Sermon 3/28/04 am

Jim Huskey, Temptations

I've become convinced over the years that one of the failings in much

of the religious teaching that has been evident is that we have really

failed to teach people how to live once they become christians. As a

result of that, we've failed to do a lot of teaching from the epistles,

because the gospel accounts were written to tell us about Christ, the

book of Acts was written to tell us what to do to become a christian,

but then the rest of the New Testament was written to tell us how to

live, what changes to make, how we are to apply the principles that

are there. That's what we've been doing. We've looked at Romans,

I Corinthians, Ephesians, Hebrews. We're going to begin looking today

at one of the most practical of the epistles in the New Testament. It's

just plain simple down-to-earth applied christianity. It doesn't get

very deep in doctrine at all, but it gets right down where we live in

an awful lot of areas.

The book of James was written probably around 60 or 61 AD. Let me set

the stage now for the things that were occurring in the Church during

that period of time. Remember the Jews hated the Romans, but they hated

christians more than they hated the Romans. Therefore, they were willing

to be allies and have the Romans as their allies to bring about as much

persecution on the Church as they could. This was in full swing by the

time James took pen in hand to write this brief letter. There is

something else that we need to consider, too. There was an event just

around the corner that was going to happen that would have an affect

on both Jews and the Church, but far more on the Jews. Jerusalem was

going to fall, and its fall would be dramatic. If you doubt that,

sometimes when you're in a library see if you can find a copy of the

works of Flavius Josephus who was a Jew and who tried to encourage his

brethren, Jews, to leave the city of Jerusalem and surrender. They

would not listen to him and they styled him a traitor, and he wrote the

events that were occurring, and it became very, very ugly before

Jerusalem fell. So James was writing for one thing to encourage

christians who were already being persecuted and for another thing, in

view of some things that were going to happen in the near future.

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve

tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting." James 1:1. Now James was

primarily slanting his message of Jews who had become christians,

because they were particuarly a target of Jews because they viewed these

people who had become christians as traitors to the law of Moses, to

the family, to the nation, and as a result of that, they took special

delight in seeing them persecuted. "My brethren, count it all joy when

ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your

faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that

ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1:2-4. I'm now

moving to verse 12, because he is dealing with the same subject.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he

shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them

that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of

God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man;

but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and

enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin,

when it is finished, bringeth forth death." vs. 12-15. In these verses

James talks about two things he calls temptation. Perhaps the first

mentioned is what we would probably "trial, tribulation." Remember,

this is what they were going through at the time James wrote the letter.

The other, beginning in verse 12, is more what we're familiar with when

we talk about temptation. But there is a very practical approach that

James takes with respect to both. He says count it all joy when you

fall into divers temptations; blessed is the man that endureth

temptation.

I'm afraid the few a lot of people have of the christian life is one

that has been propagated by those who have preached what I call a

"health and wealth" gospel. You just become a christian and all your

problems are going to be over. That AIN'T so !!!! That AIN'T so !!!

If you don't believe it, ask the man we know as the apostle Paul what

happened after he became a christian. He had been, remember, Saul,

the persecutor. He became Paul, the persecuted. He would be beaten,

he would be stones, he would be in prison, he would be constantly in

danger for his life. He didn't have any of that before he became a

christian. You see, this concept of a "health and wealth" gospel, that

you won't get sick, everything will be all right, is foreign to what

the Bible teaches. It teaches that God is no respector of persons. So

it's not a matter of who I am, or what I am. If people around me get

sick, I probably will, too. If the world is in an economic mess, it's

going to affect me like it affects everybody else. But the Lord had

said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are you.." Well blessed are

you what !!!! Let's just back up there to Matthew, chapter 5, and

begin with verse 10. "Blessed are they which are persecuted for

righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are

ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all

manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be

exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted

they the prophets which were before you." Matt. 5:10-12. So James is

but echoing something the Master had said while he was here on the

earth in what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

Persecution is not necessarily a bad thing, if you stop and think about

it. It may thin the ranks, but it's not always a bad thing if you

weed out the dead wood. Now think about that one for a few minutes.

When a person remained faithful in the first century, you knew that

person was devoted to Christ, because he was putting his life on the

line every day. It meant something to be a christian; it cost

something to be a christian.

Now we go down to verse 13 of James, chapter 1. Now I'm convinced

this is a very practical approach because it's the way people are. I

want to look at it a couple ways. "Let no man say when he is tempted,

I am tempted of God; (or God's doing that to me)....." I don't know

how many times I've stood in hospital rooms, I've stood with families

who had lost a member of the family, and here came the remark - "Why

did God do this to me?" Well, my friend, I'm here to tell you, God

didn't do it !!!! God didn't do it. !!!! After all, who do we think

we are, that we are so special that God would single us out,

individually, to put a special "curse" on us, or bring us some sort of

"bad luck", or put some sort of temptation in front of us that we

couldn't handle !!! NO. God doesn't do that !!!! Death is a common

lot of man. The reason it's here is because of man, not because of

God. Man was the one who chose to violate the law. When man took of

the tree of knowledge of good and evil and ate, he suffered the

consequences of the penalty the law posed. God didn't make him take

that fruit and eat it. God didn't force him to eat it. He did it

because (Well, I usually say because some woman got involved in it.

Well, she's the one who was empted and deceived. Adam when into it

with his eyes open. Why did God....? God didn't do it !!!!

Then there are those things we commonly call temptation, and that's

what he's dealing with in this 13th verse. The reason I know that is

because he said, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of

his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth

forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

vs. 14, 15. I want to go back into the Old Testament for two stories,

and I want to illustrate this problem with temptation, and one of them

that follows the pattern that James pictures here. The other story

will show how we overcome temptation. In II Samuel 11 we find David

is King of Israel and we begin in verse 1 of that chapter. "And it

came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go

forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and

all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged

Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in

an evening-tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the

roof of the king's house; and from the roof he saw a woman washing

herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent

and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the

daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent

messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with

her; for she was purified from her uncleanness; and she returned unto

her house." II Sam. 11:1-4. Well, let's look at a list of things.

In the first place, David wasn't where he was supposed to be when he

was supposed to be there. His army was in battle, but he wasn't with

them, so that's the first thing. This was the time when kings went

forth to war, but David didn't go. The second thing is, he saw this

woman washing herself who was beautiful to behold, so he was tempted.

Now, had the thing stopped right there, David would never have wound

up in the mess he did. However, evidently the more he thought about

what he saw, the more he liked what he saw, and he made a proposal to

her and she accepted. Lust when it has conceived, brings forth sin,

and that's exactly what happened. He took another man's wife. But

things didn't go as planned, because she got pregnant. Now he not only

had the sin problem, there was a child on the way. That event changed

David's life forever, and he never got over it, though God forgave.

He never got over that event. Because of it the sword would never

depart from his house. There is a price for our actions. Immorality,

which he had tired in secret, would be practiced opening, because his

own son would come and take his concubines and lie with them in the

sight of the people up on top of the house. To David's credit, he

never blamed God for that. Even when his enemies were cursing him

as he had to flee the city of Jerusalem because his son had brought

his army to take the city away from his father, as they threw rocks

at him, cursed him, and his general wanted to go up and take the head

off that "dead dog", as he called him, David said, 'No, let him alone;

God hath bidden him do that.' David never blamed God for the mess in

which he found himself. Now there are all sorts of excuses and reasons

I guess that some folks would use. But the bottom line was, David was

not where he was supposed to be, and he did something he should not

have done because he allowed the temptation to have a fertile ground

and to be cultivated.

In Genensis, chapter 39, we find Joseph has been sold by his brethren.

"And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of

Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of

the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord was

with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his

master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him,

and that the Lord made all that he did to propser in his hands. And

Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him; and he made him

overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.

And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in

his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the

Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was

upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all

that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the

bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well

favoured. And it came to pass after these things, that his master's

wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. But he

refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth

not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he

hath to my hand; there is none greater in his house than I; neither

hath he kept back anything from me, but thee, because thou art his

wife; how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he

hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. And it came

to pass about this time, that Joseph went in to the house to do his

business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.

And she caught him by his garment, saying Lie with me; and he left his

garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out." Gen. 39:1-12. You

see the difference in the two stories? David embraced the lust; Joseph

ran from it !!!! There are some times when that is the safest way to

handle things. If you hear a time bomb ticking you can try to find it

and figure out how to defuse it, or you can get out and get away from

there !!!! Well, you see, David played the time bomb and lost.

Joseph wasn't willing to take that risk.

Now let's go back and see what James said. "Let no man say when he

is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil,

neither tempteth he any man; but every man is tempted when he drawn

away of his own lust, and enticed." Temptation is a common thing.

When somebody succombs to temptation and says, "Oh, God did that..."

NO, he didn't !!!! There's an old expression that says, 'The same

sun that melts wax hardens clay.' It depends on the consistency of

the material. The same applies to temptations. Temptations are common.

We all have them. Now we don't all have the same ones, but we all

have temptations. We're all going to confront them, because again,

God is no respector of persons. Therefore he's not going to allow one

to be tempted over and over and completely temptation away from

everybody else. We can take a fellow who is a alcoholic and for him

walking down the street past a liquor store may be a real challenge.

It may be a real temptation. I can walk back and forth in front of

them all day long and it wouldn't bother me in the least. I don't

care how they've got it packaged; I don't care good looking the sales

girl is, it doesn't bother me at all. That is just not a temptation

to me. It has no appeal to me whatsoever. There are some areas,

however, that do bother me, and somebody else might not have a

problem in those areas at all. Why? It's just that we're all tempted

but we're not all tempted in the same areas. Everybody has their

own Achilles' heel. So what James is dealing with is something

with which everybody has to deal. That's why I said he approaches it

in a very practical way. Here is where you get down to applying

christianity on an everyday basis. Temptation is not going to be

something that is a special occasion; you're going to be confronted

with temptation day in and day out. It may be in the home, it may be

on the job, it may be any number of places, but we will be confronted

with temptation to do one thing or the other that we ought not do.

You see, where David made his mistake was not in looking, but in

allowing it to go beyond that and carrying it beyond that. There's

where the problem was. Joseph had enough good sense to "get out of

Dodge" and that's what he did. And you know someting? When you

look at that story of Joseph, Potiphar probably knew his wife pretty

well, because nine times out of four, Joseph would not have lived

long enough to have recorded anything about it, had he, as a servant,

been guilty of what Potiphar's wife accused him. After all, remember

he was bought for the price of a slave anyhow, he was just a piece of

property. Potiphar would have killed him, plain and simple, and that

would have been it. But he didn't; he had him put in prison, and the

next thing you know Joseph is running the prison !!!! But part of it

had to do with how he handled temptation. Now, as I said, this is

practial. Well, why is it so practical ???? Everybody is going to

have temptation !!!! Christian, non-christian, it doesn't matter.

That's why I said when these folks get up and say 'Once you become a

child of God everything is going to be all right', IT AIN'T. Temptations

are still going to be there, problems are still going to come, trials are

still going to come; and that's what James is dealing with, the every-

day problems and realities of life those christians were having to deal

with when he wrote to them. Now one of the things James points out,

having said all that, is that "Every good gift....comes from the

Father..." vs. 17. "Every good and every perfect gift comes from him.."

There is another power at work in the world and that's satan, and he's

going to use every means he can to destroy every child of God he can.

He'll find their Achilles' heel and he'll use it, no matter what it is,

against him. But, there again, we need to remember, when we have

problems, don't blame God for them. HE DIDN'T DO IT !!!! A lot of our

temptations and testings and trials are the result of our own making,

and we've just reached the point of payback time; and it will come.

That's what Paul says concerning the law of sowing and reaping. If

you sow, you're going to reap. If you don't believe it, ask David.

"...and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." All you have

to do is look at David's life from there on. The child died, David

was run out of town by his own son, David's own son would slay another

of his sons, one of David's sons would forceably have sexual relations

with one of his daughters, and the sword would never depart from his

house. Why? because lust had a chance to conceive, to bring forth sin,

and it brought forth the penalty.

Like I said, James is very practical, down to earth, common sense.

We're all going to be tempted and tested. Now notice what he says.

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.."

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation..." It makes us stronger.

It's been years ago when I played various sports, but I remember the

first part of the training didn't have so much to do with the game

itself we were playing as it did with conditioning and weeding out.

When we could survive that, we were stronger, more adept. Well, that's

one of the points James makes. Temptation can make us stronger when we

endure it, when we handle it. We must do it with patience, but it can

make a better person out of us. He was writing, remember, to people

who were going through great temptations every days of their lives.

While we're not faced with the kind of temptations and trials they

were, we face them, nonetheless; and they're just a real as those were.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.."