Okay, so this is James for Beginners: Practical Christianity, lesson 3 in the series. And the title of this lesson, Dealing with the Dragon. Dealing with the Dragon. And hopefully we'll cover James Chapter 1, couple of verses, 13 to 15. I've mentioned that the book of James was written to Christian Jews, to help them learn how to live the Christian life. The lessons here are easy to transfer to our own lives today. The timelessness of the Bible, the timelessness of its teaching, isn't it amazing that something written 2000 years ago fits like a glove today, to our situations, personalities, and problems. So in the last lesson I said that one of the features of the Christian lifestyle was the way that Christians dealt with trials, with problems in life. I said that James teaches that believers meet these with joy, because they realize that when God tests our faith through trials, we are able to endure these patiently. If we are able to endure these patiently, it shows that our faith is sincere. Remember, I said the trial is over here. It's happening, but there's something else over here, going on. Remember that. So if our faith is found to be sincere, because we've endured the trial, it also proves that our love for Christ is also sincere. And this realization produces greater assurance, greater hope. I mean, if my faith is shown to be sincere, to be true, and my love for Christ also shown to be true, then I will have confidence in my salvation. I'll have confidence in the fact that I'm going to heaven. And this confidence produces joy. I have joy inside of me. Remember, I said, you cannot produce joy through acquisition, you can't produce joy through acquiring stuff. It has to be produced in this other way. And then, of course, the more joy you feel, the stronger your faith. So it's a kind of cycle that goes round and round. You have faith, and then your faith is tested in trial, and then if you endure the trial faithfully, that proves the genuineness of your faith. The genuineness of your faith demonstrates that you are one who truly loves Christ, produces hope and assurance and the physical manifestation of that hope and assurance is joy, peace. That peace that surpasses understanding, that feeling. And then, that of course produces well, faith. Strengthens faith. And then we just keep going round and round and around. And always to a greater degree. So faith eventually leads to trials, trials if suffered with endurance, confirmed the genuineness of our love and faith, which strengthen our hope and assurance, which creates and increases our joy. And this results in a stronger and deeper faith, all right? So tonight, we're going to look at how a Christian deals, not with trials, how a Christian deals with temptation. The dragon. I'm talking about dealing with the dragon. The dragon is temptation. So let's read James 1:13 to - just 13 for now. He says, "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." So the word temptation can refer to two different things. First of all, to seduce, to solicit, to lure someone into sinfulness, into disobedience, into trouble. Or it can mean to be tested, an examination. Okay, so you have to be careful when you're reading that term. Sometimes it means to lure or to seduce. Sometimes it means to examine. You have to make sure. When Jesus was in the desert, what was happening to Him? Well, He wasn't being seduced. No sin in Him. No, He was being examined, but they used the same word. So God allows us to be tempted by evil, but it is not He that sends the evil. That's what James starts by saying. He's not the one that sends evil. And why is that? Well, first of all, God is not subject to evil desire. There's nothing inside of Him that can be hooked to produce evil. An example, pride, for example, pride is the sin of thinking more of ourselves than what we actually are. So that's kind of a definition of pride, if you wish. Can God be tempted to be proud? Well, no. Why? Well, He's all-powerful. He's eternal. It's impossible for Him to think more highly of Himself, because He already is in the highest possible position. Impossible for Him to be proud or to be tempted to be proud. Another example, greed. What's the sin of greed? It's a dissatisfaction with what you already have, causing you to always want more. And believe it or not, greed affects the rich and poor alike. Because I've known many poor people who are never satisfied, no matter what they have, they haven't got, they always want more. Well, can God be tempted to greed? Of course not. He created and owns everything and everyone. I mean, it's impossible for Him to be dissatisfied or to want more. He possesses all things. What does He say? The cattle on a thousand hilltops are mine, says the Lord. You can't tempt Him to greed or to any kind of sin. All right, now. God does not tempt anyone to evil, with evil, in order to test faith or to prove loyalty. That's a misconception that some people have. The devil is the one that tempts with evil, to do evil. God will permit this, but He doesn't originate it. There's a big difference there. Again, why? Why can God not be tempted to do this? Or why does God not send the evil? First of all, He is love. He wants the best for us. And sin and evil, that's not of love. Evil and sin destroy man. God is life. He does not want men to die. So God does not tempt with evil, because there is only good in Him. And He wants only what is good for us. The point here, is that when something evil is before you or you are involved in something immoral or something that looks bad or unclean or unholy, don't ever think or say that God is the One who got you into this or put this situation before you. God never puts evil in front of you, in order to test you. That's not how He operates. Or that God is working things out in your life by sending this evil thing. Again, God does not work this way. He hates sin. He does not tolerate evil. So the practical lesson to learn here is that when a Christian is confronted with evil and sin, he has to realize that the enemy is near, not the Lord. I used to tell our children when they were young, teaching them about temptation, avoiding bad things, bad situations, I used to say to them, when you're in a situation that doesn't smell right, that it's not right, realize the snake is nearby. Try to hear that. I compared it to a rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes make that sound. You know he's nearby. Well, Satan doesn't make a sound, but you know he's nearby, by observing the situation that you're in, or that you're contemplating, or that you're - whatever. The snake is close by and God is not. So how does temptation, therefore, lead to sin? James explains, verse 14 and 15, he says, "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death." So the first thing to realize is that temptation is not sin. I think we know that intellectually, but emotionally sometimes we don't quite grasp that idea. We should not feel guilty when tempted to steal. You shouldn't feel guilty because you're at the store and you pay with a ten dollar bill and the lady gives you back change for a 20 and for a moment you're going, lunch money. Hey, Panera bread. I'm ready to go to Panera bread and take home a couple of croissants here. For a moment that crosses your mind, and then hopefully you say, oh excuse me, I think you may have given me too much on this - I gave you a fifty dollar bill - I'm just kidding. You know what I'm saying. If you say that, then you've jumped into it. You're saying, come on over snake. Let's have lunch. So, just the moment that you're contemplating something, that itself isn't sin. Or to lie, or to cheat, or to take unfair advantage, or you have impure thoughts, or you boast, or all the sins, and all the failings. We all think about these things. We're tempted, we're drawn to do this, we think this might just get me out of all of this here, if I just lie it will all be over. We sometimes surprise ourselves with the shameful thoughts that cross our minds. And yet, even at this point, we've not sinned. We can be tempted to do or say or think all manner of sinful things. So we shouldn't be too proud or surprised when it happens. So long as you're in this mortal body, you are capable of thinking the most terrible things. Remember, even Jesus wasn't seduced, but He was tested by the devil, to dishonor Himself and to dishonor God the father. Something He, Himself, would have never thought of doing. So we need to feel guilty when temptation actually leads us to sin. That's when we should feel guilty, because when we give in and disobey God, we are guilty. So go with that. That's okay. Just like God gave us the ability to feel pain, and as much as we don't want to have pain, or we take medications to deal with our pain, whatever, thank God we have pain because it's that light that comes on that says something's wrong here. I don't know what the medical term for it, but some people don't feel pain. And that's a terrible thing for them. They end up injuring themselves all the time. Why? They can't feel pain. God has wired us in such a way that we feel guilt when we violate His laws, as a warning to be careful. He explains, then, how temptation leads to sin, and it's the same for everybody. I'll go back to verse 14. He said, "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." That term carried away, means to be drawn, to be lured, as an animal is lured away from the safety of it's haunt - you leave food out or something for the animal to come out of its hiding place, if you wish. Man is lured away from the safety of his self-restraint. That's our safety - self-restraint. You know parents, I know that it's old, isn't it, after you've said no a thousand times; or you've had to be the joy killer for your teenager's big weekend plans. Yeah, we're going to go here and then we're going to sleep at Jenny's house, and then we're going to go from Jenny's house and we're driving to Dallas and then we'll be back early Sunday morning for church. No. Mom, everybody's going. No.
Oh mom, you can trust me. No. Well, what are we doing when we sit them down and we explain to them the danger, that crowd that you're going with and who's playing? Oh, twisted sister. Well? Yeah, maybe I don't know. What are we teaching them when they're young? We're teaching them self-restraint. Teaching them to be able to use their own self-restraint, in order to navigate the very dangerous world that we will eventually allow them to enter. So I repeat, man is lured away from the safety of his self-restraint. That's what James is actually explaining.
That's what happens. Then he uses the word enticed, the allurement. This explains the method used to carry him away from safety. The method is not by threat or reason. The devil didn't say to Eve, you better eat this apple because I'm going to cut your head off. That's a threat, right? That's not what he said. He didn't reason with her. He seduced her. He said, well, if you eat this apple something really great is going to happen. You're going to be like God. Telling her something she already had, she's already got, she's already made in the image of God. Well, image of man, but mankind. So he didn't threaten with her. He didn't reason with her. He seduced her by offering her something she thought was going to be very good. It was pleasing to the eyes. Something good to have. So James is explaining, this is the mechanics of sin. We're drawn away from the safety of our self-restraint, how? By being presented something that we think might be good for us or pleasing or exciting. So we become victims of sin, because we allow ourselves to be drawn to the evil that we desire. Our flesh desires things, ideas, feelings, activities that are evil and immoral and they're made desirable. Why? Because they're forbidden. That's the power of the law. The power of the law is it says that's wrong. That's forbidden. All of a sudden that thing becomes, whoa, becomes desirable doesn't it? I keep going back to children, but isn't that the way it is. If you say to the kids, okay, you guys play here in the living room, but don't touch Daddy's remote control for the TV. Where do you think those kids are going to be in three minutes when you leave the room? They're going to be on the remote. Satan, through his agents in the world, offers these as bait to excite us, to stimulate the desire within us for these things. Being Christians doesn't mean that we don't experience evil desires. That's one of the things, especially new Christians - I said well, I thought everything would be okay. I'll be baptized. I got the spirit. I'm good to go. Why, I'll be bulletproof. About 16 hours later, they come back, can we talk? The saddest thing, on the day that somebody's baptized is they also commit one of their worst sins. And they don't understand anything at this point. So being a Christian doesn't mean that we don't experience evil desires and that we cannot be drawn to evil things. Adam's sin made us inheritors of a sinful, meaning subject to enticement, a sinful flesh. So if you were to track the falling into sin on a timeline, the point where the temptation takes place is not the point where the sin takes place, but it should be at the point where we take action. I'm tempted. I look at it. It looks good. My heart starts to beat a little bit faster. My throat constricts just a little bit. Mmmm boy. I'm just considering it. Still no sin. Well, let me get a little closer look at this thing here. Now explain to me again, what the deal is here? We go to your house. We do the drugs. nobody's there. There might be girls, really? Hmmm, let me think about that for a moment. Still no sin. But the moment they say, all right, let's do it. Let's go - your car, my car? Yeah, come on down. That's when the sin takes place. Temptation should serve as an alarm bell that sends us into spiritual action that includes several things. For example, we need to identify clearly and honestly what is happening. Let's just call it what it is folks. I'm being tempted to do this thing, you can say to yourself. I never thought in a million years that - I, me, me. I would be tempted to do such a thing. Let's call it what it is. I'm being tempted to lie or to cheat or - wow, I'm being tempted to be unfaithful. Or I'm being tempted here to blame somebody else for this mess when I know that I had something to do with this. It's at this point that you should tell yourself no.
And why, no. I don't know about you, but I have self talk out loud. No. I say to myself out loud. Nope. Don't do that. Lord helped me. I mean, I say it out loud to myself. Lord, I don't want to do this thing. I don't want to think this thing. Pray for strength and wisdom to overcome, because some temptations are very subtle, and they're very complex. It's not always like take a gun, go rob the bank. No. Some temptations, they're kind of, very fine.
It's all in the fine print. For example, taking proper credit for something that may hurt someone else's situation, but remaining silent might hurt yours. In other words, if you speak up, you know it'll hurt you somehow, but the other, excuse me, if you stay silent someone else will be hurt, but you'll be safe. And If you do the right thing, you speak up, well, that'll help that or maybe save that person, but boy, it'll put you in a bad situation. You know what I'm saying? The little complex decisions we have to make sometimes. You have to, kind of, say to your boss, that was inappropriate. What you just said to me, that was inappropriate.
It's okay. It doesn't have to go any further than this, but I want to be able to say to you that I do not want you to say things like that to me. Let us have a good relationship together. That's what I want, but what you've just said to me is inappropriate. So you could either be quiet and let things go, because how do people work? How do men - sexual abuse, for example, in the work area? It's not always somebody, some man jumps on a woman. It's not like that. It starts usually with jokes. One of the men will start telling inappropriate jokes. Why? To see how far they can push the envelope. And that lady or that sister or that - will not say anything or maybe laugh and just go along with it. Sometimes you're tempted to say nothing. You want to hang on to your job. You don't want to look foolish. You don't want anybody to call you Susie-Christian do-Gooder. That's a temptation. So it's not always being tempted to get drunk or to steal, sometimes things are very subtle. We also should seek help from our brethren, and family, and professionals. Not only when we fall, but when we find ourselves being tempted to do the same thing over and over and over and over again - we may have resisted and said no, and yeah, I don't want to do that, but shouldn't we ask ourselves, why am I being tempted to this thing? Why is it this thing? Why does this thing have a hook in me? I've said no 10 times, but why should I? What's inside of me that's making me desire this thing? That I have to say no to all the time, whatever it is. It's not after we've succumbed to the thing and now we feel guilty and now we feel ashamed of it, whatever, wouldn't it be a whole lot better to get some help and prayer support and advice or counseling, while the thing is still at arm's length. Wouldn't that make more sense? And, of course, change the dynamics that seem to facilitate the temptation. Maybe there's a friend of ours that whatever, whenever we're with them, this situation always arises. I don't know what that might be, but sometimes we need to change our friends. Or maybe it's a place where temptation is located. Christians usually fall into sin when they fail to take action at the point of temptation. It's not after you've succumbed that you should take action, it's when you're being tempted that you need to take action. And usually your action is much more effective at the point of temptation, than at the point of failure. Let's read James 1:15, continue what he's saying. Then he says, "When lust has conceived, we've given in. It gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." So sin takes place when we pursue the evil that is attracting us, until it eventually possesses us. So James is telling us here, sin will control us if we let it. He also says that once sin possesses us, it produces death. What death does he mean? Death like, you have a heart attack and you expire? No, not that kind of death. Death in the sense that it separates you from God. That death. Nothing we can do can prevent our physical death. We can remain healthy. I remember a lady back in Montreal she was a nurse and very, lots of exercise and eating and good eating and everything and she used to say, I just want to live until I die. I understood what she meant. I want to live. I want a healthy, active lifestyle and as close to the point of death as I can. I don't want to linger. For years and years and years, that type of thing, but she knew she was going to die. James is not talking about this. He's talking about the separation from our ourselves from God. That death. That's what they're talking about. That's what they're talking about here. If we don't take action and allow the bait to draw us in, we're going to be caught in the trap of sin. The trap that sin has, is its power to control us. That's the problem. Because you give in to sin, and what happens? Well, it's easier to give in the second time and easier the third time. And then we feel the shame and then we feel embarrassed. And then we like what we're doing wrong. And then, all of a sudden, we have to lie to cover it up. And then, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, until it controls pretty much everything we do. A good example of this is the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter 4. Turn over to there, Genesis chapter 4:2 and 3, it says, "Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel." So Eve bears Able. "And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions and the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering." Notice, had regard for Abel first and for his offering. The two go together. "But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard." So that means he had no regard for Cain. Therefore, no regard for Cain's offering. And so, Cain became very angry and his countenance fell." So God accepted Abel's offering, which indicated that He accepted Able and the life that Abel was leading. I am not sure that I agree with the idea that Cain's offering wasn't right. It wasn't prepared right. it. It was fruit. He was a farmer. He brought what he raised. I believe that this passage here, what the story indicates is that God was pleased with Abel. So what Abel brought to offer to God was acceptable to Him. Remember, this wasn't the Levitical Priesthood here. This wasn't like under Moses, where God gave very specific rules about how to offer things and what to offer and when to offer. There was a certain way you were supposed to do these things. This was before these laws were given. So because He was pleased with Abel, He was pleased with Abel's sacrifice. And because he was not pleased with Cain, He wasn't pleased with his sacrifice; and rejected both the sacrifice and Cain. His refusal of Cain's offering was the signal that He was also rejecting Cain's life and Cain's actions. My opinion, as I say, the rejection was not about the nature of the offering, animal versus produce, but rather, the nature of the lives of the men who were offering the sacrifices. So Cain - I mean, again, how long ago was this written? This was written 1500 years before Christ. It happened much further back than that. But Moses is the one who wrote Genesis, the pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. He's the one that wrote them. He wrote Genesis, of course, based on the oral tradition and records that had been kept up to that time. And so, he writes, 1500 years. So 3500 years ago this is written, and yet, the feelings, the attitudes, they're as fresh as today. This is exactly how people are, isn't it? What does Cain do? He transfers the anger and the resentment hat he feels towards God, to who? Well, maybe it should have been to himself. He should have been angry at himself. But he doesn't do that. He transfers it to his brother who becomes the object of his rage. Again, I take the example from raising children. You punish - you got two kids, you punish one for doing this and that. And then 15 minutes later your other kid is crying. What happened? Well, you know Bobby hit me. you and Why did you hit her? Well, I was mad at you daddy, because you put me in the corner for 10 minutes. Somebody had to pay, and there was Suzie. Whack-O. Same thing. So let's read six and seven he says, it says, "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door." Oh, I like how he says it: "sin is crouching at the door." What crouches, right? An animal crouches. An animal of prey crouches. A snake. It says, "Sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. You must master it." So God, watch what happens, so God appeals to him first. If you do right, you're going to feel better. You'll be blessed. He appeals to Cain. Then, He warns him. Sin, what sin? Well, your anger, your jealousy, your wrath, is tempting you and you need to take some kind of action. What action should he take? Well, recognize and acknowledge the problem was not God or his brother. It was him. He was the problem. What else should he have done? Pray for wisdom, pray for strength, Imagine if he would have said, well, Lord, what do I need to do? What will you have me do? I'm not happy. I'm angry. I think it's not fair, but what would you - he didn't. He didn't ask that. Maybe he should have gone to his parents and asked them, do you think that I'm unacceptable? Do you not approve of my life? Maybe get some information from them. Let go his anger and hostility, before it ate him up. Change things in his life that led to his rejection by God in the first place. We know the story, right? Verse 8, "Cain told Abel, his brother. And it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him." It's not all written down, but we know Cain doesn't deal with the temptation in this way. He is what? He's carried away. He leaves the safety of his self-restraint. He's carried away by what? What's the allurement? To satisfy his anger and his revenge. I'm going to get that guy who made me look bad. He would rather kill, then admit wrong. This is how completely he's trapped in his sin. So when his sin completely possesses him, it produces its final result, death in this case, murder. Not just the death of his brother, but the death of his own soul. If we continue reading, we're not, but if we continue reading, we see how the separation from God affected his life. He was separated from God. He was separated from his brother. He was separated from his family. He was separated from society and even the earth itself. He was separated from - because he could no longer farm. So from Adam and Eve, to Cain, to the Jewish Christians that James was writing to, all the way down to ourselves today, sin works in exactly the same way. Exactly the same way. It draws us away from the safety of our self-restraint. It seduces us into consuming the forbidden thing that we shouldn't do. And when we do, it produces death in some way. Let's face it. The ultimate goal of Satan is to separate us from God and each other. That's a - again, I don't know why I'm on little kids tonight, but new parents, with new children, they're whacked-out, they're tired, they're frazzled. Does it ever end? Why are they like this? I don't know how many times young parents have said to me, is this normal, that I'm so tired? Is there no bottom to this kid? There's like, there's no, there seems to be no bottom to him or her. And I explained to them, look, that little person has only got one job from morning till night, and that is to get and keep your attention. That's their only job. They don't have any chores. They got no work to go to. They got nothing. All I have to do is keep mama's attention or Daddy's attention or grandma, and maintain it on me. And you know what? Whatever it takes. Whatever. Keep talking, keep crying, keep breaking stuff, being bad, acting out, whatever it takes. Whoops, I got your attention, okay, I'm good. You're spanking me. That's fine. There's better attention, but that's okay. You're spanking me. Same thing. Satan has had only one job from the beginning - to separate us from God and to separate us from one another. His method, of course, enticement to sin is his method. Lying is his tool. He lied to Eve, told her no consequences. That was a lie. He seduced Eve to disobey, thus spoiling with sin the perfect human nature that God had created. He led Cain to kill Abel, thinking he could thwart God's redemptive plan. You ever think of why he tempted Cain to kill Abel? Because Abel was bringing a sacrifice acceptable to God, right? God had promised Adam and Eve there'd be a Savior one day, that would come. The seed would come through her right? And she has a son, Abel, who's pleasing to God. Looks like the seeds going to come through Abel and his descendants. So what does Satan do? We can't have that. We're going to cut the seed off. He works on Cain to kill Abel. And notice in Genesis it says, much later on, and then she gave birth to Seth. And then beginning with Seth, men again began to call on the Lord. After Abel died there there was like, no hope. Where's the hope? There's no hope. We have to depend on Cain to carry the promise through. That's not going to happen. So a little theological speculation. That's good, change of pace here. So to summarize, how does a Christian today deal with the dragon? Practical application from our everyday Christian lives. Well, number one, it's up here. Recognize that when temptation is near, that it is not from God and that the enemy, the dragon, is near. Recognize you're in trouble. You're not just in trouble after you've sinned, you're in trouble when the temptation is there. Number two, take action when tempted. Not when when you've failed. When tempted. Christians need to take action, Prayer for strength and wisdom. I told you, I talk to myself out loud. It's not that Satan can't hear my thoughts or God can't. That's for me. It's a wake-up call for me. It's like, I acknowledge to myself the reality of what's happening. All right, now, Mazzalongo, wake up boy. You're in trouble. You need to sit down. You need to - okay, Lord, something bad's going down here. I need Your help. Then maybe, okay, and - it's like I shake myself to wake myself up to what is going on. Pray for strength. Seek help. Make change. A change, of course, what does it say in First Timothy? "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you men of God. And pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness." So he says, run. Run for the hills. Don't be too proud to say to yourself, if I stay any longer, this is not good. This guy is going to end badly. I think it's time. When tempted, take action. And number three, if a Christian does sin, he still takes action, but a different kind of action. If a Christian sins, First John 19, John writes, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful, and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So if we do leave the safety of our self-restraint, if we do allow ourselves to be seduced, well, then don't deny, don't hide. Acknowledge your sin. Repent right away. Reject the thing, even though you've given into it. It's alright to say I gave into that thing, but that thing is wrong. I was wrong. That's okay. The last thing that Satan wants is for us to shed light on the sins that we do. It takes all the power out of that. It removes the power of the sin. If we, ourselves, after we've fallen into it, say to ourselves and God, this thing I just thought, I just did, that was wrong. It may have been fun. I may have given in to a desire, but I recognize that that's wrong and I do not want to do that again. And then return to the safe place. This the place of self-restraint. Remember that both David and Peter took action after they sinned and they were restored, but Ananias and Sapphira, they continued to lie, remember, they continued to lie and what happened to them? Yeah, they were killed. So God will always take us back. Always take us back. Never be afraid to repent and go back. So there's some ideas from James about dealing with the dragon. We will continue our series next time. Thank you for your attention.
