A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Hello again and welcome to A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall. We're at the beginning of a study in James and today we'll discuss something that we all face and on a daily basis, I might add. That is temptation. In the minutes ahead, you'll hear the truth concerning temptation, how it starts, the need to resist it, and the danger of giving into it as well. So, if you're ready, let's get right into it.

John Randall: James chapter 1. The message entitled avoiding temptation. And beginning in verse 9: Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation. But the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

The epistle of James was written to Jewish believers who were scattered in every direction. Because of their faith, they had suffered many consequences. Some had been driven from their homes while others had lost their businesses. There were those who were imprisoned and there were also those who were martyred. In the midst of great trials and adversity, James exhorted these believers to count it all joy.

He wanted them to know that something more valuable than gold was being developed and refined, namely character, and their faith and perseverance. Furthermore, he exhorted them to ask God for wisdom and direction with the full confidence that he would provide the assistance that they needed. Now, these trials were no respector of persons. Both the poor and the rich were impacted. At the same time, both groups needed a clear perspective.

Whether the poor was without resources to escape the trial or the wealthy had finances to sustain them through the trial, there was the need for perspective. And that is why James says in verse 9, "Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation." The word lowly means not rising far above the ground. In the ethical sense, it describes the Christian who decides to follow the lowly, humble path of the Lord.

Many would look upon that lowly, narrow road and think that it was a waste because they had chosen to identify with Jesus. Look at the trial that they encountered and what they lost as a result. And the world frowns sometimes upon the one who walks the humble road with Christ. They may seek to make you feel ashamed for standing for Christ or for living for Jesus or believing in the word of God.

The Apostle Paul had made the decision to walk this lowly, humble road with Christ. In fact, in Philippians chapter 3 he said, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ, that I might be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."

People would look at Paul's life and say, "You've lost it, man. You've lost everything." Paul said, "It's true. And as I account it all, as I reckon it and I look at my life, I realize what I've left behind." And I want to tell you something. By the way, this is 30 years after he got saved. He's been walking with the Lord 30 years and he's writing Philippians from a prison cell. And the theme is joy. Figure that out.

And 30 years later he says, "I still count all of those things as garbage. It doesn't matter to me because what I have now in Christ is far better than anything this world could ever offer me. You'll never find anything better than Jesus." And Paul came to this realization. It didn't matter what people said. It didn't matter how they looked upon him. He said, "It's all garbage in comparison to God's righteousness being imparted to me by faith."

He had taken the lowly road. He had humbled himself. And if you've taken that lowly road, you will have a day of exaltation. Things are going to be a lot different in heaven, friends. The accounting system in glory is much different than it is here. A day will come when the humble will be exalted and the exalted of this world will be humbled. On the other hand, for the wealthy, James exhorted them to also choose humility.

Look at verse 10. "Because as the flower of the field will pass away. No sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers with the grass. Its flower falls, its beautiful appearance, it perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits." The riches of the wealthy and their pursuits, James said, are compared to what happens to a flower. It grows, it has its day, and then it eventually withers and dies.

And this provided great perspective to which he would elaborate even more so later on within the letter. But suffice it to say, he was telling them these things don't last forever. Only a few things, by the way, last forever: God's word and the souls of men and women. Here, James was seeking to awaken the conscience of the rich man who because of his plenty of earth riches was prone to forget that these are passing riches and that they can never be the basis of one's eternal security.

In Proverbs 23, one of the wealthiest men that ever lived, whose name was Solomon, Solomon said this, "Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly will make themselves wings and they will fly away like an eagle toward heaven." Jesus also commented on the temporary nature of the wealth of this world. And he exhorted his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 and he said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal."

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal, because where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also." Where is your treasure tonight? Whatever your treasure is, that has your heart. Does the Lord have your heart this evening? Jesus said in Mark chapter 8, "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

In other words, there's nothing more valuable in all the world than your soul. Don't sell your soul out. In Luke, Jesus also commented, "Beware and be on guard against every form of greed. For even when one has an abundance, does not his life consist of his possessions." Whatever you have, your life isn't made up of what you possess because you can't take it with you.

The Apostle Paul in writing to Timothy said in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9, "Those who want to get rich, that is their passion, it's their ultimate goal," he said they fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. Oh, if I had their money, I'd be so content. You probably wouldn't. It probably wouldn't be enough.

Even Solomon again, the wealthiest man, do yourself a favor and read through the book of Ecclesiastes and see how happy he was with all that he had amounted and was about to leave behind. He said it was all vanity. James then moves on from these exhortations to talk about temptation. In verse 12 he said, "Blessed, or oh how happy is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him."

Amen. And let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one, here's how temptation works if you didn't know: Each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and he's enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's full grown, it brings forth death.

Then he says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." In the previous section, last time we studied James together, James dealt with the kind of trials in life that test the person's endurance and the ability to keep your faith and trust in God under extreme pressure. And that may be where you are tonight. You're in a situation right now under extreme pressure and you're learning in this moment to persevere, to trust God even when you're not sure what God's going to do.

But here, James is now exploring the other aspect of trials that test one's moral endurance. James presents the truth concerning temptation, the need to resist it, the danger of giving into it, and he also tells us how it starts, where it actually begins. First of all, make note of the fact that temptation is common to every person. I don't care who you are. Every single one of us faces some sort of temptation every single day.

It's common. Jesus was tempted, friend. So listen, you're going to be tempted. Everybody is. It's common. In fact, the Bible tells us that in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13. Paul wrote and he said, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful. He's not going to allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it."

Everybody's tempted in some way. But James tells us: Where does temptation begin? Where does it start? Well, he tells us here, first of all, we're not to blame God for temptation. God allows us to be tested in order to be refined. We've talked about that. In order that we might develop character and hope and perseverance, etc. These are things that God is working into our life through the refining processes of being tested.

You can't have a testimony without a test. So just know that's part of the Christian life. But God allows us to be tested, but sometimes in that, our own flesh, the carnal nature that still wants to live, the flesh and the devil will incite desire. And what follows is so often a test could turn into a temptation. But instead of taking the way of escape that God has provided, we just go right into it.

When we're tempted, it doesn't happen necessarily overnight, but sometimes it's a process. Somebody just doesn't wake up one morning and say, "You know what? Today's the day. I'm leaving my wife and my kids and I'm heading out. Today's the day. I don't know why, just feels like a good day to do that." No, it doesn't happen that way. It happens over time. You start messing around with stuff.

You start knocking on doors. You start looking at this, you start going that way, you start searching on, whatever it is that you do. Eventually, you get to that point. Not overnight, but over time. And then over time, as you're just worn down, you just decide, "I'm fine, I'm out of here." And then you have all the reasons why. But it's not God's fault.

You remember that the Lord in the book of Genesis had warned Adam in the very beginning, "Hey, Adam, I'm going to let you know something. Only one tree, just one, that I don't want you to mess with. That's it. The rest of the garden is all yours, man. Animals, go ahead and name them. Whatever you want. It's going to be great." And Adam walked with the Lord in the cool of the day.

Just Adam and God, just walking together. What an experience that must have been. Lord said, "Listen, just stay away from that one tree. Don't mess with that. In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. Surely die." For emphasis, you definitely will die. So Adam knows. And then Eve comes along and he loves her. I mean, man, he said this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

Wow, man. Wow. I mean, just so excited. They're just loving the garden. But the Bible says next scene: Eve's by the tree. Why? Did Adam not tell her? He probably did. But she's by the tree. And my question, when we get to heaven, "Hey Adam, where were you when she was by the tree? What were you doing? Were you naming animals that day? Like, what happened?" It'll be interesting.

But the devil was there. Adam wasn't there but the devil was. And then we see that the devil enticed her, appealed to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. He uses those, that's the same place, over and over and over again throughout history. And so Eve ate of the fruit. And then Adam comes along, he eats of it also. And then they were confronted by God.

They hid. They made for themselves fig leaves and they hid in the garden. And it says that the Lord was walking through the garden and he said, "Adam, where are you? Where are you?" God knew where Adam was. "Adam, where are you?" And Adam came out and said, "Lord, it's the woman you gave me. I just want to go on record. It's her." Blaming God. "I didn't ask for a woman, but you gave her to me."

But he blamed her. And Eve said, "It's the serpent. He did it." Everybody's blaming everybody else. Everybody's the victim. Always, it seems. That's been carried down. Of course, when they ate it, death was passed on to all men. But when Adam was confronted with giving into temptation, immediately he blamed God. I know people like that. "If God didn't want me to be this way, then why..." You hear it.

And many of us have said it ourselves before we got saved. We believed the lie of the devil. That's what the devil did to Eve that day. He twisted God's word. "Did God say that? He didn't actually mean that. You know, that's interpreted culturally. You don't have to... that's open to a lot of interpretation. He didn't really mean that. Here's what God really meant: He's just really concerned that if you eat it, you're going to be like him and you're going to be happy and he doesn't want you to be happy."

"Because that's who God is. Just wants you to, you know, keep in this little garden and keep you away from that one tree." Liar. Father of lies, the devil. Man, it's going to be great when the Lord crushes him. I love that passage of scripture that says that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. That's going to be a great day when that happens. But he blamed. He made excuses for giving into it.

James says, "Listen, don't blame God for the evil that you pursued or that you went after. It's not his fault." Then whose fault is it? Well, he tells us. They were drawn away by their own desires. The word enticed that's used is actually a fishing term. Any fishermen or women in here? Yay! Right on. There's two of you. That's great. We should do a trip.

But seriously, you guys know, if you are avid fishermen, that this term enticed actually means to bait, to bait a hook, to lure this fish in so you can kill it and eat it. Now, the fisherman is wise. He's got all these crazy lures and things, shiny things, fake worms. It's all fake, but it looks real. When I lived in the Southeast of Florida, my friends tried really hard to get me into fishing.

"Come on, Pastor John, let's go fishing." I'm like, "Okay. How long we going to sit here? Can we paddle and catch it with our hands? No, just relax." Okay. I was terrible at fishing. But I did learn something from the fishermen that I spent time with. They had these tackle boxes and some people are seriously into it. Really into it. And they have all these different shiny things and, "Oh, this one's for that and this one's for this and this is for that."

All right. And then they had this other thing. It was like stink. It smells like bait, stinky stuff that you put on the thing to get the fish to smell it and then to take the bait. So what's the whole point? Just throw it out there. It looks tantalizing. I'm just going to shake this and shimmer this and, ha! I hooked him and now he's dinner. That's what the devil does. He knows the desires.

He knows what the flesh is about. He's been tempting people with the flesh since the beginning. He knows exactly what incites you and what will tempt you. And so, "Hey, check this out. No, check it out. This will satisfy you." You know what? Maybe you're right. Shiny, shiny, shimmer, shimmer. Don't do it! There's a hook under there. I've never seen a fish swallow an unbaited hook unless it's just a really dumb fish.

I mean, it's just like, "Oh, there's a hook, Joe. I know. I'm going to bite it." No fish does that. It's got to have bait on it. So the temptation draws you in. And then, here it is, guys. Here's how it works. Then through persuasion of curiosity mixed with a big dose of rationalization, justification, we find ourselves drawn toward the lure, motivated by our own desire to have it.

And James says, "You want to know what the essential ingredients are for temptation? An alluring outward bait plus an inward desire." And when those two are combined, it yields to temptation. And the results can be disastrous. James tells us here in verse 15 that when the desire has conceived, interesting word, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

The word conceived is the same word used in the conception of a child. When desire and opportunity meet, James says they come together as one. Desire and opportunity come together, have a relationship as it were, and a seed in that is planted. And that seed eventually will grow and it will give birth to something and what it gives birth to is death. Death to your spiritual walk with the Lord, death to your marriage, death to relationships, death to honesty and transparency, and death to all of these things that we would consider valuable. Something is set in motion and when it runs its course, it brings devastation. And it's so subtle if it goes unchecked.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to A Daily Walk with our pastor and teacher, John Randall. We're going through the New Testament right now. We house our recent programs at adailywalk.org and at oneplace.com and you'll find them on our mobile app as well. Do a search for Calvary South OC and download it for free today. At the beginning of New Year, it is a great time to commit to go through a daily devotional.

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John Randall: And here is one more tip on how to avoid temptation as we close. The best defense against giving into temptation is to flee at the first suggestion of it. Great example, Old Testament, love this guy: Joseph. What a great guy, great coat until they took it from him. Sold him into slavery and God was with Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph and he ends up in Potiphar's house.

You know what happened? If you don't, I'll tell you. Here's what happened. Potiphar had a wife. She was creepy. A creepy older gal. We don't have any here tonight. I'm just saying, but she was a creepy older lady. But she was probably good looking. And she would hit on Joseph day after day after day. And Joseph, the Bible says he just kept resisting her. "Get away, creepy." Like, I'm not doing that.

Doesn't say that here, but he did resist her. But then, she set this whole thing up and then grabbed his robe when he was working, sent everybody home. "Hey you guys, go home early, everything's good, we're good." Joseph didn't know what was going on. He's just faithfully doing what God asked him to do and she grabbed his robe. He ran out, then accused him of rape and he ended up in prison and that was a bummer.

But the Lord was with him there and raised him up and he became the second most powerful ruler in Egypt years later. But the point is this, guys: When temptation came, Joseph could have given in. This was the amazing thing, what I love about Joseph. When he was confronted with the temptation, this is what he said, "How can I do this great sin against God?" Joseph is a great example on how to deal with temptation and we'll continue this talk tomorrow on A Daily Walk as Pastor John Randall returns to James.

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