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Some games I am able to play without reviewing the rules, like Uno or War or Chutes and Ladders. Other games I need a refresher course every time we play. There’s one game, though, that no one needs to learn the rules, regardless of how old you are or how smart you are. You even see it on T-shirts: “I didn’t do it.” “It’s not my fault.” From the nursery to the White House, we play the Blame Game all the time. Some people think God invented marriage for us to hone our blaming skills. No parent has to teach Billy how to blame it on his sister. “Now Billy, whenever you do something wrong, just say, ‘Sally made me do it.’” No, blaming others is built right into our sinful DNA. James is very aware of it. In fact, he knows we’ll even end up blaming God when we sin. That’s why, right after telling us to rejoice when we encounter all kinds of trials to strengthen our faith, he tells us who to blame when we cave into temptations:
James 1:13-15, 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.
WHEN TRIALS BECOME TEMPTATONS
James uses the same Greek word for trials and temptations. In verse 12 the word is translated trials: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trials – peirasmon.” But in verses 13-14 the very same word as a verb is translated tempted – peiradzo. What’s the difference? As Blake told us last week, the gold standard for biblical interpretation is context. The context here clearly means tempted. Actually, trials often turn into temptations, depending on how we respond to the trial.
A highly decorated army commander brought a young man on staff as his personal assistant. He was responsible to care for the commander’s property. When this official travels, he leaves his entire property in the young man’s hands. However, in a short time a problem surfaces. The commander’s wife is not only beautiful, but she is lonely and finds this new handsome young man very appealing. He is just the kind of fellow she’d like to get her hands on. And every day she tries to seduce him. One day she physically grabs him. This is a very real test from God to this young man. But with a conscience toward God and God-given self-control, he turns her down and flees and suffers all kinds of unjust treatment for taking God’s way of escape. Joseph grew through this trial of his faith.
At another time, another place, God gives another man a similar test. He sits in the executive chair of a powerful nation. His army is winning one battle after another. He is basking in the glory of major success. One day his eye falls on a beautiful woman luxuriating in her ancient jacuzzi. He faces a trial! How does he respond? Suddenly the trial turns into a temptation to sin as David has her brought to his room, lies with her, impregnates her, sends her back, and later has her husband murdered to cover his sin. As a result David lives a life of guilt and misery for a full year before confessing his horrible sin out of a broken, contrite heart (Psalm 51).
This is what James is talking about. God brings trials into our lives to reveal our hearts and our need for Him. God also brings trials to strengthen our faith. But every trial has the potential for becoming a temptation to sin. Here’s the question: Who is responsible for this solicitation to sin? Can David blame God? “I couldn’t help it. God put her there.” I knew a man who did that very thing. He was married but got friendly with a lady at work and got so tangled up in his sinful thoughts he began to think God was bringing them together. She’d pull up right beside him at a light and he would claim it was like God put her there! His sin distorted his thinking. Who was to blame for his adultery?
James gives us two absolute truths, truths on which you should base your life. First, you can never blame God for your sin, directly or indirectly – verse 13. Second, you must always take full responsibility for your sin – vs. 14.
YOU CAN NEVER BLAME GOD FOR YOUR SIN, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY
James 1:13, 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.
Not one person can ever say, “God tempted me to sin, or God put me into a situation where I couldn’t help but sin.” Yet that’s what we are saying when we say things like: “The woman you gave me, she gave it to me and I ate.” That was the first of billions of blame-shifting excuses that follow sin. It seems blame rode into the Garden of Eden on the back of the first sin.
I can’t help it. Something just comes over me.
The pressure was just too great. I couldn’t handle it; it drove me to alcohol.
God made me this way.
I was raised this way.
If she didn’t press my buttons, I wouldn’t get so angry.
I have a chemical imbalance that causes me to do it.
Now see what you made me do?
You’d react like that too if you had to live with my boss, co-worker, mother-in-law, you name it.
If you chase these and all our excuses into a corner, here’s where it ends: “It’s God’s fault.” He could change my circumstances. He could make life nicer for me. He could change the people in my life. If only God would take away my pain, I wouldn’t be addicted to these pills. If only God would… You see? God made me with these desires, so I don’t see what’s so bad about indulging them. You’re right, God did create us with desires like hunger, thirst, anger (righteous anger), sexual desires, but our responsibility is to use those God-given desires God’s way, in the right time, for the right reasons.
Add to all these thoughts the fact that our world keeps coming up with all kinds of reasons why we do what we do. How many labels have the psychologists, psychiatrists, and humanistic counselors come up with to identify our “compulsive behaviors.” No one is guilty of anything today, especially before God. The whole notion of sin has been sandblasted out of our culture. Our sins have been turned into sicknesses or disorders needing therapy instead of seeing our need for personal repentance and forgiveness. Plus, to take away any sense of conviction for sin, the world assures us, “Don’t let anyone judge you for what you do. Just be you.”
But James says in absolute terms that when you are tempted, God is not tempting you because first, God is untemptable by any kind of evil. There is no evil in God that could possibly respond to temptation to sin, unlike the gods of mythology who were all just as wicked as their worshippers. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is pure holiness, which is the moral foundation of our universe.
Plus, God never tempts us. We can’t blame God for our sins. God’s goal for all the trials He sends our way is to strengthen and build up our faith. When we pray “lead us not into temptation,” we are asking God for His strength to avoid yielding to temptation.
Paul assures us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God is faithful to us and “will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle but will provide all you need to escape sin and endure the trial.”
2 Peter 1:3 says God has given you as a believer everything you need for life and godliness. He has given you a completely new life in Christ through the cross and the power of the Spirit to be able to resist sin, not to be overcome by it. God never gives you a bigger fish than your line is tested for. And He always provides a way of escape. That way may not be easy. For Joseph it was “flee youthful lusts.” The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Together these verses assure you that when you sin, you cannot blame God or anyone or anything God has placed in your life.
YOU MUST ALWAYS TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SIN
James 1:14, But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
So why do we sin? Here God turns on his laser light and shines it right into the darkness of our own souls. First, every single one of us is tempted. Even if everyone else is doing it, we are each responsible for our sin. You can’t blame your parents or your friends or circumstances. You can never hide in the crowd. Remember Achan in the book of Joshua? He stole that gold and silver and beautiful garment and then tried to hide in the crowd, but God ferreted him out.
Here’s something else about “each one.” No one ever yet sinned and God overlooked it. Each offense, every little white lie, every secret indulgence or perversion, every sin of each one of us will be exposed by God we will be held accountable.That’s a devastating thought for anyone outside of Jesus Christ. For believers in Christ, every one of our sins was condemned in Christ when He died in our place on the cross. “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). For you who are outside of Christ and have never bowed your knee before Him, you must bear your own sin before God and suffer eternally the punishment your sin deserves. That’s a terrifying thought this godless world has long forgotten.
Second, God says each one of us is tempted by our own lust. We’ve hit pay dirt. Here’s the problem. Here’s what fouls us up. Here’s the root and source of every sin – LUST! Our own inward twisted, corrupted, selfish desires create lust. And lust doesn’t just apply to sexual sin. It covers the full gamut of sins, from the gross and perverted to what Jerry Bridges calls the respectable sins. Although there are times to remove yourself from an evil environment, James says it isn’t what’s outside of you that is the problem, it is what’s inside of you that responds to temptation. Jesus said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts and deeds.” John Owen wrote regarding the heart: “Here dwells our enemy; this is the fort, the citadel of this tyrant – always in rebellion against God while we live.”
This all goes back to that lovely Garden of Eden. Adam’s sin resulted in all his offspring having a sin nature. Every person since then is born with a corrupt, depraved heart called original sin. We don’t become sinners when we sin; we sin because we’re sinners. No one has to teach children how to lie. “Look Bobby, when you break something and I ask you what happened, you need to learn to say, ‘I don’t know.’ And then when I question you, you can insist, ‘That’s the truth. I don’t know what happened.’” We don’t have to teach young people how to be immoral, although sadly today our culture is doing just that. We don’t have clinics to teach people how to worry or abuse others or get angry or proud or pity ourselves. It all comes out of the heart. It’s our imbedded lust responding to temptations.
There are all kinds of pressures and allurements out there. You may find yourself in a pressure cooker situation. You may feel compelled to go spend money you don’t have or overeat or get drunk or take drugs to ease the pain or tell a lie or gossip or get angry or watch pornography. You may feel helpless in your particular behavior. It may feel like a disease which you can’t control. And some sins do quickly enslave us. Proverbs 5:22 says “he will be held with the cords of his sin,” a perfect biblical description of addictions. But each person is still responsible for every sin committed.
This sounds like bad news. And it is. But, there is also good news. Christ didn’t come into this world to heal us from our syndromes and disorders and dysfunctions. He came to save us from our sin. Will you agree with God you have a sin issue? Do you agree that your own lust is to blame, that it is your own sinful desires that respond and give in to temptations? Then you can be forgiven. You can have victory. Jesus came into this world to save sinners
SO WHAT?
Believers, you will struggle with your own lusts. Sin still lives in your body, but sin is not your master. Paul called it the law of sin in our members (Rom. 7:23). Remind yourself you are in Christ. So instead of blaming God or others or circumstances, be willing to confess, “Lord, it is I. I’m the one who needs forgiveness and cleansing. I’m the one who needs to make war against my own sin.” Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God will strengthen you. I want to close to give us hope in this war against our own sin.
- The Spirit gives you the power to say no to the lusts of the flesh—Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the lusts of the flesh.”
- Determine to please Christ and make no plans to sin – Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh in regard to its lust.” Make no provision, don’t plan ahead to sin. Luther said you can’t keep the birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. Heath Lambert in his book Finally Free asserts, “There is no porn user so enslaved that Jesus cannot set him or her free.” That statement can apply to any sin, but not without a fight. That’s why Scripture is full of warfare language. 1 Peter 2:11 says, “Abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against your soul.” Every believer is at war against fleshly lusts.
- Take decisive action and quickly replace lusts with godly habits – 2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Or as Keith Carter told the men, “Look away and walk away!”
Monitor your heart this week. Proverbs 4:24 says “Watch over your heart.” Take full responsibility for your sin. Catch yourself when you try to blame someone else for your sinful reaction. If a lewd picture pops up on the screen and you’re tempted to click on the bait, remember where that’s coming from and how displeasing it is to God. Temptations will come when we are drawn away by our own lust. Christ became flesh and died for people like us, people who struggle and cave to sin, but who admit the guilt of their sin and want to be delivered from that guilt and empowered to overcome that sin. Has He become your Deliverer?