Please do now turn in your Bibles to the letter of James. James chapter 1. This evening we are in verses 13 to 18. James chapter 1, verses 13 to 18. Hear now the reading of God's holy word. 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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. "'Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. "'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 first fruits of his creatures.'" So ends the reading of God's word. Let us pray and ask the Lord to bless his word to us. Our Heavenly Father, as we have already sung in the words of Wesley, we pray that you would take away our love of sinning, even as we consider the nature of sin and how it brings forth death. It doesn't bring life, it brings the curse of death. So take away that love of sinning. Help us find in you our rock of ages, that we may run to you and be cleansed of our sin. We pray you would do this and encourage this in us. through the preaching of your word and by your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. One of my all-time favorite series of novels from a Christian worldview is J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In these novels, Tolkien presents many Christian themes and images from using a variety of characters and images. Particularly through the imagery of the ring, he captures the essence of sin and temptation. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the story, it centers around a hobbit named Frodo and his journey to Middle Earth. or his journey to Mount Doom, where he is to destroy this ring of power. Well, this ring was created by an evil Lord Sauron who crafted it to enslave the people of Middle-earth. But through providence, he lost the ring and it found its way to Frodo. And throughout the book, Frodo faces many external challenges as he makes his journey to Mount Doom where he is to destroy the ring. And much like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, there's many enemies out there to try to trip him up and trap him and stop him from completing his great work. But perhaps the greatest enemy of all, the one that poses the greatest threat to Frodo, is Frodo himself. And this is shown through his interaction with this ring. One of the things that the ring does is that it's very deceptive. It exploits the desires of the wearer. You see the ring is deceptive because it promises power to the one who wears it. When in fact it's really enslaving, really it takes power. It's alluring, it's attractive, but it's deadly. And even though Frodo makes it the whole way to Mount Doom, ultimately he fails in his endeavor because he's grown so attached to the ring. He can't destroy it. And providentially someone else ends up destroying the ring. And this is a good picture of what sin is like. Because sin is alluring. Sin is attractive. Sin has an appeal. It appeals to our desires and it exploits our desires. And sin, ultimately like Tolkien's ring, it brings about a cycle of death and decay. And much like Tolkien, the Apostle James employs an abundance of imagery to illustrate this truth of the nature of sin and its dangerous allure. James likens temptation to allure or a base that's used to attract an animal. He also likens it to a living being that is conceived and born and grows and brings forth death. You see, James knows the realities of the human soul. He knows how easily we are enticed and tempted by sin as we are lured by our own desires. And James doesn't want Christians to fall for something that is so deadly to our souls. Notice how in verse 13 he says, let no one say when he is tempted. So as we are being tempted, there's something we're tempted to say that we shouldn't. There's something we're tempted to believe. And then in verse 16, he writes, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. So clearly, in times of temptation, there's a great danger that we are deceived by something. And clearly, this is the deception of sin. And so James offers a series of correctives so that in these times of temptation, we don't fall for the hook, we don't fall for the bait, but we understand the true danger of dabbling in sin. So he explains then that the nature of sin, But he doesn't only want us to take our eyes off of the nature of sin. He also positively wants us to place our eyes on the nature of God and of the new nature we have because of God. So we look at these three things. First, we'll see how he addresses the nature of sin. Secondly, the nature of God. And then thirdly, our new nature as his creations. So first, James discusses the nature of sin. And notice how he transitions from discussing trials in verses two to 12 to now discussing temptation in verses 13 to 18. So he has been focusing on trials, those external circumstances that challenge our faith, to now looking at our internal responses to those trials. And he begins this discussion in verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. Now we might read that at first and say, come on, no one really says that. No one really thinks that God is tempting them. Does anyone really say this? Do people really blame God for their sin? Well, it happens more than we might think. We don't have to read very far into our Bibles to see this. Remember when God is charging Adam with his sin, what does Adam say? Oh, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat. So Adam is shifting the blame to his wife. But who's Adam really blaming when you read between the lines of what Adam is saying? The woman whom you gave me, he's blaming God for his sin. Here he's doing exactly what James is saying. The reality is we're all inclined this way, aren't we? Because we all bear Adam's sin nature, we all are inclined to find someone else, be it God or anyone, to blame our sin. We blame God for our problems. We try to blame our parents, our upbringing, our genes, our chromosomes. We blame our social environment. We blame poverty, racism, lack of work, marriage problems. We'll stick the blame on anyone and anything but ourselves. On two separate occasions, I sat in front of men who had abandoned their families, cheated on their wives with another woman. This was back in Ireland, completely different context. And I asked them, why did you do what you did? Why did you do it? How could you do this? And both men gave me the same answer. It wasn't really my fault. God led me into this. It's not my fault. What are they saying? They're blaming God for their sin. And so you see, friends, James is not building some kind of straw man argument. You know what a straw man argument is? It's where we build up an opponent that isn't real and then we tear it apart because it's so easy. You see it in politics a lot. No, this is a real problem. This is something that even Christians are tempted to believe before we sin, while we're in sin, and after sin. It's deception, and we must not say it. Well, next, James explains why we must not say that God is tempting us. First, It's because God is not the author of sin. Verse 13, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. So God doesn't tempt because he cannot. God is perfect. God is unchangeable in goodness. And it's more than that God does good. It's that God is good. And he is so in an unchanging way. And for this reason, he cannot do evil. He neither tempts nor can he be tempted. But then we may wonder, if God is sovereign as we believe, if he ordains everything, even our trials and those things that tempt us in that sense, is God himself not tempting us then? Is he not to blame? That's where we need to make a very careful distinction between testing and tempting. And the difference has to do with the intention of each thing. What is the intention of temptation? Well, the intention of temptation is that you're being lured and you're being enticed into sin. And that certainly cannot be said of God. On the other hand, what is the intention of trials? Well, James told us earlier in verse four, God's intention is to test us so that we are refined And steadfastness is increased in us and we're matured. His purpose in testing us then is not to entice us to sin. It's not to lead us to fall or to fail. No, it's to grow us in conformity to Christ. That's something we see in scripture, isn't it? God does test his people. Genesis 22 says that God tested Abraham when he asked him to sacrifice Isaac. That is, God gave Abraham an opportunity to demonstrate the authenticity of his faith. God tested Israel by leaving them surrounded by pagan nations, Judges 2.22. So God tests us by allowing us, and we should say ordaining us, ordaining our trials. But he never does this in such a way to lure us into sin. He's never the author of sin. Well, if this is so, Where does temptation come from? You know, if I can't pin my sin on God, who can I pin my sin on? We might expect James to say, well, it's the devil's fault, he tempts you to sin. Isn't that what Christians say? The devil made me do it. But that's not what James says at all. James says, God himself tempts no one, but, verse 14, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. How are we tempted? We're tempted as we are lured and enticed by our own desires. In other words, you don't need to go finding a culprit for your sin. You don't need to go and be a detective and try to find someone. It's there, it's you. You are the culprit of your sin. And the pattern of sin we see starts there, doesn't it, with our desires. Now God has made us as creatures with many natural desires, with many good desires. Desires for food, desires for sleep, desires for companionship, for rest, for love and so on. Many of these desires are the very things that keep us alive and keep us healthy and keep us going. It's what we get up in the morning for. But desires can become twisted. The desire for food can turn into gluttony. The desire for sleep can turn into laziness. The desire for companionship can turn into adultery. The desire for respect can turn into pride. And it's these twisted desires that lead us into temptation. And these desires originate not with God and not with others, but in our own hearts. And it's important we understand this. You know, when you see, when you have those moments in your life where you react in some kind of a way, and you say, wow, I can't believe I said that to my spouse or to my child or to my friend, or you react some kind of way, and maybe it takes you off guard, and you say, that wasn't me. Well, it was you, and it came from within your heart. In other words, there's nothing that your mouth won't say or your hands won't do that you haven't already been churning around in your heart and in your mind. And these desires, if they're left unchecked as they're festering within us, they can grow very strong. Notice his language in verse 14, how desires lure and entice. These words are actually terms related to hunting and fishing. So some of you hunters and fishers might resonate with this. Now I'm not very good at catching fish, even when I do have bait on my hook, but I know at the very least, very few fish are going to bite straight onto a hook. No, you need some kind of a bait. You need something that entices them. So the fisherman has to use some kind of lure to deceive the fish. And then the fish sees, well he doesn't see the hook because it's disguised, but he sees something that's very deadly to him, but it appears very attractive. It appears very alluring. And isn't that a very good illustration then of the deceitfulness of our sin? Temptation always includes some kind of bait that appeals to our natural desires. Those desires that we have that are good, sin and temptation appeals to those things so that they're twisted. And the bait not only attracts us, but it also disguises the sorrow and the punishment, the consequences that sin brings. It's in my promised pleasure, but in the end, it only delivers pain. And James moves on to explain this as he transitions then from the metaphor of the fishing hook to now that of reproduction. This is what happens when someone falls for the bait. They bite onto that hook. Look at verse 15. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Someone gives in to their sin, they give in to their temptations, then desire conceives and gives birth, and then sin grows and it matures and it produces death. Death is the consequence of sin. And sin has Deadly consequences. Consequences that are not always immediate and sudden. The moment we sin, the moment you indulge in sin, it's not that something catches you, a lightning bolt from heaven or something like that. No, it often happens later. But it does come. Sin does have consequences. As we continue to yield to temptation, we will experience death. Maybe not right away, but it will come. Death of relationships. Maybe death physically. Certainly death spiritually. As one pastor has said, sin takes you farther than what you want to go. It keeps you longer than you want to stay. And it costs you more than you want to pay. Let's remember the context of this passage. It's a discussion on trials and on temptation. And James has already called us to meet our trials with joy and with steadfastness. But sometimes, when we're in trials, we don't want to take that long road. We don't want to take that long and hard road of perseverance and obedience. Instead, like our first parents, we'd rather bypass all of that and take the easy way, the sinful shortcut. You might be going through a trial right now, and you may be in this very place that James describes. You may be tempted to take that what seems like such the obvious and easy way out of your trial. If I only did this, I'd get out of my trial. Well, what kinds of ways are we tempted to take shortcuts? Or when we face financial difficulties, we may be tempted to seek out ill-gotten gains. When our marriage is in trouble for one reason or another, instead of slowly working through the process, getting counseling, praying, bringing it before the Lord, we might be tempted to seek a divorce, the easy way out. Or we might seek companionship in an illicit relationship. Embarrassing information can tempt us to lie about what is true until we end up telling one lie after another. We deceive others and we deceive ourselves in order to look good and feel better about ourselves. When we become depressed, we might be tempted to abuse alcohol, prescription drugs, illegal drugs, even food. But James says to us, don't fall for this. Don't fall for these lures, because that's all they are. It's just bait to try to lure you into a trap. It may seem like the easy option now, but ultimately it leads to death. You know, when you indulge in your desires, you think you're the one fishing. You think you're the one catching the fish. You know, you're the one taking control of your life. I'm doing something for me. But you're not. You're the catch. You're the fish. And you've bitten on the hook. You've taken the bait. Dear Christian, why would you ever live for something that cannot bring you life, but only brings you death? Dear non-Christian, why would you live for something that is sure to seal your eternal death? As Paul has said, the wages of sin is death. Such is the nature of sin, and James wants us to be aware of it. But next, James wants to inoculate us against another deception. In verse 16, he says, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. And then secondly, he tells us about the nature of God. If we are to avoid the lure and the deception of sin, we need to know something about the nature of our God. And James wants us to know that not only does God not tempt us, but actually, God is the giver of all good things. Look at verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Now, as we read this, our mind should go back to verse five, where James has already described God as the giving God. God is a giving God. That is, it is in his nature to give good gifts to his children. And we are his children. That's something James highlights when he refers to God as the father of lights. That God is our father reminds us that he doesn't give things that are harmful to us. When God gives, there is no bait and hook. There's only good things. He doesn't give us serpents and scorpions when we ask for food. Instead, he gives us bread and fish and good things for us. And when he holds away the bait and hook, He's not holding on something that is good for us. He's keeping us from evil. He's leading us not into temptation. God gives good things to his children. What things does he give? Well, he gives us wisdom when we ask for it, verse five. He's given us the promised Holy Spirit. He's given us all that we need for life and godliness through Jesus Christ. and if we're able to receive it with heavenly wisdom, he also gives us trials to build our faith and to grow us in maturity into Christ. So God is good and he gives good gifts. But let me ask you this, dear Christian. Let me ask you this. How can you be sure that God will remain good? How do you know that he won't change in some way? This week when you, At some point in this week when inevitably you will give in to your sinful desires, and when you stumble and when you fall into sin, how do you know that he will not leave you in those sinful desires? How do you know that he won't change his mind and wash his hands of you and say, I've had enough. I've spent enough time on this sheep. They've run away too many times. They've wandered from the fold. I'm going to leave them. What assurance do you have? Well, the answer comes in what James says next. With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Variation and shadow due to change, these are terms that describe the planets and the movement of the planets and how with the rising and setting of the sun there is change as the planets move around the sun. There's all kinds of change between light and darkness, heat and cold. And what James is saying is that God, as the father of lights, is not like a changing shadow. He doesn't change with the seasons. He doesn't change as the sun rises and the sun sets. No, he is without change. We call this the doctrines of immutability and impassibility. that God's nature cannot change. Not simply that he does not change or he hasn't changed yet. Not simply that he's really, really, really faithful. No, it's that he cannot change. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Because you don't want a perfect being to change. All change is either for better or for worse. And perfection, by definition, cannot get better. It can only get worse. And clearly, that cannot be said of God. Beloved, these are wonderful, glorious doctrines that should bring you so much comfort in your times of trial, and even in your times of temptation, as James applies them. All around us, life is changing. Sometimes for the better, seems often for the worse. Certainly in our nation, there's so much change going on. I don't even know who the president is. There's so much uncertainty around our election. What are the next four years going to be like? What about after that? We don't know. But forget about politics. What about closer to home? What kind of change is happening in your home life? I know some of us are moving to another state and having to uproot and create a new life there. Maybe some of us have uncertainties about our health. Certainly, it's true of all of us. We're all deteriorating in health, ultimately. Maybe some of you are considering the possibility of moving from your home into a nursing home, somewhere like Chapel Point. That's a major life change. With all of the change comes uncertainty. And as James said earlier, with all of this uncertainty, we encounter various trials. Literally, we stumble into them as if it's a pit. We never know when they're coming. But in a world that is always changing, we can take comfort in the knowledge that God always remains the same. Now, you may be tempted to think that because your circumstances are changing, that therefore God has changed. You may be tempted to think that because life is treating you harshly that God is treating you harshly. But that's just not true. If you are in Christ, God does not change. He is the same kind, loving, heavenly Father to you on your worst of days as much as on your best of days. That's what James wants us to see. Loved ones, you can trust that God, who is good, will remain good, because he's not like a changing shadow. You can trust that God always has your good in mind, and will always act in a way that reflects his perfect, unchanging goodness, even in the midst of the trials he has ordained for you. Why? All because of his unchanging nature. He is immutable. He is impassable. Learn these words, learn them, because these words are what your God is. The nature of sin, the nature of God. Finally, and briefly, James wants us to now understand our nature, our new nature as believers. And James does this by returning once again to that imagery of birth, Whereas evil desires give birth to death, look at what God gives birth to in verse 18. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. Now brought us forth is literally birthed us. God gave birth to us. It's maybe not imagery we think of often with God, but that's what James is using here. God gave birth to us by his word of truth. Well, how have we been born of God? Well, this is, of course, a reference to what is often called the new birth. It's what the prophet Jeremiah speaks of as the gift of a new heart. Paul refers to it as the gift of, as being new creation. Jesus spoke of it as being born again in John chapter three, not a physical rebirth, but a spiritual rebirth. And this spiritual birth is not a birth from non-existence to life, but it is a birth from death to life. We were dead, Paul writes in Ephesians chapter two verse four. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. So whereas sin takes what is living and brings forth death, God takes what is dead and brings forth life. James says, of God's will he birthed us. God resolved within himself not to leave fallen humanity in our fallenness, in that state of decay and death, but instead he sent his son to die for sinners, to pay for the wages of our sin. And as a result, he brings about this new birth in us. And he does so by the word of truth. This word of truth is another way of saying the gospel. As James writes later in verse 21, this is the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Through the hearing and reception of the gospel, we receive the new birth where change of the spirit works within us. And as a result of this new birth, we're no longer dead in our sins and trespasses. We're no longer slaves to sin, slaves to our sinful and debased passions. Those things don't rule us anymore. Now we are free to pursue righteousness. And that's what God saves us to. Look at verse 18. What's the purpose of salvation? So that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Firstfruits were the first of a harvest. They may have been the finest. produce that was set apart as an offering to the Lord. It was that which was set apart as His special possession. And that's true of you, believer. If you're in Christ, you've been born again and you've been set apart as His treasure. You don't belong to death and sin and debased desires. You belong to God as his first fruits. You see, unlike desire and sin, which produce death, God produces new living beings. Darkness produces death, but God, who is light, begets life. Well, do you see how all the time in the opening of this letter, James is trying to draw our eyes away from the things of this world, whether it's the outright sinful lure and deception of the world, or it's the lure of fading and passing things like poverty and wealth. He wants us to take our eyes off of those things, and instead look to the heights on which we now stand in Christ Jesus. As we endure trials, we're to look to the end result, maturity in Christ. If we suffer economically, we can look to the imperishable crown Christ holds out to us. When we're tempted by the alluring hook of death, and we're tempted to blame God, James would instead have us look to what is true, to see sin for what it truly is, and to focus the eyes of our faith on God and on the new birth we have through him. You see, there and only there can we find the grace and strength we need to endure. Only there can we find the grace of forgiveness for when we do fail. And because God cannot change, his promises do not change. And he promises that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, beloved brothers, beloved sisters, in your times of trial, in your times of temptation, do not be deceived by the allure of sin, and do not say, I am being tempted by God. Instead, resist sin. And if you do sin, own your sin, confess your sin, knowing that as James says in chapter two, mercy triumphs over judgment. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a God of, not only of kindness and mercy and love, we can display those traits, but you are a God of infinite kindness, infinite love, infinite mercy, and unchangingly so. And we pray that even now we would experience some more of that love and mercy as your spirit applies these truths to our hearts. Again, we can only echo the words of Wesley, take away the love of sin, Help us to see the barb that's hidden behind the deceptive bait, and help us remember that we are your first fruits. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.