All right, we are in the book of James. We're sort of moving very slowly. In fact, tonight I want to look at just one verse. In fact. We really, in order to get the sense of it, should back up to verse 13 and will read down through verse 15. That'll be what we cover tonight. Let no man say. when he is tempted, I am 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. That when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." We think back over our past little study here. Remember all of this began back in verse 2, talking about the various, what he calls temptations, but again we've seen temptation, that word is used in two different senses. And in the first part of this chapter it's used in the sense of a trial, a test. in the latter part it's used in the sense of a how we use it solicitation to do evil but in the first section we're dealing with the fact of trials that you will be tested your faith will be tested the purpose of those trials to conform you and refine you and then the reward of those trials they receive a crown of life they that if you endure these trials and temptations and uh... again it strikes me that uh... the question that arrived or the thing that james deals with in verse thirteen he says let no man say when he's tempted i'm tempted of god uh... you would never even raise that objection if you didn't believe in the absolute sovereignty of god i keep coming back to that that's that's interesting because uh... i was reading a uh... article by ravi zacharias that was on the little beacon baptist messenger thing they send out and he was quoting some of the atheist philosophers and that was basically their contention is that given a world that is filled with evil then either God is not good or God is not sovereign. Now you understand why they would say that. In other words if he's allowed evil and brought evil into this world when he could have prevented it then he's not good or if he's not sovereign then he can't control whether evil comes into well we believe god is both sovereign and good and so when we deal here with this question where to send come from especially where does my sin come from what james is saying don't blame it on god and don't be the flip i'm i was gonna say flip wilson and i'm wondering how many of you here tonight have even heard of flip wilson you gotta be a certain uh... leah is raising her hand YouTube, no doubt, or something, or reruns. But Flip Wilson, you know, the devil made me do it, Geraldine. Don't blame it on the devil. Don't blame it on God. If you did it, you did it. It is you. It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in need of prayer. When a man is tempted, he's drawn away on his own lusts. Augustine put his quote up here, sin arose in the wills of created beings. It is hard to improve on that statement. Obviously, there are still a lot of unanswered things, but in the bottom line, that's it. That's where sin came from. It arose in the wills of created beings. They were not created sinful. Neither Satan nor man was created sinful, but sin came into the picture And I said last time, the philosophical principle of first causes, that God then must, since he's the first cause of everything, everything that is here, he made it happen. So you can blame sin. If there's evil in the world, then he's the one that put it here. Well, we believe in the law of first causes, but we also believe in the law of non-contradiction, that a God who is absolutely holy cannot do evil, cannot sin. And so on the one hand, we believe that God could easily have prevented sin. Gene Breed's famous little statement is all he had to do is cut the head off one snake. He said, I know he could do it. My granddaddy did that. I've seen my granddaddy do that. That's all he had to do if he wanted to keep sin from entering the world. but obviously god could have prevented it and yet he didn't in fact he allowed it and he allowed it for his own purposes so on the one hand we believe that god certainly allows sin and yet on the other hand he is not the culpable agent of sin but culpable meaning the party that is charged with guilt again it comes back to the fact that it here were arose in the wills of these free moral agents who were created beings. Now, that tells us where sin begins, and the origin of it comes out of me. It comes out of what he calls our own lust. In other words, were it not for our sinful lusts, we would not have the bent towards sin. And as I said last time, the very fact that you and I can even be tempted to sin, whether or not we ever sin or not, is an indication that there's something within us that responds to sin. In other words, our sin nature can be demonstrated just from the fact that we can be enticed, we can be seduced to do evil. The very fact that it is the least bit attractive to us. Notice he says you can't tempt God with evil. And the reason is God is absolutely holy. There's nothing in his nature that would respond to sin. Our response to sin, the fact whether you commit sin or not, Leave that question aside for a moment. The very fact that it's even considered an option is an indication that there's something wrong inside of me, that I have to fight it, that I have to war against it. There is a nature there, sort of like a magnet. If you just put a magnet up against two before, it doesn't have any attraction. There's no iron in it to respond to. Put it up against a piece of steel, it's a different story. And so it is that sin finds something within us that is attracted to it and by it. So now, having shown us where sin originates, he goes through what we might call the development of sin, the progress, the process by which sin occurs. And so we're going to look at it in sort of three phases, the beginning of it, the continuation of it, and the end of it. So let's start with the beginning of it. We've already talked about where it comes from. It comes from, he says, your own lust. This is a Greek word, epithumia. Epi is here toward, and thumia means desire, desire for something. Now, we were created as human beings with certain appetites, certain desires to say, and I realize that when we use the word lust, Most of the time we apply an evil connotation to that word, and especially a sexual connotation to the word. But the word simply means a desire, and the fact that you have a desire is not in itself sinful. For instance, Jesus fasted 40 days and nights, hadn't eaten anything. He was hungry. He had a desire for food. the desire itself is not sinful. And so when you talk about lust in this sense, you do not necessarily mean that which is morally evil. In other words, this idea of lust, which seems sort of strange to us, we think lust must always be bad, but lust in the biblical sense is morally neutral. And there are places where lust is spoken of in a, shall we say, a positive way. Let me give you one example in Luke. Luke's Gospel in chapter 22. This is the Last Supper, the Passover meal. And Luke 22, verse 14 says, "...when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him, and he said unto them with desire..." Same word, with lust. "...Have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer?" In other words, I'm lusting. Well notice there, lust is not for something evil, it's for something good. It's a desire, a strong desire for something good. So the word itself doesn't necessarily imply something evil. But, recall that the flesh has certain desires. John sort of spells them out for us. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, There is this sense in which we have these appetites, we're driven, fleshly appetites, yes, but more than that, not only do we want to feel good, we want to look good. Some of us, that's all we'll ever do, we want to look good. Adam, it's never going to happen. But we want to, don't we? And we spend a lot of time trying to get there. And I won't even go into you ladies, what you do, what you go through, trying to look good. Just think, though, that we have, even you men, there are certain things that you want to do in the morning before you go outside, before you face the public, before you face the world. You care about how you look. You want to look good. And not only do we want to look good in an attractive sense, we want to look good in doing things. That's the thing for men, particularly. We want to look good. I keep saying about my son that when he was playing baseball, it didn't matter whether he struck out or hit a home run. Did he look good while he was doing it? I mean, was he cool? You know, that's the idea. Did he look good? We want to look good. That's why James's car dealership sells those shiny cars, right? will look good uh... you you see the i've often pointed out the advertising that goes on on t.v. and so forth how they appeal to those three principles in man the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life uh... why did you buy that shiny new car you say oh i know engineering understand the mechanics probably not You bought it because you saw a commercial that it said only the best people drive this brand of car. You know, the upper crust. This is what they do. It's who's the actor that he's driving along in the Lincoln? Yeah, Matthew McConaughey. I'm thinking there's the epitome. You know, here's this guy. You want to be like Matthew. So you want to drive whatever he drives because he he says, you know, this is what does it for me. So it's going to do it for you. On and on you go. You want to look good. It's got to be shiny. Have you ever been to a car show? One of these real car shows where they've got the models in the swimsuits up there showing off the car? I'm sure she's graduated with a degree in engineering. You know, what's the deal? It's appealing to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The best people, the rich people, the cream of the crop. This is what they do. is all around us and uh... i was dealing with angels last night and i was thinking about how how would angels control us of the nights were there and they had uh... they made it too late yesterday morning so they came back last night because uh... in the morning when the horses had problem with the horse you ever had a horse get out have chase a horse well how do you catch the horse how do you get the horse back in did we get you a bucket of oats and shake it and the horse comes back you're appealing what to the last of the whole and i'm thinking you know that's exactly why do we find these stoke area these principles elemental things of the world involved in angelic religion because that's what we respond to we're about like the horse we respond to the stamina of this world and that's what they used to keep us in line to get us in the corral that we're supposed to be a so it's that that same principle is is what works on us flash These appetites are not sinful in themselves, but they give Satan the, as it were, a pry bar, a place to put the pry bar, a place to use the seduction to sin. Notice here that sin is personified as a woman. Need I say more? No. Well, it's not exactly as a woman, but notice that the language of pregnancy, is what is being used here. That lust is conceiving. Now, till now, the metaphor has sort of been, one said, sort of a hunting or fishing metaphor. It's like you're, it's an allurement. Like you would use a lure to attract a fish. And so Satan is using things that allure us, right? Need we have time here to go around the room what what is it that'll is is the lower you'd fishermen you know all about that your tech seducing the fish attracting the fish in certain things or attractive to the nature of the fish and we've got those very things in us and and it's like satan is fishing for us with these things that that's the bait on the hook but suddenly the metaphor shifts to this pregnancy picture here uh... to the idea of conception, because the word here conceived is sum lambano. It's to lay hold of together, to bring together. That word sometimes is used in the sense of seizing something, and often in scripture it's translated arrest. So it really got two, again, distinct meanings. But on the other hand, it's used also to speak of the idea of conception, the idea of being with child, being pregnant. And so you've got to figure out the context here. Here it is clearly conception that we're talking about. Lust is conceiving. In other words, get the picture, the lust itself is not sinful. But along comes the seduction to sin, and there's a conception that takes place, a bringing together. I don't have to tell you the facts of life, surely you know the biology. But it's the idea that, bingo, now this was a desire, here's a temptation, but now the desire and temptation have mated. Lust has now conceived. Now you do know that there's a difference between conceiving and having a baby conceiving takes place what nine months ahead of the baby in a very similar way you're sort of getting a picture here again of how sin works that before there is actual sin there is the conception of sin the mating of the desire, the appetite, the lust, what he calls the lust here, and the desire, the attack of, the seduction of Satan. I'm probably not doing a very good job of explaining this. But you get the idea that sin begins in the innermost, in the hidden part of a person. Again, not to be crude, but a lady may go quite a while before she even realizes she's pregnant. conception has taken place, and she doesn't even know it. And I'm thinking in the same way, this is pointing out that sin is hatched in such a way it's inward, and it is so inward that we don't even necessarily know it's happening. Now, keep in mind, we're not talking about a, you know, nine months later sin's going to emerge. It may be very quickly, may be very slowly. But sin begins from that conception, the union of the satanic seduction with the desire of our soul. Well, then how do I'm not doing very good job here. OK. There we are. All right. Then let's go to the progress. In other words, we got a beginning, we got a middle, we got to end. Let's talk about the middle part here. Notice that we carry the fetus of sin before it emerges. Just as a woman carries a child before it's born, so we are carrying this inner thing. You begin to see that probably before, most of us don't sin on a lark. We don't sin without thinking about it. There's a process, an ongoing process. It's been hatched for a while. There is the consideration There's the desire that comes from our flesh, but there's also the activity of the mind that now we begin to think on it. That what we would not even thought of doing now becomes thinkable, and we think on it enough, and it becomes not only thinkable, it becomes attractive to us. And so there's this process that we are carrying around within us, this desire, and in the fullness of time, just as a woman who's pregnant, give her enough time, she's going to have a baby, well give us enough time and guess what? This desire, this conception, is going to emerge as what? An act, an actual act of sin. So it starts in the inward parts, it then emerges in an actual action and so notice what is interesting here is that though it begins with sinful lust within it's not termed sin here by James until it acts. Now we could say wait a minute isn't it sinful just to think about sinning? Is it? and yet notice there is something about the act of saying it when we object to at object to signs object defy object defy there's my word that god's law is a objective thing and when we cross that line we are sending now that doesn't mean that the inward thing is not saying that in other words what we're dealing with is like a tree the tree has a visible part above ground it has an invisible part below ground There's a connection between the two. And what is happening is that sin is emerging from the invisible part, the lust, the sinful attraction of our physical lusts, and then it is emerging as an actual act of sin. In dealing with the fall of man, some of the questions that were put to me back then was the question about Satan. I hold that Satan and man fail more or less simultaneously. That the act that was the fall of Satan was his seduction of man. That was the sin that brought about his fall. And the reason I say that is because God, when speaking to the serpent, the instrument Satan used, says, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed. He doesn't say because you thought about it, but because you did it. that there is the actual act of sin that now is objectively contrary to God's will and law. He's crossed the line. Because you did this. You say, well, wait a minute, he must have been thinking about it ahead of time. He must have been planning it, plotting it, and I certainly agree. That's what we've been talking about. The lust was conceiving already. But there's something about the act that now you have objectified what you have been planning thinking about plotting yes oscar yeah and and i thought i thought about that but that's an excellent way of thinking about it in that in both cases the actual active the fruit springs from the ground the soil that produces fruit in the same sense the act of sin springs from a sinful soil that produces the act And I think that's an interesting way of looking at it. And so it actually bursts forth, so to speak. Now, let's go to the... Yeah, Jim? Well, it seems like James is reminding us that, well, the man has committed adultery in his heart, but that is a different thing from the actual act of adultery. and and uh... and uh... we need to keep that distinction in mind and if i hold hold that thought in the bay it's just for a minute we get to some conclusions here of how the and we are to think about this i think will will get into that the end of saying and notice that we have the verse again last is conceiving bringing forth sin it says when it is finished When, oh, by the way, I overlooked a very important word in the very first part of verse 15, then when lust, not if lust conceives, when it conceives, it's going to happen. Yeah. So when it conceives and then notice the same thing is true when it is finished, it's going to run its course. That's the whole problem with sin. It does run its course, and when it's sin, apa teleo. Teleo, have you all ever heard of teleology, the study of purpose? It's the idea that things are designed for a purpose. There's a teleological argument for the existence of God, that we were designed in a certain way for God, for the knowledge of God. So God must have made us, because we see the elements of design here. Well, teleology is the idea of the end, the end purpose, the end game. And here it's the idea to fully reach the end, to complete its purpose, to fully objectify its purpose, or to finally run its course. You can think of it in various ways. But you have finally reached the goal that sin has been driving towards. So you've got the idea. It started with less conceiving, gave birth to the sin, and now the sin is reaching its final stage the word bring forth here is yet another word connected with pregnancy uh... in this case it's off a cool a o it is the idea of uh... well from swelling and the swelling you ladies were familiar with the swelling of pregnancy so it's to bring forth is too uh... give birth it's too out of the swelling. Okay, y'all got it. You got it. Probably better than I'll ever get it, okay? Y'all know all about that. So we're speaking of the ending of pregnancy or what they would call the birth process. So notice all of this is about conception, giving birth, and so we've got two babies being born here. Lust is conceiving and it's giving birth to a sin And then sin, when it's finished, when it reaches its maturity, you might say, its end, what does it do? It gives birth to death. So we've sort of got here a family tree of sin. It started with lust giving birth to the sin, and now the sin gives birth to death. And the question that arises here, it's sort of an interesting thing to think about, well, what death are we talking about? Are we talking about eternal death? Hell? Well, in some cases, yes. In the case of lost men, that's exactly the wages of sin is death. And we're talking there about eternal death. However, in the case of a Christian, do you think it's true that sin results in death? Oscar? Yeah, I remember that guy. Who was that? Yeah. Of something. And I think that's the point. All sin results in some kind of death. It may be the death of your peace, of your assurance, of your comfort, of your fruitfulness, your relationship. Sin will kill it. I remember E.W. Johnson years ago saying, you can have a nice park. He said, let sin come into it. It'll destroy it. You got you a nice couple, a nice marriage. Let sin come in. It'll destroy it. You got you a nice church. Let sin come in. It'll destroy. It just kills and destroys whatever it touches. How true, how true. David, you want to say something? I saw you. Okay, all right. But you get the picture. Sin is poison. It will kill. That's what it's designed to do. The thief cometh to steal and kill, to destroy. and sin will do it that's the course here starting with the initial pregnancy of the lost with the conception as it were with the temptation bringing about the act of sin sin then running its course brings about so let's just draw a few conclusions from all of this the first one is nips in in the bird you say well but i've already thought about it i don't care kill it, mortify it. That's the command that we have as Christians, is kill it. It doesn't matter what stage it's at, and this is going back to what Jim was saying, or bringing up a while ago, there is a sense sometimes that we are tempted to say, well if, let's take an example here, if I have lusted after a woman in my heart, which is adultery, I might as well just go ahead and commit the act. I've already committed it. You understand? There's that thinking that, well, wait a minute. And what I'm trying to get across, and James is making this pretty clear, isn't he? That yes, sinful lust is sinful lust and it's sin. We make no excuses for that. But there is something about the sin and the lust conceiving and bringing the actual act of sin into the picture. My advice would be to commit abortion. This is one time you ought to abort the baby when you're carrying sin around internally. Don't let it go. Don't you think it crossed David's mind a hundred times that he wished that night he never got set foot on his rooftop and saw Bathsheba bathing down there or that he had never gone further than just looking I mean, that alone was sinful. But look at the wreckage, and that's of course the end result here. Look at the wreckage, the damage. Do you realize the bowling pins that started falling when David looked at Bathsheba and committed adultery with her? The sword never left his house. It goes on for generations, all because of that one look, that one night. So in other words, don't let's and go any further guard against it first of all don't let it go any further that it's already gone nip it in the bud abort the baby at whatever stage stop it and stop it now because then in evidently like water runs downhill sin runs it's course and the in result All right, that's all I got to say about that. What do y'all got to say? What do you think? Interesting, the way James expresses this, that we flirt with it. And that gets back to this lust conceiving. There's a dating process that took place before the act of conception, didn't it? You were flirting with it. And then when the conception takes place, things are set in motion that are going to result if nothing stops it. It's going to result in the birth of the baby and that baby's name is sin. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. There's a dating process. Yeah, Tom? Well, it's discussing a little bit different area, but clearly the point is that we are made responsible not to sin. And I'm thinking a lot of times We abdicate our responsibility by saying, well, it's God's job to keep me from sinning. And the point is, no, it's your job. You're given stewardship over this area of your life. We are commanded to guard against it. The temptation, as I said last time, itself is not sin. It is the flirtation that results in sin. Martin Luther had an interesting statement. He said, you can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair. That's the point. You can't keep temptation from coming over you. We're all susceptible. We all are tempted a thousand ways. What we must guard against is that bird making its nest in our hair. So what he's saying is, before it ever starts, don't ever end the flirtation. Go back to your dating metaphor. Break up before it ever goes that far. Because if you don't break up, you're eventually going to have conception. And when you have conception, you're eventually going to have sin. And when you have sin, you're eventually going to have death. Unless the process is broken somewhere. And what I'm saying is, wherever it might be in the process, that's where it needs to be mortified. You can't undo yesterday. But you can undo where you are right now. That's what you've got to handle. Yeah, Charles. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, one of the things we are limited in our dealing with one another is that we can't deal with what we can't see, whereas we can in our own heart, we can examine ourselves and see the process where we are in transient in this situation. in the case of a christian brother we don't go around the well i think you know you got and get that look on your family you're up to something you know we we must guard against that notion of constantly looking at each other is if we're about to you're about to fall off the wagon and uh... the part of love is we give our brother the benefit of the doubt however when sin is manifested and that's another point of the issue out it goes below the surface for a while but when it comes forth and it has to be dealt with but it's interesting to me that paul dealt is much and i'm thinking of the second great the insulator where he is advised them to deal with the simple brother in first great the incident turns around deals with the church and says if you don't forgive him say who's going to get uh... it take advantage of a this is one of his devices in other words It's just as hard, and of course that goes to that second passage you mentioned, considering yourself, lest you be tempted. There's the other side of dealing with sin in such a way that we're not setting ourselves up as judge, jury, and executioner, but we are helpers, we're brothers, we're along there to help restore someone that's fallen. Because we know where this process leads. We've seen it in ourselves, we've seen it in others. and and uh... so i think we you know there's two dangers there's uh... the danger of trying to micro manage the spiritual at life of another brother that we really can't do i mean to be honest and the other other problem is been to ignore it when it does break forth in the sand uh... let me give you an example i had we had a young couple, they wasn't in our church, in fact they were a seven-day Adventist couple in Wyoming, came out to our house. Funny thing, we went over to their house, all they have is cheese fondue, they're vegetarians. They come over to our house, they pigged out on the meat. I mean, they put it away left and right. So I learned, if you ever go eat at a, get invited to go eat with a seven-day Adventist, eat before you go, you ain't gonna get much when you're there. But anyway, they came out the house, we had a great, great time. Wonderful time, happy time, laughing, carrying on. Monday morning, I go to, I show up at the state hospital, and this guy worked at the state hospital. He was in the business office. And the first thing I heard, I got there and they say, hey, did you hear Stu and Sherry are getting a divorce? I said, what? They were just at my house Saturday night carrying on like a couple of lovebirds. He said, yeah, they're getting a divorce. In other words, I didn't have a clue. And so things like that can be going on under the surface. We don't have a clue. But is it my job to say, now, what are you thinking? What's going on between you and your wife? You understand what I'm saying? You almost have to wait till it erupts till you can deal with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to come down. They may not appreciate it anyway. Yeah. But I think what you said was important, and backs up my point, when you see them doing something. In other words, we're not the thought police. That we can't do. But when we see the indications of something terribly wrong, then that's our duty. Oscar? Who are you? Yeah. Loves me. Yeah. and along those lines and that and charles that's why i hate you and and and i realize i sound like well but i've seen uh... what i would in the in the under the guise of elder rule shepherding god's people and intrusive style of elder rule where you go in like putting somebody on the witness stand do you still beat your wife you know it's it's that kind of thing you're they're given the second degree i mean do you think i'm making this up but i can tell you stories of curl your hair uh... that have gone on in reform circles uh... with the idea of well this is my i'm the older on the shepherd of your soul so i'm here to i'm here straight new out and the probing questions into areas that i think they got no business probing it That does happen. So that's why I'm saying we're not the thought police of each other. And when we see the manifestation, that's when it's time to step in. And notice even in the text, when you see your brother, not when you think he's suspecting, you see. I thought that was your question. Oh, okay. Yeah, he made you think. Well, the line will start right over here. Restoration. That's the deal. You're trying to help your brother up, not kick him while he's down. He's fallen. You're trying to help him up. David? faithful are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I can tell stories along those lines, too. Yeah. We won't go into that, but yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Yes, the beam in your own eye. Yeah. And that's the point. This is to work. The church is to function like a family. And that's the bottom line, is that we're brothers and sisters. We're not down to kick them and ruin them. And that's what Charles is saying. We see this going on and we read this and we see it in our own experience. We know where this is going to lead. And so we are trying to help restore correct yes but restore and again as you point out not always is it received well because as you say people are black blind your fault you know we have a blind spot each of us uh... and things are much worse that we see in their body else than the same thing that is in us yeah why then didn't you say something Yeah, and as we well know, it doesn't always work. You think, well, if I just do it Matthew 18 way, that's going to always work out? No. But that's still what we're supposed to do. Whether it works or not is not the question. This is the direction. All right. We'll leave it there. And again, quite an amazing little sketch here of where sin starts, how it conceives, gives birth, and you think that's the end of it. Uh-uh. It's going to grow up, and it's going to have kids, too. And its kids is not sin, it's death. And so, again, abort the process. Hopefully, never let it conceive in the first place. Well, let's go to prayer tonight.