fair. Sorry, dear, I've taken a vow of, you know, against pleasures and things like that. No, you need it, but it's not a, you know, math to me is a little boring.

Here's an example, two plus two, always four. What's exciting about that? I'm kidding. I'm kidding, kidding, kidding. Back to this.

Silver, not very much. Sex. You have to watch out. How many pastors have stumbled because of that sin? Immorality, sexual immorality is no joke. And then, of course, the last one, which I am very, always been nervous about, and that is sloth, laziness in ministry. You know, the pastor is a good profession for one to hide in and be lazy and to not do their work and to step into the pulpit and fake it. What gives him the ability to read a verse and make comment on it is that he's poured himself into it days before. While he's shaving, he's thinking of the verse.

While he's cutting people off on the road, he's thinking of the verse. And so, those five things you have to watch out for too. Sex, silver, sloth and self. Which one is more important to you?

That's a big fight, but all of them are dangerous. Luther says it this way, you cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting there. Temptation will come, but the temptation is not the sin. Letting it nest there is. It gives birth to sin. He says here in verse 15, temptation, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Well, you can hold a little cub lion, a little newborn lion, if you get the mother out of the way.

But when that lion becomes big and knows that it's a meat eater, you've got another issue there. You want to know what sin looks like full grown? Read Judges, the book of Judges, particularly chapters 19 through 20. You'll see full blown sin. Go to Sodom and Gomorrah in the scripture and you can see it there. Consider characters in scripture like Cain, Pharaoh, King Saul, Ahab and Jezebel, Judas.

He always gets a mention, it's scary. That's what sin looks like full blown. Every hospital, every battlefield, every prison, every lock, all these things cry out. The wages of sin is death.

Everyone knows it is true. Well, we need to move on. I find it irritating that Christians have somewhere to go on a Sunday morning. It just cuts into my preaching time. Verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Now, he's going to go in a different direction. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. So he says, temptation, it doesn't come from the Father. Make no mistake about this.

Don't be deceived, my brethren. The good things come from God, only good things. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above because love flows down. That's its natural course. Ideally, ideally speaking, in a good home, not all Christians have had the blessings of this, but the parents always love the child more than the child will love the parents.

And there's nothing wrong with that. And then they have children and they love their children. You children without children, you younger ones, you don't yet know how much a parent loves you until you have a child. And you find out how wet and annoying and hungry and loud and destructive that child is and you still love them. Even when other people don't like your kid, you love your kid and start not liking the people that know. So love, it flows down. It's its natural course and that's where he's going with this.

It's not the absolute story, but it's a big part of it. Psalm 16, David said, Oh my soul, you have said to Yahweh, you are my Lord. My goodness is nothing apart from you. I have no goodness that does not come from you. I look at the pagan and I see that their goodness is a rotten type of goodness.

But those who have the truth are in another class and the world hates us for pointing that out. He says here, James does in verse 17 and comes down from the father of lights. Well, again, back to the temptation again and sin. God does not illuminate the runway for sin to land, but he doesn't shoot the plane down either. And when we understand it that way, we will be less susceptible to blaming him for those things that come our way. In fact, God in teaching how to pray said, When you pray, and he included this, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. That's what God wants to do.

Ultimately, we are to prevail. The most precious thing that God gives, of course, is salvation. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians fail to see that's not the only thing that he gives. And this will account for why some Christians who are big on salvation and low on love and kindness, they become imbalanced. Grace is not imbalanced.

It is total control. I hear some words to a song, Reckless Grace. Terrible theology. There's nothing reckless about grace. It is precise, it is perfect, it is pure, and we should want all we can get of it, and we should let it flow not only into us, but through us. And you cannot do it, you cannot show grace if you're not willing to hurt, if you're not willing to turn the other cheek, if you're not willing to let that person with a sharp tongue cut you down innocently and still look to love.

What could you get done with a bunch of people that don't forgive, that don't show? The world has a brand of grace that is kind and pleasant. It is a common grace.

If God did not let it exist, society could not exist, but he does. And then he comes to the church and he says, I need your grace to be better than their grace, because your God is better than their God. But too many Christians say, I've got my salvation.

What do I need to worry about those things for? Again, they don't verbalize it that way, but how often does it seem like that's just what they've planned to do? They bask in their salvation, they just don't want to do any of it. He says, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. I have a lot of good notes here, but we're almost out of time. A lot of bullet points that I would like to shoot. That's what bullet points are for, aren't they? Well, I do want to say this again.

I want to stress this this morning. Any of you believers who are beaten by guilt, sin, the self, the flesh, don't surrender. When God died for you, he knew he was purchasing damaged goods. He was not unclear about who you are when he went to the cross.

Even before, long before you existed. God does not learn. He is perfect. He is complete.

He is God at all. And when he died for you, when he says, I love you, it is in spite of your failures. Theologically, it is called recurrent grace. It is grace that we chase away when we sin, but it bounces right back instantly.

It is upon us. The blood of Jesus Christ covers us from all sin. And I want you to be strong in this truth. Now, if your attitude is, well, you know, I don't care about the sin, you know, then it's a different thing. But if you, if you know you've been trying to serve the Lord and stumbling, God is not going to hand you over to the devil.

He's not going to give up on you. As I mentioned, he purchased broken vessels that he could fill them and use them. And that's who we are. Verse 18, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And there it is. Of his own will, he brought us forth. This is what he wanted to do. Nothing could stop Christ from dying for us.

We're out of time, so I just want to make a few last points. Well, he says by the word of truth, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. The word of God is the truth. It is a light to your feet. It is water that washes the sin away.

But it is also a hammer that breaks things to pieces, that need to be broken in pieces. A high opinion of yourself or something else that God needs to begin to smash up inside of us if we won't examine ourselves first. This part here is a very special ending to this paragraph, that we might be a kind of first fruits. The first fruits, the feast of Pentecost, or 50 days after the Passover, that Sabbath, 50 days later, Sabbath of the Passover was Pentecost. The church was born on Pentecost.

And the priest would take the first sheave offering and wave it before the Lord. He said, what is that all about? It is thank you. Thank you for feeding us. Thank you for supplying what we need. We praise you. We worship you. We thank you for being the God that you are, mindful of us.

Thank you for not putting a drought on us. And so, when he says that we are the first fruits, we are the first, the Christians are the first generation from Christ time till the rapture, that has seen the crucified Lord risen and returning. And we are the ones saying thank you. Thanks for joining us today as we took a deeper look into the book of James, here on Cross Reference Radio. Cross Reference Radio is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. We're blessed to bring you God's word with each broadcast. If you'd like more information or want to listen to additional teachings from Pastor Rick, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. If you've been blessed by this program, we'd love to hear from you. When you visit the website, simply click on the contact us link at the top of the page and leave us a message. That website again is crossreferenceradio.com. Please join us again next time as we continue our study through the book of James, right here on Cross Reference Radio.