“When Tempted…” (Part 2 of 2)

If you've ever ridden a bicycle down a large hill, you know that you have to break early and often to avoid losing control and crashing. Early and often. That's exactly how we're supposed to deal with temptation.

Break early and often. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg continues his study in James chapter 1. We're in verse 15. So a thought reap an action. So an action reap a habit. So a habit reap a character. So a character reap a destiny.

But it begins in the mind. Every sin is an inside job. Temptation cannot be laid at the feet of God.

Temptation cannot be ascribed to our environment, ultimately, or to someone else, or their predicament, or their initiative, whatever that might have been. Everyone, says James, is dragged away and enticed by their own evil desire. And in verse 15, he follows it up, and he sets down the cycle. You, in verse 12 this morning, we saw that there is a cycle that leads to life—persevering under trial, standing the test, and a crown of life. That's cycle one.

Here in verse 15, cycle two. And this cycle takes us down a path that ends in death. After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. You see, the real danger zone, or the intersection to be avoided, is this intersection—the place where desire and opportunity meet. Where desire and opportunity meet is a dangerous intersection.

One without the other, you can probably handle it, but the two together, you're going to be a dead man. When desire and opportunity coincide, it is often the location of disaster. When Sinclair Ferguson preached here, he preached on this passage in the evening. And I took notes, and you may have taken notes as well, and I wonder if your notes are as good as my notes. I wonder, do you remember how he described the process, how he described this cycle? Because he gave us six words, and these were his words. He said that the cycle of temptation goes along these lines, number one, attraction. Number two, deception. Number three, preoccupation. Number four, conception.

Number five, he said, was subjection. Subjection. And what he meant by that was this—that when you get yourself into that situation, you very quickly become enslaved, consumed, addicted. At first, it's just an attractive proposition that your uncle or your grandmother told you to stay away from. But what do they know?

Those old people. Before you knew where you are, you were deceived by the very circumstances. You became preoccupied by it. Sin was conceived.

And now you're subjugated. And his final word was the word desperation. Desperation. And I remember he said, when the cycle gets to this point, we despair on account of our circumstances. And confronted by our failure, we're told by Satan that we might as well give up completely, because we're in such dire difficulty that there is no way back. That's why I say to you that verse 16 is the fulcrum. What does James say? Do not be deceived, dear brothers. Don't be deceived by this kind of nonsense, brothers and sisters. In the words of the Sunday School song, when Satan says, There's no way back, the answer is, there is a way back.

And the songwriter puts it in these terms. There's a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There's a door that's wide open that we may come in. And it's at Calvary's cross—that's where we begin—when we come as a sinner to Jesus. That's the message of the gospel. You see, Satan, who is a flat-out liar, who is a deceiver, who is a murderer, who's the father of all liars, who is a con man extraordinaire, who is the one who will tell you ninety-nine true things so that the hundred thing that he tells you, which is false, you may swallow because he's told you so many true things before he tells you the lie. Satan wants us to believe that there's a whole selection of wonderful treats and experiences, and God doesn't want us to have them. That's what he wants us to believe—that somehow or another God is keeping the good stuff from us.

That if we were to go down Satan's road and down Satan's avenue, then we would discover all the things that we're missing out on account of God's law and God's will and God's purposes, and so on. Isn't that his approach in the Garden of Eden? Well, how did he appeal to Adam and Eve? He appealed to Adam and Eve on the basis that there was something better than what God had given them to enjoy.

Isn't that what he said? You know, this is a nice place. But if you only tried this, then you will yourselves become as gods.

This will be the ultimate experience. This is what God doesn't want you to know about. Do not be deceived. The antidote to that lie, to those lies, he provides for, as James does, in verse 17 and verse 18. What is the antidote to the lies of the evil one, such as I've just outlined? Well, the answer is in verse 17. It is to enjoy a deep-seated conviction of the absolute unchanging goodness of God. It is to enjoy a deep-seated conviction of the absolute unchanging goodness of God.

And we need Luke no further than this little table that is set before us right now. For here, in these emblems, we have the expression of God's infinite and unchanging absolute goodness. He who did not spare his own Son but freely gave him up for us all, how will he not also, with Christ, freely give us all things? God is good all of the time. As for God, his way is perfect. There is a way that seems right to a man, and the end thereof is death. And the evil one makes the road to death and to oblivion as attractive as possible. And in contrast, the idea of meeting with the people of God and singing the songs of the people of God and reading an old book with leather covers and hanging around with some folks that you don't really like and don't want to spend time with and so on—that just seems like such a drag. And over here is all of the opportunity and all of the fun and all of the greatness.

That's the lie. Now, the only way that you will ever discover a conviction about the unchanging goodness of God—and me too—is to go and seek it out, to read his Word, to ponder his character, to meet with his people, to love his law, to obey his will, to serve his purposes. And finally, we can do no better if we're going to be victorious over the challenges of temptation than to marvel again at the wonder of his goodness to us, in verse 18, in his redeeming love. Every good and perfect gift is from above.

It comes from the Father of heavenly lights who doesn't change like shifting shadows, and then it's almost as if James says, and let me just take it right to the top of the list, think about this, he chose to give us birth through the Word of his truth. He chose. He chose. Unprompted by anything in us. Unprompted by our goodness.

Unprompted, actually, even by our badness. He chose to give us birth. How does he give us this birth? Through the Word of his truth. Romans 10, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

That's why the Bible is so important, because the Bible is a means that we come to salvation, and the Bible is a means whereby we grow to salvation, and the Bible is a means whereby God, in enabling us by his Spirit, brings to completion the work that he has begun. He chose to give us birth. How? Through the Word of his truth.

Why? So that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. It's an Old Testament picture. The firstfruits of the harvest in the Old Testament belonged utterly to God. The firstfruits of the harvest were set apart in their entirety for God. The farmer went out, brought the stuff home to his wife, and said, Here is the beginning of the harvest, and all of this is set aside for God. And after this has been set aside utterly and for God, then we will go back and we will deal with the rest of the harvest. But not until. That is the picture that James uses. He chose to give us birth through the Word of his truth.

Why? In order that we might be holy. In order that we might be utterly set apart to God. In order that he might rule and reign in our lives.

In order that he might be sovereign over our thinking and over our morals and over our finances and over our family relationships and over our private thoughts. In Jesus, in Jesus we're delivered from the dominion and the reign of sin. Delivered from the dominion and the reign of sin.

That's why that great hymn, Rock of Ages Cleft for Me, which nobody ever sings, said about once a year by Augustus Toplady, has that magnificent couplet in it. Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power. The Christian life is not an insurance policy which secures our eternal destiny and then leaves us on our own to try our best to obey rules and regulations and keep ourselves. The work of God's grace and goodness in our lives not only cleanses us from the penalty of sin but enables us to deal with the power of sin. Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

And the Westminster Confession helps us by reminding us that we as Christians are involved in a continual and irreconcilable war on three fronts—against the world, against the flesh, and against the devil. And the devil comes along and says, Wouldn't you like some of that? Wouldn't you like some of this?

Wouldn't you like some of the next thing? And he appeals to that which is inside of us, because although sin no longer reigns, it remains. Hence the pool of temptation. Hence the influence of these attractions. Hence the potential for preoccupation and enslavement. And none of us is immune. None of us is immune.

There's not a man or a woman in this room right now that says, I don't know what you're talking about. Yes, you do. Yes, I do. McShane died at the age of twenty-nine as the minister of St. Peter's in Dindi, and he said at the age of twenty-six, I have discovered that the sins of every sin known to man reside in my evil heart. Thank God for his honesty. He was the pastor, and I know exactly what he meant. And anyone who thinks I don't doesn't understand a thing. And since I know about me, I know about you. And God knows about us all. And he in Jesus breaks the dominion of sin in our lives. We do not have to be suspended by the influences of temptation.

We do not have to be held in the grip of such enslavement. We cannot live in perfection, but we can live in increasing victory. Otherwise, the message of the gospel is a farce. The power of the Holy Spirit is a ridiculous notion.

And clearly it is not. One final word from 1 Corinthians 10. You remember the wonderfully encouraging note that Paul gives when he warns his readers there in Corinth about having a big head and being so cocksure of yourself and thinking that this is something that the person next to me needs to hear, but definitely not me.

And you remember how he says that all these things that he's preceded the chapter with, all these things that happened, happened as examples. Verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 10, they were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. And then verse 12, so if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. And then someone says, Well, goodness gracious, I think I will fall. I think I'm about to fall. I think I'm about to collapse.

I think I'm absolutely powerless to be able to do anything about this. Not so. Look at verse 13. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Promise.

Categorical promise. Be honest. Any time that you or I succumb to temptation, can we honestly say that we succumbed to it because it was the only possible thing we could do?

No. That there wasn't an opportunity to walk out? That we didn't get a message, a text message, on our phone just at that exact moment from our Aunt Mabel in Wisconsin saying, Hope you're having a good evening. And it was like, Wow, what is she doing following me up just at this moment? Da-ding! Big temptation. Aunt Mabel's text message. Way of escape.

Headlights on the driveway when you're 17 with your girlfriend. Here they come. Whoop! They're home! Whoop! They go away. It was just somebody who was lost reversing. It's not your folks. Ding-ding!

Way of escape. Now God is faithful in all of this. So, if we're going to be serious, then we have to deal with temptation. Honestly, immediately, ruthlessly, consistently.

That's another whole sermon which we'll leave for another time. Honestly, immediately. You got a leaking roof.

Get it at the beginning. Don't wait until you need forty-five buckets in your bedroom to try and deal with it. Get somebody up there to fix it the first time you see the spot on the ceiling, right?

Unless you want the ceiling to come down. It's the same thing with temptation. Deal with it immediately.

Deal with it ruthlessly. That's what Jesus said. It'd be better to go into heaven with only one hand than to go into hell with two hands if your hand offends you. It'd be better to go into heaven with just one eye than to go into hell with two eyes if your eyes are the source of your offense. I mean, it's a graphic metaphor, isn't it? But it says, deal with it ruthlessly, and deal with it consistently. Sometimes we think if we've had one little victory with temptation—and I said it was another sermon for another time, but now I'm preaching it—but sometimes when we've had a little victory with temptation, then we get hammered the next time around. I mean, just in a simple way, where you think you're a big—we're done with pies for the month of March, you know. No, no, I'm not having dessert. Oh, okay, fine.

Sorry, I mention it. Would you care for some? Yes. And would you care for some?

And while you're watching it go away from you, you're like, oh man, ooh, ooh. No, I am not having pies. No, no, not in March I'm not. No. And then she comes around, and before the hostess leaves, she goes, are you sure you wouldn't like a piece of pie?

Oh, go on, then. Isn't that it? Because you felt so good about saying no the first time, you got hammered on the second time around. The devil's very clever. Gotta deal with it consistently. If it's no the first time, it's no the second time, it's no every time.

The phrase that we hate to hear and we never want to say, as it relates to temptation, is this. I don't know how I could have done that, but. I don't know how I could have done that, but. Yes, we do know how we could have done it. And we do know how we may do it. And we thank God for His faithfulness, for His forgiveness, for His open door of welcome when we come in penitence to Him. And for the reminder that in each of our lives, our Christian experience is a series of new beginnings and fresh starts.

None of us is immune to temptation, but thankfully, by God's grace, we have a way to escape it. You're listening to Truth for Life, with Alistair Begg. Please keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close us with prayer. We just learned that the antidote to Satan's lies is a deep-seated conviction in the absolute, unchanging goodness of God. The more familiar we become with God's word, the more convinced we will be of His goodness, and the better equipped we'll be to recognize the devil's deceptions. That's why at Truth for Life, we're committed to teaching the Bible with clarity and relevance.

Our hope and prayer is that God will work through these daily messages to bring unbelievers to saving faith, to establish the faith of existing believers so they can stand firm against temptation, and for God to strengthen local church members and their pastors. That's our mission here at Truth for Life. If that sounds like a mission you embrace, we want to invite you to join your fellow listeners, called Truth Partners, people who come alongside us with prayer and monthly giving. When you sign up to become a Truth Partner, you join the team that brings Alistair's teaching to listeners all around the world.

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This is a book we highly recommend you add to your family's library, and it makes a great gift if you know a family with young children. Request Bible Stories Every Child Should Know when you sign up to be a monthly Truth Partner at truthforlife.org slash truthpartner, or you can request a copy when you make a one-time donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. Now here is Alistair to close with prayer. Father, grant that everything that is of yourself may find a resting place in our minds, and anything that is untrue or unhelpful or unwise may be banished from our thinking. Turn our gaze to Christ now in these final moments of our time together today, that our hearts may be drawn to him, that we may find our security and forgiveness in him, and that in our expressions of fellowship with one another we may be a help and not a hindrance as we look out on the week that lies ahead. For Jesus' sake, Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Join us tomorrow as we'll hear about all the dead people walking among us, that is the spiritually dead. You don't want to miss it. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.