Humpty Dumpty Wasn't Pushed

Though we are all predisposed to sin, someone in here is going to be uniquely resonating with one type of temptation, while another one in here would hardly stumble over it. But we cannot excuse that sin because, well, you know, it's in the genes.

Just because Solomon was predisposed to loving women did not mean he was anything less than sinful in his collection of wives. Sometimes when we get caught doing things we shouldn't, our first instinct is to deflect. We either come up with an excuse for why we did it or we try to blame someone else. One of the truths we need to always keep in mind is that sin is blasphemy because when we sin we're placing ourselves above God. And the practical implication of that is that we shouldn't waste our time pointing fingers at others or trying to deflect blame. God saw the crime and he isn't fooled by our rationalizations.

This is wisdom for the heart. Today, Stephen Davey continues his exposition of James with this message called Humpty Dumpty Wasn't Pushed. Not too long ago a group of Swedish researchers surprised the community when after several years of research they published their conclusion that sin, in this particular case sexual immorality, was genetically guaranteed. They had isolated a gene which they believed influenced a man to cheat on his wife.

It was soon nicknamed the Sin Gene and was published in elite journals and periodicals. It came to serve as the supposed proof that people can't help what they do. They're wired for that particular sin if you happen to have that gene.

One of the Swedish researchers said these findings shed light on the fact that our behaviors are influenced by nature, which is convenient, isn't it? Now you really can blame your parents. You're a mess because of them. And it fits well with the victimization of our culture, which now excuses anything and everything on something other than personal choice. The reason you sin is because of the neighborhood you grew up in or the people you grew up with or your education or your boss or your spouse or your children or the fact that you don't have any money or that you had too much money or that you were too busy or that you weren't busy enough. You're simply the victim of someone or something that we can point to and blame. It's their fault, illustrated perfectly by the graffiti on a wall in downtown Philadelphia that read Humpty Dumpty was pushed. Never mind that he... I love that.

Never mind that he shouldn't have been on the wall. The rhyme was illustrated, by the way, by the poet as an illustration of humanity personified by an egg, the origin of life. Now listen, in a very real way, we can't trace our problem back to our parents, so can we? They don't make us sin, but we act just like them in that we do. We're like Adam and Eve, aren't we? It was somebody else's fault.

And to this day, we are just like them, not because we've evolved, but because we've inherited a sin nature. And it is so difficult. In fact, it is impossible to truly say and believe words like, I am guilty. I am wrong. I sinned. It was my fault. How often have you heard that?

It's everybody else that has the problem. I was at an intersection the other day at a light, second car in the line. Light turned green, which to me means it's time to go. Somebody in front of me wasn't looking. I don't know what she was doing, painting her fingernail, something, I'm sure significant, texting probably. And so I gave a little polite honk. It's a quick one.

A Christian. She looked up in the rearview mirror infuriated and honked back. She honked at me.

And then she left. I turned right. And I honked too, again. It was not a honk if you love Jesus kind of honk. It had nothing to do with Jesus, trust me.

I had to go home and study James all day long. He talks about maturity. James is convicting because he tells us how faith ought to act in life, even at intersections. And so far we discovered that evidence of maturity is revealed by a passion to persevere when facing tribulation. James is going to go on now and say that another mark of maturity is that when you're facing temptation, you stay pure. In the past 11 verses, James has delivered to us the truth about trouble. And now in the next six verses, he's going to deliver to us the truth about temptation. And I want to tell you ahead of time, if you don't already know it, James is going to talk about that three-letter word sin. Let's take it up in verse 13, James chapter 1. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil.

And he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Now, you might notice that James begins this paragraph or thought much like he did the previous one. He assumes that you will face temptation.

So he doesn't say in verse 13, if, but when. You're going to face temptation and he assumes that you know it, but in case you don't, he's going to tell us. You're going to face temptation today, in fact, every single day of your life.

You're going to be confronted by several thousand commercials every day, whether they're on the billboards as you drive to work or television, newspaper, magazine, radio, internet, Facebook, family, friends, you name it. Every day you get out of bed, you will face a test of integrity. And it's going to attempt to chip away at your character and your holy passion for purity and your humility. And you have every intention when you get out of bed to shore that up, to strengthen it, and along comes temptation and it wants to chip away at it.

It'll never leave you alone. So James does not say, now, if you happen to be tempted, and really good Christians never are, here's what to do. No, James says, you're going to be tempted. The first thing James says is, I want you to stop playing the blame game.

If we could give a categorical statement in this outline. Stop playing the blame. Look at verse 13 again. Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God. And you think, now, wait a second.

That's obvious. James is writing to Christians. No Christian would ever blame God, maybe not openly. But how many Christians would be tempted to say, if God had given me a better job, I wouldn't be so greedy. If God had intervened for me earlier, I wouldn't be so angry.

If God had changed something about my background, my heredity, my environment, my education, my income, my spouse, my children, my alma mater, I'd be a better Christian. And the truth is, we are, as fallen human beings, predisposed to sin. There is truth in that. We are capable. In fact, there is no sin beyond our capacity.

That's the idea. No sin beyond our capacity. But we can't say, well, this is the way God made me. Who are we blaming? Who did we just blame? God. James knows our hearts. And he knows that God is ultimately the chief object of our blessing or the chief object of our blame. Are you blessing God today? We're blaming him. He goes on, God cannot be tempted by evil.

Immediately as you read that, if you're in tune with me, you're probably thinking the same question that I thought of. You think, wait a second, I thought Christ was tempted in all points as we, yet without sin. He was 415, he was. I thought Jesus was God incarnate.

He is. But it says here that God cannot be tempted. It does. But if Jesus is God and Jesus was tempted, this says God can't be tempted and that raises some big questions.

It does. I think it'll be helpful with a little bit of a different translation. The words cannot be tempted. Translate a word that's used only here in the New Testament.

Very rare word. It carries the idea of being beyond the capacity for evil. In fact, you might write that in the margin of your Bible. God is beyond the capacity of committing evil. In other words, when he is tempted, there's nothing within his nature that is attracted to that sin.

You could actually render it invincible. He is invincible to temptation. Now the other question you might be wondering then is if Christ was unable to sin, not just that he didn't sin, but that he couldn't sin, which theologians call the impeccability of Christ, which I also believe.

Well, if that's true, then how is Jesus able to sympathize with us as our great high priest, as the writer said? We need to understand that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man. He had two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. The question is how did he meet encounter temptation?

He encountered it as a man. The divine nature of Jesus Christ could not be tempted. There was nothing within his divine nature that resonated with sin. He didn't rest on his deity to solve his problem. He resisted in his humanity and three times Satan tempted him in the wilderness and all three times Jesus did what you and I can do. He quoted scripture.

He answered it with the words of God. He can sympathize and he's given us a model whereby we resist temptation as well. Now you could translate this phrase, God never solicits anyone to do what is morally wrong.

That's the idea. Yes, God permits the circumstances of temptation, but he never prompts anyone to sin. God will never deliberately prompt you to do evil for that would be contrary to his ever ongoing desire and commitment to conform you into the image of Christ. So God doesn't set the believer up and we also recognize that we can't blame the devil.

We don't blame God. We can't blame the devil when we choose to sin even though he's baiting us. So the question is, why is there so much power and pull like the undertow in our hearts and lives toward sin?

James would say, I'm glad you asked that because I want to show you how sin works and he's going to unmask three ingredients as he sort of analyzes the process of temptation and sin for us. The first ingredient is desire, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Look at the first part of the verse. Again, verse 14, but each one is tempted.

Interesting word, actually just one word in the Greek language. It means each one of us are uniquely tempted. You can amplify verse 14 to read, each person is individually uniquely tempted when they are enticed on the basis of their unique and individual desires.

Now that's stunning news. What that tells us is that your temptation is for you unique. It's going to be different from the person sitting next to you, the person behind you or in front of you. Though we are all predisposed to sin because we are all depraved, fallen sinners, someone in here is going to be uniquely resonating with one type of temptation while another one in here would hardly stumble over it. But we cannot, and here's where we're different, excuse that sin because well, you know, it's in the genes.

That's just the way I am. Just because Solomon was predisposed to loving women did not mean he was anything less than sinful in his collection of wives. And here's how James says it happens. He is carried away, verse 14, and enticed by his own lust. Carried away, enticed, those are hunting words in the first century. Carried away means lured by the scent of the meat in the trap.

Enticed refers to bait on a line used by a fishery. We give Satan everything necessary to trap us. It's our desires and he knows what they are and he baits the hook with whatever resonates already within us. It's our lusts. See the idea? And just as a fisherman or a hunter, the idea is to hide the trap but expose the bait, to disguise the hook.

We're just going to go after the wrong thing and so they bite and they're hooked. Like the little boy and you learn this young. His mother caught him eating the cookies she had just baked and sat out on the counter. She walked in as he was putting the second one into his mouth and she said, I thought I told you not to eat those cookies until after dinner. And so, well, mama, I just got up here on the chair to smell the cookies and my teeth got caught. I had a lady come up to me after the first hour with her four-year-old and when I said that, her four-year-old looked at her and said, that happened to me too. He loves my preaching now.

I speak to him. Well, we learn it young. Here's the second ingredient. The first is desire.

The second is disobedience. Look at verse 15. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And lust has conceived. In other words, when the fish bites, that is when he acts upon the law, when his will sets in motion his desire to eat, to fulfill his desire, James writes that moment when his will is engaged and he decides to think those thoughts. He decides to set those plans in motion.

He decides to reach out. That's when sin occurs. Now James actually changes his illustration from a hunting expedition to a delivery room. Do you notice that? James is personifying the idea of temptation, giving birth.

Follow it this way. Desire is attracted to and finally decides to run away with disobedience. And they have a child. The child is named sin. You say, but it didn't look like sin. Of course it didn't.

It's the whole idea of temptation, to show you the bait without showing you the hook. It looked like popularity. It looked like true love. It looked like a way to get out of debt. It looked like a relief from the pressures of life. It looked like the next move up the ladder. It looked like the logical step for me to take. It looked like finally being appreciated. It looked like fun. It just looked good.

Of course it did. Why would the enemy ever show us death? You move from desire to disobedience to death.

Third ingredient is death. He goes on to write in verse 15, look, when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Now James can't be talking about physical death, although ultimately yes, sin brings death, right? Because sinners can live a long time for ultimately dying. James isn't talking about spiritual death because he's writing to Christians who sin.

I believe he's talking about death-like living. This is the self-destruction of cherished sin that the Psalmist David wrote of when he was literally being consumed by his unrepentant life and heart. The sin he was hiding. He wrote in Psalm 32, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of the summer. You see, you need to remember the old saying, sin will take you further than you wanted to go.

You remember that? Sin will cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. Sin will keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay. James begins by saying, don't play the blame game. The second thing James says effectively is take off the blinders. Look at verse 16. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Again, get the context. He's speaking to believers. He's talking to Christians. So he says, wake up to the truth. This is, by the way, an imperative.

You can put an exclamation point at the end of that phrase. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. And it's in the present tense, literally, stop being deceived.

The implication is these believers are, and so are we, daily by our temptations deceived to leave the truth, follow a lie. He says here effectively, be aware. This is how it works. Take off your blinders. Stay alert. Keep your eyes open.

You got out of bed this morning. What does that mean? You will be tempted. But God then goes further. And he says, let me give you something to think about that's positive and encouraging. In fact, he's going to give two things.

I got to move really quickly. He said, first, I want you to revel in the goodness of me as your Father God. That's going to help you because your eyes are going to be focused on this temptation and you're going to forget that I'm good. Look at verse 17. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights. You see, the truth is when you're in the grip of thinking, do I walk through that opening?

It looks good. It seems right. At that moment, we're forgetting about the promise of God to provide for us every good thing. You see, temptation says eat the fruit. You'll be better off. God's holding out on you. Why wait?

This is everything you've been looking for. And James reminds us, God is committed to giving you what is truly good, fulfilling your needs in a good way. If you wait, if you'll trust, if you'll look to him, you can trust him. Would you notice the next phrase of verse 17, with whom is no variation or shifting shadow? James is referring to the shadows caused by the movements of the lights, the bodies in the heavens. He says, God is the Father, that is, he created them.

James hints wonderfully. Well, he says, but have you noticed how those bodies don't give consistent light? The turning and the movements of the bodies bring shadows, but the Father who created them is to us consistent light.

There is with him no variation, you could literally render it, because of turning, never a shadow. In him is no darkness at all, 1 John 1.5. God doesn't have a dark side. And I wish we had time to explore, but he's actually attacking the pantheon of the first century, the gods were as sinful and as capricious and jealous and immoral as people. You never knew if you could trust one, because they might be leading you down a dark path. James is saying, no, the one true living God has no dark side.

He doesn't change. You can depend on his character to give you what is good and what is right. We revel in his goodness. Second of all, we revel in his grace. He writes in verse 18, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. James is referring to our spiritual birth by the will of God through the word of truth, which is the gospel of God. The figure of being first fruits is drawn from the Old Testament law, which designated the first portion of the harvest belonged uniquely, especially to God. He's saying that's who you are.

The rest of the harvest would be used for ordinary things. James is saying you're not ordinary. You are not ordinary. You are more than a mouse. You're more than a fish. You are God's precious, unique possession.

You're the first fruits. He will never change toward you. He is trustworthy. He will provide what is good.

He redeemed you for himself. He is worthy of all our loyalty and our love, so we live like it. We respond to his grace with a pursuit of purity.

We stop chasing worms on baited hooks, or when we see them, we see through them. We belong to the creator, redeemer, and it will be upon him we focus, and his grace we depend upon. So when facing trials, be passionate about persevering. When facing temptation, be passionate about purity. For our gracious good, giver of good gifts, redeeming God deserves nothing less than our all. Thanks for being with us today.

This is Wisdom for the Heart. In this current series called Bringing Faith Down to Earth, Stephen Davey is teaching from the early verses in James. If you'd like to study the book of James in more detail, Stephen's written a commentary on the entire book.

The James expository commentary is available at a very special rate during this series. We'd like to give you more information about that when you call us today. Our number is 866-48-BIBLE.

That's 866-482-4253. You would also find this resource on our website. Visiting us online is a great way to learn more about us. Navigate to wisdomonline.org. Once you go there, you'll be able to access the complete archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry. He's taught through many books of the Bible, and that collection is all posted online. We post each day's broadcast, so if you ever miss one of these lessons, you can go to our website to keep caught up with our daily Bible teaching ministry. The archive of Stephen's teaching is available on that site free of charge, and you can access it anytime at wisdomonline.org. If you have a comment, a question, or would like more information, you can send us an email if you address it to info at wisdomonline.org. Once again, that email address is info at wisdomonline.org. We'll continue through this series next time, and I hope you'll be with us for more wisdom for the heart.