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Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffers and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, James 4, 7 says, You resist the devil. Not let God resist the devil. You resist the devil and he will flee from you.
How do you do that practically? How do you resist the devil when temptation comes? Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. You ever found yourself on the verge of making a decision you knew you'd regret?
In that critical moment, it can feel like we're powerless against the pull of temptation. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffers explains that God has given us everything we need to resist the devil's tactics. But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory.
In just a moment, I'm going to present a highly practical message on a pressing issue that confronts us all. How are we to handle those precarious moments when we're overcome by temptation? But first, if you're an early planner, then I want you to sign up right away for the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. The dates are June 13th through 20th. By signing up now, you'll have access to premium cabin space.
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Well, we all face moments when we feel powerless against temptation, like victims of circumstances beyond our control. But what if I told you that's a lie? Today, we're going to discover that you have real power to resist the devil's schemes. The key isn't avoiding temptation, that's inevitable. The key is preparing for it.
That's one of the major themes of my brand new book on James's New Testament letter. It's titled How to Know If You're Really Saved. And today you're invited to request a copy when you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory. We'll share all the details about my book and other resources just after today's study. But right now, let's turn in our Bibles to James chapter 1.
I title today's message, How to Handle Temptation. My late seminary professor Howard Hendricks used to tell the story of the man who boarded an overnight train going from Chicago to New York. The train was scheduled to make a stop in Pittsburgh. And so the man, as the train pulled out of Chicago, found a porter and said, look, I've got to get off the train in Pittsburgh. It's the middle of the night.
I'll be sleepy. I may resist you. But whatever you do, get me off this train. I've got a business appointment, an interview for a new job. And by the way, here's $200 to make sure you get me off the train.
Well, the next morning, the man awakened as the train was pulling into Grand Central Station in New York. He realized he had missed his stop, so he bounded out of bed, ran up and down the train looking for that negligent porter. And when he found him, he grabbed him and began to shake him. And he said, I gave you $200 to get me off this train. You made me miss my appointment, my possibility of a new job.
I'm going to sue you. I'm going to sue the train company. I'm going to sue everybody I can. And with that, he stormed off the train. Another passenger was watching the altercation, and he came up to the porter and said, I've never seen anybody that mad before.
The porter said, if you think he was mad, you should have seen the guy I put off the train in Pittsburgh this morning. You know, all of us can sympathize with the guy who got put off the train in Pittsburgh.
Sometimes we feel like we're just the victim of circumstances beyond our control. Unfortunately, that feeling of helplessness sometimes extends to our attitude about sin and temptation. When we're confronted with temptation, we take a passive attitude. We excuse disobedience by saying, remember the old comedian Flip Wilson, the devil made me do it. We refuse to take responsibility for sin.
We think we're victims. But James, the half-brother of Jesus, offers a different perspective on temptation and sin. And it's one we're going to look at today. If you have your Bibles, turn to James chapter 1 as we discover how to handle temptation.
Now, you remember the theme of James. It's very simple. Saving faith produces genuine fruit. If you're really saved, there's going to be evidence of your salvation. A faith without fruit is a dead, non-existent, worthless faith.
And James gives us a number of tests in his books to see if we're really saved or not. For example, last time we saw when trials come into our life, our response to those trials is evidence of whether we're genuine believers. If we allow trials to draw us closer to God, we pass the test. If it drives us away from God, if we give up on God, it's a sign that we're not saved. And now today, beginning with verse 13, James is going to give a second test.
Another way to measure the authenticity of your Christian faith is in how you handle temptation. Let's first of all talk about the difference between temptations and trials. There's a similarity we need to understand before we look at the differences. In James 2, James said, Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.
Now in verse 13, when he talks about temptations, he said, Let no one say when he is tempted. The common denominator in those verses is when. When you encounter trials, not if or should you. They're inevitable, but so are temptations. Let no man say if he should happen to be tempted, but when he is tempted.
But that's where the similarities end. There's a major difference between a trial and a temptation. Remember trials? James describes them as the testing of your faith. Trials are designed to test, to strengthen your faith.
That's what the word testing means in verses 2 through 12. It's the Greek word dochymeon. It means to put a piece of pottery that has just been formed into a firing oven. The reason you put it into an oven is not to destroy it, but to strengthen it. And remember, if that piece of pottery survived the fire that was designed to strengthen it, the sculptor would write at the bottom of that piece of pottery: documas approved, tested.
That's what trials are designed to do. Trials are designed to strengthen our faith. But temptations are altogether different. If you look up the word tempt in an English dictionary, Webster's dictionary, it says to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain. A temptation is a solicitation to do what is evil.
Write this down. This will help you understand the difference. Tests are given to strengthen our faith. Temptations come to destroy our faith. There's a very big difference between trials that strengthen us and temptations that destroy us.
But here's the interesting thing. In English, we have two different words, trials and temptations. In Greek, there's one word that is used to describe both, parosmos. It literally means a difficult situation. In verses 2 to 12, James says, count it all joy when you encounter various difficult situations, parosmos.
And then in verse 13, James says, let no man say when he comes into a difficult situation, I'm being tempted by God. Parosmos simply means a difficult situation. It can either be a trial designed for the strengthening of our faith. It can be a temptation designed to destroy our faith. It can be both at the same time.
Let's say you get a diagnosis of terminal cancer in your own life or the life of somebody you love. Is that a trial? Or is it a temptation?
Well, it can be both. A difficult situation can be used by God to draw you closer to Himself. At the same time, God is rooting for you. Satan is rooting against you. He's using it as a temptation to destroy your faith.
Whether or not it ends up being a trial or a temptation depends on your response to that difficult situation. That's why Jesus prayed in Matthew 6. Have you ever wondered about this in the model prayer? Why did he say, and lead us not into temptation? Is it possible that God would tempt us and try to solicit us for evil?
No. But remember, that's not what the word temptation means. It's just a difficult situation. When Jesus taught us to pray, He was teaching us, lead us not. It's okay to ask God to lead us not into a difficult situation.
Well, why would Jesus say to pray that way? Couldn't a difficult situation strengthen our faith? Yeah, they could. or it could destroy our faith. It's just like a student who says to a teacher, teacher, if it's all the same to you, Please don't lead us into a final exam.
A final exam has the possibility of success. You can pass it. Or there's the possibility you could fail it.
So if it's all the same to you, teacher, I'd just soon not have one. It's okay to pray to God to keep you and your family. from difficult situations. But sometimes God said, I'm going to use this to strengthen your faith. And that's why the next part of the prayer is.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord, if you do send a test into my life, keep me from making an evil, a wrong response to it. These are two very different things. James is talking about temptations that don't come from God.
Well, then, what is the source of temptations? God tested Abraham, Genesis 22:1, to strengthen his faith. But where do temptations come from?
Well, look at the false excuse beginning in verse 13. Let no one say, when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. This phrase, tempted by God. Is in present passive participle. It pictures a man who is on the verge.
Of giving into a temptation, who says as his last excuse, well, this must be from God for some reason, so I have to give into it. No, James says. God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
Now, will you give me three minutes to talk about Greek grammar for just a moment? I know it sounds boring, but it's key to understanding this verse. Let's look at that false excuse. Let nobody say, I'm being tempted by God. That English word by, B, why, is a preposition.
You may remember that from English class. It shows cause or agency. For example, if I said, the man was killed by his wife, by indicates the direct cause of his death was his wife. The man was killed by his wife. If I were to write that in Greek, I would use the word upo for by, U-P-O.
It means direct agency. It was used in Matthew 4:1 when Matthew records that Jesus was led up by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Holy Spirit is the one who led Jesus by the Satan was the one who tempted Jesus.
So if I'm going to show direct agency, I would use the word upo. But there's another word for a preposition in Greek. It's the word apo, A-P-O. It means indirect agency. For example, if I were to say the man was killed by a gun, What am I saying?
And I'm saying the gun is directly responsible for the man's death. No, the gun didn't get angry, load itself up with bullets, and pull its own trigger. The gun was an indirect cause. The cause was the man's wife. The indirect cause is the gun.
But if I were trying to show indirect cause, I would use APO, A-P-O.
Now, when James wrote this, He could have said, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by upo, direct agency. But he doesn't use that preposition. He uses the second preposition, apo, indirect agency. In other words, James is saying, when you are tempted, don't blame God. God has nothing to do with your temptation, directly or even indirectly, apo.
Well, then, where is the source of temptation if it doesn't come from God? He answers the question in the next verse. Notice the legitimate cause of. Temptation, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. I call verse 14 the temptation equation.
But look at the components that lead up to sin. Write it down on your outline. Corrupt desires plus the right bait. Plus, a wrong choice equals sin. That's how sin comes.
Corrupt desires plus the right bait plus wrong choices result in sin. Let's look at each of those components. First of all, corrupt desires. Each person is tempted when he is carried away. That's what carried away refers to: corrupt inward desires we have.
The word here, ex alchomai, means to be drawn with an inward power. In John 12, 32, Jesus said, If I be lifted up, I will what? Draw all people to myself. That's the same word, Elkomai, to draw with an inward power. Jesus doesn't drag us, kicking and screaming, to salvation.
He draws us with an inward power. The same is here. What's the first component of temptation? It is our corrupt desires. These can be legitimate desires that we're tempted to fulfill in an illegitimate way.
Or they can be legitimate desires we pursue in excess. But our desires, our righteous desires, have been infected by sin. We have corrupt desires for either the right thing in the wrong way or too much of the right thing. It becomes a God in our life. Corrupt desires plus the right bait.
There's an external cause of temptation as well, the right bait. That's indicated by the word enticed. Each person is tempted when he is carried away and enticed. That word enticed... is a fishing term in Greek.
It literally refers to hook a fish. You know that well, how that works. I hate fishing.
Some of the most miserable times of my life have been spent fishing. And please don't email me and say, oh, Pastor, I can show you a good time. You've been out with the wrong person. I've tried it every way and failed miserably. But I know enough about fishing to know that to be a successful fisherman, you've got to have two things.
First of all, the right bait. You've got to have the right lure to dangle in front of that fish. Not all fish are tempted by the same bait. You've got to understand the fish and what he's hungry for. You've got to have the right bait, and you've got to have the right timing.
You've got to know exactly when to drop that bait in front of the fish. One thing I learned, fat fish don't get tempted by a lure. It's hungry fish. It's hungry fish who at the right time of the day are so blinded by their hunger that they snap at that bait, not realizing there's a hook in the middle of it that will destroy them. In the same way, Satan knows exactly what bait to dangle in front of you, what it is that you think is going to satisfy your corrupt desires, and he knows exactly the right time to dangle it in front of you.
How does this bait work with our corrupt desires to produce sin? Remember, corrupt desires plus the right bait plus the wrong choices. That's what verse 15 says. Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Underline those words in your Bible: conceived.
Delft. accomplished. These are all words related to the birth process. Just as a man's sperm. And a woman's egg have to come together at just the right time.
to produce an embryo.
So, our corrupt desires plus the right bait. come together. to produce sin. But there's that third element, our choice. There comes the time we have to snap at the bait.
It's the same way with sin. There comes a time when we yield to those corrupt desires. And what is the result of temptation? Look at verse 15. And when sin is accomplished, That's another pregnancy term.
The days were accomplished that she should give birth. The Bible says, when the wrong choice and the right bait come together in a wrong choice, when sin is accomplished, it brings forth. Not life. But death. Death.
Sin always produces death.
Now, what kind of death is he talking about? Is he talking about physical death? He could be. That word thanatos in Greek means separation. Physical death is the separation of our spirit from our body.
And sometimes in the life of a Christian, Sin produces physical death. Remember the story in Numbers 16 about Korah, who led the rebellion against Moses and Aaron? God judged that sin by destroying Korah and 250 Israelites. You say, well, that's the Old Testament. God doesn't do that today.
Don't be so sure. In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 30, Paul said to the Corinthians, Because you've taken the Lord's Supper in the wrong way without judging yourself or getting drunk at the Lord's table, for this reason, many of you are sick and some are asleep. You've died. God sometimes takes a Christian's life who is involved in sin. That is expressed in 1 John 5:16, when John talks about sin unto death.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life to those who commit sin not leading to death. But there is sin leading to death.
Now, in your English translation, it says a sin. A is an article. It makes us think there is one particular sin. If you commit that, God's going to kill you. That's not what it says in the Greek text.
There is no article. It's an arthris. It literally reads: sin leading to death. It's not a particular sin that causes God to take your life, but it's a state of sinning. That is, you get so hardened to sin that in some instances, God takes your life.
You are a miserable witness for Jesus Christ. You are leading other people astray. God sometimes says it would be better to take this child and call him home than to leave him here and disrupt my reputation. There is sin unto death.
So I think when James talks about sin bringing forth death, he is referring sometimes to physical death. But that word thanatos, death, also means a separation of our spirit from God. When we sin, we put up a wall of separation that keeps us from wanting to seek fellowship with God because we feel guilty. Whenever I address the matter of personal temptations, I'm aware that many in our listening family are privately struggling with this matter. Perhaps you're among them, and you're wondering if God will ever deliver you from the temptation that's consuming your inner life.
The answer, of course, is yes.
So don't let another day pass feeling defeated by the same temptations. My new book dives deeper into these biblical strategies, giving you practical tools to recognize Satan's bait before you bite. You'll discover how to transform your weaknesses into strengths through God's power. Stop being a victim. Start being victorious.
Request your copy today. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. The title of my book is How to Know If You're Really Saved, a study in the book of James. Bear in mind, your generous gift accomplishes far more than receiving a book. Not long ago, I saw a note from Cindy, who listens in Ohio.
Cindy said. Pastor Jefferson I listened to Pathway to Victory on my way to a very stressful job every weekday morning. I cannot tell you how much your messages, filled with understandable and encouraging wisdom coming from the Word of God. Help me get through the work day. I just wanted to say thank you.
That's precisely why we're partnering together in this ministry. And when you give to Pathway to Victory, you're the one who's making it possible to touch people like Cindy and countless others who've come to rely on these daily programs. Thanks so much. Here's David to tell you more. When you support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, you're invited to request How to Know If You're Really Saved.
That's the brand new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress. To request your very own copy, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org.
Now when your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of DVD video and MP3 format audio discs for this study in James. It's called How to Know If You're Really Saved. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. You could send your donation by mail right to PO Box 223-609 Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's PO Box 223-609 Dallas, Texas, 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. Wishing you a great weekend, then join us next week when our study in James continues right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
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