BATTLING WITH LUST BIBLICALLY



BATTLING WITH LUST BIBLICALLY

James 1:13-15

Sermon by:

Rev. J. Overduin

Published by the

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

OF THE

FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA

Sermon by: Rev. J. Overduin

Liturgy:

Opening Psalter: 69:1, 2, 4

Scripture Reading: James 1:1-18

Text: James 1:13-15

Psalter 428:2

Sermon

Psalter 40:1, 5, 6

Psalter 336

Psalter 383:5

Beloved Congregation,

In the third chapter of Genesis we read how Adam tried to lay the blame for his sin on God. At first Adam tried to get away from God. We find him hiding in the trees of the garden. But God called him to account for what he had done. And what did Adam say to God? “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen. 3:12). Adam tried to put the blame for his sin first on his wife, but ultimately on God. He spoke of the woman whom God had given to be with him. So what he really was saying is that God was responsible for what had happened.

We do the same thing ourselves again and again. Sometimes we say: “Well, I could not help it. It was my weakness.” But who was it who made us? God! So we are accusing God, our Creator, of being responsible for the sin for which we ourselves are responsible. Sometimes we blame it on the situation we are in. We say, for instance, “But you don’t know the place where I have to work, the kind of troubles I have to deal with. It is no wonder I fail.” But why are we in any given situation? Surely, it is because God has placed us there, and to blame the situation is ultimately to accuse God instead of accusing ourselves.

In our text James says: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.” “God,” he says, “cannot be tempted with evil.” There is a saying: “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.” Likewise, God is God and sin is sin and nothing could be further apart than these two. According to Habakkuk 1:13 God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.” How then, says James, could God possibly tempt a man to sin?

It is true that God sometimes puts His people in places where they will be tested and tried. God loves His children. Exactly because He loves them, He sometimes chastens them. When God chastens His children, it is His purpose that through testing they would become more fully grown in their spiritual life. Yet, though God tests us, He never tempts us to evil. James maintains that the temptation to evil comes not from God, but from ourselves.

“But,” you might say, “what about the devil? Does the devil not tempt us?” It is true, in Matthew 4:3 and in I Thessalonians 3:5, the devil is called “the tempter”. But here in our text, James doesn’t mention the devil at all. That does not mean that James did not believe in the reality of Satan because later in this same epistle he says: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” In our text, James is pointing us to our own personal responsibility. It is not God who tempts and, in a sense, even if there were no devil, you would still be in this condition, says James, because a man is led away by his own lusts. That is why he is enticed, how he ends in sin, and finally why he dies spiritually and eternally.

Let us look in this hour at what happens when a man is drawn away by his own lust and how we are to deal with lust.

I.

The word that is translated “lust” here in our text can be used in a good sense. It can also be translated by the word “desire”. It is the word that is used by the Lord Jesus Himself when He speaks of the Passover feast. According to Luke 22:15, He said, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover.” That was a good desire, wasn’t it?

However, in our text the word “lust” is not used in a good sense, but in a bad sense. It means a desire for that which is contrary to the will of God. That is why it is translated here by “lust”. The one trouble about this translation is that so often the word “lust” makes us think of a special sin, namely, the sin of loose living and immorality. It is true that lust does include that but it is also a much wider thing. Lust is any desire for anything that is contrary to the will of God. For instance, David lusted when he desired the wife of Uriah the Hittite, but he also lusted when he desired personal glory when he numbered the nation. The apostle John speaks of “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes” (1Jo. 2:16). By “the flesh,” the New Testament means this old nature which we have inherited from Adam.

When you plant a new plant in ground which is full of weeds, the plant itself may well be healthy and it may grow steadily, but you always have to deal with the ground, otherwise the weeds will soon kill the growing plant. Well, the new life which we receive from God, when we are born again of the Holy Ghost, is like this new plant. It is a healthy plant. It is growing and ultimately it bears fruit to God’s glory; however, it is planted in ground, which is full of weeds. This old nature of ours is corrupt and as long as we are here in the body there will always be this battle, this conflict.

From this corrupt nature of ours these sinful desires come forth. These form the lust that comes from the flesh. It is the kind of desire for that which may be right in itself, but when satisfied in the wrong way is completely displeasing to God. God gives us desires for our own good but they are to be used according to His law and in accordance with His purposes. The sad story of so many broken homes reminds us of the consequences of lust, when a man turns aside from the healthy use of that which God has given to him to use it in the wrong way.

Lust speaks of the desire of the body used to excess. God has given us a desire for food. That is a perfectly normal and healthy desire, and, in fact, a necessary one. But a glutton is a man who is letting that desire run to excess and go to extremes. The flesh lusts when our desires carry us on at the expense of other people and carry us in the direction of pleasing our own selves. As I said, the apostle John speaks of “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.” Through the eye things are presented to us which can stimulate the desires and the lusts of the flesh.

When John speaks of the lust of the eyes, he is not speaking simply of the fact that you can see. It is something deeper than that. For instance, you can walk along a street and you see, let us say, a food advertisement which gives you a healthy desire if you are going home for a meal. But then you see another advertisement, which fills your mind with totally different thoughts and makes you think in a wrong and foul way. You feel this is what you want; you give approval to it; you accept it. That is “the lust of the eyes.” So when Scripture speaks about “lust” it speaks of the old nature in action: this constant reaching out after that which is not of God but rather is displeasing to God. James tells us that there is where sin comes from. Do not mislead yourself. Do not think that sin comes from God. God cannot be tempted with evil. He does not tempt anyone to sin. No, sin comes from your own corrupt nature. It comes from the lusts of the flesh.

Then, in verse 15, James speaks in very vivid terms of the consequences of lust. He speaks of lust conceiving, becoming pregnant, as it were, and bringing sin to the birth. As we read these verses of our text we are reminded of that realistic picture which we find in the seventh chapter of the Book of Proverbs. It shows us a young man is enticed by a loose woman. The whole story is pictured before us into detail. The foolish young man goes along. He is caught with the enticing word and the attractive look, and he goes down into moral and spiritual disaster.

Well, now, this is precisely the kind of picture that James has in our text. He pictures a man who is going steadily forward on a certain path and then is enticed. He is enticed, not by someone outside himself, but by his own desires. He is taken in tow, as it were. The inward desires, these unclean, sinful desires, call us and they present the object of our desires in such an attractive way that we feel pulled in that direction. James says: this brings ugly consequences. When a man embraces his own lusts, lust conceives, lust becomes pregnant, and lust brings forth as a result of that true conception. What it brings forth is sin. Now the very lust, this desire for that which is not of God, is of itself sinful. But what James is thinking of here is of sin, as it were, becoming a concrete reality: a sin of thought, word, or deed coming to birth. He says lust is this springing up of sinful desire which is welcomed, embraced, and received. The result is that it conceives and brings forth sin.

But that is not the end of the story. Sin, alas, is not stillborn. It is an ugly child, but it is strong. Sin does not remain as a weakly infant. It grows and, if it is not strangled at the birth, it become strong and mature. Indeed, says James, when it is finished, when it runs its full course, sin brings forth a child. Just as lust conceiving brought forth sin, so sin brings forth death. And by death James does not simply mean the end of our life here on earth, but he is speaking of eternal death, where a man is eternally shut out from God. This eternal separation from God is the grandchild of lust: lust brings forth sin and when it runs its full course, sin brings forth death.

Yes, here is the whole sorry story of the garden of Eden and here is the sorry story of the history of mankind ever since. Look at Eve when the temptation first comes to her. When she saw the tree that it was good for food, a delight to the eyes, a tree to be desired to make one wise, then she forgot all that she had heard from God: His great words of promise, how He would bless them, how they would be fruitful, how the earth would be for their benefit, how the world would be a glorious place in which to live. She forgot it all. The only thing she could think of was the object of her desire. She was led on and she gave way.

This really is spiritual history. This is what happens to every one of us. This is what has been happening right down the centuries. There stands our Creator. He speaks forth His law and He calls us to obedience to His will. He also speaks words of blessing. He loves His creatures and desires to give them everything which will make life rich, full, and glorious. His law is the expression of His will and His purpose for them. But what happens? Men, says James, are drawn away by their own lust. Evil desire speaks so loudly that you can no longer hear the voice of the Creator. Evil desire beats so strongly on your ear with its temptations that you no longer hear God’s Word and His law. All its threatenings are forgotten and the appalling consequences are ignored. And, just like Adam and Eve, men follow in the same sorry path of giving way and dying spiritually.

II.

If then this is the condition of us all, how are we to deal with sin in our lives? Surely, we are to deal with it when it dominates our lives. Sin has to be crushed right at its very beginnings. Indeed, we have to deal with it before it is conceived. We have to deal with lust! And if we are to do that, we must know not only the presence of sinful desires in our hearts, but also the strength and power of them. Perhaps we are ready to agree with what James is saying, but so often we do not honestly admit how terribly true this is for each one of us personally.

What does the Bible say about human nature? It is not the optimistic appraisal which men give. Listen to Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Or listen to the apostle Paul, a man who lived a life of holiness and leaves us very far behind. He says: “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:20). When born, all men are totally corrupt. We are spiritually diseased: there is no health in us. If we are to live holy lives it is absolutely necessary that we always keep in mind that this is our condition. We must know the reality of lust within, and the sinfulness of that lust.

More than that: if we are to live holy lives it is absolutely necessary that we deny and reject lust in its first manifestation, as soon as it springs up. A man, who is happily married and whose thoughts are with his wife and family, will reject with contempt any wrong advances from someone without. He will be horrified at the very suggestion. “Well,” James would say, “Lust should appear to you like that.” Whatever the lust is, whether it is something sinful or whether it is something which seems to be more refined, you should look on it with horror and loathing. Not for one moment should you give support to it. It is something that is to be rejected completely and immediately.

Without doubt, that means that we have to deal with that from which the lust comes forth. In other words, we have to deal with the flesh or our sinful human nature. We have to deal with this ground which is full of weeds. We deal with it not by a single resolution at one particular time. We deal with it as a gardener deals with the ground: steadily, month in month out, continually dealing with the weeds. We have to deal with the ground from which the weeds of lust grow. We have to deal with our own nature and that is why the apostle Paul talks about discipline, about mortification or killing the deeds of the body.

Let us put it in very plain words. If we find that there is some magazine we take in our home, for example, or some type of literature that we usually read in our free time, and it is producing the wrong kind of feelings and giving support to the lusts of the flesh instead of enabling us to discipline ourselves, well, we are sure the true Word from God is that we should get rid of that which clearly we are unable to master. If we are looking at a television program or listening to something on the radio which has this kind of effect, strengthening and encouraging the lusts of the flesh and of the eyes, how can we continue giving support to them without being drawn away and enticed? If there is certain company or certain activities which strengthen the flesh over against the spirit, let us not be so stupid as to think that we can continue to show a form of piety and at the same time continue in such a path of disobedience.

Listen to Christ as He says: “If thine hand offend thee, cut if off and cast it from thee. If thy foot offend thee, cut if off and cast it from thee. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee” (see Mark 9). As you will understand, He was not speaking about literally cutting off hand or foot or tearing out an eye, but He meant to say: “If any activity of your hand is bringing you into bondage; if any place to which your feet take you brings you into spiritual slavery; if anything upon which you by habit look with your eye, strengthen your flesh against your spirit; see to it that you deal radically with these things.”

A life of true holiness is not an easy life. Holiness is a conflict and the chief enemy in the battle is not the world outside, but the flesh within. That is why Paul writes to the Corinthians and says: “I keep under my body and subdue it, I lead my body as my slave.” The Roman slave had no rights of his own. He simply acted at the command of his master. Paul says: “That is the way I deal with my body; I am not going to let it master me. The desires of the body are not going to be my master; they are going to be my slave” (I Cor. 9:27). He writes to the Romans in the same tone: “If ye through the Spirit do mortify (that means: to kill) the deeds of the body, you shall live” (Romans 8:13). He writes to the Colossians saying: “Mortify” (again this thought), “kill,” “mortify your members which are upon earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). Deal radically with them, without pity. We are to be gentle with others. When we look at others in their sin and their failure, the word comes to us: “Judge not that ye be not judged.” But while we are very tender and compassionate with others in their sin, there is not to be one shred of pity for ourselves. To ourselves we have to have a heart as hard as a stone. We are to deal with ourselves in terms of discipline and mortification.

This certainly is negative. But holiness of life is not only a dealing with the sinful nature which brings forth the lust, sin, and death. We have to set our hearts positively upon holiness. So while on the one side you deal firmly with the flesh and its desires, Paul says positively: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phi. 4:8). If we fill our minds with the filthiness and foulness of the world, we need not be surprised if our spiritual life goes down. We are called to set our minds on that which is pure and clean and wholesome. In these days we move in a thoroughly tainted atmosphere. The standards of the world around us have dropped lower and lower. It is very easy to let our minds dwell on these things. No, says Paul, you let your mind dwell on that which is good and true and pure, because, as James tells us, God is not tempted with evil. God and evil are poles apart. So, if you flee from evil, you fly to God and that is holy living! In Colossians, on the other hand, Paul says: “Mortify the deeds of the body, mortify the flesh,” but he says also positively, “if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Let your first thought in the early morning be on Christ and the glory of the Savior. Let your last thought at night, before you go to bed, be - not on the tainting thoughts of the day - but upon Christ, this glorious Savior, this great High Priest, this One who was made man for us. He faced the temptations that we face, but faced them without sin, and now is our sympathetic High Priest. He understands us. He enables us to win the victory.

As we have seen, James is a realist. He deals with human nature, not as men would like to think it is, but as it really is. He deals with human nature in its lust, its uncleanness, and its sinfulness. If we want proof of what James is saying here in our text, I don’t have to leave this pulpit and you don’t have to leave that pew, nor do you need to think about the other person who sits with you in the pew. You and I only need to look into our own heart to see the corruption that is there – the corruption that so readily results in wrong desires and sinful thoughts, words and deeds. Yes, we must learn to know our own heart – that heart, which, according to God’s own word, is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked;” this nature, which is constantly hungering and thirsting, not after God and purity and holiness, but after that which is unclean and displeasing to God.

O, may God give us grace in this very hour to open our eyes wide and to see ourselves as we really are with honesty. James tells us in the fourth chapter of this same epistle: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (v.10). That call comes to each and every one of us, beloved: “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord,” for, says James, “God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.” Yes, God gives grace unto the humble. Why? Because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and is still doing. He shall save His people from their sins – save them not only from the guilt and the punishment of sin, but also from the pollution of sin. He saves them in the way of regeneration, conversion, faith, justification and sanctification. That is why the Christian in our Heidelberg Catechism testifies: “My faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from all the power of the devil, also preserves me, and by His Holy Spirit He makes me heartily willing and ready to live unto Him.”

If by His grace we are His children, let us praise Him for this healthy plant that is now growing within our life, but let us realize how much conflict there is and how much conflict there will be! Let us pray God that He will give us an utter abhorrence of sin in every shape and form. Let us pray that we will be disgusted at every manifestation of sin. Let us pray that God will make us able to be disciplined in our living and thinking, so that we would mortify the flesh, keep it under and make our bodies and the desires of the body our servants instead of letting them become our masters.

But above all, every day and every hour, let us set our minds, by God’s grace, upon that which is holy, that which is pure, and that which is lovely. Where is purity, holiness and loveliness to be found? It is found partly in the creation where we see God’s handiwork, but it is found above all in this glorious Son of God. Here is the antidote to filth of mind and soul. Let us look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us think about Him. Let us know what it means to dwell day by day much in the presence of our living, all pure, all righteous Savior, because as we dwell much with Him, then we see, yes, what we really are in ourselves. But then we will also see that our calling is to mortify the flesh and as Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, to “set your affection on things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”

Amen.

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