Good morning. I'd like to welcome you back to another edition of our Anchored in the Word morning reflection. And as I mentioned yesterday, we are going to have a bonus episode today. And so rather than being in Luke chapter 8, we are in James chapter 1. And we're going to be talking about the topic of temptation, a very, very practical reflection this morning. And so I pray that it'll be a real encouragement to you. James chapter 1 is where we are. So if you have your Bible, let's turn together there, and we're going to look at verses 2 down to verse 5, and then I'll refer over to a couple of other verses in James chapter 1. Here's what it says. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abrideth not, and it shall be given him. And if you skip down a couple more verses to verse number 12, it says, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Now these passages are, these verses in James chapter 1 are some of the most practical passages of scripture that we will look at, that we deal with on a daily basis. Temptation is a regular experience in the human life, in our Christian experience. And so when we talk about temptation, we need to recognize that even though we are redeemed people, we've placed our faith in Christ and old things have passed away and all things have become new. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit. We are positionally righteous in Christ. We are set apart as holy to God. We are declared righteous, justified and declared saints. we still deal with this issue of temptation. And these verses explain to us the reality of that and help us to understand kind of the mechanics of how temptation works. So what I'd like to do at the beginning is I'd like us to think about some very basic reasons why God allows us as believers to face temptation. And if you notice in the first part of the verse, it says that we are to count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptation. And he refers to the people that he's writing to as believers. It's very, very important. There's a distinction between the way that the believer looks at testing, trials, temptations, and the way that the unbeliever does. God has a very definite purpose in allowing us as his children to experience these things. So let me give you three words to remember this morning that I hope will help you as you think about this issue. The first word is the word maturity. The idea is that God uses trials and testings and temptations to develop depth in our maturity. And when we talk about depth and maturity, that is very different than saying that a believer becomes more holy or a believer becomes more righteous. or that he becomes more of a saint than he is before he goes through trials. We're not talking about a positional reality. We're talking about the development of the maturing of a believer. And I used this illustration the other night about a tomato plant. If a tomato plant is two inches tall, or if it's six inches tall, or if it's three feet tall, or if it's 12 feet tall, It's still a tomato plant, it's still equally alive, whether it's 2 inches tall or 10 feet tall, but the maturity of the plant is different, and the maturity is what enables it to be fruitful, what enables it to be vibrant and strong. And so when we talk about spiritual maturity, we would say that God has to build us in this issue of maturity. And that's why he says that the trying of our faith works patience. Patience is a maturity quality. He says we're to let patience have her perfect. That's a maturity word. perfect work, that we may be perfect, that s referring to our maturity and entire wanting nothing. And so one of the ways God develops us in the Christian life is through testing. The second word that I want to remind you of is the word wisdom. It says in verse number five, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. One of the effects of trials and testings and difficulties is that they drive us to God. That is the purpose. Now, it is also true that when we face trials and testing, sometimes we become angry at God or frustrated at God. And that's why in these verses, he says, uh, that we are not to say when we're tempted that we're tempted of God. And then he later on goes to say that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, comes down from the father of lights with whom is no variables, variableness, either shadow of turning. So James understands that when people are tested and they go through trials, they have this tendency to actually look at God like he's doing something that's wrong, that he's unjustly punishing them. And what they fail to recognize is that God's purpose for allowing us to go through these issues is to drive us to himself, to press us closer to him so that we can gain a godly wisdom kind of a perspective. And then the third word that I'm going to mention is the word progress. The idea is that God is giving us these moments in the Christian life where we can see that, in fact, we are progressing in our maturity, in our growth into Christlikeness. It has the same effect of what happens when a person's taking a class. When you take a class, you sit in the room, you take notes, you're given assignments, but really what has to take place throughout the course of a semester is that your teacher needs to set you down and have you take a test. Well, why does your teacher do that? Well, they don't do that because they want to see you fail. They do that because they want to examine your progress and they want you to see your progress. And really, if you are where you're supposed to be in your development of your understanding of these concepts, your knowledge of this particular matter, that is the sense of a test. And so what God does is he allows us to go through trials and tests so that we can see the verifiable evidence that, in fact, we are progressing in maturity. We are growing into Christ's likeness. We can look at an incident that we dealt with many years ago, and we can say, you know what? The lessons that I've learned and the maturity that's been developed in those circumstances, it's being applied in this situation, and so I'm growing. By the way, let me mention this. It's a lot like the way a person trains in a gym, like if a person's a runner or if a person is a weightlifter. When a person is lifting weights, what do they do? They go through strain, and through that strain, their body has to respond by becoming stronger. It increases endurance. And then what happens is that they have to increase the strain, they have to push more weight, they have to run a little faster, they have to run a little longer, they have to run at a quicker rate, and so what that does is it builds endurance, it builds strength, and they can see that progress. The same thing is true in the Christian life. In verse 12 he says, when he has tried He shall receive the crown of life which God hath promised to them that love him. And so those three words are really important as we talk about this issue of trials or tests, maturity, wisdom, and progress. The second thing that I want us to do in this little discussion, this bonus episode, is I want to talk about the progression of temptation. Temptation follows a process, and it starts with a source, and the source is not our neighbors, or our siblings, or our spouse, or our parents, or somebody that we go to church with, or somebody that we work with, or work under, or have working under us. The source of temptation is our own hearts. That's not to say that the people around us and circumstances around us do not affect us being in an environment where temptation becomes a lot more easier to succumb to, but that's not the ultimate source of temptation. I can't blame my wife or blame my son or blame my pastor or blame my boss for my sin. I'm responsible for my own sin because I'm the ultimate source of where Sin begins and we see that in this text because it says the following it says he says every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and and enticed. We, in our own hearts, are the source of where sin begins. And then there are a couple of words that show us the destructive process that goes on. We see, I'm going to give you these words. The first word is the word opportunity, and we see that a person is drawn away of their own lust. Opportunity and a fallen nature come to the opportunity to sin. Then there's the word desire. It says that he's enticed. The idea is that the passions that lie within our flesh They are awakened with certain opportunities. It might be something that I've witnessed. It might be a circumstance that I'm in, something that I watch, something that I listen to. It could be the response of a person to me. It could be something that I'm asked to do or something that I'm not allowed to do. But the opportunity leads to a desire, and that ultimately leads us to a point of decision. It says that when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin. There is a point of decision. By the way, this point of decision where we give into temptation is not necessarily just in the physical act of sin. Sin is something that doesn't just happen with our hands, it's something that happens in our heart. When we talk about a sin like anger, anger isn't just what I do by speaking in a way that is offensive or aggressive or disrespectful or that's harmful. It's the hatred or the anger that's in my heart that ultimately leads to that, where lust isn't just the act of adultery or the act of immorality or some kind of sexual act that violates the scriptures. The sin of lust is something that goes on in the heart. So when a person has lust in their heart toward another person, that's where the sin begins. So the giving in on the heart level or the giving in on the hands level, either way, we're talking about sin. And so we see this progression. It starts in my heart. We're drawn away of our own lust. It's opportunity. We're enticed. That's desire. Lust has conceived. That's where the decision takes place. And then we see the action. It brings forth sin the fruit of giving into temptation and making that choice whether it is a high-handed willful choice or whether it's a bit of a passive i'm just not going to fall through with this it doesn't matter that giving in that action is sin And sin has this tendency to lead to more sin. The most obvious example of this is when a person is being dishonest. If I tell a lie, then I'm going to be tempted to tell another lie to cover that lie so that I'm starting to build this case of dishonesty. Or when a person sins and they go to cover their sin, what does it do? That sin leads to more sin. more destructive behavior. There's this downward spiral. And so what you can see is that there is a destructive process that's going on when we sin. The last word is the word consequence. Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. And by the way, when the Bible uses the term death, it uses it in a lot of different contexts, and I think in this particular context, that word death is talking about the destructive nature, the misery, the loss of a high and noble quality of life because of our sin. There are natural consequences for sin. God doesn't have to punish you actively for you to experience the negative consequences of sin. When a person chooses to lie, there's a natural consequence that falls from that. If a person chooses to act in an immorality, there's a natural consequence that falls from that. If a person chooses to lash out with their tongue and say hurtful and harmful things, there's a natural consequence that falls from that. And so what we see is that there is a downward destructive process that takes place. Opportunity, desire, action, consequence. So you might say, well, Joel, what do we learn from this today? Let me give you a couple of things to consider, because this is a very practical issue. When we talk about this issue of temptation or temptations or trials or difficulties, what we're talking about is something that has an opportunity to really affect our view of God. And when it comes to our view of God, our view of God has to be decisively guided by the scriptures. When we think about what God is doing in our lives as we face a trial or a test or a very difficult time, we need to recognize that God's purposes are good. He is not the source of temptation. He's not the source of evil. He uses testings and trials and temptations to mature us, to give us wisdom, and ultimately to demonstrate the growth into Christlikeness that's taking place, the growth and maturity. Secondly, we've got to learn to go deeper than what we're doing. or what others can see that we're doing, or the consequences of what's going on, and we've got to get down under the surface to the question, why? Why did I do this? Why did I respond in such a way? And the answer to the why goes all the way back to the heart. We have to deal with sin at the heart level, not at the symptom level, not at the consequence level, not at the visible level, at the heart level. Very, very, very important. The third thing I'll mention is that by understanding how temptation works, what we're ultimately doing is we're dealing with the foundation which prepares us to encounter any kind of issue that we might encounter in life. It teaches us to address the root rather than the symptom. It provides the long-term potential for us to have victory. It gives us a culmination of strength and wisdom and spiritual maturity, rather than exhausting us with all the endless potential issues that we may have to address. And so by understanding that temptation is a heart issue and temptation is a root issue, and we don't redefine sin as just the visible things and just the physical things, it helps us to have a long-term building of strength and wisdom and maturing so that we can deal with the temptations we encounter. And the last thing I'll mention is this, it makes us a Christian who rather than reacting is well prepared for testings and trials and temptations. It is always better for us to face a test with preparation than to face a test having not prepared well. Think about it in school. I mean, one of the reasons that your teacher doesn't just say, surprise, you're having a test today, it's because they want to prepare you for that. And so a Y student, what do they do? They take notes. They review their notes. They read over their notes. They might even talk to somebody else about their notes and try to teach the notes to somebody else so that when they come to the test, what happens is that they are well prepared for it, and they do very well on it. The same thing is true in the Christian life. By studying the scriptures, by understanding the nature of temptation and the nature of what God is accomplishing in us through tests and trials and temptations, we are ready to face those tests in a way that overcomes and is victorious. And God has given us everything that we need to be able to be victorious in these issues. I hope that this gives you something to think about this morning. I hope that it helps you in your Christian experience. Testings and trials and temptations are a normal part of the Christian life. Until the day that we enter glory, we will face the testing of our faith. And so we need to do it in a way that honors the Lord. I hope that this will be an encouragement to you today. If it has been, please feel free to share that or tell someone else about what you learned today, maybe share some feedback. And I hope that you have a wonderful weekend. It's really nice and warm, but I know that's going to change on Saturday. So I hope that you have a great weekend and Lord willing, we'll talk to you on Monday. Bye now.