Now I want you to turn back with me to the passage we read together a few minutes ago from the first chapter of the letter of James. And as I said this morning, the people who actually read the front page of worship bulletins, not everybody does, you would have noticed that the titles of the morning sermon and the evening sermon are identical, although they are printed differently. And this morning we were thinking about the question, have we trials and temptations? And this evening we are thinking about, have we trials and temptations? Because this is one of the great themes of the first chapter of this little letter of James. The beginning of the chapter, he's speaking about the various kinds of trials that Christians experience in verse 2. And then as he goes on later on in the passage that we read this evening, for example, in verses 13 and 14, he goes on to speak about temptation, trials and temptations. And as we noticed this morning, that title comes from a famous 19th century hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. where the author, who himself was a very troubled man actually, answers the question, so what do we do? Well, we take it to the Lord in prayer. And that is good advice. And actually James echoes that advice, or the hymn writer echoed James' counsel, because later on in chapter 5, when James asks the question, is any among you sick? then his encouragement is that they should pray. So it's a good thing when we find ourselves facing trials, and it's also a good thing when we find ourselves tempted to take it to the Lord in prayer. But I want us to notice again this evening, as we noticed this morning, that that isn't the counsel that James gives in James chapter 1. What James says, both with respect to suffering trials and experiencing temptation, what he wants to emphasize in chapter 1 is that there is truth we need to know. in order to be able to handle our trials. We need to be able to see our trials through spectacle lenses crafted by the teaching of Scripture. And exactly the same is true of our temptations. That's why I actually think that verse 19, that's printed separately in the English Standard Version, you'll see there's a division there. The beginning of verse 19, I think, belongs to the end of verse 18. Just as he's begun by saying, if you're going through suffering, this is what you need to know. Later on in the passage he's saying, and you will experience temptation and this is what you needed to know when you went through temptation. Now you may think that's playing fast and loose with Scripture until you realize that the Greek text of the New Testament doesn't have punctuation marks the way we have punctuation marks and it can run on. And that's why I say, I think this really belongs logically to what James has just said, rather than to what he's going on to say. So when we face affliction, we need to know certain things. And when we face temptation, James is saying, we also need to know certain things. And of course, the first thing we need to know, the first thing he emphasizes, is just to clear up any possible confusion. Perhaps some of the Christians he was writing to had fallen into this confusion. Christians sometimes do. He said, you need to know this. This is absolutely basic. God does not seek to allure you to sin. God may test you, but He does not seek to allure you into sin. Think about this in terms of Jesus' own experience. Jesus was tempted by the devil. But you remember how the gospel writers tell us he was tempted by the devil because he was led into the wilderness in order to be tempted by the devil. So God was putting him to the test. We might say God was testing his workmanship in the Lord Jesus, but he wasn't enticing him to sin. He wasn't alluring him to sin. And the same may be true for us. We are to pray daily. Lead us not into temptation. We know that we are not able to cope. But God will never seek to allure us to sin. And we must be absolutely clear about that. And sometimes it's very important to be clear about that. so that we're able to say to ourselves, wherever this is coming from, it is not coming from the Lord. It's not coming from the Lord. And James wants his readers to be absolutely clear that God does not solicit his children to sin. But that's just clearing the ground. There are two big things, James says in this passage, we need to know. The first is the pattern of temptation, and the second is our protection against temptation. the pattern of temptation and our protection against temptation. He does this in, I think, a very interesting way. I wonder if you've ever noticed that the techniques that are used in literature or in movies or television dramas, they very often do with cameras. what the Bible does in telling stories simply with words. And I think you find this here. One of the marvelous things, if you love watching nature programs, one of the marvelous things about today's technology is these extraordinary cameras that are able to take so many pictures so quickly that they can then go back and slow the motion down. So for example, you saw a bird swooping down to catch a fish and then it comes in slow motion and almost frame by frame you see, you know, you just thought the bird was catching a fish and then you see all that was involved. It's astonishing. Or if you love sports, Then somebody scores a goal, or a golfer plays a great shot, and then immediately they'll take you back and slow it down. And you see the level of the skill that's been involved as it's played over again, frame by frame by frame. Now, one of the things that James is doing in this passage when he's instructing these Christians how to handle temptation is he takes temptation and he then slows down the way in which temptation works to help us to recognize what is actually happening. And it's a very interesting thing, and I think it's a very helpful thing. Because often temptation comes suddenly, unexpectedly. And it's as though James is saying now, dear friends, before you get caught up, you need to slow the whole thing down. You need to, as it were, step back and say, let me put my Bible spectacles on, And let me think about what's really happening here. I say that because I suppose everyone who has been a pastor in a church or a minister in a congregation, at some point or another in his life will have had people sitting in their study or office or vestry or whatever with their head in their hands saying, I don't know what came over me. I just don't know what came over me. And in every single situation, the problem is you didn't slow down the temptation and recognize what was really happening. And there's a series of stages here that James takes us through. You'll notice it. It's fairly obvious. So we're not tempted by God. Verse 14, each person is tempted when, by his own desire, he is lured and enticed, and then that desire conceives, and then it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. But all of that may happen just in a moment. But he's slowing it down. And he's saying now, look to see what's happening to you. And if you understand what's happening to you, already your guard will be up. You'll say, oh, I see what's happening here. So what is it? Well, it's fairly obvious, isn't it? It all begins with attraction. We are never tempted to sin with respect to something that doesn't attract us. Think about Genesis chapter 3. This tree that the serpent slithered Eve beside, what was characteristic of the tree? It was a very attractive tree. It was a beautiful tree, and the fruit looked delicious. You know, if it had been one of these kind of ugly fruits with a terrible smell, you know, you might think Eve would have, you know, instinctively… But it was because there was something… Well, God had made this fruit. God had made this tree. There was something attractive about it. And that was what happened to Eve. She was attracted, and her affections were caught up in it, her desires were caught up in it. But then, you see, attraction is coupled with deception. That's what he speaks about here, doesn't he? He says each person is tempted when he is lured. There's deception. Some of you are fishermen. You don't just throw a hook into the river, do you? No, you cover the hook over. And the poor fish, it's not fair really, is it? I mean, think about the size of your brain and think about a fish's brain. And what are you doing? You are seeking, well, of course you're doing it with complete Christian integrity if you're a fisherman, but you're seeking to deceive the fish by making the fish think that this is something different from the reality. And that's always Satan's way, isn't it? There is an attraction, and with that attraction there comes a deception. We don't see things the way they really are. And actually our problem is the only thing we do is see things. Remember again what happened with Eve. What was her problem when she saw this beautiful fruit? That she thought of it entirely in terms of what her eyes could see. And it's a fatal mistake in the Christian life to see things through your eyes. If you're going to be a biblically grounded Christian, you need to learn to see things through your ears, through what God says about it. You see, if she'd seen that tree through spectacle lenses crafted by God's Word, she would have seen it is attractive, but it's also forbidden. But she was deceived. She said herself, the serpent deceived me. And the next stage then becomes preoccupation. There is attraction, there is deception, and then of course, sometimes this happens slowly. You can't get the thing out of your mind. And you're lured away. Your mind is captivated. And then the next stage is, James says, conception. And you know, even if he had been earlier on thinking about the Genesis 3 narrative, I'm pretty sure at the back of his mind and in everything he says here is the narrative recorded in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. You can go through 2 Samuel 11, the story of David's sin with Bathsheba, and you could draw parallel lines to this whole process. He sees her and she is attractive. So there's attraction, and then there's deception. I mean, David, to be king, had to write out God's law himself, and he had written out God's law not to commit adultery. But he saw Bathsheba only through his eyes, and so he was deceived. because he didn't see her through the word that God had spoken. Then he became preoccupied. He must have her. Then says James, there is conception and desire seeks its satisfaction. And then, tragically, he says, when it has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it has fully grown, brings forth death. And of course the story of David is that the child dies. When we are faced with temptation and fall to temptation, then it gives birth only to death. It can never give birth to life. Think about Eve again. Think about all that she was promised if she would just take that fruit. In a way she was promised the earth, wasn't she? You'll be like God yourself. But actually what it brought forth was death, spiritual death, and ultimately physical death. chaos in the family, chaos in the human race. And it's as though James is saying to us, if we are going to see the pattern of temptation, we've got to see it right to the end to see where falling to temptation, falling into sin, is never, whatever it promises, is never going to produce life. It's always going to produce death. So this is the pattern. And I think you can understand now why I think that when James goes on in this passage, his words in verse 19, know this my beloved brothers. You can feel his concern for them. Just as when we experience suffering, there are things we need to know. that God is working in us, that God has a purpose in everything he does in us, that he's making us like Christ, and knowing that transforms the way we think about our suffering. And when we are faced with temptation, and James is saying, you know you need to see the end from the beginning. And when we fall into sin, it's invariably true, that we never saw where it would end. So that's the pattern, and that's him saying, look at this in slow motion. It'll happen very quickly. But you see, if you've seen it in slow motion, you should be able to detect what it is that is really happening, and by God's grace, be able to overcome temptation. But he not only speaks to us about the pattern of temptation, he goes on, I think, in the rest of the passage to provide us with protection against temptation. This is especially in verses 16, 17, and 18. There are three things here in this protection that God's Word gives to us. Those of you who know our family know we have three sons and our youngest is a daughter. I remember when she was a young teenager, I think she was maybe 13, we came home from church one Sunday night, and she volunteered this to me. She said, Dad, I think I can teach you to preach in such a way that when you preach people will want to take notes of what you say. Well, when your daughter speaks, of course you listen, and when she becomes your instructor in preaching, you're intrigued. I said, well, I don't really care if people take notes, Ruth, but tell me how I can do this. It's just that I've noticed something. Every time you say in your sermons, there are two things you need to know here, or there are three things here you need to do, I notice the men are filling in here for a pen and the women are all diving into their handbags looking for a piece of paper that they can write down, just these three things we need to know. Well, I don't know if that's true, but here are three things you do need to know, whether you write them down or not. Because James is here saying, here is how God protects us against temptation. And the first protection is obvious, isn't it? It's just exactly what we've been considering. We need to be familiar with this temptation cycle, this temptation pattern. And when we are, it helps us see things more clearly. Our world is dying for a lack of moral and spiritual discernment. This is one of the big things about the growing Christian, that he or she sees through what's happening. This is a marvelous thing for a young teenager to know these things. while their friends are just awash in a world of moral decay, and sometimes make terrible shipwreck of their lives, to be able to understand this temptation cycle, this temptation pattern. But there's a second big protection. And James spells it out here in verse 17. You know, when you read the letters, I wonder if you sometimes think about this when you're reading the letters. Why did he say this after he had just said that? Because we may say, well, the Holy Spirit guided him to say this, but what is the connection in the mind of James between giving us this pattern of temptation, then telling us not to be deceived because we recognize that pattern, and then is it just out of the blue? Does he just suddenly say every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above? Or is there a connection? I think there is a connection, and it's this, that he's saying, this is a great protective in your life against temptation, to know that every good gift comes down to you from your heavenly Father, who is the Father of lights. And if you are convinced of that, then you will be protected from every temptation to step aside or step over the commandments of God. This is a very telling thing in our world, isn't it? Because we are living in a world where it seems to be assumed that if God gave commandments, they're not good for us. So we better start inventing our own commandments, and when we do, we invent hundreds of thousands of them, because we can't cope with a world that God has made and once regulated according to his commandments. Just go back to the Garden of Eden again, or David in Jerusalem, and think, if only Eve had thought, Mr. Serpent, Everything God is and everything God does for me is perfectly good. Why should I trust you and disobey him?" That conviction, God is always good. is a tremendous protection, because sin is always saying, I'll give you something better than God has promised to give to you. Many years ago I was speaking at a Desiring God conference in Minneapolis. And there was a concert, a concert one night. They had individual singers and they had a, I think it was called the Choir of All Nations, and they were singing Christian songs in very different styles. And I was sitting in the front row alongside Dr. Piper, and there was a song being sung in a Caribbean calypso fashion. And there was a fellow in kind of Caribbean shirt who was the soloist, and he was singing, and then the choir was singing antiphonally back. I'd never heard this song, but the chorus was, Our God is good all of the time. And this fellow, he was kind of grooving across the stage in the conference hall where we were meeting, and it was all very exciting. And John Piper leaned over to me and said, pointing to the man, do you see that man? He was really into it. Oh, I said, yes, he's the one wearing the shirt. Yes, he said. He said this quite deliberately to me. He said, yes, he said, he's one of my elders. Well, not to be outdone, I turned to him and I said, do you ever rent out your elders to other congregations? And I guess for that reason, I never forgot the song. He was singing about all different kinds of situations, and the refrain was coming back from this, and it really was a multi-ethnic choir. Our God is good all of the time, all of the time. And that's a great conviction to have. And the reason we know it's true is because He has given His Son for us on the cross. Remember how Paul puts it, if He didn't spare His own Son for us, but gave Him up on the cross, then we can be absolutely sure He will give us everything that we need. And that conviction deep in my mind, deep in my heart, no matter how strong the allurement may be, is able to safeguard me. It enables me to say to the tempter, to the evil one, be gone evil one, because my God is good all of the time, and what he gives to me and wills for me is also good. But then there's a third thing we need to, he says, do not be deceived. You need to know about this temptation cycle, and you will see through what is really happening when you're tempted. And in verse 17, be convinced of the unchanging goodness of God. And then another statement that in some ways just seems to come out of the blue, but I think it's really significant. 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. Now, why does he say this? He's speaking about the new birth, isn't he? How God has brought us into his kingdom. Why is that relevant? Because one of the things that happens to us when we're brought into the kingdom of Jesus Christ is that new powers are released into our life to enable us to overcome sin. The Holy Spirit comes to indwell us. And you see, when we realize what has happened to us, that God has given us a new identity in Christ, that God has given us the very spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, then when we're faced with overwhelming temptation, in a sense we're able to say what the Apostle John says in 1 John, the one who is in me. is greater than the one who is in the world. And not only so, but I belong to his family. That's a great protective, isn't it? I belong to him. He's making me, remaking me in the family likeness, and he's given me his own Holy Spirit, and he will strengthen me. to overcome temptation. Yes, I think it's true that verse 19 belongs to the previous section. Know this. Know this, my beloved brothers. Then we read a passage like this and sometimes we come away thinking, but I've failed. I've fallen to temptation. My mind has been darkened. There's a little song that comes to mind, I think from my early teenage years that I was taught in Bible class that's rung in my memory ever since. There's a way back to God from the dark path of sin. There's a door that is open and you may go in when you come as a sinner to Jesus. And it's, to me anyway, it's a wonderful thing to think, this is James who is the half-brother of our Lord Jesus, growing up in the same home, watching the same Joseph the craftsman, watching Jesus grow, watching Jesus' ministry, and now himself being brought to the place where He knows He Himself has failed and fallen into sin, been overcome by temptation, but has been brought to trust in Jesus Christ, just as we are brought to trust in Jesus Christ and brought to new beginnings again and again and again. in which, as we understand the gospel, we're able to put our sufferings in a different frame, as we saw this morning. As we understand the nature of temptation and the power of the protection that the gospel gives to us, we're able to come to the Lord Jesus, whether in the trial of suffering or the trial of temptation. and know that in both He is able to save to the uttermost because He is a good and gracious Savior. So let's trust Him and let's wear this armor whenever we are tempted and whenever we find ourselves under trials to know that He is working in us to make us more and more like Himself.