There is an old saying, “The Devil Made Me Do it.” However, James refutes this excuse when he writes in James 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
What are evil desires?
Mark7:21 - For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
It appears that these evil desires come from within us. How can that be?
Where do evil desires come from?
Looking at the of man and his relationship with God we see that Adam and Eve were comfortable, not understanding god and evil, but just experiencing the joy of being with God. But that changed. In Gen 2:15-17 we read, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.””
And when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their eyes were opened and they understood good and evil. This is when mankind was exposed to good and evil; and our hearts were forever changed to be able to store up good and evil in our hearts.
We need to b careful here because we are not imputing the sins of Adam and Eve’s sins against all mankind believing that we are born guilty of sin. What we are saying that because of Adam and Eves sin, mankind has the knowledge of good and evil and has the propensity for sin and can store up good and evil in our hearts.
Matt 12:35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
Matt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Mark 7:21-23 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed?
What are we dragged away from?
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Our evil desires drag us away from our relationship with God.
What does it mean that we are enticed?
The Greek word used here is Deleazo, and it means “to bait; to catch with a bait.”
Who is doing the dragging?
Is Satan dragging us or are our desires dragging us?
We are dragged away from God with our as a direct rejection of God. The ability to do so comes from Satan the temper introducing mankind to sin. It’s therefore correct to say we are dragged away by our evil desires which are a result of the scheming of Satan
After desire has conceived it gives it gives birth to sin.
When does this happen, when we are tempted or when we give in to temptation?
Sin begins when our evil desires bait s into committing sin.
What is full grown?
Sin when it is full grown gives birth to death.
Sin is full grown when it has you in its death grip. When you are living in sin as a lifestyle. When we commit a sin we are not separated from God, if you are a baptized Christian. When you introduce sin as a regular part of our living we become adulterers, thieves, slanderers and the like.
What is death?
Eph 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
All sin can be described in three categories as pointed out in 1 Joh 2:16 which says, “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
Matt 4:1-11 – The temptation of Jesus
If we look at Jesus temptation, we see that He was tested with lust of the flesh – turn these rocks into bread; lust if the eyes – Satan promised to give Him all the kingdoms of the world; and the pride of life – throw yourself down, the angels will protect you.
It is from one or more of these categories is where our evil desires begin.
Let’s look at an example
· Let’s use the example of a thief.
· Evil desires
o What is the evil desire of a thief?
§ Lust of the eyes – I want “it.”
o What entices them?
§ Their desire.
o What are they dragged away from?
§ Their relationship with God.
o At what point are evil desires conceived?
§ When they are acted on.
o When are they dead?
§ When they embrace stealing a part of their lifestyle.
Philosophical Questions
We all have desires, or evil desires within us. Does that make us guilty or does it just make us capable of sin?
· It just makes us capable of sin. We receive guilt when we actually commit the sin
What is the tipping point between having desire and being enticed?
· The tipping point is when we begin obsess over our desire.
Does it make sense to say that we all have evil desires within us and are we all capable of being enticed and drug away to our spiritual death?
· Yes, we all have good and evil in our hearts and we are engaged in a war for our souls.
Isn’t this part of the reason that Paul writes in 1 Cor 10:8 - We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Absolutely, we are under a constant battle to be Christ like and Godly. We need to stay on track towards our heavenly goal. We begin by controlling our thoughts and focusing them on the things above.
What are evil desires?
Mark7:21 - For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
It appears that these evil desires come from within us. How can that be?
Where do evil desires come from?
Looking at the of man and his relationship with God we see that Adam and Eve were comfortable, not understanding god and evil, but just experiencing the joy of being with God. But that changed. In Gen 2:15-17 we read, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.””
And when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their eyes were opened and they understood good and evil. This is when mankind was exposed to good and evil; and our hearts were forever changed to be able to store up good and evil in our hearts.
We need to b careful here because we are not imputing the sins of Adam and Eve’s sins against all mankind believing that we are born guilty of sin. What we are saying that because of Adam and Eves sin, mankind has the knowledge of good and evil and has the propensity for sin and can store up good and evil in our hearts.
Matt 12:35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
Matt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Mark 7:21-23 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed?
What are we dragged away from?
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Our evil desires drag us away from our relationship with God.
What does it mean that we are enticed?
The Greek word used here is Deleazo, and it means “to bait; to catch with a bait.”
Who is doing the dragging?
Is Satan dragging us or are our desires dragging us?
We are dragged away from God with our as a direct rejection of God. The ability to do so comes from Satan the temper introducing mankind to sin. It’s therefore correct to say we are dragged away by our evil desires which are a result of the scheming of Satan
After desire has conceived it gives it gives birth to sin.
When does this happen, when we are tempted or when we give in to temptation?
Sin begins when our evil desires bait s into committing sin.
What is full grown?
Sin when it is full grown gives birth to death.
Sin is full grown when it has you in its death grip. When you are living in sin as a lifestyle. When we commit a sin we are not separated from God, if you are a baptized Christian. When you introduce sin as a regular part of our living we become adulterers, thieves, slanderers and the like.
What is death?
Eph 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
All sin can be described in three categories as pointed out in 1 Joh 2:16 which says, “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
Matt 4:1-11 – The temptation of Jesus
If we look at Jesus temptation, we see that He was tested with lust of the flesh – turn these rocks into bread; lust if the eyes – Satan promised to give Him all the kingdoms of the world; and the pride of life – throw yourself down, the angels will protect you.
It is from one or more of these categories is where our evil desires begin.
Let’s look at an example
· Let’s use the example of a thief.
· Evil desires
o What is the evil desire of a thief?
§ Lust of the eyes – I want “it.”
o What entices them?
§ Their desire.
o What are they dragged away from?
§ Their relationship with God.
o At what point are evil desires conceived?
§ When they are acted on.
o When are they dead?
§ When they embrace stealing a part of their lifestyle.
Philosophical Questions
We all have desires, or evil desires within us. Does that make us guilty or does it just make us capable of sin?
· It just makes us capable of sin. We receive guilt when we actually commit the sin
What is the tipping point between having desire and being enticed?
· The tipping point is when we begin obsess over our desire.
Does it make sense to say that we all have evil desires within us and are we all capable of being enticed and drug away to our spiritual death?
· Yes, we all have good and evil in our hearts and we are engaged in a war for our souls.
Isn’t this part of the reason that Paul writes in 1 Cor 10:8 - We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Absolutely, we are under a constant battle to be Christ like and Godly. We need to stay on track towards our heavenly goal. We begin by controlling our thoughts and focusing them on the things above.
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