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James 1:13-18b
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Tackling Temptation Before It Tackles You—Part 2 James 1:13-18
I would like to read a news story from Great Britain from just last week. A teenager has existed on a diet of jam sandwiches for more than a decade. Although Craig Flatman, 15, has eating habits that would make a nutritionist shudder, a dietician concluded last week that the 6ft 1in, 11-stone youngster was getting "adequate protein and some vitamins and minerals". But the dietician did tell his parents that the teenager should see a behavioral psychologist in an attempt to alter his eating habits. Craig would not eat solids as a baby until he ate a sugar sandwich. Aged four he started eating only sandwiches made from white, sliced bread, margarine and strawberry, raspberry or blackcurrant jam. He drinks two pints of semi-skimmed milk a day but the only other food he touches is chocolate cereal for breakfast and a daily slice of chocolate cake. "I never get bored of jam because I like the taste so much," said Craig, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, yesterday. "The doctors told me I would grow out of it, but I don't know if I will ever change. "My mum and dad have tried everything to get me eating other things but nothing seems to work." (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/23/njam23.xml)
You tell me—who needs to see a behavioral psychologist—this teenager or his parents? Clearly his parents bear most of the blame. Of course every child would eat only jam sandwiches and chocolate cake if given the choice! But this story illustrates something we can all relate to—the struggle for personal change. We may not have an obsessive problem with eating jam sandwiches, but every one of us struggle with the desire to change something about ourselves. We may struggle with the same sin for years and begin to adopt the same attitude as this teenager—“I’ve tried everything, but nothing seems to work!” What makes this even worse is that we have plenty of good excuses for our sinful behaviors. Like this teenager who thinks he will never stop eating jam sandwiches. The doctors can’t seem to help him. His loving mum and dad can’t seem to help him. We know that thousands of people struggle with the same problem and they haven’t been able to change either. We begin to wonder if real life change is even possible. We fear that we will be stuck with this problem or problems for the rest of our lives.
We need to have genuine hope that we can change—or rather be changed by the Lord. The fundamental question we are asking this morning is found in your bulletin outline: How can we stop sinning? This is the second half of last week’s message when we answered the first question: Why do we sin? If we don’t have an answer to the first question—why we sin, then we will never be able to answer the second and most important question—how do we stop sinning? Before we move ahead, let me review a few key points from last week.
If you recall we used this diagram to illustrate v. 14, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Temptations are the same thing as our sinful desires. Remember that I likened this to leaking, flammable gas. Every moment of every day of our lives our sinful natures are leaking gas and could be ignited by a spark which will explode into some kind of sin. This is the basis of all of our sin—our sinful desires are ignited by some circumstance which results in an actual sinful behavior, thought or attitude. So if we are to ever stop sinning, then we have two options available to us—either reduce our evil desires or else reduce the potentially harmful circumstances. It really is that simple—if you want to prevent an explosion you must either stop the leaking gas or remove any source of spark.
Let me add two quick things here. First, when we ask the question—How can we stop sinning, do we expect that we will ever be able to completely stop sinning altogether? No, the Bible is clear that the power of sin in our lives will be present until we leave this world. Sinless perfection? No. Tremendous victory over sin? Absolutely! Second, even though victory over sin is really this simple—reduce the sinful desires or reduce the harmful circumstances, doesn’t mean it will be easy. You need to have hope that victory is even possible, but I don’t want to appear as if I am offering a quick, easy fix.
The first way to have victory over sin is to reduce the evil desires and the first step to doing that is to stop blaming God. Look at v. 16, Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James gave a stern warning to his readers—“don’t be deceived!” In what way were they deceived and in what way are we deceived? James is countering the argument that God is to blame for out temptation and sin. Verse 13 says that God cannot tempt anyone and this is because our temptations come from within us. Verse 13 and verse 17 are two sides of the same coin. Verse 13 declares that God cannot give us bad things like temptation and verse 17 reminds us that God can only give good things. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Nothing good in this world exists apart from God and nothing bad is ever sent to us by God.
Many people blame God for their problems and it has become increasingly common for counselors—even Christian counselors and pastors, to suggest that we should forgive God. The mantra goes like this: I know that God has disappointed you in some way, so you just need to forgive God so you can heal and get on with your life. A study conducted at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland suggests that forgiving God is not only possible but also essential for mental well-being. The study, based on responses from 200 college students, shows difficulty in forgiving God to be a predictor of anxiety and depression. As an example, the study cites couples who lose a child to sudden infant death syndrome and find themselves filled with anger because they can see no reason for the tragedy. What should these grieving parents do with their anger toward the Being they believe to be omnipotent and benevolent? (http://www.mtso.edu/vlattimore/Can%20humans%20forgive%20God.htm) Let’s be clear about this—God hasn’t done anything wrong—in fact, God cannot ever do anything wrong, so we cannot possibly forgive him. We offend God and need his forgiveness, but never the other way around. James says that those who blame God for their troubles are deceived. To believe that God has given you anything less than perfect and good gifts is to believe a lie of the highest magnitude. Who has deceived you into believing such a lie? Did you deceive yourself? Did Satan deceive you? Probably both are true—but the point is that we must call it a grievous lie and stop being deceived by it. Not only can we not blame God for our sins, but we cannot blame anyone else either. Remember that was one of the conclusions from last week—no one can make me sin. If ALL of my sinful desires arise from within me, then I have no one to blame but myself. We will never move forward in our victory over sin until we take full and complete responsibility for all of our sin. Think of all of the time we spend making excuses for all of our problems. For some of us, blaming others is a full-time job. Now imagine if we spent a fraction of that blaming time on our own personal repentance. No one can make me sin, therefore I alone am responsible for my sin. Reading self-help books won’t take away your sin. Taking medications won’t take away your sin. Years of counseling and therapy won’t take away your sin. These things are useless you take full responsibility for all of your sin. No excuses are allowed here. There are no exceptions where you are not responsible. Do you know what repentance does for a person? If our sin is like leaking flammable gas, then repentance is like turning off the leaking valve. Every time we take responsibility for our sin and genuinely repent, we close the valve just a little further. As we said before, in this life the valve of sin can never be close all of the way, but we can crank it closed and limit the power of our sinful desires within us. But here is an extreme caution. Whatever you do, never take full responsibility if you are not also going to repent. Taking full responsibility without repentance will kill you. No one can bear such a burden. This is why we are so hesitant to take responsibility for our own sin—we know that once we own up to all of it, we feel as if the weight of our sin will crush us. And that is true---the weight of sin was never meant to be carried by anyone. Sin always points us to Christ so that we can repent and receive full forgiveness. If you are not willing to repent of your sin, then by all means do not take responsibility for it. If you do this, at least you will be able to live a fairly normal life. Your sin will be stuffed deep down inside your soul where it doesn’t hurt so much. You can live your entire life in self-denial of your own problems so at least you may be able to cope. Go ahead—keep it stuffed in. Don’t take responsibility unless you are willing to unburden yourself through repentance. But if you are both willing to own up to your sin and fully repent, you will receive a marvelous and wonderful cleansing of your soul. Related to the fact that God cannot give anything but good gifts, therefore we should meditate on God’s goodness. Christians are always encouraged to read the Bible and memorize scripture, but we are not told often enough to meditate on Scripture. James said we are deceived if we think that God gives harmful gifts to his children. So how do you stop believing lies and believe the truth? By meditating on the truth of God’s goodness in the Bible.
A study was conducted with seminary students to determine which ones experienced the peace and trust of God in their lives. Many students were incredibly committed to their studies and ministry, but they did not score very high. Others were very smart, but they scored below average. It was found that the students who experienced the most inner peace of God were those who had a practice of regular meditation on God’s word. Again, not just reading the Bible causally—not just memorizing a verse or two to fulfill an assignment—but active meditation which causes a renewing of your mind. Meditation replaces lies we believe with truths.
Closely related to the last point is the need to meditate on his good gifts. If God is the perfect giver of good gifts, then we should meditate on those wonderful blessings. Of course nothing surpasses the ultimate gift of salvation. Do you recall the story I told about St. Augustine several weeks ago? Before his conversion he lived a sexually immoral lifestyle and had a girlfriend for fourteen years. After he was saved, he walked away from the relationship forever. One day as Augustine’s former lover was walking down the street, she saw him. She called out to him and he kept walking. She began to run after him but he kept his eyes straight ahead. Finally, she cried out, “Augustine, it is I”. He replied, “Yes, but it is no longer I”. Augustine meditated on his gift of salvation and he knew it had made him into a new man. He was no longer the old Augustine, but a new creation in Christ.
A fourth way to reduce your sinful desires is to ask God to test you. Ask God to test you. I realize that testing is the very thing you want to avoid. As we learned in the first part of chapter one, testing has the benefit of revealing the goodness and faithfulness of God. It also has the ability to reveal hidden sins. David’s prayer is the model for us: “Search me O God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.” No one likes to be tested. To pray David’s prayer is to pray a dangerous prayer. But if you are serious about your sin, then it is the only way.
In order to stop sinning, or reduce the amount of sin, we need to reduce the sinful desires—turn off the flammable gas, or else reduce potentially harmful circumstances, which is akin to removing any source of spark. Much of this is just common sense. For example, a mother told her son that he was not allowed to go swimming that day. However, when he returned home that afternoon his mother noticed that his hair was wet and that he carried under his arm a wet bathing suit. “Johnny!” his mother scolded, “I told you not to go swimming today.” “I couldn’t help it, Mom. I walked by the lake and it looked so clear and inviting. I was just going to stick my feet in it for a minute, and the water was so warm and felt so good on my legs. I just couldn’t resist!” he said with a big wide smile. Mom looked at Johnny and said, “One question son, why did you take your bathing suit with you when I had told you that you couldn’t swim today?” “I didn’t trust myself Mom, so I took it with me just in case I was tempted.”
We take our bathing suit with us, don’t we? We make it easier for sin to find us. We like to walk close to the edge of sin. We routinely place ourselves in potentially harmful circumstances and then we wonder why we got into trouble. If a man logs on to the internet without a filter, that is flammable gas sitting down in front of a spark. We need to admit our evil desires. We need to fully grasp the fact that each of is leaking flammable gas all day, every day of our lives. Sparks—potentially harmful circumstances are all around us. Some of them cannot be avoided, but the majority of harmful circumstances can be avoided.
In addition to admitting your sinful desires, each of us need to be fully aware of our specific weaknesses. Why does a recovering alcoholic never go into a bar? Because they are fully aware of their specific weakness and the potential for sin is multiplied a hundred times in such an environment. Why do parents want their children to choose good friends? Because all children want to be accepted and peer pressure from the wrong kind of friends can lead them to sin and great harm.
Do you recall the story I told two weeks ago about my friend who has endured a year of infidelity from this wife? I shared a few thoughts with him—one of them being this prayer based on 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. We need not approach God like a cowering dog approaches an evil master who beats and abuses the dog. Instead we confess our sins by first claiming the forgiveness already granted to us. If we turn 1 John 1:9 into a prayer, we might say something like this: “God, I thank you that you have already paid the penalty for this sin I’ve just committed. Thank you for the secure relationship I have with you based upon your faithfulness and justice. Lord, I rebelled against your command and dishonored your name. Thank you for your promise to forgive me and to continue to purify me from my sin.” |