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James 1:13-16, Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
When I was a kid, 12 or 13, my brother and I trapped for muskrats. We called them mushies. There was a creek close to our house and we’d take our traps and stakes. We’d look for mushy trails and set the trap right in the middle of the trail, sometimes under water, sometimes on the bank. It was exciting to get up early and go check the traps. We were excited when we found a mushie caught in our trap.
We’ve all set mouse traps around the house, with peanut butter or a little piece of cheese on the trigger. Here comes a mouse, minding his own business, when suddenly he gets a whiff of cheese. Someone has said, like Socialism, the mouse doesn’t understand why the cheese is free. He tiptoes right up to the cheese, takes a little nibble – SNAP!
I’ve fished enough to know you put a worm on the hook, throw it out into the water, and wait for that tug. Here comes a fish minding his own business when suddenly he sees that unbelievably juicy worm over there and his lust for worms kicks in. He swiftly swims toward lunch, not knowing he will be the lunch.
THE POWER OF DECEPTION
What’s the common factor in each of these stories? Deception! Notice verse 16. James loves his fellow believers and he is very aware that they are prone to be deceived in their spiritual lives. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” The Bible is full of warnings about deception. Satan is the great Deceiver and his chief weapon is the deceptive power of sin, which he used from the beginning in the Garden of Eden. 1 Timothy 2:14 says, “The woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”
Our big problem is our own hearts deceive us. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else.” No wonder God repeatedly warns us, “Do not be deceived.” God warns us about the deceitfulness of riches in Mark 4:19 and the deceitfulness of sin in Hebrews 3:13. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says, “Do not be deceived” and then warns that certain people will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they repent. 1 John 3:7, “Little children, let no one deceive you.”
James has already told us in 1:13 that when you are tempted, it isn’t God’s fault. Temptation comes out of the lust of our own hearts. Now James is going to reveal how sin works from when we are first tempted all the way to the end, which is death. We’ll look at the downward spiral of sin in five steps and then come back and see how we can stop the process and deal with temptation in a godly way. In preparing this I have used some material from John Owen’s Works, Vol. 6, and Kris Lundgaard’s book, The Enemy Within in the following points.
SIN DECEIVES YOUR MIND – Each one is tempted when he is “carried away.”
Your mind is the watchman of your soul. God gave you a mind to direct and protect your path, to think carefully about life. Your mind is to guard your soul from enemies that want to come in and destroy you. Your mind needs to be always on the alert. But sin can deceive your mind. Sin draws the mind away from following Christ, from pleasing God, from remembering who you are in Christ. How? By deception. There you are, minding your own business, when suddenly a temptation flashes before your mind’s eye.
That’s how Satan deceived Eve. He flashed the forbidden fruit before her eyes with a simple question, “Has God said you can’t eat of any fruit of the garden?” Then she thought about the fruit of that one forbidden tree and suddenly it became the most delicious-looking fruit in the whole world. She should have stopped right there and turned her thoughts to God’s truth, the exact words He had said. But she gazed at that fruit and the deception began.
That’s how sin deceives your mind. Sin appeals to your sinful mind and you think, “It looks like just the thing I need to make me feel good, look good, impress others.” Jesus described the man who is “looking on a woman to lust after her.” He sees her and thinks, “She looks good. She might be worth going further with this.”
That’s a deadly mistake. Before you know it you’ve been carried away, even by a mental force, from what you know is the right, godly response. How does this happen? By deception. All temptation works by deception. Temptation fools you into thinking here is something I need, something I have a right to. It will make feel better. I’ll be happier. I’ll be more satisfied and better off if I follow it rather than turn from it.
When temptation comes knocking on the door of your soul, don’t answer it. Years ago when our children were elementary age, we were hiking near Nashville, Indiana. Suddenly we heard a loud rustle in the leaves along the edge of our trail. There slithering not ten inches from our feet was a terribly fat and long timber rattler, just like the one we saw in the Nature Center. Guess what? We didn’t sit down for a conversation. We applied 2 Timothy 2:22 and fled! Flee from sin like you would a timber rattler!
Martyn Lloyd Jones in one of his sermons in Ephesians gives several ways temptation deceives our minds. Let’s consider a few of them.
By flattering you. That’s how the Proverbs 7 woman seduced that naïve young man who wandered by her house. Proverbs 7:21, “With her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him.” Pastor Tommy Nelson tells about a pretty lady having lunch by herself out at a restaurant one Tuesday when a gentleman close by strikes up a conversation. “Do you eat lunch here often?” “Every Tuesday. I work right over there at Raleigh’s Insurance.” “Is that so? You must be really sharp. I’ve heard the boss has really high expectations of his employees.” Ah, those words felt good. She hadn’t been talked to like that for a long time. Next Tuesday when getting ready for work she puts her make-up on a bit more carefully. Guess who she’s thinking about? Temptation works through flattery.
By hiding the consequences. A hook is hidden behind that worm. Sin doesn’t let you know there’s a huge price to be paid down the road. It may mean divorce or loss of a job or just a ruined reputation. There was a pastor in Nashville who had a celebrity and his wife come to his congregation. He ministered to them and provided them with marriage counseling. What a shock to that celebrity when it was discovered the pastor had hooked up with his wife. What was that pastor thinking? You can be sure it was not the consequences of his sin, part of which is an eight million dollar lawsuit against him. More than that is the damage it has done to two families and the church he had pastored.
By promising satisfaction. Temptation comes convincing you you’ve just got to have, or say, or do something. Hey, it doesn’t cost that much and it would be so nice to have. You’ll feel so much better getting this off your chest. Other people get to do it, why not you? But sin never satisfies.
By ignoring the danger and power of habit. Certain sins work off the principle of diminishing returns. The world calls it addictions. The Bible calls it slavery. We’re happy with a little at first, but as you continue to look at those pictures there’s a tendency to want bigger thrills. That guy with 500 X-rated videos always wants just one more. The sin he thought would serve him became his master, and he’s the slave.
Sin deceives your mind. This is why reading your Bible at least daily is so important to you. God’s words are living and powerful. Only through the lens of Scripture are you able to discern what is true from false, good from bad. Psalm 119:130 says, “The unfolding of Your Word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Your mind is the watchman of your soul. Be sure you are feeding it with God’s truth! Romans 12:2, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence.”
SIN FIRES UP YOUR FEELINGS – Each man is tempted when he is drawn away and “enticed.”
What happens next? See the word “enticed?” It has the idea of bait. Bait fires up the fish’s desires. This is how sin works. Once a temptation gets past your mind, drawing it away from truth, temptation pours buckets of fuel on your sinful desire and you simply must have what the temptation offers. And Satan knows what kind of bait you like. It may be sexual lust, but more often it’s that tasty morsel of gossip, or flash of anger, or jealousy, sloth, pride, sarcasm, returning evil for evil, telling someone off. It may be a sin of the flesh or the mind, a filthy sin or a sophisticated sin.
Sin is driven by your selfish desires for what God forbids. Pastor Bill Goode told the young people dating in his church, “When the physical gets involved, passions are aroused, and reason flies out the window.” Memorize that line and stay away from the physical. Be sure you have godly standards and avoid anything that stirs up feelings you can’t righteously fulfill.
SIN CONVINCES YOUR WILL – “Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin.”
Temptation slipped through your mind and stirred your sinful desires. Your mind imagined how good this would be, which fired up your affections or sinful desires, and now you clinch the deal. The word Greek word for “conceived” means to clasp or seize. Your will reaches out and says “Yes,” and bingo, you’ll fallen like a fool for Satan’s old line in the garden, “You can make up your own mind, you don’t have to be bound by God’s Word. You can be your own person and make your own choices.” Suddenly your lust conceives and you are now in possession and act of an actual sin.
Why do we do it? We choose to sin because at that moment we believe sin will give us more satisfaction than obeying God. We cheat because we think it will help us. We lie or get angry or nasty or curse or worry because we think these reactions will give us more control, more pleasure, more power, better feelings than obeying God. Ask Eve. She saw, she desired, she took and ate.
SIN DEVELOPS INTO HABITS – “When sin is full-grown.”
So now you’ve given birth to this sin-child, what are you going to do with it? Unless you take it straight to the cross of Christ and repent, asking forgiveness, it won’t go away. You’ll get up in the morning and it’s still there. Unless you deal with it radically, your heart will harden and you’ll sin again and again. You may become an angry person, or a habitual liar, or a bitter person, and you may begin to feel ashamed, lousy, out of control. Even the sinful habit of daily grumbling can enslave you and make you and those around you miserable. Like the Israelites in the wilderness your sin separates you from communing with your Lord. Hebrews 3:12-13 warns us.
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
SIN DESTROYS YOUR LIFE – “It brings forth death.”
Here’s the end of the sin spiral – death: first spiritual, then physical, and finally eternal death for people who don’t know Christ. What happened to that naïve fool in Proverbs 7? The woman hooked him with her flattery and assured him her husband was out of town. She had perfumed her bed and he followed her and ended up with an arrow through his liver.
Remember, sin always results in death. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” If Satan and sin had their way, every sinner would be dragged to the final second death, the lake of fire. But thank God, He gave His only son to die in our place. Jesus Christ took all our deaths and paid for them on the cross at Calvary. God is able to save the worst of sinners, if he or she will repent.
SO WHAT?
Let’s replay the deceptive power of sin. First, sin deceives your mind. Then fuels your affections, convinces your will, and gives birth to sin. And finally, if not repented of, that sin brings eternal death. Verse 16, “Don’t be deceived, my beloved brethren.”
So what’s the remedy? Jesus Christ came to save us from our sin and deliver us from the penalty, power and corruption of sin. He is the Mighty Deliverer. Run to Him, confess your sin, and trust His work on the cross for you.
As a believer, guard you mind. Fill it with God’s Word. Be on the alert by watching and praying and guarding your heart with all diligence. You have no greater enemy than sin. Meditate on the glory and greatness and grace and mercy of your God. Say with Paul, “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!” Remember who you are in Christ.
Revive your first love for Christ. Be so filled with the beauty and love and grace of Jesus Christ that the thought of sinning against Him almost makes you vomit.
Choose to obey God even when you don’t feel like it. You don’t have to follow your feelings.
And then follow Christ’s radical counsel given to the fellow committing adultery in his heart in Matthew 5:27-30. Radically get rid of anything that leads or aids you to sin. Cut off hands, feet, and gouge out eyes – do whatever it takes to keep from going back to that old sin. Don’t touch, walk away, turn it off or throw it out. Ask others for help.
God called you to be His child. You are here every day to please Him, not yourself and certainly not Satan. Above all, drag your sins to the cross of Jesus Christ and confess them. Then give God lavish thanks for His love and mercy on you, a sinner.