Turning From Sin Part 1

Introduction

Be strong and courageous. What an encouraging way for me to get up here and start a lesson. And that’s going to, in a lot of ways, tie in with some things we’re going to talk about. Turn, if you will, to James chapter 1. James, the first chapter. I want to talk to you today about turning from sin. This is going to be the first of a three lesson series that Greg and I are going to do with you. This is the first time Greg and I have joined forces on a particular series. And so we’re excited about this and hope that it will be beneficial to you. If you have the outline provided, one side has part two, which is Greg is going to preach at 11, and the other side has part one.

So make sure you’re looking at the right side, or you will be thoroughly confused. In James 1, verses 14 and 15, it says, But each man is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished or full grown, it brings forth, gives birth to death. And so these two verses tell us the stages of sin, the development of sin, starting with desire or lust. Now, to see this passage in its context, look up in verse 13. We could start before that. But in verse 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.

Okay, so here’s the setup. Don’t say God has tempted me. It’s not God’s fault. Now, God does test us with trials, and in fact, the word for tempt and trials or temptation and trials is the same word. You know, up in verses two and three it says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. That’s what God wants. He wants us to endure these trials and temptations, but Satan does not want us to endure. He wants us to fail. So God does not tempt us to evil. It’s not God’s fault when we are tempted. Instead, it’s our fault. And that’s where verses 14 and 15 come into play. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. And then he goes on to say in verse 16 and 17, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. And so from God cannot come temptation to evil, because from God only good and perfect gifts come. So we see that in sort of its fuller context, but I do want to hone in now for the remainder of the lesson on verses 14 and 15 on this development on the stages of sin. Once we understand how sin develops, I believe we’ll be much better equipped to then be able to stop sin at each stage of its development.

1. Temptation: Desire Plus Opportunity

Now I’m not actually going to be preaching about stopping sin at each stage of its development. You will find that to be a point that is inferred throughout. But I’m going to really leave that driving home of that application to Greg. That’s what he’s going to do at 11. So I’m setting up part two that Greg is is going to preach. We’re just going to look at this development that is that is listed in verses 14 and 15. Okay? And I’m going to finish this series, Lord willing, a week from today at 11, part three of this series. Alright. So what’s the first stage of the development of sin? Well, it is temptation. In verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Tempation really is made up of two things. First of all, would be lust, or the, you know, New King James says desires. And so don’t think of merely sexual lust when you think of this word lust. We’re talking here about any desire, strong desire for something that is outside of the will of God. Do not love the world or the things in the world. Anyone who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life are not of the Father, but are of the world. 1 John 2 verses 15 and 16. Or 15 to 16. Now, so the second component of lust is enticement.

Enticement is simply the opportunity to now fulfill that desire. Okay. So each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed. Carried away is from one Greek word that means to draw out or to draw away. And enticed is from a word that properly means to bait a hook or set a trap with bait. These are hunting and fishing terms. And so we are being hunted. Now, really, think about this for a minute. So there’s a fish swimming around innocently, minding his own or her own business. And now I’ve never made the distinction between a male and a female fish before. That was really odd. And suddenly, plop. The fish sees bait. It doesn’t actually see bait. What is a fish see? Fresh meat. That looks yummy.

And not all fish are attracted to the same bait. Some fish, seeing that bait, will just swim on by. Why? Maybe they’re not hungry or they’re not attracted to that certain type of food, or it just didn’t catch their eye. But it caught the attention of some other fish. Now, see, that’s the same with Christians. No, we’re not all attracted to the same bait. We don’t all have the same weaknesses. Some might have a weakness for gambling or a weakness for profanity or a weakness for pornography. Some might have a weakness for all three, or some might not have any of those weaknesses, but some other weaknesses. We need to identify and recognize what our weaknesses are and what we already have a natural inclination for and desire for, and be especially careful in those regards and work on that desire itself.

Now, here’s an irony about that fish bait situation. The fish thinks he’s going to get something. He thinks there’s something in this situation for him. That when he bites into that food, that he’s going to have a yummy meal and swim on happily about his way. I’ve often thought when fishing or being with others who fish, uh, if only that poor fish could have saw what was coming. If only that fish could have known, okay, this isn’t going to hurt. There’s going to be a hook through my mouth, or maybe through my eyeball. I’m going to be yanked up out of the water. I’m going to be suffocating, and then I’m going to be gazed at by all these celebrating humans, and one of them might cut off my head.

If they can only see where this is going to lead. But what does the fish think? This is going to be yummy. And so when temptation presents itself to us, when we are being lured to that temptation, we might think, well, there’s something in this for me. This will be beneficial. That is a lie. You are being hunted. And the one who is hunting for you is thinking, there’s something in this for me. I’m going to catch this one. And we need to see that reality for what it for what it really is. Enticement. Now, for a biblical example of this, I can think of no better than Eve in the garden. And so go to Genesis 3 with me. Now the serpent was more crafty, verse 1, than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. Now I just want to pause here for a moment. It’s fascinating to me that this tree was in the middle of the garden. Why didn’t God put it off in the corner somewhere? God put it right in the middle. They knew right where it was. They had the opportunity to take of that fruit every day. They may have passed by that tree every day.

I don’t know. But until the lust came into play, then it wasn’t really a temptation for Eve. Now, I don’t know if this was the first time that that lust came into play or not, but we certainly see it come into play big time, don’t we? The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Oh, there’s a lot we could preach about there. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, lust of the flesh, and that it was a delight to the eyes, lust of the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, the boastful pride of life that John talked about there, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, 1 John chapter 2.

Now we’re going to leave this verse hanging. I just want to pause there. We’re going to leave it for quite a while. I want you to just stop this moment in time. Here’s Eve. Standing before the tempter. And she is considering this fruit. Oh, it would make me, it would make my tummy feel good. It just appeals to my eye, and I want to be like God. What’s she doing? She’s lusting. She is filled with the desire. She hasn’t yet taken the fruit. At this point, this short moment in time, she still hasn’t done it. But she is being tempted. Sinful desire must not go unchecked. It is the root of the problem. Without desire, there would be no temptation. Without desire, our own desire, there would be no sin that would happen.

It starts with desire. Sin starts in the heart. If you want to turn now to Matthew chapter 15, in Matthew 15, the Pharisees are really critical of the fact that the disciples of Jesus break the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands when they eat. Before they eat. Now, they weren’t concerned about germs. Okay. Their concern was when you go and have contact with the Gentiles and everything. Well, now you want to put that defilement into your body when you eat? No. You’ve got to wash that defilement off of you. And so Jesus, after rebuking this ridiculous notion, he says in verse 10, in the middle of verse 10, hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.

Well, Peter’s confused about this because down in verse 15, Peter said to him, Explain this parable to us. Jesus said, Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. So the things that come from the heart. And then verse 19 for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. So it is from the heart that proceed all manner of evil things. You know, Proverbs 423 says, keep your heart with all diligence.

Why? For out of it spring the issues of life. And I don’t want to tread into Greg’s territory. He’s going to deal more with the concept of doing away with these different things that we’re talking about, but I want us to see where the problem is. It is with this desire. Now there are no exceptions to this matter of temptation and where it starts. James says, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Notice that he doesn’t say, but some people are tempted this way. Or most people.

And so this is the rule across the board. There are no exceptions to this at all. Temptation can never rightly be blamed on anything or anyone, except for ourselves and our own desires.

It’s not God’s fault. You know, you ever notice that James doesn’t even mention Satan here? He doesn’t mention that Satan is the one who tempts us. He says, each man is tempted when he is enticed, when he’s drawn away and enticed by his own desire. I think it’s important that we see a distinction between external temptation and internal temptation. Satan can present all sorts of external temptations all around us. But only we can ultimately desire and have an internal temptation for those, you know, external enticements that are out there. You see the difference? You know, Hebrews 4 15, Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. Well, does that mean he was tempted internally in every way that we are? Or tempted externally in every way that we are?

And maybe some of those were internal temptation for him as well. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. But certainly we can see the difference between external temptations and internal temptations, which we create for ourselves. You know, we really make the job of Satan pretty easy sometimes, don’t we? He didn’t have to work very hard. In fact, sometimes he doesn’t even have to drop the bait in the water. We just go finding and looking for it. We surround ourselves with enticements and temptations that are our weaknesses. That is foolish. Now, let’s put this into a mathematical formula. Okay. So temptation equals desire plus opportunity. Desire plus opportunity. A little boy may really want to steal a cookie from the cookie jar when he knows that mom and dad said you can’t have one.

But if mom and dad are standing right there in the kitchen with him, he knows he can’t get away with it. So there’s not really the temptation present at that moment. The desire is there, but not the opportunity. But when mom and daddy are out of the kitchen and the child thinks, now I can do it and get away with it, now he not only has the desire, but that’s coupled with the opportunity, and that’s when temptation really occurs. And so when we think, well, hey, I could now actually do that thing. Or I could actually do it and get away with it. That’s when the temptation is really, is really on. Now I do want to give sort of a caveat here. Desire itself can escalate to the point that it becomes sinful in and of itself.

Do you remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount? You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And so once you so desire something that you’ve committed that sin in your heart, then you’ve sinned. And I don’t think that only applies to adultery. I think that we could look at other examples. But anyway. But I think that at this point in James’s explanation of the development of sin, the desire has simply caused the Christian to be attracted to the temptation. At this point in James’s description, sin hasn’t happened yet. Sin doesn’t happen until verse 15.

2. Sin: When Lust Has Conceived

We’re still in verse 14 with the temptation itself. But that’s still very dangerous. The Christian in this case didn’t simply pass by the bait without showing any interest at all. The Christian stopped and took notice. The fish. Oh, slowed down a little bit, or probably sped up. Do you see the danger of stopping and taking notice? Of even pondering. Now that might be nice. Ooh, I want that. It catches your eye, or whatever it may be. That’s very dangerous. That’s very dangerous. So, after this first stage of the development of sin, which is temptation. The next stage, very logically and obviously, is sin itself. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So when you see the word then, that means next. So what’s next?

Well, desire went and got pregnant. And had a baby. Sin. That’s what happened. When lust conceives, gets pregnant, it gives birth to sin. What is birth? Well, it’s the beginning of something. And in this case, it’s the beginning of sin. At this point, sin is no longer in the planning stages. Sin is no longer being resisted. It’s no longer being contemplated. It’s no longer being battled. At this point, the bait has been taken. At this point, the Christian has acted on this desire plus opportunity. Has acted on that. And has now committed sin. Remember back there in Genesis 3, the cliffhanger, I left you with as if you didn’t know what would happen next. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from his fruit and ate.

And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. She commits sin.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We’ve all done what Eve did. And we fall short of God’s glory. Everyone who commits sin also practices lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3 and verse 4. We’ve all broken the law of God. We’ve all committed grievous sin and fallen short of the glory of God and followed in the footsteps of Eve and then, of course, of Adam. At this point, you have taken the bait. You have fallen into the trap of Satan. You have failed. The Greek word for sin is Hamartia, which means a failing to miss, I mean a failing to hit the mark. There is still opportunity at this present time in this development of the situation. There is still opportunity to remedy the situation through repentance, but you can’t, you know, undo it.

You can’t turn back the clock. Oh, how we wish we could. When we finally give in to that desire, and we take the bait and we sin. Oh, how we wish we could turn back the clock and undo it. The saying goes, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. Oh, how we would love to undo it. Because now there are consequences. And now it’s not simply as easy as just uttering a prayer before God, and now there’s magically going to be no more problem. You’re going to have to battle to get back to the root of the problem and get this thing out of your life.

And if you could turn back the clock, where would you get back to? You would go all the way back to when that desire was first thought of. When it very first began to even develop in your mind. It’s better not to commit sin in the first place than to commit it and have to get forgiveness. You will always regret sinning. I have always regretted, every time I’ve sinned, I’ve never once regretted resisting and overcoming it. No matter how hard it was, I’ve never regretted it. And you will never regret that, but you will always regret failing and missing the mark. So, temptation leads to sin when you act on that temptation. Sin therefore requires the added step of action. So, to put it again in a mathematical formula, sin equals, now remember what temptation was, desire plus opportunity plus action.

Now, another caveat. We realize that, of course, not all sins are committed by some action. Some sins are committed by just doing nothing when you’re expected to do something. As Jesus talked about in Matthew the 15th chapter, he talked about sinful thoughts. That was one of the things he listed there. And so you think about that. Well, sinful thoughts don’t require action, do they? But you can act on that notion that’s in your mind by entertaining the sinful thought. And that’s when the sin occurs. And you know the danger of sinful thoughts. Now, this could be another sermon altogether. How long or how often is that opportunity there? Always. Always. Unlike action, the opportunities may come and go. But sinful thoughts, the opportunity is there always.

3. Death: When Sin Is Accomplished

And so all that has to do is that is coupled with the desire, and then boom, the sin can happen just in your mind, it can happen immediately. That’s very dangerous. But that, as I said, is another thing that we could delve into at another time. Well, now that we’ve looked at this all-important stage of the sin itself, what’s the further development that we see? The third and final one. It is death. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Sin when it is finished, as the King James says, or sin when it is full grown, as the new King James says. The idea of the word here is to bring to an end or to complete. So now you have sin brought to its completion.

It seems to me that what’s being spoken of here is that this final stage is the consequence of unforgiven sin. The phrase brings forth, I think, is the idea. Well, I don’t think, I know, because it’s what the Greek word is. It is, again, the idea of birth. So do you see that there are two births in this verse? There is, first of all, the birth, remember, when lust conceives, it gives birth to sin. Now that’s an ugly enough baby, but then this next baby’s going to be even worse. When sin grows up, what baby does it have? Death. Imagine having a baby. And that baby is that well, that just wouldn’t be a pleasant thought at all, would it? Death. And so this is the consequence of unforgiven sin.

By the way, I’m just going to throw this out there for some of you who might be interested in this sort of thing. There are two different words for birth used here. It doesn’t really matter. They’re synonyms. But the second word, the word that’s used in connection with the birth of death, is only used twice in the New Testament, and only used by James in this one chapter. The second time it’s used is in verse 18. Which says, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth. That’s the word for birth that’s used the second word from verse 15. He brought us forth. God gave birth to us spiritually by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures.

I just find that fascinating. That there’s actually another birth talked about in this context. And that’s not accidental. So we have sin that is giving forth, bringing forth, giving birth to death, but God gives birth to his creatures who are purified and holy in his sight. So I think that’s a beautiful thought. In fact, I know it’s a beautiful thought. So what is this death being spoken of here? It is spiritual separation from God. You remember how Eve answered Satan back there when she said, God said, in the day that you eat of it or touch it, you will surely die. Or you shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. And so that death. Now, when she actually took from the fruit, did she die?

She was still alive. So was Adam. So in what way did they die? Well, of course, they died spiritually. In fact, they were then banished from the garden and separated from God. So this spiritual death.

And so that’s a state that we were in before we were Christians, but now we become Christians, and then like Simon the Sorcerer, we fall right back into sin and we’re in the bondage of iniquity. We give in and take that bait and we die spiritually. And if that is an unforgiving, a continual situation where we do not get forgiveness, we’re in a very, very bad situation. We are separated from our God. Spiritual death. You may have seen the movie Sixth Sense, where the boy has a sixth sense of seeing dead people. And he finally kind of confesses this at one point in the movie and says, I see dead people. You know, they’re all around me every day, walking around like ordinary people, and they don’t know they’re dead.

Well, it may be true that there are some Christians, maybe even in this building right now, who are dead spiritually and who don’t even know it. Maybe you’re blind to your situation. You’re blind to what has happened to you and what path you have chosen. And spiritually you think you’re alive, but you’re actually dead. If you die in such a state, then what is the consequence? What is the result? Well, it is eternal death. As Revelation 20 and verse 14 speaks of. Speaking of the final judgment, then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. In 21, 8. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

So do you realize that if that final punishment is what you receive, do you realize whose fault it will be? Do you realize it will not be God’s fault? It will not be Satan’s fault. It won’t be your mom and dad’s fault, or your friend’s fault, or anybody’s fault, or your preacher’s fault, or your brethren’s fault. You know whose fault it will be? Your fault. If I end up receiving that punishment, whose fault will it be? My fault. And what’s at the core of the problem? Lust. Desire. That’s what got you to that final punishment. So let’s put it once more in terms of a mathematical equation. So we’re going to see what equals death. So where would we start? Desire plus opportunity plus action. Now we’re going to have an added stage.

Plus no forgiveness. I guess we could say minus forgiveness, but we’ll keep it all in addition, not confuse you with subtraction. Equals death. Sin and Satan will have overcome us if we receive this final death. This final punishment.

Conclusion

And that, again, is what Greg is going to really emphasize at the 11th hour. To really simplify this even further, you know, Homer Haley speaks of, when he when he talks about this passage of the spiritual LSD. You know, out there with drugs and everything in the world, there’s LSD, which wreaks havoc. But we’re talking about spiritual LSD. Lust, sin, death. That’s the simple progression, if you want to look at it in the most simple terms. Lust leads to sin leads to death. And so we have to avoid that. We have to overcome temptation and get right to the root of the matter, which is lust. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

James 1 and verse 12. Thank you for your kind attention. I hope that everything was clarified this morning. Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our Father, thank you so much for this day to worship you. Be with us today that we may give you our hearts and our minds in what we do. Father, we pray that you may strengthen our hearts. That we would rid our hearts of any sinful desire, so that we may not end up sinning and then reaping the consequences of death, even eternal death. Through your son we pray. Amen. At this time, we’ll be dismissed to Bible classes and reconvene at 10 55 for another period of worship.