Blame Shifting • James 1:12-21
Notes
When we begin following Jesus we begin a process of being tested by God. His purpose is that we be humbled and made more dependent on God.
The future, the end of this process, is blessing, eternal life, immortality, and glory. In the meantime we learn humility. Humility means taking responsibility for what we do. Our sinful thoughts and actions are not God’s fault, they are not the devil’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault but mine.
The beginning of truth in the inner man ends with blessing and glory.
We’re reading in James 1 from verse 12.
1. The end of all the difficulty and suffering in our various trials is blessing.
A. Blessing is the approval of God.
1. God will say, I am pleased with you in every way. You are right in My sight.
2. The only person we have to please is God. His opinion is the only opinion that counts. If you please everyone and everyone says you’re fabulous, but not God, you are still unapproved.
3. God’s approval is forever. It can never be changed or altered. No approval ratings that dip and go down, down, down, you’re out! God’s approval is forever.
B. The one who is approved by God receives the crown of life.
1. It’s a victor’s crown for having won in the Olympic Games.
2. There are promises that describe this crown in the New Testament.
a. It is new forever, imperishable. 1 Corinthians 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. It does not wither, become weak, fade, wear out. It is new forever.
b. It is extreme joy. 1 Thessalonians 2:19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? That crown is exultation, joy, happiness, rejoicing.
c. It is righteousness. 2 Timothy 4:8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
d. It is glory. 1 Peter 5:4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
C. This blessing is the reward of persevering in loving Jesus. The promise is to those who love Him.
1. We love because He first loved us. We received His love when He died for us. Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. We have believed and have come to know the love that God has for us, that He would give His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. When you receive Jesus as your Saviour you receive the love of God, you are born again of the Holy Spirit, you have passed from death to life.
2. Then you persevere in loving Jesus. You pursue your dependence on Him and your knowing Him. That is your faith, your dependence on what He did for you, and who He is.
3. If you continue to receive the love that Jesus has for you, you will persevere. Paul the apostle said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That love of God is our strength by which we overcome.
2. That’s our future, but for now, it’s trials and learning humility. Trials bring humility because they teach us. James shows us two foundational truths that we must learn and base our lives upon. The first truth is that we are really wrong. We are sinners and it’s our fault.
A. It’s not God’s fault. James says God is testing us, but He is not tempting us. The problem in understanding this passage here is that the Greek word for testing and tempting is the same word. The context determines the meaning. So we need to know the difference between testing and tempting.
1. Testing discovers what is in the heart. I have a cup here. What is in the cup? Let me test what is in the cup. If I bump the cup, out spills whatever is in the cup. Ooo, yuck. It’s battery acid. Did the bump put the battery acid in the cup? No, it was already there. The bump only makes clear that the battery acid was already in the cup. What if there is fresh, sweet water in the cup? I bump the cup, and out splashes fresh, sweet water. We are bumped, and the bump doesn’t put anything into our cups, the bump shows us what is already there: battery acid.
2. Testing discovers what is in my heart to me, not to God. God already knows what is in my heart, and in every man’s heart. The testing shows me what I really am. I think I am fresh sweet water. Bump. Rawrrrrrrrr! Battery acid! What?? Sweet fresh ME? I have to take on board, that is who I really am, not what I imagine nor what anyone else imagines about me. Testing shows me what I really am.
3. Tempting is a solicitation to do evil by appealing to pleasure. It is attraction arousing hope or desire. The point is to lead away from a usual or proper course by offering some pleasure or advantage.
B. God tests, there’s no doubt about that. But God does not tempt. God doesn’t invite anyone to leave the right path and pursue wickedness. He doesn’t lay traps for people to see if He can get them to sin. These are people who have received His absolute generosity in giving Jesus. God does not say, “Maybe I can deceive them to get them to give up what I have given them!” God doesn’t give us eternal life and forgiveness and then work against us to snatch it away. That would make God our enemy, and He is not our enemy. More on this in a minute.
C. So who is the enemy? James says it’s us! Each one is tempted by his own lust.
1. Is there a devil? Yes! Does he solicit us to leave the right path and do evil for pleasure? Yes!
2. But it is not the devil’s fault that we give in to temptation and go after that pleasure or advantage.
3. The devil could never tempt us if there weren’t lust within our hearts that respond to that temptation.
4. We are carried away with our own lust, we are enticed by our own lust, it is in us, it is us.
D. Now why is it not the devil’s fault? How come we can’t say, “The devil made me do it!”?
1. Because Paul says so in 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
2. So the temptation is limited by God. He provides the way of escape. But we are not looking for the way of escape. We don’t want the way of escape. We want to sin. The more we sin, the more we lose the ability to say “no”. We can be believers in Jesus and be slaves to sin.
E. So James says, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Literally, stop being deceived. No longer be deceived about yourself. Don’t be deceived about God or the devil. Take your Christian life seriously and deal with the enemy. That’s you, the one who wants to do evil.
3. Now James shows us we are sinners in our pleasures and in our displeasures.
A. John shows us our pleasures and our displeasures in 1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
B. Lust is about our pleasures. John says that’s the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. Desires, advantages. These are our pleasures.
C. But we also sin in our displeasures. John’s third aspect of the world is the boastful pride of life. Pride is the source of the wrath of man James speaks of in verses 19-20. Our displeasure!
1. Why are we slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to wrath? The very opposite of what James says we are to be?
2. It’s because we are always thinking of ourselves, sensitive to every possible hint that we are being slighted, not being treated as we think we ought to be treated: with dignity, respect, and reverence.
3. If I think I’m being treated as insignificant, unimportant, worthless, that displeases me! I refuse to accept your judgment of me. I judge you! I condemn you to eternal punishment.
4. In that moment I usurp the judgment that belongs only to God. I am trying to put myself in the place of God. This is exactly what the devil did, in becoming the devil, the enemy. I will become like the Most High. Nobody is going to tell me what to do! I am going to determine what is right and what is wrong, for myself.
5. Taking what belongs only to God is not right. It’s stealing and exalting myself above God. It’s not right.
D. This is ONE truth that trials and difficulties reveal to the one who follows Jesus: Trials and difficulties that I fall into reveal to me and convince me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a sinner in my pleasures and my displeasures. It’s not anyone else’s fault. Not my parents, not the devil, not God. I am responsible. I am a sinner.
4. Here is another truth, also beyond a shadow of a doubt: God is more on our side than we are! Look at verses 17-18.
A. God is perfect, God is good. There is no shadow in Him, no change. He does not go back and forth, good one minute, bad the next. He doesn’t give, then snatch away, give, snatch. Only good, only from above, never any evil. He is the Father, who loves, who begets and gives life and everything that is good.
B. Look at His good and perfect gift: He willed and He worked for His good pleasure, says Paul in Philippians 2:13. His own will is to save sinners who know that they are sinners.
1. 1 Corinthians 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption
2. He brought us forth by the word of truth. That is the gospel, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. Because Jesus died in your place, for your sins! He rose because they are completely taken away from your for all time. You agree with God that this is so in your case! He took MY sins!
3. Babies don’t get born on their own. The father is the one who starts things. No father, no life. It is true here also. Eternal life starts with the Father, in eternity, knowing you and loving you before He made the world. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth.
4. That we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. The first fruits were the first results of the harvest. Life having been planted, cultivated, harvested. Now presented to God from whom all life comes. Here is the result of Your gifts, Father in heaven. Holy, filled with life. Blessed forever.
5. The reasonable response to these two truths is lay the old life aside and put on the new life.
A. You put aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. That is, the old you before Christ. It is a continual laying aside of your pleasures and your displeasures. What makes you happy and what makes you angry. It’s not about you anymore. It’s about your life in Christ.
B. This laying aside the old and putting on the new is all through the New Testament.
1. Romans 13:12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
2. Ephesians 4:22-24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
3. Colossians 3:8-10 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—
4. Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
5. 1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
B. That’s the second part: put on. And it begins with receiving the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
1. The word is implanted into your heart, into the deepest part of you. It must send down roots and be solid in you. You have to start thinking about new things in order to live in a new way. The word is about Jesus in you. That is your new life: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
2. That word of God is powerful because it’s from God. It’s alive, it’s eternal, what He says must happen. The word of God never returns to Him void, unsuccessful, useless, of no effect. Isaiah 55.
C. The word of God planted in your heart of hearts enables you to receive the love of God. As you continually receive the love of God it drives out all the other loves in your heart, that love of sin. You will persevere under trial because you depend on Jesus who loves you and delivered Himself up for you. You will persevere in loving Jesus until you stand before the Father. He will say, well done, good and faithful servant. He will crown you with righteousness, glory, joy, imperishable, that blessing that He promised.
6. So what?
A. Realise that there are two aspects of our lives, now, and the future.
1. Now is difficulty, and suffering. This produces humility. Humility is the chief goal of what God is working in our lives because humility is the essential character of God.
2. Later, in the future, is glory, honor, approval, and life.
3. Before honour is humility. That is true for Jesus Christ. It is also true of us.
B. If you want to grow as a Christian, do not shift blame. Humility begins as you realise that you are a sinner. Get serious about it.
1. Most people think they’re okay, just have a few problems. If you think you’re a good guy, just have a few problems, you will always remain a slave of sin. You will keep trying to do what you know is right and keep on failing. You will never get it. If you could save yourself, then Jesus died for nothing. You will never change your life until you take on board that it is not God’s fault, not the devil’s fault, it is not anyone’s fault. It is your fault.
2. People will even blame God for why they are still sinners. I’m doing the best I can! Why don’t You help me? Because you are not pursuing this with Jesus. You still want to be you, just better. You think you are a good person, just a few problems.
3. People even look for unbiblical solutions so they can get what they want. They will pray to cast out the demon of tobacco, or the demon of lust, or the demon of pornography, or the demon of whatever sin you are struggling with. But that is shifting the blame. Blame God, blame a demon, blame anyone. Positive confession! I confess health, wealth and prosperity. Has anything changed? I speak to this, I speak to that. Well, keep speaking. But it’s worthless. You can read the whole Bible and never once does it say cast out the demon of tobacco. It never says only confess positive things. Never says, speak to this or that.
C. Do not shift blame. Accept the blame. You are a sinner. If you come to Jesus as a sinner He will help you. He died for sinners so that they could die with Him. Humble yourself before Him. Say to Him, “I can’t save myself. Show me how to live with You. Anything You want.” He said the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast him out.
D. Receive the word implanted. Just as you get serious about the fact that you are a sinner, get serious about the word of God. If many of you approached your job with the same intensity that you read your Bible how long would you last at your job? They would fire you for not being serious. This word of God is powerful to save your soul but only if you plant it in your heart. Seeds don’t grow if you don’t plant them. And if you plant a little bit, then you only reap a bit. Is that all you want? How much eternal life do you want? What is your first priority to read in the morning? What is the last thing you read at night?
E. If you get serious with God you will find that God will get serious about you, too. You will find that God is gentle, kind, merciful, better than you ever dreamed and very worth thinking about and living with. You will be caught up with Him and His wonderfulness. That’s what life is about.
Let’s pray.