28 Jun James #4 – Jesus’ Temptation, Your Temptation (James 1:12-15)
– [Narrator] You are listening to audio from pastor Mark Driscoll. To find more helpful content like this, as well as daily devotions as Pastor Mark videos, resources for leaders and much more, visit markdriscoll.org. While there, you can also make a donation that’ll help support the ministry and subscribe to continue getting Bible based teaching. If you live in or visiting the greater Phoenix Valley, please feel free to come and see pastor Mark at the Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. Thank you for listening and being a part of Mark Driscoll Ministries. And remember it’s all about Jesus.
– We love to go through books of the Bible and we find ourselves in the book of James 1:12-15 and we’re dealing with Jesus’ temptation and your temptation. And the big idea is this, that every time God opens an opportunity, Satan brings opposition. So opportunity from God is met by opposition from Satan. And Jesus here is beginning his public ministry just as you are beginning your public ministry. Jesus here is going public just as you have recently gone public. And he is going to prepare himself with 40 days of prayer as we did. And I want you to see what happened to him will in fact happen to you and happen to us. So we’ll jump first into Luke 4:1-13 and I’ll read it to you. And it says, and Jesus full of the holy spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the holy spirit? What does it mean to be led by the holy spirit? It means to be like Jesus, who God becoming a man was empowered by the holy spirit to live his life and do his ministry on the earth. And the good news is ultimately that Jesus has given us the holy spirit so that we can live by the same power that he did. So it’s not just the life we live for God, Christianity is the life of God lived through us. He returned from the Jordan, was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days. So here is Jesus, 40 days of prayer. In hindsight, we’re looking back at our 40 days of prayer and seeing what he experienced and to anticipate that that is what we might experience, being tempted by the devil. Being tempted by the devil, you can be a godly person and opposed by the devil. In fact, the godliest people are the most oppose, God himself was opposed by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days, 40 day fast. Some of you a 40 minute fast seems like a real stretch. A 40 hour stretch, I don’t know if I’d make it, 40 day fast. And he’s out in the wilderness, he’s isolated, he’s alone, he’s hungry, he’s tired. He ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, one of the most obvious things in the Bible, he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, if you are the son of God. So Satan shows up to tempt, to detest and to try the Lord Jesus. If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. How many of you at that point would be glad to make bread? I would. At this point Jesus is being tempted by Satan to meet his own desires rather than serving the father’s purposes. There’s nothing wrong with eating but there is something wrong eating with Satan. That our first parents got into a lot of trouble eating a meal that they weren’t supposed to eat with someone they were not supposed to eat it with. And here as Satan comes, though it’s a new day, it’s an old trick. And Jesus answered him. Jesus is gonna quote the Bible over and over and over. If you don’t know the Bible, we would encourage you to study the Bible, maybe even make it a goal at the beginning of this new year to read the Bible all the way through for yourself. And Satan comes to tempt to detest and to try Jesus and he’s going to quote repeatedly from the book of Deuteronomy. Now, how many of us honestly, if our fate hinged on our ability to quote Deuteronomy from memory, in the desert, after 40 days of fasting, it will not go well. Jesus knows his Bible. Jesus answered him, “It is written man shall not live “by bread alone.” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority “and glory for it has been delivered to me, “and I give it to whom I will. “If then you will worship me, it will all be yours.” He takes him up, he shows him all of the pleasure that the world has to offer sex, money, fame, power, all of it. And Satan says, “I can give you a kingdom without a cross. “I can give you a victory without a defeat. “I can give you provision without any pain.” He is looking to give Jesus a shortcut, and one of the ways that Satan will tempt and test and try us as a church and you individually, as well as your family, is to try and give you a shortcut. Something that God intends for you but it’ll be hard, and Satan wants to offer you that same thing if you will simply worship him. And hear all of eternity hangs in the balance as Satan is offering to Jesus a crown that doesn’t require first to cross. And he just needs to worship Satan, and by worshiping Satan it means that he will submit to Satan, that he will trust Satan, that he will follow Satan. Here in fact, the two kingdoms are in great collision. And Jesus answered him, “It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God “and him only shall you serve.” And then he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. He showed them all of the worldly pleasures and power. And now he’s going to give him a religious opportunity to gain prestige and prominence and power without any humiliation or suffering. And set them on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the son of God, “throw yourself down from here for it is written, “he will command his angels concerning you to guard you, “and on their hands, they will bear you up, “lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Again, he’s quoting the old Testament but he’s quoting it wrongly. And Jesus answered him, it said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” And when the devil had ended every temptation and there it is, it’s a what? It’s a temptation. He departed from him, does it say forever? No, for an opportune time. That Satan will come against you, the demons will come against you. The temptation will come against you. And even if you hold your ground and are steadfast and resist, it is not that you will live the rest of your life without temptation, trial and trouble, that in fact Satan will seek another opportunity where you are vulnerable. And what we see here is that Jesus was in a vulnerable situation. He was alone, he was hungry, he was weary and he was at the beginning of his ministry. What this means for us collectively and what I want you to understand personally, out of this example of Jesus is three temptation truths. And here they are, number one, a life with Jesus is war. Some of you have wrongly been told, give your life to Jesus and it gets better. How many of you were told that and you gave your life to Jesus and realized it didn’t get better, it got harder. Satan hates Jesus and if you are with Jesus, he hates you. The war that Satan has declared on Jesus, if you are walking with Jesus, he sees you as in every way complicit with Jesus and an enemy of his. And this war, this battle, this cosmic conflict, it started in the heavens before you and I even existed. The Bible tells us that Satan was an angel that he was made to be a messenger of and a minister to the Lord. That he became proud and arrogant in his heart and the root of all sin is pride. And he wanted to live not under God’s sovereignty but he wanted to live out of his own autonomy. He wanted to live his life separate from God and to be his own authority. And he had his own opinions and his own preferences and his own directions and he chose to live his life independent and in defiance of God. The Bible says that, a third of the angels, the heavenly hosts, they joined him in his rebellion. And there was a great conflict in heaven between God the creator and Satan a created angel. Between the angels who worshiped the Lord and the fallen angels who rebelled against the Lord. There were cast down to the earth and they brought their first temptation to our first parents. And much like the Lord Jesus, they were isolated and they were given an opportunity to partake of a meal that they should not partake of. And tragically our first parents sinned against the Lord and they turned and they joined Satan and demons in their rebellion against God. And the result is that every single one of us is born with a nature of sin and folly and rebellion against God. This alone is one of the unique claims of Christianity that sets us apart from all other religions. Most, every other religion says, we are essentially a good person, not flawed and broken and that through good works and religion and effort, we can improve ourselves. The Bible says that our condition is such, that we cannot fix ourselves, we cannot serve ourselves. We cannot save ourselves, we need someone to come on a rescue mission to save us from who we are and what we’ve done. And one of the great things that the enemy does is he proclaims a myth of religion. And the myth of religion is that there is a way to grow without coming to the Lord Jesus. Well, the Lord Jesus comes and as we saw here, he too is tempted and tested and tried as our first parents were. But unlike them, he does not give into the temptation, he remains victorious and he in every way avoid sin. Jesus is worthy of following, he is worthy of imitating. He is worthy of emulating. And my first point is that, that this war against Jesus includes anyone who was walking alongside of Jesus. The second point is that, temptation is not sin. The Bible says two things, that Jesus never sinned but that Jesus was tempted. Some of you have been lied to and when you’re tempted by Satan, demons, the world, the flesh internally, you will assume that you’ve already lost. How many of you in a moment have felt, I am so tempted right now, I might as well follow this through because I’ve already given into it? Let me tell you that’s a lie. Just because you’re tempted doesn’t mean you’re ungodly, God was tempted in this instance. Just because you are struggling does not mean that you aren’t necessarily spiritually weak. We see here that Jesus has a struggle on his hands. Some of you, the enemy has lied to you and said sin and temptation are the same, so that if you’re being tempted, you feel defeated. Here’s good news, being tempted is not equal to being defeated. Being tempted is an opportunity for victory, it is not an indication of defeat. You might not be someone who has yet given in to a particular temptation and you’re in the same position that the Lord Jesus was. Temptation and sin are different, temptation is an opportunity to sin but temptation is not in and of itself sin. And thirdly, you’re gonna get hit. And what this is, is when you’re hungry and isolated and tired, and we see this with the Lord Jesus, he is literally hungry. There will be times when your physical energy levels are low. You’ve been working too much, you’re stressed, it’s finals week, you’re on the road. You’ve been sick, you’ve got an illness, your body life energy is depleted, you’re hungry. You’ll get hit when you’re isolated. This is the kid who’s away from their parents having an overnight at a friend’s house or they’re traveling with a sports team, or they’re off at school and the parents are not available to oversee them. This is the college student who leaves their mother and father’s house and moves to a university and all of a sudden they’ve got new freedom. This is a young professional who goes and gets their first condo and moves to a new city and is away from their mom and dad and they get to reinvent their identity and they enjoy some anonymity. This is a married person who’s a business leader and hits the road and is in the bar and then in their hotel room all alone, meeting people and watching whatever they like. Isolation is an opportunity for temptation. And you’ll be hit particularly when you are hungry, when you’re isolated and when you’re tired. Jesus here is physically exhausted, he is absolutely worn down. Fasting continues, your energy levels will eben flow, but by 40 days I assure you that you would be tired. Your body is just struggling to sustain itself with enough nourishment to preserve your life. There’ll be times in your life when you’re tired and let me say this, that Satan will hit you sometimes after a great victory, because what goes up must come down. It’s oftentimes after God has done something wonderful in your life, that then your energy levels are depleted. You’re exhausted, you’re tired, you’re worn down, you’re worn out. These are the times I find in my own life, your adrenal glands are firing and then they’re dumping and then you’re grumpy and you’re tired and you’re depleted and you’re frustrated and you’re short-term and shortsighted in your thinking and this is when you’re open and vulnerable to temptation. Does it make sense? You’re gonna get hit when you’re hungry, like you’re physically just not doing well. Isolated, you’re alone and when you’re tired, your life energy is just running out and you’ve sort of poured yourself out into something. Satan is gonna hit you in these times so going into them you need to know that I am at this moment more vulnerable. Now this transitions us to the book of James, and here’s the correlation. Jesus was tempted and the one who saw him tempted the most was a guy named James. James was Jesus’ brother. James, not only declares that Jesus is without sin but James was there to see the entire life and ministry of Jesus. And so the story of the Bible is that Mary and Joseph, they conceived Jesus by a miracle of the holy spirit and then they went on to have other children, brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus. And they had them in the natural ways you and I were born. And so James was Jesus’ half-brother, he was Jesus’ little brother. And so James was there before everyone else was there. All we get in the Bible is snapshots when Jesus was a baby, a few portraits of when he was a young boy. And then we don’t see anything else until he’s around the age of 30. And here in Luke chapter four, he’s about 30 years of age, the Lord Jesus is. Well in all of those years, who was there? James was. He grew up watching Jesus as a little boy facing the temptations that children face. James was there during the adolescent years and no one else was there except for Jesus’ family, he wasn’t yet public with his ministry. He saw the kind of temptations that junior high kids and high school students face. As they saw Jesus entering into manhood, he saw the temptations that come against those who are entering into their adult years. He saw Jesus through his twenties as a single man without a girlfriend. Relationships that were appropriate with women, the kinds of temptations that come to us all, alcohol, sex, financial misappropriation, whatever the case may be. Jesus would have been tempted as you and I have been tempted. Here’s what’s amazing about God, that he doesn’t just stay far away, but that he comes near. But he can relate, that he absolutely can relate. He can relate to us when we are children, when we are in our teen years, when we are entering into adulthood, when we are adults. He understands all the life stages that we’ve been through because the Lord Jesus himself has been through those life stages. And so I want you to know that every time we go to the book of James and we study James, we have to begin with the assumption that much if not all of what James learned came from his big brother Jesus. From their conversations together, their meals together, their holidays together, their growing up together. You get the idea that they’re out fishing as kids on the weekend and throwing the ball and maybe sharing a bunk bed at Mary and Joseph’s house. And so much of what James is teaching us are things that he has heard from his big brother Jesus and he’s seen in his big brother Jesus. And let me submit to you, for those of you who are not yet Christian, you’ve not crossed that line of faith into belief, if Jesus was a sinner, the person who would know it most easily would be his little brother, Amen. How many of you know the sins of your brother or your sister? You’ve never stand up and say, they are without sin, I have been there my whole life. They have never said or done evil even to me. I have two brothers, they would say, not that. The fact that Jesus devoted Jewish brother who knows that a declaration that anyone other than the real God is God is blasphemy that sends you to hell, for him to stand up and say, my brother is without sin, my brother is God and I was an eye witness to his sinless life. It’s strong evidence that everything that James claims is true and that Jesus Christ is in fact sinless and savior. And so what James is gonna do is he’s gonna talk to us, he’s gonna talk to you about temptation. And as he does, I’m assuming in the back of his mind is his brother and the kind of temptation that his brother went through. And he would be asking questions like, what did my brother teach me about temptation? What did my brother teach me about temptation through his own life example? And he’s going to give us some great analogies, athletes and fishermen and moms. So three timeless examples for everybody. So regarding temptation, the first thing that James gives us is lessons from victorious athletes. Any of you athletes? Any of you athletes? Any of you former athletes like me? Any of you sports fans, just sports fans? That’s a lot easier, isn’t it? It’s a lot easier. Here’s what he says, James 1:12, blessed is the man or the woman 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. So he’s saying, okay lets think of the world of athletics. Let’s think of sport and competition. And let me give you a little test, if you’re the best hockey team on earth, what do you get as a surprise? The Stanley Cup. If you’re the best college football player, what do you get a surprise? The Heisman trophy, we all know that. If you are the best baseball team on the earth, you get a World Series Ring. In Seattle we have no idea what that is but we’ve, we’ve read about it on the internet. Let’s say you’re competing in the Olympics and you win, you win a, a medal, a gold medal. Let’s say you are the best NFL team. Lord Jesus please. Let’s say you are the best NFL team on the earth, you win the. You win the Super Bowl and what do you get as a prize? The Lombardi Trophy. Lord please, anything in Seattle, please Lord. How about you? How many of you growing up when you played sports, they gave you a certificate or a medal or a trophy? Did you ever give one of those? How many of you were just participants? But at least you got a. you got a certificate, right? When I as a kid, I played soccer, not very well so I stopped playing it. I played basketball for a while. I have a two inch vertical and I can’t shoot. Like this is as far as I can jump and I can’t shoot. But if you need a pick set, call me, ’cause I could set a pick. Other than that, I had nothing to contribute to basketball. Played a little bit of football, the only thing I was really good at was baseball. So I played baseball while growing up and our teams would oftentimes get trophies. How many of you kids are like me? If you’ve got a trophy and you brought it home where did you put it? Right out on the mantle so everybody could see you in all your glory. It’s like a little shrine to you is what you’re trying to do as a kid. People come in, what’s that? That’s my trophy, I’m victorious. And then eventually after a while, your mom makes you put it in your room, but you still display it. And every night before you go to bed you have a little moment where you worship yourself and look at your trophy. At least that’s what I did. Okay I’ll let you in on a little story. I still have all my trophies, I found them in the garage, they’re actually in a crate. I have all of my trophies that’s how sick I am. So, but it’s amazing ’cause when you have a victory there’s something to mark that in your life. There’s something that you’re given or you do, that sort of commemorates and celebrates that was a victory. What he’s saying is this, when temptation comes, it’s like a sporting event, it’s like a game, it’s like a match. It’s an opportunity, it’s where you take the field, and maybe it’s Satan or demons or whoever’s involved, they take the field. And it’s a temptation, it’s a collision, it’s a conflict. Just because you’re being tempted doesn’t mean that you’ve lost, that just means that the ball is on the tee and it’s kickoff. Now you’ve gotta decide what am I gonna do now? What am I gonna do now? And what he says is, bless it is the one who remained steadfast through trial. That this is a trial, that this is a temptation, that this is an opportunity. And he says, bless is the one who doesn’t quit. That’s what he’s said. They never give a prize to the person who quits. But let’s say you’re in an MMA match and you tap out, afterward they don’t hand you a prize. If a team’s losing the Super Bowl at halftime and they decide, you know what, we’re not gonna come out of the locker room, we’re done. They don’t get a prize. They just, they don’t get a prize. If you don’t persevere, if you’re not steadfast, if you don’t plant your feet and hang in there, there’s no prize, there’s no reward, there’s no award. And that’s exactly what he’s saying here when he uses this language of crown of life. Like that was their version of the Stanley Cup, the Heisman Trophy, the World Series Ring, the Olympic medal, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. That that’s their version of it. If you’re an athlete who competed, that’s what you got if you hung in there, if you persevered, if you endured and as a result emerged victorious. So here’s what he’s saying, when temptation comes, you can win. You can defeat your temptation. You can remain steadfast. And all of this is by the grace of God through the power of the holy spirit. Again, back to Jesus’ temptation Luke 4, it says, full of the holy spirit and led by the holy spirit at the beginning. And then it says he was tempted and he emerged victorious. How did he emerge victorious? By living under the power of the holy spirit. You and I do not have the power innate within us to say no to temptation and to overcome it in victory. But the power of the holy spirit, the power of God that empowered the life of Jesus lives in the Christian, so that we have access to the same power that Jesus did, so that we can say no to the same kinds of temptations and trials and tests that Jesus did. So Christian, I have good news for you, some of you have been defeated over and over and over and you’ve come to the conclusion, man if the ball gets kicked to me and I get hit and I walk off the field and I lose. No, by the grace of God, you could stay on the field and you can fight and you can persevere, you can be steadfast and you can emerge victorious. One other thing I wanna say on this point is, some of you will be discouraged, because a new temptation test or trial comes into your life. And you’ll think, why this, why now? Briefly, I’ll say this from first Corinthians 10:13. Paul says, “No temptation has seized us “or come upon us except that which is common “and everybody goes through it.” But when tempted, God always provides a way of escape, there’s always a way to victory because he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. Some of you we’re in very difficult seasons, some of you are under the most pressure you’ve ever been under. Some of you are facing opposition that you have never faced before. Some of you have obstacles and troubles and trials and tests in your life. You ask yourself, how am I gonna, how am I gonna go to war here? But I’ve been through a few seasons, but this is a new foe, I don’t know how to beat this one, I don’t know how to emerge victorious from this. And sometimes we can look up at God and say, God why would you allow this to happen to me? Why did you allow this to happen to me now? Here’s the good news, God does not allow any temptation to come that you can’t handle. God never allows the team to take the field that you can’t be. God never allows the team to take the field that you cannot be. What that means is, practically, the reason that you are in the circumstance you’re in now, might be that you’re finally mature enough and strong enough to handle that. I don’t want you to see it as a discouragement but an encouragement. You may be saying, I have never faced anything like this. You know why? You’ve never been this ready. You’ve never been this ready. I don’t wanna to anything that could even be a hint that the Lord Jesus was anything other than perfect, but I think that a trial like this might’ve been difficult when he was six years old. It was certainly difficult when he was 30. The Bible says in Luke 2, that he grew in wisdom, stature and favor with men and God. That Jesus humbled himself became a man, he is God but he humbled himself, became a man, and as he grew, he grew to be able to handle more temptation and trial. Hebrew says that he was perfected through his suffering, through his conflict, through his troubles. Here’s my point for you, the reason you may be facing something hard today is because you’re finally ready for it. And I want you to take that as a great opportunity. Think of it in the sports analogy, you play at this level when you’re a kid and then you move on to this level as you get older. And eventually if you’re able to become a professional athlete, now the competition is stronger than ever but it’s all of that preparation and all of those seasons and all of that time that was invested to get you ready to take the field for something that you wouldn’t have been able to handle in your first or second season. So the first thing is we learn from athletes, that we have to persevere, we have to endure, we have to remain on the field. We need to trust that there’s no foe that has come against us that is beyond our ability to overcome by the powerful grace of the holy spirit. His second analogy is kind of a funny one, it’s lessons from dumb fish. How many of you fish? How many of you fish? Okay I’ll give you a true, I don’t fish. Here’s what fishermen tell me, they say you get up early in the morning. Okay I’m out. Get up early in the morning, go sit on a cold body of water, I’m out again, and wait a long time and maybe your reward is a fish and I don’t really like fish. So that’s, and they have them at the store and you could sleep in and go there and get one. But anyways, for those of you that are fishermen, here’s an analogy for you. James 1:13-14, let no one say when he is tempted, I mean tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is lured, and that’s literally a fishing word, he is lured and enticed by his own desire. What he says is this, when you’re being tempted, remember fishing. Either way it works and Satan and demons are like a fishermen and we’re like dumb fish, that’s what he’s saying. I know it’s offensive, it’s in the Bible. I’m just delivering the mail, I didn’t write it. And here’s what happens as I understand it, true or false fishermen and fisherwoman, fisherpersons, different fish prefer different bait, true or false? People are like that, we’re dumb and we each have our favorite bait. And what he’s saying is this, that if you wanna catch a fish, you drop your hook in the water and you need to bait it with whatever those particular fish like and the fish are kind of stupid. So the fish, look at that, what a great day, there’s my favorite thing right here at eye level. And what is the dumb fish do. I’ma bit it, and they bit it. And they’re too dumb to notice the hook. And they’re thinking we’re really got something, the fishermen said, I was thinking the same thing. And then the fishermen reels in the dumb fish. And what he’s saying temptation is like that. The temptation is like that, Here’s the big idea, everyone of us has a different bait that we prefer on our hook. And so what is a temptation for one person is not a temptation for another. I’ll give you an example, I have never, I’ve never done drugs, drugs is not a temptation to me. I saw friends of mine die. I grew up near the airport, I saw kids die doing drugs growing up. Temptation, not drugs. Some people temptation is gambling. I’m cheap, I don’t gamble. I went to the casino, I realized how big it was, I figured they were gonna win, so I don’t play. You’re gonna have things that you’re not tempted by. I’m not tempted by smoking, just not, never smoked. I have asthma, I get bloody noses, I wheeze like an obscene phone call, I have no interest in smoking. There are just certain things people are like, do you struggle, I don’t struggle with that. What do you struggle with? Obviously tact, I’d struggle with that, there’s a lot of things I do struggle with. What do you struggle? What’s your temptation? What’s your thing, you’re like, gosh, I gotta swim around that. Like if it’s over here, I gotta swim or I gotta avoid that. That’s just such a temptation to me. For some of youths, let’s say alcohol is an example. Some of you are not tempted by alcohol, it’s not a problem for you. Others of you you’re like, I can’t even go to a friend’s house, and if they pour a drink, I just gotta leave ’cause man the bait hanging on the hook, I’m a dumb fish. I start swimming over there and I get myself into trouble very very fast. We each need to be humble, We need to be self-conscious and aware. So you know what? That’s bait on my hook. It may not be a temptation for them but it’s a temptation for me. It may not cause trouble for them but it’s gonna destroy me, I need to stay away from it. And this is where God gives us a conscience to know where our weak spots are. But what he’s saying is this, that so oftentimes we act like dumb fish, all we get obsessed with is the bait and we ignore the hook. He’s saying, know that there’s always a hook. So I would ask you, what’s your thing? Know that there’s always a hook. Right ladies, you meet a guy you’re like, oh, he’s nice, he’s, you’re single lady I hope, right so. Otherwise you’ve got a whole another, we’ve got a whole fleet of fishing going on in your life. Let’s say you’re a single guy, you’re like, oh, he’s nice and he’s nice to me and he’s, but he’s not a Christian and. Right there’s a hook, you’re gonna get reeled in, you’re gonna get hurt, it’s not gonna go well. Some of you are with people, you shouldn’t be with, you’re in places you shouldn’t be going. Some of you say it’s not a sin, it’s, nobody, it’s a baited hook for you. Need to be honest and humble about that and say I’m not ready to take that field. That’s one that I don’t think I can emerge victorious over, so I need to steer clear of. And then he raises an issue that I’ll address briefly regarding God I’m temptation. First he says God does not tempt anyone. We are a church that holds, if you don’t know this it’s fine, but we’re more reformed. And that means that we believe that God is sovereign and he rules over everyone and everything. Well, what that can lead to is some people blaming God for temptation. Well, if God’s in charge, then everything that happens must be what God wants. Now there’s sin, rebellion and fall, there’s a lot of things that are happening that God isn’t excited about, he’s actually grieved by. But we can blame God for temptation, in fact, when Adam and Eve first sinned, Adam blamed God. Adam and Eve sin, God comes and Adam says, “The woman you gave me, she’s a real problem see.” Hey now, you laugh because men are still trying to get away with this, like I was doing fine and then you made a woman and then everything went wrong. I feel like the real issue here is this woman and since you made her, the two of you should go have a meeting to figure out what’s defective in this woman. A lot of guys get married and feel that way. I have a defective woman. Well she has a defective man, so you’re equally yoked. That’s not an issue. So what Adam is doing is he’s blaming his wife but ultimately he’s blaming God. And ever since that time, we all have this proclivity and propensity to blame God when we’re tempted. And I find we do it primarily in two ways, ordination and orientation, we’ll use those words. Ordination is, well God’s in charge and he allowed the circumstances to come. He allowed the hook to go on the water and I’m just a dumb fish, and we’ll blame God. And sometimes you’ll see, some of you, you’re kind of spiritual. You be like, well you know God, I see God working. He brought the non-Christian girl into my life and he allowed her to return my phone call and find the interesting. I mean look at all these miraculous events working in succession must be the Lord. No no no dumb fish, baited hook. God doesn’t tempt you, God will use the temptation as a trial to test and grow you but God doesn’t tempt you. God’s not trying to get you into trouble. God’s not trying to get you into sin. And so just because circumstances are lined up doesn’t mean through that ordination, it was the Lord that might be the enemy. Secondly, there’s orientation. And this is where, this is where a lot of us who go to college, we get very fancy with our blaming God. We say, well, this is the way I am, this is the way I was made. I have these orientations, I have these proclivities, these desires, these appetites. And if the Lord made me this way, who am I do not to deny myself certain pleasures because this is my orientation. And you may have heard this, some people do this actually. This is what they say. God didn’t orient you with an appetite towards sin, God didn’t make you as a fish who desires bad bait, because of sin folly rebellion, our desires, our appetites, even our orientations tend to gravitate towards sin and folly and rebellion and death toward desiring the wrong bait and toward biting down on the hook. The way we are is not the way we were, it’s not the way we will be, it’s not the way we’re supposed to be. Something has gone tragically wrong in human history and even our orientation, our nature, our desires, they are corrupted. So you can’t blame God through ordination, circumstances must be his will, or orientation, this is the way he made me and I need to be true to myself. No, you don’t, you need to repent of yourself and be true to Jesus and that’s the essence of Christian faith. This leads to the next point, he says, God doesn’t tempt anyone and God is not tempted by evil. There is no thing that God desires to have, to know, to be, to do. God is not lacking anything, God is self-sufficient. Well this leads to the question that I wanna briefly answer, was Jesus really tempted? Because usually what happens is, the part I read you in Luke 4, Jesus was tempted, is then pitted against James 1, written by his brother, so they can’t be in opposition. Some would ask, well how do you reconcile these texts? And Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of my favorites. He said. “There’s never a need to reconcile friends. James and Jesus they’re friends. The book of Luke and the book of James, they’re friends. We don’t need to reconcile them because they’re not at odds, but we do need to consider how is it that Luke 4 can say, Jesus was tempted. And then James 1 says that God is not tempted. Isn’t Jesus God? Wasn’t Jesus tempted? Doesn’t that mean that God was tempted? And what happened in the life of Jesus is that God became a man. That God entered into human history. That God retained all of his divine attributes but he humbly set them aside. That he had to learn as we learned, that he grew as we grew physically. That he had to endure temptation spiritually as we endure temptation spiritually. That he came to live like us, to live without sin for us, to die and to rise, to give us a new nature, a new desires to live a new life as a new person. He came to save us. So in the Lord Jesus’ earthly life, something unique in human history happened, and that’s God in his humble state coming to be with us and to be tempted like us. Here’s how he says it in Hebrews 2:17, he had to be made like his brothers and that’s you and me, and that includes James, in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest and service to God. To make propitiation for the sins of his people there’s the cross. That he would come and he would go to the cross and that the sinless Jesus would die for his sinful people. That the Jesus who overcame every temptation would pay the price for those who have given into temptation. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is now able to help those who are being tempted. Here’s the good news, when you are tempted, you can run to Jesus. And for a brief period in the history of eternity, God humbled himself and he was like you and me, fully God, fully man, but he was tempted as we are attempted, he suffered as we suffer. He is a God who is sympathetic, he is a God who relates to us, he is a God who is merciful, that’s what it says. God doesn’t just stand back and say, “Why are you the way you are? “Why do you desire what you desire? “I do not understand that.” God says I’ve been there, Jesus says I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to be hungry, I know what it’s like to be isolated, I know what it’s like to be tired. I know what it’s like to be tempted and tested and tried. I know what it’s like to have to be steadfast and endure and to hang in there. And so we can run to the Lord Jesus in our time of need and say, teach me and help me and empower me by the holy spirit to follow in your example. And so God is not tempted but God allowed himself for a brief season as the God man, Jesus Christ, to endure temptation so that he could save us and sympathize with us and God is that good. And then his third analogy is from pregnant moms. This is kind of a negative one, so let me just start by deploying the airbag. So being a mom is a good thing, right? My wife’s got five kids, me too. Being a mom is a very good thing, but ladies it’s not a good idea to sleep around with a bunch of bad guys and get pregnant that way. So this is sort of a bad example of how to have a child. James 1:15, then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. So single ladies let’s walk through a little process. Here’s how not to do it. Pastor Mark who’s the father of two daughters he will tell you, don’t do it like this. Whatever you do don’t go do it and say, well, I heard it in a sermon. Here clearly I said don’t do it in the sermon, okay? Step one, you meet a bad guy, really bad, but he’s interesting. There are. The bad guy’s always interesting, the guy in Bible college, not very interesting but the, the guy who does his own tattoos, very interesting. That guy’s interesting. So step one, you meet a bad guy, step two you go out on a date. You’re like, we’re not doing anything, we’re just, you know, we’re just gonna, it is now other hook is in the bait and the baits in the water. Step three, you mess around, mess around. Step four, what happens? You could see if you’re like, oh oh. I have a baby and no husband. And he’s a bad guy I can’t depend on them. This is a difficult place. Step five, you give birth and step six, you raise the child. What he’s saying is that sin is like that. So temptation is gonna come along a bad desire, an evil desire, sinful desire and you’re gonna meet him. Hi, I’m drugs, alcohol, porn, whatever. Katie, whatever, okay. Johnny, whatever. Temptation comes along, hi. Hey what you do? You introduce herself to the temptation. Next thing you know, you’re out on a date. You’re like, it’s not gonna go too far, we’re just, We’re gonna have a little fun but we’re gonna keep this under control. Next thing you know, you are step three, you’re messing around with your temptation. All of a sudden you’re like, oh, I didn’t mean to go this far but it’s got a fun. Oh oh step four, you could see, now you got your sin pregnant. Now it’s got a life of its own. And then you give birth, now all of a sudden your sin is alive and it’s out of control and it’s growing. It’s getting stronger. It’s maturing, it’s out of control. And he says, step six, you’ve given birth to what? Death. And the lie that Satan tells is, if you will do this, you’ll enjoy it, it’ll make your life fun. And James says, “No, it’ll make your life, death.” Satan never comes along at the beginning of the temptation where he drops the hook in the water and says, “Do you wanna kill your life?” They’re like, no, even a dumb fish will swim by. See this is where a fishermen never, they never drop a sign alongside of the bait. Would you like to be reeled into my boat, clubbed over the head and gutted today? No, but thanks for asking. Swim on by. Temptation never reveals its ultimate goal but God reveals the ultimate goal of temptation because he loves us and he warns us. How many of you found yourself in a situation like this? You’re like, man I didn’t mean to get into that much trouble. I didn’t mean to make that big of a mistake, but it really moved quickly on me and all of a sudden I birthed death in my own life. This is the death of your health, this is the death of your joy, this is the death of your relationships, this is the death of your future. You’re giving birth to death, sin only leads to death. Now how about those of you who you’ve already gotten your sin pregnant and it’s birthed death? Well that’s why Jesus was born to die. See we give birth to sin and then sin brings us death. Jesus is born to live without sin, to die for our sin, so that through his death, he’s birthed our life. See through our sin we birth death, through Jesus’ death, he births our life. And so for those of you that have already crossed that line, you’re like the athlete who’s quit. You’re like the dumb fish who’s already bit down without paying attention to the hook and been reeled in. For those of you who are, ones who’ve already been messing around with your sin and got a pregnancy, what do I do? Is it too late? No. No Jesus lived without sin and died so that those who live with sin could put their sin to death. And this is where we all need Jesus and this is where we run to Jesus and we come to Jesus. And if you’re hearing to try to be moral, spiritual, good or religious, this is the decision point of the day for you. So am I gonna try to fix my life or am I give my life to Jesus and let him give me a new life. Jesus is the only one who can cause you to endure and persevere and stay on the field. Jesus is the only one who can get the hook out of your mouth. Jesus is the only one who could take your death and bring it to life. He does that. Now how about for the rest of you that are facing temptation or it comes upon you in the future? It says that Jesus was tempted in Luke 4, and that the devil avoided him until an opportune time, meaning he’s gonna come back. Some of you are in a temptation trial, testing season, some of you it’s on the horizon, what do we do? We remember, I just should not, I should not meet my temptation, I should not date my temptation, I should not mess around with my temptation. I should not sleep with my temptation, I should not impregnate my temptation, it only leads to death. And some of you right now, you’re trying to control your temptation, what you need to do is kill your temptation. Since Jesus died for your sin, you could put your sin to death. And that’s walk for you, that’s what Jesus wants for you. And here’s the big idea, all the way back to Luke 1:12, to start this whole section, what’s the first word? Remember? Blessed. How many of you wanna be blessed? I wanna be blessed, I want you to be blessed, I want us all to be blessed. And what he’s given us here is the key to blessing. So there’s a lot of hope and incentive in this. He says, you know what? There is a reward, there is an award. There is an opportunity for blessing if we will learn what God is trying to do in us through temptation, what God is trying to do through us in temptation. And so for those of you that are coming ready to say, I wish God would bless me. James says, “Here’s how he does it.” God allows temptation to come, God is not the author of sin, God does not cause us to be tempted, but God will allow us to be tempted as Jesus was tempted, and it’s an opportunity for us to prove that God is real, that Jesus is true, that the holy spirit is powerful. That we belong to God, that God has done a work in our life, that we are changed and changing by the grace of God and there’s a great blessing in that. There’s an internal blessing where we have a clear conscience and we realize, I really do belong to Jesus and I have changed and I am changing. There’s an external blessing where our life starts to go better because of the choices we make out of the relationship that we have with Jesus. And ultimately, not only is there an internal and an external blessing, there’s an eternal blessing. That Jesus is in heaven and he’s got our award, he’s got our reward, he’s got our trophy, he’s got our metal. And he’s saying, I want you to hang in there, I want you to persevere, I want you to lean on me, I want you to look to me, I want you to run to me, I want you to learn from me. I want you to follow me, so that I can tell you well done, good and faithful servant and I can reward and award you in the end when the game is over and all there is is a victory parade at the end for the children of God. We now get to respond to this Jesus and that’s my great invitation today. For those of you who don’t know Jesus, you don’t need to fix your life, you need to give it to Jesus and let him give you a new life. For those of you who are here and you’re being tempted and tested and tried, I want you to no longer be conformed to the part of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind to think differently. What is Jesus trying to teach me? What is he trying to show me? How has he made me ready? Where is the bait that is in my life? Where am I prone to quit? What sin am I messing around with that I need to break up with today? Lord Jesus I thank you so much that you humbled yourself, that you came into human history, God becoming a man. That you endured temptation and tests and trials as we do. That you said no every time to every trial. Lord Jesus when we sin and fall short, we thank you that you give us your righteousness, you give us your forgiveness, you give us your perfection. Lord Jesus I thank you for the opportunity to teach the Bible today. There are people who are hearing this and they’re in a season of great temptation. But it’s not bigger than them and it’s not bigger than you. And I thank you for now sending us the holy spirit, to give us hope, to give us a blessing, to give us joy. To give us the mind of Christ that we might follow in the steps of Christ, the good Lord Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen.
