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Text: James 1:13-18 Title: Did the Devil Make Me Do It?

Intro: Illus. On a delightful spring day in 1918, the inhabitants of Baccaret, France, were amazed to see 100's of beautiful bouquets drifting from the skies. They were being dropped from enemy planes flying far overhead. Words of caution were immediately sounded by those
in authority advising the people not to pick up those appealing "gifts".
Squads of soldiers protected with masks destroyed them as rapidly as possible. Why? Because every bundle of flowers concealed a tiny balloon which could easily be broken. Each of them contained enough poison gas to inure and even kill anyone who tried to smell the attractive blooms!
Despite repeated warnings, many were unable to resist the urge to handle those tempting but dangerous boobytraps. Satan also scatters his beautiful invitations to evil along our way. Illus. Mark Antony was known as the "silver-throated orator of Rome." He was a brilliant statesman, magnificent in battle, courageous and strong. And he was handsome! As far as personal qualities are concerned, he could have become a world ruler. But he had the very vulnerable and fatal flaw of moral weakness, so much so that on one occasion his personal tutor shouted into his face, "Oh, Marcus, oh, colossal child! Able to conquer the world, but unable to resist a temptation." That indictment, I'm afraid, applies not just to Mark Antony, and not just to the people of the unsaved world. If the truth were known, it is applicable to many in the evangelical ranks. We all face temptation and it is a very real fact that many do not yet know how to resist it and overcome it when it appears. That, very simply is what I want to deal with here. Why is
temptation so successful? What makes it work? How can we handle it? Can we learn something that Mark Antony never did? How to resist it?
Temptations come to everyone. God doesn't want us to yield to temptation. He will spare us the experience of temptation. We are God's scattered people, not His sheltered people.
Our text gives us three considerations.

1. Look ahead - Consider God's judgments (13-16)
Look ahead - see where sin ends - death
Temptation = an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way, out of the will of God
Example: A good thing would be to get an "A" on a test. However, if we resorted to cheating so that we could get an "A", we would have given in to the temptation to do something good out of the will of God.
There is a difference between a trial and a temptation.
Trials are ordeals.. Tests of faith. Normally there is nothing immoral involved in experiencing a trial. A trial is a hardship. 
Temptation connotes the idea of soliciting evil. The dictionary states that temptation is the act of enticement to do wrong, by promise of pleasure or gain. Simply stated temptation motivates you to do something bad, by promising something good. What do you think of with the word
temptation? We usually think of sensual things.
You can be tempted to gossip, to steal, to lie, to hold a grudge. Lust is just the most common type of temptation.

I want to give you four facts about temptation.
1. Temptation is inevitable (13)
The key word is "when"
We are not immune from temptation

2. Temptation is not directed by God (13b)
1 Jn 1:5 - God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all.
Is. 6:3 - Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of Glory
Holy = separate from sin Is temptation sin?
Heb 4:15 - For we do not have a High priest that is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin.
Quote: John Blanchard - "We tend to blame. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on."

3. Temptation is an individual matter (14)
Attention: Nothing outsider ourselves is strong enough to cause us to sin - not even Satan. Sin takes place when we agree to the temptation and follow it.
Illus. At the Federal Reserve Bank there are stacks and stacks of money.
I've never seen it, so I cannot fathom the magnitude completely! These stacks are kept and counted. It is stated that behind large windows of bulletproof glass are workers who do nothing but count money. There are numerous stacks of 100 dollar bills, even 1000 dollar bills. My question and the author's question in this article were, "How can they stand it behind there?" The answer was, "everything is fine if they remember their job is counting only pieces of paper. If they begin to concentrate on what those pieces of paper represent, then there is a problem.
Open doors to sin face us all each day. The person centered on Christ says, "No way Jose!" 

4. Temptation that leads to sin always follows the same pattern. (15-16)
1. The bait is dropped
2. The inner desire is attracted to the bait.
3. Sin occurs when we yield - when we bite the bait
4. Sin results in tragic consequences - we end up hooked and fried!
David looked at his neighbor's wife - didn't see the consequences
The consequences:
Death of the baby formed from the sexual sin
Death of a brave soldier - Uriah
The bait prevents us from seeing the consequence of sin.
When you face temptation, look ahead to see the consequences of sin.

2. Look Around - Consider God's goodness (17)
Satan's ploy is to convince us that God does not love us or care for us.
God's goodness is a great barrier to temptation.
Facts about God's goodness
1. God gives only good gifts - 1 Cor 12:1-10
2. The way God gives is good
3. He gives constantly
4. God does not change
David should have remembered - 2 Sam 7 & 8 God's gifts are better than Satan's bargains. With the bargains, you end up paying for them dearly.

3. Look within - Consider Godly birth (18) Birth is used as a picture of our divine life.
We are born of the will of God- John 1:13 We are born through God's Word - 1 Pet 1:23
We battle because of our two natures.

Now what do we do?

1. Counteract temptation - Do not tolerate it - Rom 6:13 - "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body as instruments of righteousness." Resist and flee
2. Use right resistance - Prov 4:25, "Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you."
3. Remind yourself - Final pain will erase temporary pleasure. Heb 11:24,25 " Chose to be mistreated rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
4. Control your thought life - Use Scripture - Ps 119:9,11 "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I have hidden your world in my heart, that I might not sin against you."

Illus. In a quaint little village north of Pittsburgh, PA a shining new red brick building was built, designed to be the new city hall. It also housed the police and fire departments. It was a small building, but the people loved it. In a matter of a few months, however, the building
began to show some obvious cracks. The windows would not close all the way. Before too many weeks, the doors were ajar and would not shut. The floor buckled. Finally, the sidewalk in front of the building cracked.
In a period of less than a year, the building had to be condemned.
A careful expensive investigation was made, and it was found that deep below the surface they had built too near some mining work. The mining had weakened the foundational area, so that slowly but surely, this building was cracking, shifting sinking, dropping, and breaking into pieces because of a flaw underneath.
The moral of this isn't difficult to grasp. If you piddle around with temptation long enough, playing with it, lingering near its bait over and over and over again, then down in the heart and life of your character there will be permanent damage. That vulnerable flaw or weakness will lead to serious moral damage that you cannot imagine.
Come to terms with it now, or regret it. When temptation comes calling, let Jesus answer the door.