Evening Service, 21 June 2009

Last week we noted that every circumstance in our lives can be the means of a test or a temptation. That God in His sovereign providence orchestrates things, including those that challenge us and our faith at its very core, to make us more like Jesus. Just like fire purifies when appropriately controlled purges away dross and even strengthens metal, so God uses trials and troubles to purify us and to develop spiritual strength.

But we also saw that with the trouble aimed for our good comes the opportunity of temptation. In fact we saw that the one Greek word conveys both ideas, indicating what is a test may and often will also prove to be a temptation design to lead us into sin.

Whose fault is it when sin explodes in my life? Is it God’s, after all He is sovereign over all things? That is illogical and impossible says James – for “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

Well then, if I can’t blame God for the sin in my life, then it must be the devil’s fault, or maybe modern psychology is right and I can blame it on people or on my environment – right? Wrong, says James. The same fire that purifies and strengthens, may also reveal inherent structural defects. So potters have known objects placed in the kiln to be hardened, while others suddenly explode – the heat of firing revealing inherent flaws otherwise unseen, and in particular moisture content.

We have to look within to see the problem says James:

1. The Problem

I remember really enjoying watching Prof Julius Sumner Miller on TV in the 1960’s. He had a program called ‘Why is it so?’ You would never know what simple every-day experiment he would dream up next. Massive handwaving, an eloquent American drawl, flashing raised eyebrows and content matter drawn from the kitchen, the backyard and from nature ensured that his audience would watch as a regularly captivated student as the lively professor asked such questions as: “WHICH weighs more – a pint of wet sand or a pint of dry sand?” “WHAT would happen if there were no friction in the world?” “WHY does a diamond shine so?” “WHY is a dew drop round?” He would keep on asking ‘Why is it so?’, guiding his audience along the track of truth until they came to the correct and complete answer.

James, Why is it so? Why is it that a trial becomes a temptation? Why is it that temptation has any power in us? Is it the temptation itself? Well no says James. And he is right for we know that two different people can be exposed to the same temptation but with different effects. For example the smell of alcohol will But It is not the external thing itself that tempts us; it is our reaction to it. An alcoholic may be tempted overwhelmingly by the smells wafting from a brewery, while a teetotaler is repelled. The odour is the same in each case. What differs is the reaction the odour causes. So you have to ask Why is it so? Why is it that the temptation has any effect at all?

Notice what James says, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” James analysed the situation carefully.

Temptation is an incitement to sin, it makes sin look attractive and pleasurable. But the problem is not really in the temptation, it is in the one being tempted. Notice James says here that sin comes through our response to temptation. Being tempted is not sinful, though certainly tempting someone is sinful. Just because you are tempted doesn’t mean you have sinned – after all Jesus was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin, says the Scripture (Heb 4:15). No says James, the problem has to do with our “desires”. To the question ‘Why is it that temptation impacts you?’ the answer is my “desires”.

The word “desires” describes a deep strong passionate longing of any kind, it can be good or bad. For instance it is said by Jesus in Luke 22:15, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”. But here in James the point is that the desires are evil desires.

The reality is that we are to say no to temptation, but something inside us causes us to pause, to ponder, to find ourselves interested and as James puts it “drawn away and enticed”.

Enticed is a fishing word. I used to use silver lures in our inland rivers knowing that fish were attracted to the glitter. Likewise, we succumb to temptation when our own lust ‘draws’ us toward evil things that are appealing to fleshly desire.

What happens when we are tempted is that we toy with the idea, allowing it to occupy a place in our minds. And that which causes us to be enticed is “our desires”.

Put simply the problem is in our nature. It is not the cleverness of the temptation but the corruption of the tempted. The problem lies in our “desires”. It is man’s inbred desire to do wrong. We have a ‘fallen spiritual disposition that makes us susceptible to temptation’ (MacArthur). ‘Every man has within him that fallen perverted nature that is capable of the worst crime in the most terrible evil’ (Blanchard). ‘The problem is not a tempter from without, but the traitor within’ (MacArthur).

Jesus puts it this way in Mk 7:18-23 as he describes how a person becomes corrupt or impure, saying “Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him… What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

The principle being emphasised here is that ‘Sinning doesn’t make us a sinner; we sin because we are sinners.’ The call here is to own our sins, take responsibility for our sin. As Tony Bird comments ‘It is an axiom of Scripture that we are accountable for our actions… my sin is always my responsibility.’ When I sin it is because I wanted to, I am drawn into it by my desire for what is held out before me.

And just in case you think that is not true of you, in this there is no exception “each one…by his own desires…”

2. The Process

In v.15 James personifies evil, saying that temptations and desires come together to “conceive”. Their offspring is named “sin”. The whole imagery here is of the life-cycle; the life-cycle of sin.

Tony Bird explains it this way: ‘As soon as we say yes to a temptation, we set in motion a chain of events as certain and as natural as childbirth itself. Once the egg in the womb has been fertilized, developments take place which lead nine months later to a new life being born. The fruit of evil desire, however, is a most unwelcome development. This child’s name is ‘sin’.’

The serpent used desire to interest Eve: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Is there anything wrong with gaining knowledge? Is there anything wrong with eating food? Eve saw that “the tree was good for food” (v.6), and her desire was aroused. But then we read that she “took of its fruit and ate” and then “gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (v.6). She chose to rebel and sinful acts followed: of eating, and of tempting or involving Adam.

Desire conceives a method for taking the bait. The will approves and is joined to the desire which thus becomes pregnant with action; and the result is that sin is “conceived” and before long is born into outward action. But we need to understand from the birth imagery that just as the baby was alive before the actual moment of coming out into the world, so also sin doesn’t begin to be sinful only when some specific, visible action emerges. Though some sinful action is bound sooner or later to emerge, sin is already conceived when we embrace the temptation in an act of the will. Matthew Henry: ‘The sin truly exists, though it be but in embryo. And, when it has grown it its full size in the mind, it is then brought forth in actual execution.’ It would be better that sin was not conceived at all, but if has then better to abort it with confession and repentance before it is born into one’s life!

3. The Product

James says that not only does desire conceive and give birth to sin, sin in turn also becomes a parent. The name of its child is “death”. William Barclay, whose theology I could never commend to you, nonetheless often has helpful insights in to the language and culture of the times in which the NT was written. He points out that the word “brings forth” ‘is not a human word at all; it is an animal word for birth; and it means that sin spawns death. Mastered by desire man becomes less than a man and sinks to the level of the brute creation.’

When we indulge our sinful desires, sin becomes a pattern – continuing with the human life-cycle imagery, it becomes “full-grown”, ie is strong and dominating life, a settled habit, it has become a life-dominating force, a sinful lifestyle. Unchecked it too becomes a parent, spawning “death”. ‘Romans 6:23’, says Blanchard, ‘is the Bible’s unwavering verdict.’ “The wages of sin is death.” That is the way it is in God’s economy of justice – a fact that ought not be minimised or forgotten.

There is evil in sin, but there is also evil after sin. It creates its own penalties – “death”. Death is the fruit of all sin. Sin kills peace; it kills hope; it kills usefulness; it kills the conscience; it kills the soul. It destroys so that there is the loss of beauty and purity, of holiness and happiness, of fellowship with God’s people with and God Himself. Each of these is a kind of death in itself. But especially we note that this “death” stands in contrast to the “crown of life” (v.12) and so brings in eternal death.

Just as faith and endurance lead to eternal life (v.12; cf Matt 10:22), so selfish desires and sin lead to eternal death (Rev 20:14-18).

The lesson is clear: unchecked lust yields sin, and unconfessed sin brings death.

You don’t want to go back there says James! “Don’t be deceived!” Even so, how quickly do we forget the evil of sin and the power of corruption in our fallen nature. So James calls us to see how it begins and where it leads, all the time urging us back from the precipice that temptation calls us towards.

James has shown us that God brings no experience into our lives in order to drag us down. His gifts are always and only good. If we feel temptation, the problem is in our own inner desires. Unless we deal with our temptations on this basis, our initial desire will grow into sinful acts, and this to a sinful lifestyle.

Yet we are not given over to despair as Christians as we find ourselves being tempted yet again, even if it is the same temptation where we have experienced such weakness in the past – surely this is James point. Because of Christ we can and ought to say No. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:13 declares “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” God will never allows us to be in such a position that sin is the only option – He limits the temptation to what we can endure, never lets it be something that has not been experienced by others (so watch and learn), and He will always make sure there is a way of escape for us – we will always be able to say No. If we don’t in other words it is because we have given free rein to sinful desires.

How do we master our desires rather than find ourselves mastered by them so that we might resist temptation? How do we find the way of escape? Well, instead of blaming God, we turn to God. Our only hope is God – who can’t be tempted and who doesn’t tempt! James doesn’t allow us to look inward without also holding out before us the glory of God. What James is saying is that w will ever find God true to His nature! Now that not only means true to being holy, but also merciful. It is He who lavishly gives wisdom to whoever asks (v.5) and who gives “every good and perfect gift” (v.17). In Him, James reiterates for clarity “there is no shadow or variation” (v.18).

There is a timely and often necessary warning here to Christians, to forget God is to result in a morbid introspection and make us vulnerable to destructive despair.

Knowing that His apostles would be subject to temptation to evil because of their remaining unredeemed flesh, Jesus admonished, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). Turn to Jesus the Victor over temptation and sin – Heb 2:18; 4:16. John Owen: ‘He that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayer.’