Temptation in Slow Motion
James 1:13-16
One of the reasons I enjoy the book of James so much is it deals with daily life. James talks about the things that you and I encounter on a daily basis. He has already talked about trouble and when troubles come. He has talked to us about the need for wisdom in the daily decisions we make. He has even talked about the economic distinctions that we all observe and know. Now he moves to another area that is a matter of daily concern to everyone of us. He takes up the subject of temptation.
When you look at the word temptation in the first chapter of James, you will discover that it is used in two different ways. In verse 2 he says, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall in divers (many kinds) of temptations." Now, in verse 13 he says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted." The use of the word is different in the two verses. In the second verse he is talking about the testing or the trials which God sends our way. In verse 13 he is talking about the temptations which come into our life from Satan.
The Lord tests us to bring out the best in us. Satan tempts us in order to bring out the worst in us. So in the context of the verses we're going to study, I'm going to talk about the matter of temptation, enticement to sin.
The Bible says here, "Let no man say when he is tempted." Did you notice that there is no doubt here about the fact that temptation will come?
He didn't say, "If a man is tempted, if a person is tempted," but, "When we are tempted." The first verse of scripture I memorized after the Lord called me to preach was I Corinthians 10, verse 13. That verse says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Temptation is common to man. All of us experience temptation. All of us have those enticements to sin. None of us are immune from the reality of temptation. Temptation to sin is just as real as what you went through yesterday or today.
I want to talk to you about temptation, and I want to point out the fact that it is a common tendency for all of us to want to blame someone else when we
sin. I read sometime ago that a psychologist said that it is characteristic of 4-year-olds to blame other people for the messes they get in.
I have news for the psychologists. It is not only common to 4-years-old. It is common to grown people as well. We all have a tendency to want to blame someone else for our sins and to blame someone else for the things we do. We want to blame people or circumstances. We want to say, "It's not my fault. Somebody else has caused me to sin."
Will Rogers, the humorist, said, "There are two eras in American history. There is, first of all, the passing of the buffalo and secondly the passing of the buck."
Someone said that Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent, and the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on.
We have a tendency to want to blame someone else for our sin. We even have the tendency to blame God, Himself. Here's the way the argument is. God made me the way I am. I am not to blame for the way I am, for the tendencies that God has given to me. Therefore, when I sin, God ultimately is responsible for my sin.
That is exactly what we find in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were tempted to sin, it is indeed true that Adam put the blame on his wife. It is true that the wife put it on Satan, but if you read very carefully that temptation experience in the Garden of Eden, you will notice that Adam says to God, "The woman whom You gave me." Do you see the implication? The implication is that God is to blame.
So people want to put the blame on God. They say, "I sin because of the ghetto that God let me born in. I sin because of the genetic structure that I'm made with. This is the way I'm born." "I sin because of the glands that God has given to me; therefore, I am not responsible when I am tempted and when I sin. God has made me that way."
James, first of all, wipes out that argument when he says in this verse, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God"; then he says, "for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." What he's saying is that God is untemptable. God will not promote that which is repugnant to His own character.
When we are tempted to sin, we must look where the responsibility is placed according to the teachings of the Bible. We must look to ourselves.
I want you to see how temptation works, and I want you to see the whole process of how temptation goes. If you will lay this to heart, it will spare you some grief and heartache in your life.
I. Temptation Originates.
These verses tell us first of all how temptation originates. It tells us where temptation comes from. In verse 14 he says, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." He says the way temptation operates is that first of all something happens on the inside. He says the problem is on the inside of our very being, our very makeup. He says that we are tempted when we are drawn away of our own lusts.
The word lust is a very interesting word. The root of that word is the word heat. Lust is something that puts a fire on the inside. Lust is something that burns on the inside of our being. The Bible talks about this lust, and what it means is desire. It means desire in the wrong way. It means cravings and longings in the wrong way.
God has given all of us certain desires. There are certain longings and desires that are normal and natural to human existence. But sinful desire is the desire to fulfill these normal desires and cravings in abnormal ways. For instance, God has given the normal desire to eat. God has given the desire and the need to sleep. God has given the desire for sex. There is nothing wrong with these desires in and of themselves. They are normal desires. But they become abnormal and become sinful lusts when Satan tempts us to fulfill these normal desires in abnormal ways. There is nothing wrong with the desire to eat, but gluttony is a sin. There is nothing wrong with the desire to sleep, but laziness is a sin. There is nothing wrong with the desire for sex, but sexual immorality is a sin.
That is where sin, lust, temptation originates, "of our own lusts." There is a problem on the inside. Lust is that something in steel that responds to the magnet. Lust is that something in the wood that responds to the fire. Lust is that spy on the inside of the gate that communicates with the enemy on the outside. Lust is that beachhead that allows Satan to make a landing in our life. Sin originates, he says, from our own sinful desires, our lusts.
But notice he says, "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed." The word enticed talks about something on the outside. We have those desires on the inside, but then there's something working on the outside.
When we are tempted to sin, God does not tempt us to sin, but the Bible tells us that the devil tempts us to sin. We have an enemy and that enemy is very skillful. That enemy, the devil, knows just exactly where to get to you. He knows just exactly how to go about tempting you.
I think you would agree with me that we are living in a day where there are probably more things available that Satan can use to tempt people than ever before.
Everywhere you turn there are unusual temptations to sin. You meet the temptations in the mall. You meet the temptations on the television. You meet the temptations in books. You meet the temptations in all kinds of ways, and we are constantly bombarded by the temptations from without. The devil knows how to match the temptation on the outside with the desire on the inside. Temptation originates because of something on the inside and because of something on the outside.
If you lifted up that piano and looked inside of it, you would see all of these strings. If you would sing a single note into that piano, there would be a string in there that would vibrate. It would correspond to your voice. Satan knows just exactly the note to sing. Satan knows just exactly what to cause you to vibrate. He knows just exactly how to entice you, and so Satan begins to sing his temptation and it causes that something on the inside to vibrate in your being. That's how temptation originates.
II. Temptation Propagates.
Secondly, I want you to see how temptation propagates. This, I think, is one of the most fascinating passages in the entire Bible to me because actually what the Word of God does for us here is takes sin and breaks it down frame by frame. It's as if the Word of God takes the whole process of sin and shows you how temptation operates to cause us to sin, and it does it in slow motion.
That's normally not the way temptation works. In fact, many times temptation comes so suddenly that you're hardly aware that the temptation is there.
It hits you in an instant. But the scriptures breaks it down and takes it frame by frame, and it shows you just exactly how temptation works in your life.
James is a very graphic writer. He takes all kinds of illustrations. He was so much like his half brother, the Lord Jesus, who took lessons and illustrations from the world of nature. That's what James does in this first picture, showing us how sin is propagated, how temptation moves forward.
He uses the illustration of a fisherman going fishing. The Greek words that are used in this passage of scripture, are taken right from a fishing trip, right from the process of how a fish is caught.
He says in verse 14, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." The picture is of a fisherman going to fish. Here is Ms. Fisherman, and she's going fishing for Mr. Bass. Mr. Bass is safely hidden under a bank. He's in a place of safety. But Ms. Fisherman comes and she's going to try to catch Mr. Bass. So Ms. Fisherman takes a hook and on that hook she puts bait. That is exactly the language that is used here. "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away," that is, when he is lured away, "of his own lust, and enticed." He is baited.
Ms. Fisherman has put the bait on the hook. Then she drops the bait and hook down into the water. Mr. Bass, under that bank, sees that bait and Ms. Fisherman begins to pull that bait just a little bit and string it along in front of Mr. Bass. There is something on the inside of Mr. Bass that is attracted to that bait. Mr. Bass begins to wander outside of that place of safety.
That bait is glittering and moving around sensuously and enticingly. Mr. Bass makes a few passes at the bait. Then in an instant the desire and craving and lust on the inside of the fish reaches out to the bait that's dangling before him and the fish grabs the bait; but when the fish grabs the bait, it also grabs the hook and the war is on. In a little while, Ms. Fisherman pulls Mr. Bass out of the water, slaps him on the bank, and just in a matter of minutes, Mr. Bass is dead.
That is exactly the picture that James paints with the words that are used here. That is exactly how temptation comes. That is exactly what the devil does when he tries to get you to sin. It says, "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." He is baited.
The devil is a very skillful fisherman. He knows just exactly what kind of bait to use to attract you. They tell me that there are different kinds of fish. There are some fish that you catch with just an old, ugly fat worm. Any old worm will do. But they tell me also, that there are some fish smarter than that. So for those kinds of fish you have to get an elaborate plug. You have to outsmart the fish.
The devil is the same way. For some people, it doesn't take a whole lot. For some people the devil can catch them quite well. For some people, any old worm will do.
Then there are others that the devil uses some elaborate plugs. He can get you with pride. He can get you with false spirituality. He can get you with ambition and desire for fame and attention. The devil knows just exactly what bait to use to get you. What's the bait the devil's dangling in front of you right now?
What you have to understand is when you look at the bait of the devil, there's always a hook in the bait. We are drawn away and when we are drawn away and when we go for the bait, then the next thing we know we've got the hook.
That's the way temptation always works.
I want you to see something. He changes the figure of speech. He's talked about going fishing. Now he's talking about a wedding. He says in verse 15, "Then when lust hath conceived." The word conceived means to get pregnant. Lust gets pregnant. Lust is now going to have a baby. A wedding has taken place.
Now, Mr. Lust and Ms. Temptation have joined together, and they're going to have a baby. It says, "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin." The baby of lust and temptation is sin.
All babies are pretty. That little sin is conceived and it looks so cute. That little sin is born in your life and it looks so great. It is so exciting and so cuddly. It is so sweet. There are some of you here tonight who are playing with the little baby of sin. You have let temptation get the best of you, and your lust has joined together with that temptation and now you've got a little baby sin. Nothing too serious. How cute this little baby is and you are enjoying it.
The Bible says that there are the pleasures of sin for a season.
But that's not the end of the story. But now little baby sin begins to grow up. It gets bigger and bigger, and all of a sudden you begin to discover that what you've got on your hands is Rosemary's baby. Now you see that little sin growing up is not nearly as pretty as you thought it was.
III. Temptation Culminates.
It says in verse 15, "And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." That tells us how temptation culminates. "Sin when it is finished, sin when it reaches its maturity."
What we have here is the finished product of the devil's art. Have you ever heard that saying, "Be patient with me, God is not through with me yet"? "Don't be too hard on me, God is not through with me yet"? If you're in sin tonight, don't be too easy on yourself. Sin is not through with you yet either. One of these days there's going to be the finished product. Sin is going to come to its fruition.
"Sin, when it comes to maturity, brings forth," this is another word for birth. But the word for birth that is used here is the word that is used to describe animal birth. "Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." The word for bring forth means to spawn. It means to bring forth a monster.
Lust and Temptation have conceived. They have brought forth a child and that child is sin. But now you're getting ready to have a grandchild. The grandbaby of your lust and your temptation is death.
All sin leads to death. The Bible says that the soul that sins, it shall die.
Sin, all sin, ultimately resolves itself in death. The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death."
And if you don't get the power of Jesus Christ into your heart and life, you're headed for spiritual death. It will kill your home. It will kill your family. It will kill your testimony. It will kill your joy. It will kill your life. It will kill your eternity with God. These are the consequences of sin.
I want to come to a positive thought with you. "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." If God doesn't cause sin, then God can cure sin. The only provision that can overcome the power of sin is what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary.
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the price for your sins. Because Jesus died for your sins, you don't have to die in your sins. The good news is that you can be forgiven of your sins. Christ can come into your heart and into your life. He can forgive you of your sin and can break the power of your sins, and you can walk out of this building tonight as if you had never ever sinned.
Let’s pray.
