If you have your Bibles, you can change,
or turn to James chapter 1, and we
left off at verse 8.
James chapter 1, verse 8.
The title of the message is, If God
doesn't tempt me, who does?
If God doesn't tempt me, who does?
And temptation is a pretty big issue in
all of our lives, is it not?
Let's just be up front.
Everything from overeating, to overviewing, to you name
it.
Being tempted to do the wrong thing.
It's actually not just a daily struggle, often
it's an hourly struggle.
With the temptation to say the wrong thing,
or do the wrong thing, or go to
the wrong place, and it's just bombarded with
temptation.
So I'm going to talk a little bit
about that, but first, let me read James
1, verse 9.
Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation.
Basically a lowly brother is poverty.
A person who is poor, he's contrasting the
poor and the rich.
So let the humble brother, the lowly brother,
glory in his exaltation, but the rich in
his humiliation.
Because as a flower of the field, he
will pass away.
For no sooner has the sun risen with
a burning heat, that it withers the grass,
and its flower fails, and its beautiful appearance
perishes.
So the rich man also will fade away
in his pursuits.
So if we stop there for a minute,
he's talking about the poor are reminded to
persevere.
In other words, he's saying, lowly brother, poor,
humble person, rest in that exaltation, meaning God
exalts you, God looks at that state of
where you're at.
But the rich, if you've been given the
gift of wealth by God, he says, make
sure you're humble about it, and realize it
as soon as a vapor fades, or as
a flower is here one day and gone
the next, so will everything you've worked for
be gone.
And we see in the news, famous golfers,
actors, sports figures who die and are forgotten
like a vapor.
I just heard about a famous golfer that
passed away.
And you think, well, I hope he knew
the Lord, because that's a lot of 18
holes for no reason.
It's just gone.
So he's saying, be careful how you live
your life.
Pursue the right things.
That's what he's saying here, pursue the right
things.
And I recall, as I was studying Psalm
90 verse 12, the ESV I like to
use as well, but I usually use a
New King James if I'm reading from James.
But the ESV says this, so teach us
to number our days that we may gain
a heart of wisdom.
Teach us to number our days.
One other translation says, teach us to realize
the brevity of life so that we may
grow in wisdom.
Now this is an interesting verse.
I have to think about this often.
Teaching me to number my days, that means
the decisions we make, we're planning ahead, we're
realizing that we might not have next week,
next month, next year.
Teach us to number our days and put
first things first.
By doing that, you gain a heart of
wisdom.
You'll make wise choices.
So wise choices line up with numbering our
days and making our days count.
For example, what about spiritual choices?
Lord, teach us to number our days so
I should put spiritual things first.
I don't know what time you get up
or when you spend time with the Lord,
but make it a priority.
For me, I've got to put it first
in the morning.
That has to be the first thing I
do.
I'm making spiritual investments and I'm numbering my
days because it will help gain a heart
of wisdom.
What about family decisions?
Teach us to number our family decisions because
they will give us a heart of wisdom.
When we make decisions for our family, what
about money matters?
What about health choices?
You realize you have this wonderful gift that
God has given you, right?
Your body.
And we have to make, teach us to
number our days, to make wise decisions in
all these areas.
So, but the main context there was the
rich person.
You better be humble.
You better understand that all of this will
pass away so you don't waste your entire
life.
And then verse 12, blessed is the man
who endures temptation.
Here's where it's going to get interesting on
this topic of temptation.
Blessed is the man or woman, right, who
endures temptation.
For when he has been approved, he will
receive the crown of life which the Lord
has promised to those who love him.
Let no one say when he is tempted,
I am tempted by God.
For God cannot be tempted by evil nor
does he himself tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth
to sin.
And sin, when it is fully grown, brings
forth death.
I don't know if you caught that or
not, but this is how temptation works.
Each one is tempted when he was drawn
away by his own desire.
So I have something in me, for example,
that likes chocolate.
That's a poor example, but it'll work.
So there's something in me that I'm tempted
by this.
Right here he says that.
But each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own desire.
So my desire and my enticement, but if
I cave into that desire, that's not a
good desire, and I begin to cave into
it and go in that direction, then that
conceives sin.
Sin is born.
And if you don't abort that sin, what
does it do?
Like a little baby, it grows and grows
and grows.
That's why he says, it gives birth to
sin and sin, when it is fully grown,
brings forth death.
Now it's interesting, a lot of people say,
Shane, you should tone down sometimes or just
be lightened up or be whimsical, tell stories.
But I can't because the enemy is going
after us.
He's here to kill, steal and to destroy.
And when that sin begins to grow in
a person's life, sometimes we need to call
it out and preach so that God's work
can go in and penetrate that heart.
So that's the course of sin.
Our desire, we give in, that's the difference
between temptation and giving in.
If I'm tempted to do something and I
don't do it, that's not sin.
But giving into that sin, and then once
I give in, if I don't abort it,
it'll continue to grow and grow and grow
and grow.
And that's how sin works.
That's why we often talk about confession.
Bring it to the light.
Yes, it's humiliating.
Yes, it hurts.
Yes, it's embarrassing.
But you expose the sin, bring it to
the light, it loses its darkness.
It grows in darkness, so it loses its
power when it's brought to the light.
So let's look at this for a minute.
Blessed is the man who endures temptation for
when he has been approved.
So this tells me that bearing it, enduring
it is normal.
We have to bear sin.
We have to endure what we're going through,
because we don't want to, do we?
We want to get rid of that.
I don't want to face temptation.
I don't want to do anything, but we
have to bear it.
We are not trapped.
We are not without hope.
God will carry us.
God will help us carry the load, but
there is a load to carry.
Here's the thing about temptation.
People fall and they go, oh, I just
couldn't help myself.
Yes, you could.
But we don't realize that, yeah, there's a
burden to carry.
Ask anybody who's coming off of any type
of addiction that it's hell.
It is absolute hell, because the body's still
craving that.
And I just had to do it.
No, you didn't.
You didn't have to cave in.
You have to endure it.
Endure it means that it's a struggle.
Yes, it's difficult, but if you give anybody
who's addicted to anything, if you can get
them through the first 30 days, it gets
much easier.
That's one example of how addiction can work,
because people don't understand you have to bear
it.
How do we keep falling in sin?
I can't take this anymore.
I can't handle this anymore.
And we just start to make these excuses,
but God tells us we can endure the
temptation.
And it tells us also there is a
season.
Once we've been approved, he will receive the
crown of life, which the Lord has promised
to those who love him.
But he's also linking in eternal life here,
I believe.
So life is full of temptations.
We're enduring temptations.
We're being soldiers for God, and we receive
the crown of life, which the Lord has
promised to those.
So thank God there's a season, right?
Temptation has a season.
And you know if you said no, a
few minutes later, you're glad you said no,
and it's gone.
There's a season there with that temptation.
But here's a key.
Temptation in that critical moment, whether it's a
few seconds, maybe a few minutes, it's in
that critical moment where it's the strongest, is
when that's the most important time to say
no and walk away.
It's in that pinnacle time of when temptation
is knocking at the door.
Number two we learn, it's not God's fault.
Well there goes some of our arguments, right?
Temptation is not God's fault.
When we see something we need, desire, or
want, our first impulse is to act on
it.
The pressure feels unbearable and we cave in.
This defining moment is often the most difficult
when overcoming temptation.
So let no one say, tells me that
people were saying at the church, well it's
God's fault.
He created me this way.
Have you heard that before?
God created me this way.
I was born this way.
And God just, you know, I'm this or
I'm that.
And he's saying it's not God's fault.
Don't say, oh the Lord is tempting me.
It's our own, we're drawn away by our
own desires.
So drawn away means to succumb to temptation.
And it's often gradual, easy and effortless.
The thing about temptation, do you know why
a fishing lure is called a lure?
It comes from the word to allure.
A-L-L-U-R-E, allure.
And look at that little shiny thing.
They bite it, what happens?
Right here and it pulls, that's the same
thing.
So we sometimes get caught off guard because,
well it feels okay, it's no big deal.
I mean it's kind of effortless, I just
kind of walked right into this.
And that's how temptation works.
If there was a big flashing sign that
said don't do this, here's what's going to
happen, nobody would enter.
But the devil presents the bait.
When Eve saw that the fruit was good
for the eye, or pleasant to the eye,
good for food, and desirable to make one
wise, she took of that fruit and she
ate of it.
It looked good, it looked appealing.
And here's what happens, we're often too smart
to take large, deliberate plunges off, say this
platform.
But we're easily enticed to take one step
at a time, one compromise at a time,
one bad choice at a time until we're
at the bottom.
And many of you know, I've talked about
this before, I have a heart for those
who are addicted.
If you take alcohol for example, it starts
at a young age, or teenagers, and then
try it now and then, and then years
go by, and they realize now they're hooked.
What happened?
It was the little compromises.
Also with adults, maybe if that's not your
vice, anything else can be that where we
just begin to be drawn into this, and
the first step is easy, and the second
step is easy, and the third step is
easy, and then we start to get to
the bottom.
Now we're down here wondering, how did I
get here?
One step at a time, that's how he
operates.
Even when our family life, and our family
relationships, and marriage, whatever it is, he'll start
to take you down one step at a
time, and you know because you have the
conviction of the Holy Spirit, convicting, and convicting,
and convicting you not to do something.
Number four, the end result is never good.
The end result of temptation is never good.
When the desire has conceived, it gives birth
to sin, and sin, when it is fully
grown, brings forth death.
This is the type of abortion this church
approves of.
Aborting sin.
As soon as it begins to well up
inside of us, as soon as we've got
to abort that, and that's kind of, I
might tie it in at the end, but
for the service tonight, I was thinking of
practical application.
Maybe there's some areas that you've been dabbling
in too long, playing with too long, and
maybe, I don't know, everything from anger to
addiction to anything that's on that list, and
it's good to bring it to the light
tonight.
Let God know during worship, as always I'll
probably be in the back maybe, if you
need prayer, and just want to bring something
to the light.
I've seen a lot of affairs stop just
in time.
But I've seen a lot not stop in
time, because they thought, well it's no big
deal.
It's not really hurting anything.
It's harmless.
And then guess what?
Months go by, and that's how he works.
We've got to wake up to the fact
that he will, that's how the enemy, he's
been around a lot longer than you.
He's been watching and watching and watching.
He's patient.
He'll wait an entire lifetime to kill, steal,
and to destroy.
Often it doesn't happen overnight.
It's a course he sends out.
What normally I've seen many times, what the
enemy will do in my life, anybody else's
life, first he's going to get you away
from the Word of God, and from prayer,
and from worship.
Whether it's a job, whether it's a person,
whether it's, whatever it is, he'll get you
away from the Lord, and you're like, I'm
too busy for this, and I'm doing all
this stuff.
And once you're away from the Lord, you
don't have the conviction of his words, you're
not in worship, you're not, iron's not sharpening
iron.
Now you begin to open yourself up for
other things, because you're not being led of
the Spirit.
Because you can't be led, as I talk
about Sunday, by the world and the Spirit.
One or the other is going to be
leading you.
And I've referenced it probably a few different
times, many of you will remember if you've
been at the church for a while, but
there's a good book out by Steve Farrar
called Finishing Strong, and he interviewed, or somebody
interviewed 250 of the top Christian leaders who
fell into sexual immorality, or fell into financial
abuses, or in any ways they were in
this position of leadership and they fell.
Number one on the list was no more
devotional time.
I'm too busy.
And then he brings in pride, that'll never
happen to me.
See what happens when you get away from
God's word, you get away from worship, accountability,
transparency, you're hiding things.
See that'll never happen to me.
That's pride and arrogance, and the enemy works
in that because it starts to twist your
thinking.
And a lot of people don't realize this,
pride and walking away from God will actually
twist your thinking.
You're not thinking according to God's word, you're
thinking according to the prideful nature that is
governing us at that point.
So that's how it usually happens.
He pulls us away from God, because I've
never seen a marriage fall apart where the
husbands and wives are into God's word, and
praying and worship.
Now one is maybe and one isn't, and
I know there's people here who aren't married
and this might not apply, but overall the
enemy will take you away from God and
then slow choices.
Well I know I shouldn't do this, but,
I know I shouldn't do this, but, and
that's the process.
It works on just about everybody that is
open to it.
And again the end result is not good.
You can't say, I don't want to get
involved because you're already a target.
People tell me this, well Shane I don't
want to get involved, it doesn't matter.
You are already involved.
As a Christian, as a believer in spiritual
warfare, you are already involved.
You are part of the battle.
You're either winning or you're losing.
Or you're caught in the middle for a
minute, or a couple of days, you're caught
in this struggle.
But God offers hope in this struggle.
And I could list, I thought about different
areas for many people.
Temptation is anger in some of us, is
a temptation.
Do you know that?
That anger can be a temptation.
You feel that you're tempted to get angry.
You're tempted to just get the last word
in and there's a temptation and you're wanting
to fast, but here comes a chocolate cake.
And you're wanting to get your life back
on track, but here comes Budweiser.
And you're wanting to, you know, all these
things, it goes across the gamut of what
temptation, the enemy doesn't care what he uses,
but he'll use something.
Pride and arrogance, that is a big temptation.
It's very hard, as I said before, to
humble ourselves and say, I was wrong, I
need to work on this.
And God will use that area in our
lives to actually humble us, to go through
temptation to humble us.
And that's what I want to get to
on a little bit of this.
Testing, on this scripture, he says, let no
one say when he is tempted that I'm
tempted by God.
For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor
does he himself tempt anyone.
Now this is interesting because we know that
God tests us, that's clear, and tempting and
testing is often, they often go together, but,
and it depends, you can read different commentaries,
but in my opinion, James is saying here
that you cannot blame God.
God is not tempted by evil, nor is
he tempting anyone.
He's not going to throw you in a
situation and say, haha, I knew you would
fail.
I'm not going to, he's not going to
tempt you in that way.
Life, with life brings temptation.
God doesn't need to do it.
It's almost like, say we have some chocolate
at home, like the example of chocolate, right?
And I tell my kids, you know, it's
in the kitchen, you're not going to have
any more today.
Am I testing them?
I mean, pretty much, right?
I mean, put the choice out there.
I'm not really tempting them because, in essence
I am, because there's chocolate in the kitchen,
this happens actually, this is a real story.
There's chocolate in the kitchen, you can't have
it, not today, so there's a tempt and
a testing.
But what about if I go in and
as they're about ready to go to sleep
and say, look at all this chocolate, right
here, right on your bed, and here's a
cup of ice cold milk, right here, but
don't you dare touch that until tomorrow.
See, that's just not fair.
And you won't see God put you in
situations where you won't be able to endure
it.
Scripture reference for that, yes, 1 Corinthians 10
.13, no temptation has overtaken you, but such
as is common to man, and God is
faithful.
See God is faithful, don't worry about the
temptation, God is faithful.
He will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able.
So, that tells me I can say no.
Here we go, we've got to eliminate that
excuse again.
I just couldn't help it, I had to
give in.
No, God says you can bear it, I
am faithful, I will not put you through
something that you cannot bear, something that you
cannot turn away with.
But with the temptation, God will provide the
way of escape also, so that you may
be able to endure it.
There's that word again.
See, if you go into temptation like this,
here's how I would go into it.
Okay, God has provided the way, and it's
in two letters, N-O.
Okay God, I have to endure this, yes
this is going to be difficult, this is
going to be challenging, but God you're faithful,
you're going to help me endure this, and
I look at this as a test.
Test, the temptation is a test.
So, see temptation, Jesus was tempted, Jesus was
tempted, in all points like we are, yet
he was without sin.
So the temptation presented itself, but he turned
from it and said no.
So that's, the temptation itself is not the
sin, it's when you act upon it.
So if a thought comes in your mind,
that might make some of you feel better,
and you go, not to say the thoughts
are good, any thought, but if a thought
comes in you're like, where did that come
from?
Oh my goodness, I'm not going, that's not
right Lord, take that away please, and you
refocus, and you move on to the next
thing, but if you sit there and you
dwell on that thought, and begin to bring
that thought to fruition, and concentrate on it,
then you're crossing that line from temptation, now
is you're going to probably cave in, because
where your thoughts go, your feet follow.
You're not strong enough, I'm not strong enough
to sit and dwell on something, for minutes,
or even hours sometimes, without taking that step.
When we obey God, He strengthens us.
When you say no, it strengthens you for
the next time.
That's the point I wanted to really get
to as well, I'm glad I wrote down
this evening.
When you say no, you're building self-discipline.
When you're saying no to this, no to
that, you're guarding yourself, you're enduring temptation, actually
it makes it easier for the next time.
But once you cave in, and there's a
consistent pattern of giving into the temptation, does
that temptation then become stronger or weaker?
Stronger.
So the more you give into something, it
gets stronger and stronger and stronger, that's where
the word stronghold comes from the Bible.
It's got a strong hold on you, or
on me, because we've given into it consistently
and over a long period of time.
I really like that quote I read Sunday
from Andrew Murray, just as water ever seeks
and fills the lowest place, so the moment
that God finds you abased and empty, His
glory and power flow in.
Any time you overcome temptation, you will have
to go from a spot of arrogance to
a spot of humility to overcome it.
It's hard, but it's important to humble ourselves
in that temptation.
Lord, I'm not strong enough.
Lord, I don't want to do this.
Lord, I need your help.
You have to humble yourself, because willpower is
not enough.
Willpower can get you through some things, discipline,
yeah, willpower, but in the end, it is
not going to be enough to overcome that
temptation.
So here's a practical application.
And what we usually do on Wednesdays, the
message is a little bit shorter, and during
worship, we can focus on the practical application.
So if God doesn't tempt me, who does?
Here's who tempts you.
The flesh, the devil, and the world.
It's not bad enough that I just have
the flesh tempting me and pulling me.
Now I've got the world, and I've got
the devil.
All of these things working against me.
So here's what you do.
When it comes to the flesh, you choose
the opposite of what the flesh wants.
You have to fight the flesh in order
to starve it.
You don't keep giving in that fuels the
flesh.
You have to starve that flesh.
That's why I promote fasting so often.
Fasting will kick any addiction from pornography to
drug addiction.
When you fast from food, the body, you
starve that desire of the flesh.
The flesh has to take a back seat
to the fast.
And the devil, the Bible says, resists him
and he will flee.
So if there's demonic oppression, if the devil's
coming in and bringing, you resist him and
at some point he will flee.
So many times we don't know, is it
the flesh?
Is it the devil?
What's going on here?
Well, it could be both at work.
We just don't know.
We know that our weapons are not here
that we see.
Our weapons are spiritual.
And then with the world, you avoid the
world's influence.
You avoid its pull.
See the world is going to pull me
away from God.
So if God is here, the world's going
to pull me away from God.
So if I just give in and allow
the world to pull me in, that's going
to be the influence.
Or if I allow God to pull me
back, that's going to be the influence.
I'm allowing one or the other to influence
me.
Now next week we're going to talk about,
let me see if you have your Bibles,
James 1.
I think I wrote down, when you go
through trials, you are especially vulnerable to deception.
So when you go through a trial, well
I'll just have you finish reading a little
homework after James.
James 1, just read James 1 and into
James 2.
Next week we'll talk about when you go
through trials, you are especially vulnerable to deception.
That's when the enemy comes in, when we're
going through that trial.
So that's the practical application for today.
If God doesn't tempt me, who does?
We tempt ourselves.
It's already within us.
And the world tempts us and the enemy
tempts us.
So we can't blame God, we have to
take full responsibility and follow all the advice
that James gives here.
He also brought in advice from Paul in
Corinthians that no temptation has overtaken you but
what is common to man.
So everything you're going through, other people have
went through.
Everything you're feeling, other people probably feel.
The same temptations, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eye and the pride
of life.
Those are the three areas he's going to
get you.
What the flesh craves.
You know what it is because you have
a problem in that area.
I don't need to preach it, right?
There's nobody agreeing in this sermon, I'm going
to have to preach this on Sunday.
We know what the lust of the flesh
is.
It's the areas where the flesh pulls us.
You've got to have safeguards there.
The lust of the eye.
With the eye, why are we in a
spending epidemic or economic epidemic or the fracturing
of the economy, everything because of the lust
of the eye.
Bigger, better, more, bigger, better, more, bigger, better,
more.
We want to buy, buy, buy, buy, buy.
I've got to have this, I've got to
have this.
In the lust of the eye.
So he's going to come in whatever the
flesh wants, something that, keep me up with
the Joneses.
You can remember that.
Do you do that?
Ever think about that?
Do you want a bigger house?
Do you want to live in Leona Valley?
Those of you who live in Leona Valley,
you already live here but some of us,
oh that would be nice.
Too bad the houses are double the price.
Five acres on a ranch, lust of the
eyes.
Which can't, not necessarily a bad thing sometimes.
But if you're, if God's not in it,
it's a bad thing.
If you're desiring things that God's not in.
So the enemy comes in, in the flesh,
the lust of the eye, what the eyes
want, keeping up with the Joneses, and then
the pride of life.
That's where else he'll come in with the
pride of life.
That's why Andrew Murray's quote throughout the Bible,
humble yourself under the mighty hand of God
and due time he will exalt you.
So I think it's going to be good
during closing worship if we just focus on
some areas where we need to humble ourselves.
Where we don't want to, God bring the
spotlight on this area of my life and
humble me.
Lord you've got to humble me in this
area in order to change me and we
come during worship and we humble ourselves before
God.