Temptation | James 1:12-18

Good morning. I am Austin Puckett. I'm the student minister here. Happy to open our Bibles this morning with you to James Chapter one.

Now, just about, maybe a month ago now, I witnessed a tragedy of sorts. Now, I'm not speaking of a film or a television show, which I've seen some of. I actually was there, so I'll paint the picture. There I was, I was sitting and I was doing something that few Americans dare to do.

I was watching soccer, the World Cup, to be specific. And I actually do like soccer, though I don't watch it much. I just enjoy athletics and soccer is a great sport. But I made the crucial mistake that many sports fans make in their lives. Some of you probably can relate.

I started to believe a little too much. Just a little bit too much belief. So excitedly I tuned into the US's round of 16 game against the nation of Belgium. I thought that we were well suited to take on that foe. I knew their team would be really good.

It could have gone either way in my head. But suddenly, very suddenly, I realized that though the threat of the Belgium team was not necessarily greatly more than I anticipated, the issue that threatened and destroyed our World Cup quarterfinal hopes was actually our team. The threat was not from without. It was very much from within the team itself as they crumbled. Now, at this point in James 1, we've read about threats from without.

Suffering, trials, persecution, these sorts of things. You know, whether these threats from without, they might be also riches, maybe they're poverty, so many things. Suffering comes in various forms in this world, and God uses it in Christians to strengthen our faith and produce steadfastness. We've also been warned to ask God for help in trials by faith with no doubting, and to consider that riches and success are not correlated to faithfulness and eternal blessing. For a dispersed crowd of Christians in the world, these are much needed lessons and what we like to call wisdom, which I could define as knowledge applied by faith.

We need faith to have wisdom because Christ is the wisdom of God. We must know him. And Christ is the lens through whom we must read James in order to grasp it truly. So this morning we're turning from these external threats mostly to those that are within, with an eye toward the source of sin and who the giver of good gifts is. So the main idea of James 1:12 through 18 is that temptation springs from within, but good gifts are delivered from God.

Temptation springs from within. But good gifts are delivered from God. Let's read our passage now. James chapter 1 verse 12: Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted. When he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So again, the main idea is that temptation springs from within, but good gifts are delivered from God. Do you want to be like the blessed man, the blessed man of Psalm 1, truly happy and joyful in the Lord? Do you want to receive the reward of true, pure and eternal life? Do you want to be encouraged to endure trials without blaming God?

But by understanding the source of sin? Do you want to know what to do about your heart, which efficiently produces new, fresh ways to sin? Do you want to receive good gifts? Do you want to know from where they come? Do you want to know what it means to be a kind of first fruits of God's creatures?

James answers all these questions for us here. So there are two points to the sermon. The first one is man, the source of sin, and the second is God, the giver of gifts. But we'll start with one of man, the source of sin. So in many ways, as we look at these verses, verses 12 to 18, this passage looks back to what has come before, forward to what is to come.

And so we can look back earlier in this chapter, and we see that if a believer remains steadfast in trials, you can see verses 3 and 4, his faith will produce steadfastness, and he will be perfect and complete as a Christian. So in verse 12, James closes off that thought. He kind of puts a bookend on it by speaking of a reward for those who remain steadfast under trial. Specifically, we see a couple things. We see a result and a reward.

The result we can see in verse 12 is that you will be blessed. If you can stand firm under trials, you will be blessed. So if you have or currently are enduring difficult trials, as I'm sure we are, those words can maybe enter your ears as a soothing massage for the anxious mind, much like aloe soothes a sunburn or ice an ankle sprain. But at the same time, that idea that your suffering can be considered your blessing might confound you. You might not understand this.

How does losing your child, or failing your exam, or losing your job, living paycheck to paycheck, being diagnosed with cancer, how do those things make you blessed? How can we be considered blessed when with those afflictions? Well, the Bible helps us understand a deeper, more complex meaning of the word blessed.

The Greek term in normal conversation would have been kind of understood as happiness, but the Bible uses it in such a way that we can understand more. Matthew 5:3-5, Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. So poor in spirit, those who mourn — are they what we consider happy?

We get more from Psalm 1, mentioned a little bit ago. Psalm 1. The first couple of verses say, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. So being blessed is a result of the overwhelming joy in the hope of eternity.

It is joy in the hope of eternity. This kind of blessing is given to those who love the Lord and His Word, no matter what they're enduring. If your love is steadfast, no matter what, this is the blessing. Love God and love His Word, and you'll be blessed no matter what. That's the result of remaining steadfast under trial.

But there's a reward as well, and for those who love him, verse 12, the reward is the crown of life. Now, Christians can disagree on how literal these crowns listed in the Bible are, but I take this as a visual illustration of an eternal reward. The reward is life. It is pure, true, eternal life. Life is the crown that you get so you can be blessed forever and ever in the splendor of indescribable happiness that only your Creator and Savior can give you.

So if you are wallowing in anguish, struggling to keep your head above the water, or especially if you struggle to get out of bed in the morning to look in the mirror and not hate the reflection, if you've lost your desire to live and have thoughts that the world might not miss you, Jesus offers you pure, eternal and true life. It is free. You can be blessed forever in the splendor of indescribable happiness. So don't turn out your lights. Don't quit on life.

If you have woken up this morning, God's not done with you. He has given you breath yet another day. You still have the opportunity to remain steadfast under your trials and to receive through faith the crown of life, an eternal reward that cannot be taken from you. You still have the opportunity for the reward. So the result is blessing and the reward is life.

And if you love God truly, then whether you're rich or poor, whether you're happy or sad, whether you're confident or shy, whether you're popular or lonely, articulate or uneducated, a foreigner or a citizen, prominent or unknown, comfortable here or feeling like an imposter, you can receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him. You need only to love Him. Now, this reminds me of the movie A Little Princess. Has anyone seen that?

A Little Princess, where the idea that all girls are princesses is repeated. The wealthy girl and the servant girl are both princesses. It's a good movie.

You know, this is kind of what we see here in Christ. We're all royalty. We all get the crown. Everyone in Christ is a prince or a princess. We will receive the crown of life.

But what James is doing, as he seems to turn the subject in verse 13 — look, you kind of read verse 12, he's talking about a crown of life, and then he starts talking about temptation. What is he doing? Well, often with external trials, trials from without, we seek to find fault, answers, someone or something to blame.

And we want answers, right? God receives the blame, often from us in our sin. We might ask, if God is all powerful, which he is, then why would he do these things to me? We turn in anger against the Lord. So James says in verse 13, let no one say, when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

So specifically, James is addressing those that might use their frustration at trials to blame God or even to excuse their own sin. So a modern example might be responding to sorrow or anxiety with alcoholism, drugs or pornography, or responding to the loss of a loved one with cynicism or forsaking the church. In these next few verses, James describes this soul killing vortex of desire, temptation, sin and death. But importantly, crucially, he makes the point that God is not in that cycle. He is outside of it.

God cannot be tempted and he himself tempts no one. He is holy and set apart, in him is no sin. Nothing less than absolute perfection and magnificence comes from God. This vortex of doom is then the doing of sinners in a sinful world. And so, thankfully, God is not like us in this way.

He is not an accomplice to sin and temptation. He is not affected or moved by us at all. Theologians say he is impassible. That means he is not driven by emotional responses to us, and immutable, meaning he is unchanging in who he is and what he does. So the fall of man does not affect change in him.

He remains holy. And when we look at verses 16 to 18, we will discuss this a little more. But first, look at verses 14 and 15. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth.

Sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. If God is not the originator of temptation and sin, we might ask, who's to blame? Well, it's clearly us. It is mankind. You are tempted.

When you are lured and enticed by your own desire, you are drawn out, lured. Here, James wants us clearly to think of fish. So imagine this.

Some of you guys like to fish, so you might be able to do this really well. You are a bass swimming along your daily commute downstream to work. As you're swimming, you see something out of the corner of your eye. A beautiful, brightly colored insect thing. And you have to have it.

You know, you shouldn't go over there. That's not for you. But you lust for that brightly colored insect looking thing, so you gotta rationalize. That's not really that big of a deal. I can just come over here.

No one will know. Why shouldn't I have it? You need to rest anyway, so why not just pull over, take a little break from swimming? You know, it's hard swimming, probably. Maybe just a nibble.

You know, just a nibble. Okay, one more. I didn't get a good one. One more. One more.

Rip. You're caught. You're hooked. You've been fooled by the lure and caught by the hook. I'm sorry, Mr. Bass.

Sin does not come from God. It is generated within us, in our own desires that lure us like a fish, by our own sinful desires to sin. This danger, this sin, comes from within us. It springs up in us. It's created, seemingly out of nothing, from our hearts alone.

So this makes it difficult then, to answer the question that some of you likely have about these verses. When does temptation turn into sin? Have you ever thought that question? Well, the passage says simply that you have desire, and when that desire conceives, it becomes sin. So this desire is a sinful desire.

It becomes sin. Now what does that mean? Well, having temptation thrown your way cannot be considered sin in and of itself. But sometimes that point is used to identify your own sin. You know, people might say, oh, I'm a same sex Christian, a gay Christian.

Well, we should put more distance between ourselves and our sin, whether it's that one or another one. We would rightly find it absurd to call ourselves lustful Christians, greedy Christians, gossiping Christians, alcoholic Christians. So a scholar named Douglas Moo helps us understand a little bit, I think, when he says it very well: if a person should welcome rather than resist that temptation, desire conceives, and if not turned away from immediately, it produces sin.

So that conception happens. Once we start to welcome that temptation, we don't immediately flee, but we entertain it, we consider it. We don't get away. I might even clarify by saying, once desire conceives, the sin is in motion. Because what do we know about conception?

It leads to birth. It is simple. Once it conceives, the motion is set in. You are on the path, you are going downstream with the fish. It is happening.

We need to immediately resist that temptation. Now, this is a fine line, right? And it might look different case to case. I think generally, especially if you're in Christ, we know it when we cross that line. Even if you have to suppress the reality of knowing that, which we often do, thus making it easier the next time.

When you suppress or ignore this, like a factory of death, you continue your procreation of death. You keep making it, conceiving sin, giving birth to it, raising your sin to maturity until it results in your eternal doom. Every time you do this, you fall further and further, and your conscience erodes away bit by bit, more and more, until it's like a smooth stone in a river with desire, temptation and sin slipping right off the back of it without a second thought. That's what happens. That is how you can go from lusting in your head to pornography or adultery over the course of time and wonder how in the world you got here.

That is how you can go from anger on the road to pulling over for a fist fight. That is how you can go from fudging the numbers a little bit to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is how you can go from having one drink to numb the pain, to not being able to function or operate without drinks. Now, how can we get out of these cycles that lead us to death, that drag us to the depths? Here's some things we can do.

First, we can proactively guard our minds. Be prepared for the battle by thinking of heavenly things, reading books like books on the doctrine of God, thinking of who he is, his character, his attributes. We can read the Word and love it. Read the Word so much that you think of it more than you think of your favorite book that you're reading or more than your favorite show that you've been watching. We can prepare in advance by memorizing the Word, memorizing verses, passages, or even books of the Bible, any scripture, even if it's not directly relevant to your temptation.

We are feeding our minds with good, healthy food. We need this ammunition to use against the evil one, as Jesus did. Second, we can pray immediately. Remember that definition. If we don't resist immediately, if we entertain the temptation.

So we must go to the Lord immediately instead. When the desire meets temptation, even a split second can make the difference. Third, we can run. Flee your temptation. If it's a physical place that's bringing about, leave.

Cut yourself off. That leads to the fourth point. Have accountability. Have people that you trust talk to a trusted person in the church to help you. You, preferably someone older in the faith, someone you'd be crushed to let down.

We are here for each other. We meet every week. Fifth, you can make changes. So depending on the sin, this could take many different forms. I'd encourage you to consider what it might look like for you.

This might look like locking up your access to illicit content online. This might look like making sure that there is no way for you to purchase alcohol or something else you shouldn't purchase or go on a careless shopping spree without your spouse knowing. This might be talking on the phone with your wife while you drive so you can't hide your road rage, and many other examples. Do you want to be able to face trials or even to face normal life in holiness? Well, you need to recognize where sin comes from.

Sin, from start to finish, is primarily an internal battle from within. Your most significant challenges in life will be from there. It won't be always the trials and temptations of verses 3 and 4. It'll more often be the struggle of verses 14 and 15 in which we are waging that battle. But you need to withstand trials both from without and from within.

And when you do, which you can only do through faith, God will give you the reward of eternal life, true life. If you don't trust in Christ, then you are driving without a seatbelt, and even a small collision can end you. So look to Christ. The Bible tells us that he is the wisdom of God. If you want to be wise, you need to know him and be known by Him.

And we might be caught up in the vortex of desire, temptation, sin and death, but we can trust him to give us good things. God doesn't put the sin in our lives. He puts the good things in our lives. That takes us to our second point. God, the giver of gifts, do not be deceived by your sin.

We read in verse 16, God sometimes sends trials in our lives, but not temptation. So this means that we must and should radically trust God, because verse 17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Now, we might again read this as a new idea in the passage, as James — if you just read it, you know, on first glance, kind of seems like he hops around from point to point. But this is directly related.

The same God who has given us oxygen, water, oceans, mountains, artistic ability, philosophy and wisdom, people that write fascinating books, marriage and families, and so much more, has also given us trials and tests. The same God. Now remember, God is, we said, immutable. He does not change. He created us and breathed life in us.

And yet he sees it best to have us endure trials. These trials and tests are included, I believe, in the good and perfect gifts that come from above. So if you've given your whole life to Christ, then you've unlocked something that those who lack faith cannot really do. We can use God's good providence as a lens through which to view our suffering. He might show you if this suffering is for your good and his glory.

We might see later on down the road what he's been doing. And even if we can't see it, we can trust Him. But perhaps, I imagine this is the case, it's not that easy to trust in certain circumstances. James tells us of something supremely comforting about God, though.

I encourage you to remember this. He is, verse 17, the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Now, these lights that he is the Father of remind us of creation. This word is used in Genesis 1. They are the sun, the moon and the stars.

These magnificent lights that help us to see our world and God's glory were made by Him. And even they change, they move, they have phases. But the Father is not like that. Though he made them, he does not change. And this is crucial to our comforting God, the reality that God does not change.

Because if he can — so if God can be good, holy, all powerful — but if he is not immutable, if God can change, then what comfort is there in his character or his promises? There's no surety that he's the same way tomorrow that he is today. He'd be able to change his mind. If God then only gives good gifts from above, and he's immutable, he will always do that.

That will always be the case. He will always be the giver of good gifts alone. That is our hope. Even if the gift seems to have an initial bitter taste. There's a song we sing here by William Cowper that says, the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.

In the end, God resolves. There is a sweetness to his plan that we cannot see in our temporality. The world shifts and changes. We change. The schemes of the devil change.

Much of our suffering is the result of our sin or the sin of another. Yet unchangingly, God never sends us anything that is less than completely good. So consider, how might this shape your attitude and reaction to trials? How confident can you be as a mother or a father, knowing that if you're faithful to the Lord, though your children might go wayward, he will always ultimately fulfill all that he has promised in Christ? How happy can you be in the midst of medical anguish, knowing that one day, if you're in Christ, you will be well and healthy forever.

You'll be able to walk, think clearly, or even eat gluten. You will be healthy. Maybe that's refreshing for some of you. How wise can you be in seasons of big life decisions, knowing that by trusting in God, he will not do anything with you that he does not wish to be done. He is in control of it all.

And most notably, if you're in Christ, a true believer in him, he has already brought you out of darkness by the word of truth, he's given you life. We read of his own will. He brought us forth. A more woodenly way to read that would be having willed, he gave us birth. A Bible called the Net Bible says, by his sovereign plan he gave us birth.

These are all ways I think we can understand what's being said. God, the God who does not change, who has no variation in him, he gives good gifts. His supreme gift is that by his will he gives you new birth to a new transformed life. You cannot will yourself into a new life. We sang that a minute ago.

You cannot make yourself into a new creation in Christ. You cannot clench your fists and work hard enough and be saved. You cannot produce faith in yourself. Remember, you are the source of your own sin. Sin springs from our heart.

But every good and perfect gift is from above, every good. And that includes faith in the word of truth that gives you life. When Christ died on the cross, he accomplished redemption. And in his resurrection, he sealed that promise forever. So your whole self can be transformed when you have faith in Him.

It's not just a status change from unsaved to saved. It is your whole being transformed from now and especially into eternity. Previously you were spinning down the cycle of desire, temptation, sin and eventual death. But now you have a guarantee of life. This new birth by the Word of truth has far reaching implications for our lives.

We can only scratch the surface of them. Here are a few. One, you can actually avoid sin. The Spirit of God sheds light on the path to escape temptation. Second, you can have genuine joy when you suffer.

And I don't just mean fake it till you make it, smile through the pain — joy, joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, says First Peter 1:8.

Next, you can be a witness to the gospel in any group of people. Old friend groups, new work colleagues, difficult family members, anyone. Fourth, you can have victory over sin and addiction. God works miracles and he can do this in you. And even fifth, you can be involved publicly or politically for the good of society.

All of these are ways that the word of truth can help us. So while all people, due to their being created in God's image, can access some semblance of the moral order through reason alone, having been enlightened by the word of truth, you have the ability to speak truth in a clearer way in your families in the public square. You can benefit the people around you just because God has transformed you because of the gift he has given you.

So quite different than God tempting you to sin or causing you to suffer, God gives new life, salvation, to his beloved children. And why does he do this? He does this — verse 18 says, to make us a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Now, what does this mean?

Well, if you garden, you might know what first fruits are. This is agricultural language. They indicate that something is alive, growing and producing fruit. The first fruits indicate importantly that there will be yet more. Barring the scorching heat of Oklahoma and pesky rabbits, of course.

But there will be more. There will be more fruit. There is more life. There are more things coming, more blessings and rewards to be dawned. There is more if you are the first fruits of his creatures.

So if you trust in Christ, you have new life through the new birth in the Spirit, and you have eternal life, with a crown of life to look forward to. You have more life, much more life coming if you're in Christ. More life than you can fathom today. Any of your trials and sufferings, all your battles with sin aside, you have life guaranteed with the Blessed Father, Father of Lights.

Everyone by birth — and many of us here, probably many of the people we know too — are spinning to your doom. Each and every day, your heart is manufacturing sin and death like there's no tomorrow. But there is a tomorrow, and there's an eternal tomorrow. And only giving your whole life to Christ can pluck you out of that cycle.

God can give you that good gift if you trust in him, he can take you out of that. Remember that temptation springs from within, but good gifts come down from God. So recognize that trouble often comes from within, not from without. So do you want to be like the blessed man of Psalm 1? Love the Lord and His Word with all your heart.

Do you want to receive the reward of pure, true and eternal life? Love Christ by trusting in him, no matter what circumstances you're enduring. Do you want to be encouraged to endure trials without blaming God? But by understanding the source of sin, you can recognize that sins and its poisonous fruit come from within. But God can free us of this cycle.

Do you want to know about your heart, which efficiently produces new ways to sin? Well, the Spirit gives you a new heart, because for all his children, the Father gives us new birth by his will. Do you want to receive good gifts? Do you want to know from where they come? Look to God.

He gives them. Do you want to know what it means to be a kind of first fruits? Well, we talked about this. Praise Jesus Christ, because there is more life, a glorified life in store for you. If you've repented of your sins and put your faith in him, the worship will continue in heaven.

Friends, but just as he has already given you new life, so you must already begin to worship. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the word of truth which brings us new life. God, you create in us new birth, but in our own hearts the only thing we bear is sin. God, rescue us, save us. We are poor and needy sinners. And Lord, by faith we believe that we can be given true life, a blessing and a reward.

And God, we believe this wholeheartedly because we know that you are God with no variation. You do not change your works, do not change your promises, do not change — God, how mighty are you. Oh Lord, we praise you for who you are and what you have done in Christ. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.