So James chapter one, verses 12 through 15 will be our text for us this morning. I’m trying to continue through the book of James through the rest of this year, pulling sermons from what I think is one of the greatest letters in the New Testament. James is so full of things for us to look at and apply and consider and wrestle with in our own minds.
And this morning, I want us to look at verses 12 through 15 and wrestle with what he says here. So let’s read it together, James chapter one, starting in verse 12. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Now, before we proceed into some practical application for us this morning from the text. I want us to question something that I think I’ve at least heard often said coming from this verse.
You know, sometimes we, we come up with phrases that we think certain things in Scripture say, and I’m not sure this phrase is exactly what James is trying to convey to us. The phrase I often hear said is, desires are not sinful as long as we don’t act on them. Maybe you’ve heard it said, you know, Tim, it’s not a sin to be tempted as long as we don’t act on the temptation.
Now, I don’t aim this morning in what we study to say that that’s always wrong. I think sometimes it’s true. Now we’re going to face temptation, and we've got to say no to it in order to avoid sin.
But my question is, is that what James means to say by this verse? That sin is only found in our actions and not in our desires. Is James saying desires are morally neutral, or is he saying that sin begins with our desires?
Now, here’s what I think the text says. And I hope as we study this morning that you can see from the text that what I think James is saying is something like this. I think James is telling us, your problem with sin is not that you are tempted.
But that you desire what you are tempted by. Notice again, verse 14. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
So Michael, where are you getting this from? Where are you getting this idea from — that our problem with sin isn’t just that we’re tempted, but that we desire the things we’re tempted by?
I’d say it’s from right here in verse 14. We’re tempted because our own desires lure us and entice us. Let me give you an example.
The person who doesn’t like sweets isn’t gonna be tempted to indulge in sweets, right? My dad, right now, he’s been for the past, um, 6 months, I guess, refraining from eating sweets, because he knows that that’s his biggest reason for not being in shape, right? He knows his biggest problem is when you set down a tray of freshly baked cookies in front of him. He's not going to have one.
He’s not going to have two. He’s gonna have like eight, right? And when you’ve got someone who can cook, like Rebecca can, my wife, you find that you have the same problem.
But the person who doesn’t like sweets doesn’t have that issue. And so I think James is showing us, at least in this verse, that we’re not lured and enticed by something external to us. The problem is with us.
We’re lured and enticed by what we love. Before the external ever shows up. James is saying, don’t blame God for your temptations because it’s you who desires what is evil. Now, before we go any further, I want to make a distinction in what I have to say so that we’re not confused.
Temptation Originates in Two Ways:
I think there are 2 ways that sin leads us into temptation. I think Scripture shows us this. I want to show you that this morning.
The 1st way is that sin will take a good desire and offer something perverted to satisfy it. The 2nd way is that sin will call an evil desire within us to act out. So temptation either seduces a good desire into sin, or it calls a sinful desire to come out. Let me give you some scripture to show my point.
Here’s what happens in Genesis 3 and verse six. So when the woman, this is Adam and Eve in the garden, 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
The tree was to be desired to make one wise. What’s wrong with wisdom? There’s nothing wrong with wisdom, right? God tells us to desire wisdom — throughout all the Proverbs. And yet, it led her into sin.
Look at Matthew chapter 4, verses 2 through 3. Jesus, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, became hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, if you’re the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Jesus was hungry. We’re hungry.
Some of you might be sitting there not having breakfast this morning, thinking, what are we going to do for lunch after this, right? There’s nothing wrong with being hungry.
It’s a natural desire that God has given us. But sin offered something perverted to satisfy that hunger in Jesus. And Jesus resists that temptation.
So sin will take a good desire and offer something perverted to satisfy it. Here’s the 2nd way that we are tempted. Sin takes a bad desire in us and calls it to act out.
Mark chapter 7, verses 21 through 23, Jesus tells us, “from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these things come from within. And they defile a person.”
Look at Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man, this is in the days of Noah, days of Noah, the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was on evil.” Ephesians 2: 1 through 3 describes us before we were saved. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, and look at our condition, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.”
So you see from all these verses that within us, there may lie some sinful desires, things that desire sin, desire evil, not good desires, but desires that are opposed to God’s will. And then of course, our text for this morning. James chapter one, 14 through 15. “But each person is tempted when he’s lured and enticed by his own desire, and then desire when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.”
Now, I want to make another clarification, because I think often the phrase that we come up with is, “It’s not a sin to desire. It’s just a sin when we act on that desire.” Or, “It’s not a sin that we are tempted. We just can’t act on that, right?”
We should not say that, according to this verse, specifically verse 15, “desire precedes sin; therefore, it isn’t sinful.” I don’t think that’s James’ point. Why is that the case?
Let’s read it together. Verse 14, “but each person is tempted when he is lured, and he is enticed by his own desire.” Now look at the progression of sin that James shows us in verse 15.
“Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.”
So maybe at face value, we read that verse, and we think, okay, desire, James is showing, comes before sin, right? Desire, when it’s conceived, gives birth to sin. Now, conception happens before birth. But then why wouldn’t we say the same thing about sin and about death?
“Sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.” Nowhere in Scripture is death separated from sin. You live in sin, you’re dead. That’s what scripture tells us. Those are your wages. Nowhere in the Bible is sin separated from the concept of death. You remember Paul says in Ephesians 2 and verse one that we just read, “you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” So why would we say that about desire?
And if we wanted to use James’ own analogy…I don’t think James, as I wouldn’t say, would say that conception and birth mean that life happens at two different times. I don’t think James would say that, that life only happens when we’re born, but maybe he would say that life begins when we’re conceived.
And so if we’re approaching it with that understanding of his analogy, then wouldn’t we say that sin doesn’t just happen after we give in to a desire, but sin may begin in our evil desires.
You see the logic there? Does that make sense? So James point is not to give us a timeline of when we start sinning, so we can make sure we’re not crossing the line. James’ point is to show us why we fall into temptation in the first place. James’ point is to show us the root of our sin so that we can dig it up and get rid of it. He’s not calling us to behavior modification, but to heart mutilation.
So James’ call to us in this verse, I think, is that we need to open our heart and dissect it. To find where our desires lie; that’s where our problem with sin is. So, no, scripture does not teach that our desires are morally neutral. So long as you don’t act on them. Scripture teaches that our problem with sin starts in our desires, and we need to make war with them.
No Serious Relationship Normalizes Foreign Desires
Okay. Now, why, Michael, you’ve made this point from James, but why is it so important?
Why is it so crucial that we understand this? You could have made a 1000 other points, Michael, but why bring this before us today? And the reason is, it’s important, because the way we understand this—that desire is where our sin sometimes begins.
The way we understand this affects our relationship with God. Here’s what I mean. No serious relationship that you and I have normalizes foreign desires.
No marital relationship works that way, right? You can look, just don’t touch. No spouse is okay with their partner feeling desire for someone else. Just don’t act on it. Right? Now, that’s ridiculous. Because... as your spouse, I don’t want to be the person you tolerate. I wanna be your only interest. The only one you have desire for, the only one you’re infatuated with. Wasn’t that part of your vows? I’m all yours. My heart, my thoughts, my eyes, and my desires, they all belong to you. I’m not giving that to anyone else. Because I don’t want anyone else.
So why do we act like that’s what we can do with our God? Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. Jesus tells us, “No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other. He will be devoted to the one or despise the other.”
Look at the contrast there. Not just, you can you can’t love both. You can’t say, I love God this much, but I also love these things, but that’s okay, right? As long as I just look. As long as I just desire and not act on that.
God says, you have to be opposed. to what he is opposed to. If any one phrase should define the Christian heart, it should be this: Love God and hate sin. That’s what, that’s the phrase that should define my disposition toward God and my disposition towards sin. I love him, and I hate what he is opposed to. So, this should be our objective: to love God and to hate sin, and it starts in our desires.
So, the question becomes for us—“Okay, what are we going to do about this?”What does Scripture call us to do about our desires? To change our desires, to bring them into submission to him? What does it cost us to do?
Look at Colossians chapter 3:5-6. Paul says, “Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Why? “On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.”
Paul says, You’ve got evil desires, things that are opposed to God, things that God hates. You love those things. Just put up with them. Just tolerate them. Be okay with them being there? No, that’s not what Paul tells us to do. And yet, that’s how so many of us live. I want to love God, but I have these desires that are opposed to him. I’ll just let them live there. No, that’s not what Paul says.
He says, put them to death. Rip up the roots. Kill your sinful desires. Make new ones, desires for God. Why? Because the wrath of God is coming. I want you to imagine for a second.
The Stakes Are High
What would happen? If today, you look down at your phone, and you get a news alert that says, global war has struck out; we’re under attack from foreign nations. If we fell under attack right now, every aspect of our lives would change; our jobs would change. Our day-to-day tasks and the things we pursued, they would change; our thoughts would change. Because we got to prepare. We gotta make ready, right? We got to make sure that we’re prepared to face battle in this war. We’re under attack. We gotta take shelter.
Yet we failed to realize that every moment of our lives—think about this—every moment of our lives, the stakes are way higher, the nuclear warfare. Our life would totally change if all of a sudden, New York City was struck with a nuclear bomb. Everything that we do right now, everything that we go forward doing would totally change. And yet, the stakes are way higher 24/7 than that. Why? Because hell is on the line.
God’s wrath and his favor toward us are on the line. So every aspect of our lives should change right now to fall in line with that reality.
So Paul calls us, since the stakes are way higher than global war, Paul calls us, to make war with your flesh, 1 Peter 2:11. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” Romans 7:23, “But I see in my members another law raging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells within my members.” We gotta make war, brothers and sisters.
So here’s my challenge to us this week and every day of our Christian lives, until Christ returns and resurrects our bodies and gives us new bodies with perfect desires. My challenge to us this week is this. Make war with your desires. This is a serious thing. You will be tempted this week.
I’m tempted by sin every day. I’m tempted by the desires that rain within me sometimes. tempted to let those come out and act in sin. Lots of times, we act like Satan’s the one attacking us. And so often it’s just us desiring sinful things. Desiring impatience. Desiring lust, desiring anything opposed to God. When you’re tempted this week, find the roots in your heart, and dig them up.
But here’s the thing. That won’t be good enough. To expel your heart of the sinful desires that live within it. That won’t be good enough. We have to replace them with new desires. Because if we don’t, we’ll just go back to them. If we don’t replace the sinful desires within us with more desirable things, then we’ll just go back to what gave us pleasure before. We must replace our desires with something greater, and that is God.
Listen to Psalm 119:37-42. David says this: “He makes a prayer to God, saying this. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared. Turn away the reproach that I dread, for the rules, your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts, and your righteousness give me life. Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.”
Right there, in that text I’ve underlined, 7 things—7 more desirable things than the sin that calls out desire within us.
If we can turn our minds to these things, and replace the desires we have with these desires for this. For steadfast love, for salvation, for righteousness, all these things are so much more desirable than sin. So when sin stirs up our desires this week...“No, sin, I have an answer for you,”—David says— “My Jesus, who is more beautiful than anything else, I desire him. I don’t want what’s worthless.” “I want life,” David says. “I want a joy that’s gonna last, not end. I want to be loved.”
Psalm 101:1-4, David says this, “I will sing of steadfast love and of justice to you, O Lord. I will make music. I will ponder the way that is blameless.Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house. Then in verse three, he says, I will not set before my eyes anything. that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me. I will know nothing of evil.”
If we’re going to be opposed to worthless things, to things that sin loves. If we’re going to hate sin and we’re going to have to cling to God’s steadfast love, and desire his love and his justice and his goodness on our behalf, then we’re gonna have to ponder those things as we talked about last week, to look at those, to meditate on those things so that we can walk with integrity.
