What to do about Temptation

County this morning. And if the Tony's the brother who was with us in fact several months back and preach for us, he's in Q1, Mexico, and he needs the Ugo Ministry there as well as overseeing now two churches. And I grew up in down about 27 years when down in Minnesota, for a week, and did various things. Children's Ministry and Women's Ministry and a sports ministry, and then helped in evening meetings. And this is a portion of the letter that he wrote that I just got. He said, I want to thank you for the the dream that you sent away this last year. We were so blessed by the Ministry and there a great impact on Nacho, who is the pastor of the little church that they were working in. And in some numbers of our church, that's pretty good.

If you can have an impact on some numbers, you're doing well. And then here's a couple examples. Who's not the other ones with the ones I wanted to see? He said in the sports ministry, what the guys would do every day is go and play soccer and guys in the community would just show up and they got to know them and always share the gospel every day with them. One of them now is actually attending the church. He hasn't made a clear profession of faith, but he's there every week under the gospel. He says in the sports ministry, now we're starting the ministry with the guys that came to play with the Americans, and that was a great attraction for them to play with the Americans. By joining a soccer league and making a team of brothers and sinners, that's not brothers and sisters, brothers and sinners that is those who you believe is those who are not.

And by doing that, it will give us a chance to share our faith with the guys that come and play with us at the colony. And there was one colony place, they played these different colonies. He says in the women's ministry, and all week long, Linda taught a group of women there, and this was interesting. So the elders and I were in prayer about this ministry, that is before the group went down because we were having some problems with the leader, but now they're alive and want to learn more about God in the Word. God put it in my wife's heart to teach them and she'll be doing that this month. The women from your church were used by a reward in a mighty way. Isn't that wonderful? He goes on on July, I can barely read this.

My eyes are not that good. It says what? Okay, that means in American, in July, he established the new church in New York, Mexico. The name of this church is A Gracia, Evangelica, Monte, Sinai. That's a great church, a church of Mount Sinai. And I'm going to let you read the rest because I'm having some time reading and I want to mess it up, but they planted a church about 36 hours to the south of them. Tony has gone down with some other men and they've worked in this church and it's going and thriving. They've got a living congregation there and the young pastor, the young man is going to pass to that church, they're bringing up to their Bible Institute and he's going to be there for two years going through Grace Bible Institute.

I'm going to go down and teach. Frank is going to go with me in either the end of October, 1st of November. Tony's a wonderful man. He loves the doctrines of grace. They really have transformed his life and his ministry. And so it was a great pleasure for us to be able to participate in that in this way. And I am so grateful that the Lord put on the hearts of this group that went down to Mexico and spent that week there. I think it was eight or nine parents and a bunch of kids and they did a wonderful job. Today we're going to go back to James chapter one. We have been looking through the book of James beginning our way through it. It's a wonderful letter. It's a pastoral letter to a flock that has been scattered because of persecution and because of pressures that they're going through because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

And so we have looked at several things and we have learned some things about trials. First of all, and because he speaks to when the midst of trials, he is very interested in teaching them about the value. And nature of trials and the life of the believer. The first thing we learned is that God allows trials for our growth. The trials are something that come upon us outside of the will and purpose of God. The God in His purpose allows us to go through trials. And those trials are always designed in God's plan and purpose for our growth in His glory. And then we learned that in order to grow through trials, it requires our cooperation. We don't grow automatically through trials. We grow when we respond according to the will of God with wisdom.

As we seek wisdom from Him and respond in that wisdom, we grow through the troubles that we face in the Christian life. That's what's unique about believers going through trials in contrast to those who don't know Christ. Third, we learned that it contributes to our testimony that the way we go through troubles is a great opportunity for the grace of God to be displayed. Now, I would admit to you that sometimes I've gone through trials and I miss some great opportunities to display the grace of God in the power of the gospel. I'm sure you have too, but these are the, this is one of the great opportunities to be a powerful witness for Christ. We've taught for three and a half years about having a bold witness for Jesus Christ in our community in our world.

We decided to do that and one of the ways that occurs is when we go through troubles. The way we face them, the way that we exercise wisdom and believe the gospel and put it to practice in our daily lives and the midst of those troubles gives us great opportunity to be a witness for Jesus Christ. You remember Jesus didn't say to his disciples that they were to simply witness. He said, the Spirit is going to make you witnesses. You're going to become the witnesses of Jesus Christ and we do that through all that goes on in our lives. And then finally, we look, we're going to look today at the fact that trials often lead to increased temptation. There's somewhat of a play on words here as we read the word that's been translated trials early in the chapter is now translated temptation.

And it's, it's clear in the context, he's talking about temptation to sin. All of us face temptation. Temptation is a part of life. In fact, listen to David Wilker in a little commentary who has on the book of James who says life is temptation. It pursues us through childhood adolescence, adulthood, old age and senility. I don't know that senility is necessarily something you have to go through right up to the gates of heaven. It entices us at work and play in truths into our thoughts, our dreams and even our prayers. And if you've been a Christian very long, you know that you have times of prayer in the midst of prayer when you experience the dynamic of temptation. And that's what we want to look at today is how is it that temptation works and how can we guide ourselves and respond to temptation, which always increases when we go through times of trouble.

When you go through trials, you have an increased experience of temptation. The reason for that, I think, is not that difficult to understand. Before you came to Jesus Christ, I say, you were driven by many things. You had all kinds of idols. We are idol makers, our hearts are either makers. We are our idolaters in our hearts. And that's one of the things that we are saved from when we come to faith in Christ. We have ways and things that we fled to in order to find comfort in times of trouble. Sometimes there's a very damaging things and sometimes there's things that don't look so damaging. And so what happens with the believer when we're in times of great trouble and stress and difficulty, it is a great temptation to free to one of those old idols and to find comfort there instead of trusting God to meet our every need and to take us through the pressure and the trouble.

Notice what James says, in verse 13 of James 1, 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. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then, when the lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. There's the process. James goes on and says, do not be deceived because temptation is very deceiving. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of light with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word truth.

He caused us to be born again so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. Today we want to look at his, what are we to do about temptation? I don't even think I need to say, if you were to come into temptation, this is what you must do, but rather this is what we do about temptation because we all face temptation on a daily basis. Sometimes powerful, sometimes in lesser ways, but as long as we live on this earth, we're going to face temptation. Sin is destructive as we're going to see. Some people never notice the real power there is in the lust of the flesh and the strength of sin because they get in so quickly. Jesus Christ was tempted in every point as we are yet without sin.

He, Jesus, not only any sin within Him, and experienced in the temptation that He did when He was tempted, did not yield ever to sin. Jesus knew what it was like to know the great power of temptation. Most of us have never experienced the greatness of the power of temptation because we have given in too early in the process. Today we want to see what the Bible says, what James says here about temptation and how he faces. What are we to do? First of all, we have to stop blaming God for temptation. We need to stop blaming God for temptation. If you notice, James says, let no one say, where he is tempted in the midst of the temptation, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself is not tempted anyone.

The very first temptation that we have recorded in Scripture in the Garden of Eden follows this very pattern. If you listen to the voice of Adam and Eve, Genesis chapter 3 verse 9, but the little God called the man, where are you? Adam, he answered, I heard you in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid. Now God knows something's wrong because he's been naked from the beginning, but now he's aware of it. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it. Isn't that the pattern? Isn't it always the pattern that we find something else to blame and we fall into temptation?

We may say, it's just the way that I am. That's too strong of a temptation with a person like me. I'm very vulnerable, that kind of temptation. I couldn't resist. I couldn't have the situation or the people that are involved, made it in power, made it in everything that I would fall into sin. Or my background made me what I am, or even more popular today, it's my DNA. I have a generic problem. I am very prone to this kind of sin. Maybe there's going to be a drug developed or some kind of gene therapy that can help you with your particular besetting sin. Of course, all of that is a dodge. All of that is blame shifting. And ultimately, that is always blaming God. We just can't face the fact that we have made some bad choices on our own.

We've made the decision. When somebody asks you, why did you sin? The legitimate answer is because I wanted to and I decided to. Our blame shifting, when we blame anything, it leads ultimately to blaming God because He is a sovereign God who is in control of this universe. He could have kept that person out of your life. He could have kept you out of that situation. And when we do this kind of blame shifting, we end up being angry with God and we distrust God because we either minimize Him, we either begin to believe that He's less than sovereign and He really has, does not have control. There's a whole movement within the evangelicals and today it's not very large, but it's powerful and it's very vocal that our teaching that God does not know the future.

That God does not know what you're going to do. But hopefully we believe He's going to ultimately win because He's so powerful. That's unbiblical. What the Bible clearly teaches is that God knows the end from the beginning. And He knows the very intensively of heart. He not only knows what you're going to do, He knows why you're going to do it. Many times you don't even know why. But He does. And we are tempted often when we begin to blame others or other things or circumstances for our problems, we end up blaming God ultimately. Cemptation is deceiving. And that's why James says here, do not be deceived, my brother. When it comes to temptation, it's very self deceiving. When we give him the powerful temptation, so James is going to explain to them what the dynamic of temptation is.

We have first got to stop blaming God. I have to accept responsibility for my sin. That's where we begin. In fact, in 1 John 1.9, when John says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our righteousness, the word confess homo again means to say the same thing that God does. In other words, it means to take responsibility for your sin. There's a Bible teacher on the radio. He's a good man, but he teaches something that I think is so undermining of the Christian life. He teaches, and you will hear this, because he's all the radio every single day in the afternoon, who tells you that you don't have to confess sin as a believer. Since you have your sins have been forgiven, that Christ died for you, and your sins are all been forgiven.

In fact, he teaches that the sins of every person who's already been forgiven, and the only problem with people outside of Christ, they just don't have life. Their sins are forgiven, but they don't have life. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, in our trespasses and sins, and that we are culpable for them, and that there's a damn judgment coming in which God is going to judge us for our sins unless we flee to Christ. And he teaches that, the believer wants you to enter into salvation, and you should never have to confess your sins. That you just need to reckon the fact that they've already been forgiven and go on. Don't bother God with your sins.

John is speaking to believers in 1 John 1.9, and he says to us believers, we believers who he wants to encourage to have a lively and powerful and ongoing relationship with the Father to confess our sins. Not to deny that we have sin, not to deny that we have sin, but to confess our sins. To take responsibility for them, it's something we need to do in order to be free. And so John commands that James tells us the alternative is to blame something else. So the first thing we have to do is stop them and go up to the temptation. The second is to understand the dynamics of temptation. James is very specific here in this context. He says 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.

Now notice that expression. He says each one is tempted. In other words, every person is going to experience temptation, and every person is going to experience the same dynamics of temptation. If you're thinking that you are not timpable, then you are foolish in a biblical sense. We are timpable, and we desperately need the work of a spirit in our lives in order not to succumb to temptation. Every person experiences the dynamics of temptation. And notice this in the text. He does words when he is carried away, beginning of verse 15, then when lust is conceived, and then when sin is accomplished, there is a sequence here. In other words, there is one step after the other. There is a concentration here.

There is one thing that happens after the other. There is a pathway, in other words. One step after the other. And once you start going down this path, James says these are the things that occur. These consequences. First there is provocation. He describes it as being carried away and enticed by our own lust. That provocation is the strong pull from the desires of the flesh. This way, lust continues in a positive sense or a negative sense. For example, in Galatians chapter 5, he talks about the lust of the spirit and the lust of the flesh. The lust of the Holy Spirit are the strong, deep desires. Deep down inside that the spirit produces in us to be obedient to the Father, to love Him, obey Him, and walk in obedience with Him.

But there are also desires of the flesh. The desires of our fallenness, a desire that needs our needs independently of God. And those are the desires he is talking about. And when there is the strong pull from the desires of the flesh, we have begun. This is where the battle is. And this is where we decide either to go down one path or another. Where the flesh sets its desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, where these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. You have to say no and you have to say yes. Living the Christian life means you do have to say no to some desires. So provocation is the first thing that arises. The desires, the lust, the strong desires of the flesh to meet my needs, to be saved from a particular situation through satisfying the desires of the flesh.

Secondly, there is conception. First, there is this appeal. And sometimes these lusts of the flesh are triggered by various things that are stimulating the world system within the world system. John says, or the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful part of life. What he is describing there is the fact that the world system is designed in such a way to attract you to go down a path to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Every time you see something that raises within your imagination, this desire to fulfill a desire of the flesh to meet your needs instead of being obedient to God, that's the moment that the struggle begins. And the second thing is conception. That is embracing the desire.

When we embrace that desire, when we own it as our own, and when it becomes an image in the mind, this is exactly how the Old Testament pictures it. It's when we begin to fantasize about fulfilling that lust of the flesh, whatever it is. For example, in Genesis chapter 6, in fact, I don't know how you turn there. Turn with me back to Genesis 6. Genesis 6 is the account of the flood. What led to the flood? What led to the flood? In which Noah, as Father was saved from, was God's judgment upon the earth for a very particular reason. Listen to the description here. In verse 5 of Genesis 6, Moses writes, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts, hear that expression?

Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he grieved in his heart. And then he says, I will block out man because I have created whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things into bourgeois sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. And then we have these wonderful words. In verse 8, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. That expression noticed every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. There were intent here, yet there comes from the Hebrew word, the Hebrew word, is a word that is used for a potter. A potter takes a piece of clay and he forms it into something.

He makes it into something. He creates something. And if he is a good potter, he can create something very beautiful and creative. That word is used to describe the things that we create in our imagination. The images that we create in our imagination, they become so vivid to us, we call it fantasizing. We create the image and we linger. We think about the image. We think about what it would feel like and be like to fulfill that desire in that particular way. So first there is provocation. Then there is conception. When we take hold of that thing and it becomes a vivid image in our mind, the word for conception and the Old Testament, what it was in the Hebrew word for conception, refers to the attaching the coupling of the fertilized seed to the body of its mother.

When that joining takes place, right begins. And he says, this is what happens. There is a coupling. The rest, we are exposed to the rest, which we all are because we are far human beings. We experience strong desires, but then when we begin to imagine the fulfilling of that strong desire, conception has taken place. And then James says, the third is action. When we actually do the sin, we have already desired it deeply. Jesus said that those desires are so powerful. In the several of them out, he says, if a man even looks at a woman to rust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Jesus is not teaching that those kind of thoughts are the same thing as doing it. What he is saying is, when you do the sin, it is because you have already decided to do the sin in your heart.

Rupert, me, at a couple of places, March after seven. March after seven. This is really where the battle in the Christian life is. It is in the heart. It is when we are dealing with what is going on within our hearts. It is not the externals. That is why proliferating rules about how we are to live the Christian life in a local church. When we come up with a set of rules that people must live by in order to be a part of a fellowship, it will not change people. Because the issue is the heart. And the great example of this is the Pharisees. They live a certain kind of righteousness externally, but their hearts work out. Their hearts, what they did on the outside, was not with proper motive. The motor of their heart was corrupt.

Jesus explained something here. He was being criticized because he wasn't following the dietary for the eating ritual laws of the Pharisees that had been developed. Not the script, not just the biblical law, but what had been added to it. And he explains to them that it is not what goes in them, man, that corrupts him, that defiles him before God. As long as it goes in, that defiles him so he's not put the stand in the presence of God. It's not what he eats. It's what comes out of his heart. And listen to this in verse 20. That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, manners, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality.

That's dirty mindedness. That is an issue of the heart when a man sits before a computer screen and looks at pornographic images on that screen, what's happening is there are fornications going on in his heart. That's what proceeded right. That's murder of adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and fierceness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. In another place in Matthew 12, Jesus says that what we say with our mouth reveals what's in our heart. And that's the real issue. It's what's going on in the heart. What's going on in the heart? And so James is telling him, this is where the battle is. It's the battle in the heart.

So first in this process is the provocation, the lust, and whatever next week we're going to look at this process and what we ought to be doing as we live the Christian life and in response to temptation, specific steps we ought to be taking that we've been commanded to, you know, to have victory in the Christian life over sin because Jesus didn't save us simply to forgive our sins. He saved us to deliver us from the power of sin. Not just the penalty, but the power. Provocation, conception, action, sin. Sin is the act itself, fulfilling the desire. That's what Paul describes as the work of the flesh. Sin, John says, in 1st John 3, 4, is a lawlessness. Honour me, a lawlessness means I'm rebelling against God.

I tell you what's happened in the church today because it's happening in the world. When people think of sin or wrongdoing, if you prefer, I know sin is kind of out of sync with what's going on in our culture. And there are actually creatures who tell you you should never use the word sin. You should say, wrongdoing because when you say sin, people think you're only talking about, you know, living in adultery. Sin, that word sin is a good, biblical word. Honour me, it means an act of rebelliousness against God. And it doesn't matter what it is. Now here's what's happened in our culture. We have so psychologized the inner life that instead of sin, we think of ourselves as having these dynamics going on inside.

These psychological, physiological dynamics going on inside. We're simply trying to meet our unmet needs. I am just a needy person and I have a great need and this thing fulfills my need. And all I'm doing is trying to fulfill my need. There's some truth to that. But the problem is that act of fulfilling your need in that way is open-faced, inward-faced, rebellion against God. You know when God told Noah, I want you to go down to Nineveh and I want you to go to that wicked city, the most wicked city on the face of the earth at that time in history. And Jonah, I want you to go to that city and I want you to preach to them and declare them with the judgment of God is about to fall upon them. You remember Noah, Fred?

I mean Jonah, Fred? Noah is in the art of Jonah's in the well. And Jonah, Fred, because he didn't want to do it, God said. He didn't want to go to Nineveh and preach for God's will that city. You know why? Because he said, I know that God will be merciful to them if they repent. And I don't want you to want to tell them those judgment coming. I just want the judgment to come. And so it says Noah, Jonah, Fred from the face of the Lord. I don't know. Where can you flee from the face of the Lord? Since God is omnipresent and he was with you this past week, every moment of your life, he was right there with you. You were in your space when you sinned. You can't escape this presence. Sin is an act of rebellion against the commandments of God.

In fact, Paul says that even if I am doing something that I believe God doesn't want me to do, and it's not really true. For example, some people have certain scruples that are not biblical. Paul talks about in first Corinthians and also in Romans. Some of the early church felt that was sin for them to eat meat that had been offered to idols. Paul says, there's really nothing all of that meat because those idols are simply pieces of wood or stone. But if you believe it's wrong for you to do it is an act of rebellion. You're sinning against God by sinning against your conscience. We need to understand that what sin is sin is rebelliousness against God. It's righteousness. If we could get that through our heads at the proper moment and realize the significance of the act itself, what I'm doing.

I'm shaking my fist in the face of God and saying, I don't believe you'll meet my need. I'm going to meet my need my own way. That's exactly what Adam and he did. And that's why we're here today. Where we are in this fallen world. So first there's provocation. That is, we feel the desire. That's not sin. It's a common experience. There are probably moments in your life when things are difficult. That you have a desire to fool your responsibility. You've probably even had desires at times. Do you wish you weren't married to the person you're married to? That's a, that is a lust of the flesh. That's a desire of the flesh. It's not sin for that thought to come in your mind. It's indicative of something, but it's not sin for that thought to rise in your mind.

But then there is consumption and that is embracing the desire. Imagining what it would be like to fulfill that desire. And then finally the action during the desire. Committing the act of sin. Provocation, conception, action. And then there's consequence notice. It says when sin is accomplished. The word accomplished here means full well. Completed. There's really a beautiful comparison here. Start comparison. He's going to talk in the next few verses about how God gives life through birth. He gave you spiritual life through birth. And he says sin also gives birth to something. Our lust gives birth to something. And when that thing that you give birth to, that sin is brought to completion. The consequences.

When it is accomplished, the consequences are death. Paul says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sin produces death. You may not feel the death immediately. Now it's true that if you're saved, if you have put faith in Jesus Christ, there's therefore no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus as we sang this morning. You will never come under judgment. But you know you will experience a kind of death when that sin comes to be full grown in your life. You will experience a death. A real kind of death in your Christian life. The Apostle Paul says in the 8th chapter of Romans. If you live according to the flesh, if you're responding to these desires of the flesh, you're about to die.

You're about to experience a kind of spiritual death. You know sometimes Christians get so used to living in a kind of spiritual death that they forget what it's like to actually experience the life that has been given to them by grace. If you are living on the first, you must die. That word must means about to. You're about to die. You're right on the edge. But if by the spirit you are putting the death, the deeds of the body. That is what he means by that. You're snuffing out these rusts before they become axe. Then you will live. You will continue to enjoy the glorious fellowship with the Father, with the spirit. There's a cycle here that he describes for us of sin. There is lust and then sin and then death.

It's a vicious cycle. And we continue to give in to the lust of the flesh. We begin to have these patterns of sin. In fact, the Bible says it can become to so dominate our lives that we can be called by certain things. By the sin that we can commit. We can be called liars or fornicators or thieves. Because we get into that sin so often it becomes the life dominating sin in our life. It becomes a habit. It becomes so enslaving that we feel like we can't be set free from it. But the answer of God is the cross of Jesus Christ. The thing that sets you free from the power of sin is the same thing that is set you free from the penalty of sin. It is the cross of Jesus Christ. So what are we to do? Stop blaming God for the temptation, understand the dynamics of temptation.

The reason it's important to do that is you need to nip it in the bed. If you are playing mind games, if you're fantasizing about sin, make be sure that you are being displeasing to God. Because that is exactly what Jesus is talking about when he says when a man looks on a woman to lust after he is committed adultery with her already in his heart. And be sure that it's going to lead to sin. So James is warning us stop it at the beginning. That's why you need to make wise decisions about what you expose yourself to. You don't believe you should set rules for people some way or time like this yesterday morning about watching going to the movies. And should Christians go to our rated movies? I don't think that's the question.

The question is should Christians put themselves in situations where they are tempted? Where they experience these first two phases of temptation? And the answer is absolutely not. Paul said to Timothy, Timothy, flee youthful lusts. Free those things that cause you to be tempted, run from them. There are some g-rated movies you shouldn't see because they're so pagan in their assumptions and worldview that they're corrupting. But going to the movie is not the problem. It's having enough wisdom not to expose yourself to those things that puts you in a tentable situation. It causes you to dwell on the lusts of the flesh and how to fulfill them. What it's like in Scripture, what the Scripture describes it as is idolatry.

When I look at those lusts of the flesh and I fantasize about them, I'm bowing down to an old idol that I turned from to believe on Christ. It's spiritual adultery. It's why James is going to say in chapter 4, you adulterousness. Don't you know the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Don't you know that our system is designed to suck you in? It is designed for, is to present things to your eyes that will cause the lusts of the flesh to arise within your heart so that you can fantasize and ultimately fulfill those desires. This is the words of Paul, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not. It's a double negative. In Greek, you can have a double negative in English. It would be a positive, but in Greek, when you have a double negative, it means by no means will you carry out the desire of the flesh if you walk by the Spirit.

The final thing is, James says that we are to rely on God's character in the temptation. When we are being tempted, instead of blaming God, we need to rely on God. Most of what he says, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of the lights within there is no variation or shifting shadow. God is unchangeable. You should never suspect that he is tempting you to evil because he is the one who gives every good gift. He doesn't give bad gifts. There is no variation or shifting shadow and he doesn't change. He is immutable. His heart towards you is the same. His love is everlasting. His commitment to you is everlasting. That's why he won't let you stay in your sin, by the way.

If you are living in sin right now, he is not going to end your believer. You come to faith in Christ, you are a child of God. He is not allowed you to stay in that. He won't because he is a God who gives good gifts and he is unchangeable. He says in verse 18, in the exercise that as well, he brought us forth. He causes to be forgotten, born by the word of truth, that is the gospel, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. He is the one who gave you the new birth. He is the one who put his life in you. He is certainly not going to put temptation in your path to deceive you. The question is that we have to answer as believers. As disciples of Jesus Christ, that is what a believer is.

A Christian is not something that is religion. A Christian is somebody who is a disciple of Jesus Christ. He has bowed the knee to Christ. He is confessing his mouth that Jesus is Lord and that he deserves our absolute obedience and love and faith and life. And so we have to ask ourselves, well I trust God to meet my needs through Christ. If you were to stop and contemplate for a moment about the sins that you struggle with right now in your life, and it doesn't matter what it is, some people don't think of some things in their life as sin that they are continually given to. Some people slander all the time. They gossip and slander, and they never think of it as sin. And yet it is one of the most horrendous sins in the Word of God for us to destroy other people by the use of our mouth, destroying people's reputation in the eyes of some person.

And we don't think of it as sin. But the reason we do that sin is because we give them the temptation. And the reason it seems so easy to do it is because we have given into it so often. As far as to give you an assignment this week and say, oh here's your simple assignment. This entire week I don't want you to say anything negative about anybody. Now one time, just been this week, and if the conversation comes up, you just exit the conversation. And I'll say anything negative about any other person. I can guarantee you without even doing the experiment that you couldn't keep it. And we are so used to those kinds of sins, or are there other sins that are much more serious if you have an addiction to some kind of sin, pornography, or sexual sin, or drugs, or drunkenness, or whatever it is, stealing it.

God wants to do everything from that. And what we must do is we must trust God to meet our needs, because the reason that we get into that pattern is we don't believe God will meet our needs. And that's why we latch on to the rest of the flesh. These strong cravings to fulfill a felt need instead of allowing God to bring deliverance to our lives. That's what the whole Bible is about. The book of Isaiah, clear with it. Clear with words from God to the nation of Israel who refuse to wait on God and trust him to meet their needs. God clearly tells him how he will deliver, how he will meet the need, but they can't wait. They just can't wait. And so they plunge into rebellion and sin and finally into bondage in Babylon.

And that's why that was to our lives. Secondly, while I admit my problem is without blame shifting. You know, it's a huge thing for you simply to say, the reason I sin is because I want to sin. The reason I commit that sin is because I want that sin more than I want God at that moment. That's why I sin. It's not my circumstances. It's not what has been following me in life. It's not because God has not met my needs. It's because I wanted to sin. Third, while I cling to the truth in the face of my own delusion. This is where the issue is I must rather live in a fantasy world and lie to myself about my sin than to face the truth. And go through the painful process, but the glorious process of experienced deliverance from the power of sin in my life.

And then finally, will I take the appropriate action? That's what we're going to talk about next week. What is the appropriate action in our Christian life? What are we supposed to be doing in order to be delivered from the domination of temptation in our life? How do we live free? How do we live freely under the lordship of Jesus Christ and live an obedience to His will? There are some areas in your life that you can think of right now, just the privacy of your own thought life. Some areas where you know your rebellious against God and what you're hoping is that those areas that you think you are obedient will outweigh this one area that you have where you know you are disobedient. God wants to deliver you from that bondage and set you free.

That's why Christ came to die on a cross. We'll look at that next week and see how the gospel actually applies to my daily life and the struggle I have with the temptation of sin. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for the truthfulness of Your Word. We thank You that it is as we read it, it's like a sharp sword that penetrates our hearts. And it cuts deep, it divides, and it lays me bare before you. And I get a look at myself the way you see me. But I thank You that the right of Hebrews says those very words. He immediately goes on to say that we have a sympathetic high priest who's touched by the feelings of our weakness. And who is alive to intercede for us. I pray that You help us as Christians who have experienced the deliverance of salvation, to experience the deliverance of that same salvation on a daily basis.

Help us Father to live lives of freedom in the power of the Spirit I pray. I pray Your Word would press upon our lives. If we need to make changes, if we need to make a decision to confess to You the truth about our sin and to move in a completely different direction, I pray You give us the courage and the power by the Spirit to do that. Please work in our hearts. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank You. I'll do the right thing I'm going to do.