Endure Temptation with Faith

All right, well, good morning, good morning. We are at James 1, verse 18. Deborah said, why in the world are we at James? Well, because James starts with J, and we just finished Joseph. or Joshua, not Joseph, there's no book of Joseph, Joshua. Now we did James, and then we're gonna go to Judges, and then we'll go to, we're gonna do a whole bunch of Js. We're gonna do 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, we're gonna do Jeremiah, we're gonna do Joel, we're gonna do Jonah.
This is the J year, you got it. All right, so let's find out what God has for us today in James 1, beginning at verse 18. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Want some? No? Okay, well, my gain, your loss. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word. Father, we pray that you please help us to follow after you and love you. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, here we go, James chapter 1, beginning at, oh, sorry, I said verse 18, verse 12. 12 through 18, go ahead.
Blessed is the man 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. But 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 full grown, brings forth." Death. Do not be deceived, my brethren, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of heavenly lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Well, we got three questions to ask ourselves.
A, what is this? About. About. B, what's the? Best verse to summarize. Oh, I don't know what is. B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, what are we? Cough to do. What are we cough to do? Okay, so A, what's this about? What do you think this section is about?
God isn't the one who tempts us. All right, all right, so where's temptation come from? What do we do to overcome it? How do we think about God? So, where's temptation come from? You said it doesn't come from God, so where's it come from? Satan. From Satan? Is that what this said? From the heart. Yeah, from the heart. Now, right, Satan may be able to tempt us by pulling out what's in our heart, But really, where's the temptation lie? In us. In us, right?
Some people say, right, there's internal and external temptations, right? There are times in which, and this is where Satan tempting Jesus, right? Satan tempted Jesus with an external temptation, seeing if it would draw out what he thought maybe there was internal desire for sin in Jesus, right? Did Jesus go to the wilderness because he wanted to get tempted by Satan? No, it says that the Spirit led him there, so he's willingly going with the Spirit, but as he's in there, Satan is tempting him.
Is he tempting him with the evil things in his heart? No, he's testing him with external things, isn't he? But we know from James and from our own lives Where does lies and deceit and all sorts of things like that come from? Are they totally external? No. Are they things that God has brought? Like God's given us this temptation in our hearts? No. No, what's He say here? Specifically, verse 14. Verse 14?
But each one is tempted when he was when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed Okay, so he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed From our own hearts Things external we see or right, but the reality that's within our hearts And so what happens in our hearts in verse 15, he actually gives us interesting story, isn't it? He's drawn away by his own desires and enticed, right? He sees something, he desires it, it becomes something to him that is like, oh, this is gonna taste good, this is gonna be good. And then when the desire has conceived, what happens?
It gives birth to sin. It gives birth to sin. And then sin, what happens to that sin once it's born? Does it stay a baby? Nope, when it's full grown, it brings forth death. Oh man, so it's like it grows up into a murderer. Right, so the question is, what's the sinful part? Is it when the sin has taken effect and brings forth death, or is the sinful part the desire, enticing?
The desire? Yeah. Yeah, right. There's this thing even that people will talk about today. They'll say, well, it's not the desire to sin that's sin. It's the sin itself that's sin. That's just confusing. Yeah, right. No, the desire is sinful and the action.
Actually, there are some sins even in the Ten Commandments that aren't sins about, you know, actions. Think about the Tenth Commandment. Do you remember what the Tenth Commandment is? You shall not... Sin? They're all not sinning, but you shall not covet.
Well, how do I know if you're coveting? Is that something you do? What do you mean by that? Is coveting something that you do with an action? No. What is coveting? It's in your heart. Yeah, it's in your heart, in your mind, in your heart, right? It's something internal. It's a desire. It's an enticement. Right. And so that the heart is the issue. So the question is. Well, blesses the man who endures temptation.
So yeah, right when we fight against those temptations Right when we fight against those temptations for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life Which the Lord has promised to those who love him now, okay, so that means you're earning your salvation, right?
No Did we just learn like over the last few days in our homeschool Bible time about the Bima judgment I So there's a judge who's ruling over an athletic affair and what are they the ones doing? They're the ones running. Yeah, it's kind of like the referee and the person who puts the wreath on the winner's head, right? And so is that a picture of salvation or of final rewards?
That's what James is talking about here Yeah, there's gonna be a crown of life like a bribe. Yeah, it's not a bribe. It's a Quote if your dad told you if your dad said that when that if you helped him move along You would go out for ice cream. That's not a bribe. It's an enticement well, not an enticement but in in Incentive. Yeah, I think the Lord is giving an incentive here, right? Endure temptation.
Rise up victorious over it. Know where it comes from in your heart. Know your own heart. And then go to the God who gives you good gifts, right? You can't go to God and think, oh, he's giving me this temptation, and this is bad, and I don't love him, and I don't like him. No, right? You go to him, and did you notice how this connects? Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. How do we think about God? Well, every good and every perfect gift is from above, comes down from the Father of heavenly lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow or turning. God's been the same yesterday today and forever and he was he gave us eternal life and will he give us the ability to to endure against temptation Now we're gonna do that perfectly yeah Like daddy has never sinned getting too angry at home school That happened this morning. Yeah. Yeah, I had to apologize to Bubba. I So does this mean that you're going to be perfect? Nope. What's he getting at then here? Do your best. Okay, so what happens when your best is kind of junky? Sometimes my best is pretty junky. Is there any hope? What's the hope? Jesus still died for us. Thank God, huh?
Yeah, I'm not gonna be a perfect parent. You're not gonna be a perfect daughter. We're not gonna be perfect in this life, except we're perfect in Christ. Does it give us an excuse to be lazy about temptation and sin? No. No. No, right? Blessed is the man who endures temptation. Okay, man, we've been going a long time.
Give me your best verse. What do you think? Right after you yawn. What do you think is the best verse to summarize this section? Probably 13. Hey, you wanna know something interesting? That's what I got underlined in my Bible. Verse 13, good. All right, let's talk about seek calling in Jesus Christ. I think we already talked about that some, but you're walking out of this room, and what do you think the Holy Spirit is calling you to do in response to these words? What are you gonna do today with this? Do our best. Okay. So you're just gonna try to do your best.
Well, what we should walk away from this with from this with is that we can't be perfect, but we still have his love. All right, so that's what you're taking away from this? Yeah, I would take away from it that daddy needs to deal with some sinful desires. Right?
Like desire for quiet and control. Yeah, that's those are temptations, desires in my heart, I need to be serious about and confess to the Lord. I need to take them to Christ and seek forgiveness. For me, that's that's something I'm gonna have to do in prayer by myself in a little bit.
So Hey, you ready to pray? By the way, thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the joy of salvation. Lord, we thank you that in Jesus Christ, Lord, we know that we are more than conquerors. But Father, we pray that when temptation comes, we would remember your goodness, and we pray that we would endure it. We pray, Lord, that you would keep us from the sinful desires that would entice us towards sin. Lord, we pray that we would put away those sins, and Father, that we would not be led to that place of death. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. May the Lord bless you as you rest in Jesus Christ. We'll talk to you next time. Bye. Bye.