How to Fight Temptation
James 1:12-18
Mark Anthony was known as the silver-throated orator of Rome.
He was a brilliant man, strong leader, and a courageous soldier.
But the one thing he lacked was the strength to say ‘no’ to temptation.
On the outside he was impressive and magnificent.
But on the inside he was weak and vulnerable.
On one occasion, his tutor became so enraged, that he shouted at him: “O Marcus! O colossal child ... able to conqueror the world but unable to resist a temptation!”
British writer, Oscar Wilde, who once said, “I can resist anything but temptation.”
Today I want to talk with you and the anatomy of a sin,
We are preaching through the book of James, a very practical book.
A book we might call, “Religion in Shoe Leather.”
And this morning I want to equip you to face temptation.
You as a Christian are at war with Satan and one of his biggest weapons is the weapon of temptation.
One of the weapons used so often by enemies in war is to lace a piece of land with land mines.
In the same way Satan has filled your everyday life with mines, but they are not land mines.
They are lust mines.
If you could picture your life as an open field, as you walk through it you are going to have to be very careful and avoid stepping on lust mines.
For when you do, they will explode into sin.
James will give us some great words of wisdom today.
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. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 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 firstfruits of his creation.
James 1:13-18 (ESV)
The word for trials and temptations is the same word in the Greek language but in reality it has two different meanings.
The root word translated “trials” (noun form) in James 1:2 and 1:12 is translated “tempted” (verb form) in James 1:13.
The context of these words provides the key to understanding the difference.
A trial is a hardship or a problem or a trouble that inevitably comes into every person’s life, and these are tests sent by God to make us stronger.
Temptations, however, are inducements to do wrong.
They are enticements to do evil.
Trials are designed to make us stand.
Temptations are to make us stumble.
Someone may have asked James, “If God brings trials into our lives in order to test us, what if we do not pass the test? What if blow it as a result of the trial God has sent our way?”
James answers that question by telling us that one must distinguish between testing times and tempting times.
James wants to help you to resist the temptation that comes along with the trial.
For every trial brings temptation.
Every external trial comes with an inner enticement to sin.
Financial difficulty can tempt us to question God’s care for our lives.
The death of a loved on can tempt us to question’s God’s love for us.
The suffering of righteous poor people when the wicked rich are taking it easy, can cause us to question God’s justice.
Testing almost always includes temptation.
1. Recognize the SOURCE of Temptation
James is not going to allow anyone who is tempted to blame God.
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.
James 1:13
It is an interesting thing how man from the very beginning of time has tried to blame God for his sin, it’s amusing as you think about Adam and Eve when they fell in the Garden of Eden.
But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:9-12
When God came and confronted them with their sin, they fell all over each other trying to blame somebody else.
Someone has said that when the fall occurred in the Garden of Eden God blamed Adam, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the Serpent and the Serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Adam was the one who didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Adam wanted to blame God.
He just wanted to make it look like, it’s just circumstances, it’s just my environment.
James is going to pull the rug out from underneath you if you’re trying to blame God.
They’re two things that are impossible according to James in verse 13.
3.1. It’s Impossible for God to be Tempted with Evil.
“You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,”
Habakkuk 1:13
“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
1 John 1:5
Christ Himself while He lived on this earth never sinned (1 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5)
The devil can’t dangle any bait in front of God that God is going to go after.
Why?
Because God has it all.
There’s nothing God needs, there’s nothing God wants.
He is sufficient in himself.
Satan has no bait that God will bite.
God has no itch the devil can scratch and God is completely whole.
But not only is God completely whole, God is completely holy.
He is the complete other of sin.
He is the antithesis of sin.
It is absolutely impossible that God could be tempted.
We try to blame God with our sins even in our day.
We don’t often do it directly but we do it indirectly.
For example: some people try to blame their sin on their environment.
Well, if I had not been raised in the ghetto, if I hadn’t been raised in the slums, I wouldn’t be a thief, I wouldn’t be a murderer, things would have been different.
That’s interesting in light of the fact that Adam and Eve were brought up in a perfect environment and yet they still sinned.
Then some people blame their sin on their inheritance.
Well, I’m just like my dad.
It’s in my genes.
It’s in my glands.
It’s just the way that I was raised.
There is too much of my dad in me.
They say this implying that if I had just had a different mom and dad I would have been different.
Even as someone as great as Aaron, the model OT priest, succumbed to blaming others for his sin.
And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
Exodus 32:22-24
You might say, “If the temptation to sin doesn’t come from outside of us (God or Satan), why am I tempted to sin?”
3.2. Temptation Is an Inside Job.
The second impossibility according to James is that God would tempt anyone with evil.
The source of temptation is inside.
The entire problem with sin is not external.
It is internal.
Notice that Satan is altogether missing in verses 14 and 15.
Not once is the devil ever mentioned.
James says you can explain temptation and sin without ever even mentioning the devil.
You see the problem with sin is not in hell.
It is in the heart.
James say, “We have met the enemy and the enemy is me.”
James takes sin apart like a watchmaker would take a watch apart, look at all of its components and then puts it back together.
2. Realize the FORCE of Temptation
Each of us carries within ourselves inflammable material.
Temptation can strike a spark that can cause an explosion.
James tells us that we are the root of our destruction.
2.1. Temptation Is Unavoidable.
Please take note of God’s Word in verse 13 where the word of God says “when” and not “if” we are tempted.
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.
James 1:13
There is no place you can go to escape temptation.
If you think becoming a monk and hiding out in a monastery in the hills of New Mexico will keep you from temptation, then again.
Adam and Eve were in a perfect environment and yet they were tempted.
If you believe that becoming a Christian causes you to omit temptations, think again.
The minute you become a friend of God you become an enemy of Satan.
And when God opens the windows of heaven to bless us the devil opens the doors of hell to blast us.
If you’ve never met the devil it’s because you and the devil have been going in the same direction.
You need to turn around and you’ll meet him head on, if you’re a Christian.
2.2. Temptation Is Personal
Notice the Bible says that:
“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”
James 1:14
Temptation is an individual matter with each of us.
No outside force can is strong enough to cause us to all by itself.
You are responsible for your sin.
Sin begins in the heart.
“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him”
Mark 7:15
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:20-23
3. Recall the COURSE of Sin.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
James 1:14-15
Man does not sin because he has to.
Man sins because he wants to.
The root of all in and all temptation according to James is lust.
”But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”
James 1:14
The word “desire” in the ESV is the word “lust” in the KJV and NASB.
The word means a “strong desire directed toward an object.”
This desire is not limited to sexual lust.
In fact, this desire doesn’t he have to be a sinful desire.
The same word that James uses in James 1:14 for the word “desire” is also used by Jesus in Luke 22:15:
And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Luke 22:15
Many desires are good when they are kept within the guidelines God provides.
The desire for rest is good and essential but it is a sin when it turns to laziness.
The desire for sex is good within a marriage relationship, but adultery is always wrong.
It was because of David’s lust that when he first saw Bethsheba bathing on the roof, the wheels started in motion that would make him an adulterer and a murderer.
But the problem began not with Bethsheba lying on the roof.
The problem began with the lust in David’s heart.
When this desire, this internal source, attached itself to an evil object, we are drawn out of a place of security.
In the words of James we are “lured.”
Much like a bait before a fish.
Here’s a bass deep down in a lake.
You know he’s there.
He has a favorite log that he loves to hide under.
But you know this bass, and you know there is a special worm that he just loves.
So you put that worm on a hook, throw him into the water.
Mr. bass sees the worm, and the desire to have that worm overcomes any fear of leaving the log.
He approaches the worm; looking at the bait but not paying any attention to the hook.
Then, the desire gives in to the deception; the excitement gives in to the enticement, and he bites!
When he bites, he’s hooked and the battle is on.
All of a sudden the brain of that fish communicates two things to him.
It says, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is, you’ve got the worm--the bad news is, the worm has you!”
James says that is exactly the way temptation works.
Temptation is the hook, and if you bite the bait you will certainly be hooked.
That’s exactly how certain kinds of women get certain kinds of men.
Why do you think we call prostitutes “hookers?”
Why do we say that dope addicts are “hooked” on drugs?
The Greek word for “lured” is also a hunter’s word.
It literally means “caught in a trap.”
It refers to how hunters would bait traps to catch animals.
It is not a sin for bait to be dangled before you; it is not a sin to be tempted.
It is a sin to bite the bait, and it is a sin to get hooked.
The thing you need to remember about temptation, is whenever it comes, it has a hook.
So don’t look at the bait, look for the hook.
Now we move from hunting and fishing to a wedding.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
James 1:15
The groom is your will, the bride is your desire.
You have a desire for something, and you want it very badly.
But your desire knows that it cannot have it unless the will gives in.
So the desire says to the will, “Will you?”
And the will says to the desire, “I will.”
When the will says “I do” to the desire, the desire conceives and sin is born.
This desire fulfilled brings forth a “beautiful” baby called sin.
I call it a beautiful baby because all babies are beautiful to the parents who bore them.
I’m going to be honest, sin is a beautiful baby to the lust and to the will.
Do you know the reason why sin is so tempting?
Because it tastes so good.
Hebrews 11:25 talks about “the passing pleasures of sin.”
The fact is, sin is fun, or no one would do it.
But did you hear the word passing?
You see, sin makes a very cute baby, but you’re going to find that when that baby called sin matures and grows up, it will become a monster that will devour you.
I read of a man who took a little tiger cub home from Africa for a pet.
It was so cute and playful.
At first it was like a kitten.
But that cat grew and became rougher.
But the owner would brag to his neighbors that he had this animal under perfect control.
He thought all along he was the master of this cat, until one day when that cat was almost a full grown tiger, he was scuffling with it in his backyard; his hand was scratched, and the beast, for the first time, tasted human blood.
Suddenly, in great fury, that cat leaped upon that man and tore him apart before the horrified gaze of his family.
The street called sin has a lot of beautiful scenery, and it rides smoothly for awhile, but remember it always dead-ends into death.
“The wages of sin is death”
Romans 6:23
How to Fight Sin
Flee from Sin
AVOID as much as is possible and reasonable the sights and situations that arouse unfitting desire.
I say “possible and reasonable” because some exposure to temptation is inevitable.
And I say “unfitting desire” because not all desires for sex, food, and family are bad.
We know when they are unfitting and unhelpful and on their way to becoming enslaving.
We know our weaknesses and what triggers them. “Avoiding” is a Biblical strategy.
“Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness” (2 Timothy 2:22).
“Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).
Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, "Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house,
Genesis 39:1-13
It is not the first glance but the second state that cause you trouble.
I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
Job 31:1
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Proverbs 4:25-27
Insulate your Mind
INSULATE the mind forcefully toward Christ as a superior satisfaction.
You must move from defense to offense.
Memorize Scripture.
Jesus fought off Satan by memorizing God’s Word.
Fight fire with fire.
Attack the promises of sin with the promises of Christ.
The Bible calls lusts "deceitful desires" (Ephesians 4:22).
They lie.
They promise more than they can deliver.
The Bible calls them "passions of your former ignorance" (1 Peter 1:14).
Only fools yield.
Deceit is defeated by truth.
Ignorance is defeated by knowledge.
It must be glorious truth and beautiful knowledge.
We must stock our minds with the superior promises and pleasures of Jesus.
Then we must turn to them immediately after saying, "NO!"
HOLD the promise and the pleasure of Christ firmly in your mind until it pushes the other images out.
“Fix your eyes on Jesus" (Hebrews 3:1).
Here is where many fail.
They give in too soon.
They say, "I tried to push it out, and it didn’t work." I ask, "How long did you try?"
How hard did you exert your mind?
The mind is a muscle.
You can flex it with vehemence.
Take the kingdom violently (Matthew 11:12).
Be brutal.
Hold the promise of Christ before your eyes.
Hold it. Hold it! Don’t let it go!
Keep holding it!
How long?
As long as it takes.
Fight!
For Christ’s sake, fight till you win!
If an electric garage door were about to crush your child you would hold it up with all our might and holler for help, and hold it and hold it and hold it and hold it.
Guard your Heart
I must do battle on a daily basis.
Sin will win oftentimes by erosion.
You can’t brush your teeth once and keep plaque away.
You can’t do battle with sin just once and keep temptation away.
While stationed at Pearl Harbor during World Ward II, a sergeant and a private were court marshaled for striking a colonel.
When they asked the sergeant why he hit the colonel, he explained that the major had stepped on his sore foot while passing down the line of review.
He said, "I just instinctively threw up my guard and let the colonel have it before I realized what had happened. It was an accident, sir, I can assure you."
When they asked the private why he hit the colonel, he said, “Well, you see, sir, when I saw the sergeant hit the colonel, I thought the war was over and he was fair game for anybody.”
Well, our war with temptation is never over.
I must remind myself that the final pain will soon erase the temporary pleasure.
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Hebrews 11:24-25
Hide God’s Word
You must control your thought life by the memorized Word.
You cannot fertilize sin, you must kill sin.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Psalm 119:9-11
Talk to your Sin
Say NO to every lustful thought within five seconds.
And say it with the authority of Jesus Christ.
“In the name of Jesus, NO!”
You don’t have much more than five seconds.
Give it more unopposed time than that, and it will lodge itself with such force as to be almost immovable.
Say it out loud if you dare.
Be tough and warlike.
As John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
Strike fast and strike hard.
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
