..be transformed by the renewing of your mind

• *Found today’s sermon (in church) really helpful to me. Because yesterday I had a struggle of playing a phone prank on someone, but I know that I shouldn’t be controlled by my sinful desires.*

Date:30/9/07

Speaker: Ye Xiao Dan (chuan dao)

Topic: Using the truth to triumph over temptations.

Bible extract- James 1:12-27

*These are my own sermon notes, which I’ve translated from Chinese, of course, I would have missed out on some points as I take the notes by hand.*

James 1:12-27 (New International Version)

New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

 12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

 13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

 16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Listening and Doing

 19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

 26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

• Temptations comes from our own sinful desires and from the Devil, whereas trials (difficulty in life) are from God.
• We need to use the Truth to overcome temptations.
• Desires can be “good” or evil. “Good” desires are those which are without unrighteousness, like we have the desire to eat when we are hungry, we have the desire to sleep when we are tired, and we have the desire to drink when we are thirsty. Evil desires are those that uses indecent means to satisfy the selfish need.
• Although we know that sin come from the fall of Adam, our ancestor, and that we still have the “old-me” in us, we as Christians, cannot always blame Satan and Adam when we sin, but we should actually take the responsibility ourselves.
• Verse 15: Desire gives birth to sin, and sin gives birth to death. “birth” is only possible in a human when a man meets with a woman. Here, Sin is given birth when our sinful desires/ selfish desires combines with our free will of choice.Like sinful desire+ free will of choice= birth of sin. just like man+ woman= baby. It is normal to be tempted, in the stage of “being” tempted, a Christian plays a passive role in the involvement of sin. But when the Christian sins, then he/she plays an active role in sinning.
• So do we still have hope? Or do we have to despair in our fate of sinning forever? Of course, we have hope!
• An eg was then given of a Christian businessman who is an executive in a big company. It is part of his job to entertain customers. He was assigned the task of seeking out beautiful “ladies” for his customers as their entertainment. At first, he may think that he will not be affected by it. But then, as he sees the beautiful and often sexy ladies, he becomes wavered in his innerbeing. It is important to see how our thoughts form our actions. And from his thoughts, he began to act out on them, and in the end, he committed the sin of sexual immorality. When sin is conceived, it gives birth to death. Death here connotes to the death of the soul. As time passes by, he began to stop going to cell group(biblestudy), then he began to stop attending church, and finally he even denied that he was a Christian.
• Thus we cannot let sin be conceived. If it is still in the womb of contemplation, we need to literally abort it. Let it die in the “womb”.
• Temptations are not sin. That’s is why we pray in our Lord’s Prayer (which is taught by Jesus Christ), ” Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”.
• If we are won over by temptation— we sin.
• King David and his adultery with Bathesheba began when he watches her bathing from his balcony, and he sinned after that when he ordered her to sleep with him. Further later on, we see him failing, as his Kingdom becomes divided and even his own son Absalom conspires against him.
• But Joseph, when he was tempted by his master’s wife Potiphar’s wife, he said a very famous sentence:”How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

From Genesis 39:6- 

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

 8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

• Joseph did not sin, he has overcome his temptation. And in the end, he became great, although he was accused by Potiphar’s wife and sent to prison for a while, and the Pharoh even put him in charge of the entire Egypt later on.
• We must think of that when we are tempted– How can we sin do such a wicked thing and sin against God?
• The reason why we are sitting here in Church today is because God’s truth gave birth to us.
• vs 18:He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
• We can use this truth to triumph over temptation.
• Refer back to verse 25:

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. 

• We cannot just listen to God’s words and then forget about them. This truth is a truth that is able to be carried out.
• Refer to verse 21:

21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

• The root of the word that is planted in us is linked to God.
• See also Galatian Chapter 5- Fruit of the Spirit-vs-22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
• To let the word that is planted in us to grow into the fruits of the Spirit.
• James 1:19-

 vs19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

• Verse 19 tells us that we should take note of the previous verse 18:-18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
• In accordance to verse 18, the truth that we have, should overcome temptation by these ways:

vs 19Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

• The speaker at first thought that verse 19 relates to how to be involved in social conversations, but actually it is not in context with that, but in context with overcoming temptation.

1. Quick to listen- To be quick in listening to God’s truth, God’s words. In verse James1:21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. To get rid of – in the Chinese bible version it’s tuo qu, like taking off of, akin to taking clothes off. A sponge that is saturated with water, needs to be squeezed off first before being able to absorb more water. We need to get rid of all the moral filth and evil that is so prevalent in us, in order to accept God’s truth.
2. Slow to speak- we shouldn’t be quick to anyhow interpret what God is trying to tell us. Not anyhow commenting on his words, or even sermons like” Oh that was such a good sermon!”
3. Slow to anger- Sometimes when we listen to God’s words, we may get angry, as we may have difficulty carrying out his commands for us. ( Like when when the more we listen to his words, the greater the sense of our sinfulness). Our heart may be a hard soil for God’s word when it’s hard. ( see Jesus’ parable of different grounds where the gospel seeds fall on) When we have difficulty in carrying out God’s words, is it because the problem lies in His word, or does the problem lies with us? There is no problem in God’s word definitely, the problem lies with us.

• James1:22-25 : 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
• Why do we continue attending Church, give tithe (10%), or love one another? Because we have heard God’s words.
• Mirror-vs 23: The mirror that is often mentioned in the Bible is another name for God’s truth. Which acts like a mirror, showing us our faults and seeing more clearly. If we look at the mirror and forget about what we saw, it is because we never look intently. It is the same when we listen to God’s words without going to understand it, and maybe even treating the Bible as our pillows. Jesus’ teaching to us to “Love our enemy”— we don’t want to love our enemy, so can we don’t love our enemy? It is because we did not “chew” on God’s words, to digest them and then to absorb them. Just like how we eat food, if we never chew properly, we can have stomachache. We must spend time understanding God’s truths.
• In Singapore, one side is setting up the resort with Gambling, and on the other side, we are setting up counselling centres for gambling. The love of money is the root of all evil. Why do ppl get cheated for 5 apples? because of greed.

26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James Chapter 1)

When we have a tight rein on our tongues (which includes not anyhow commenting on God’s words)we can then we able to do more meaningful things like looking after others and keeping self from being polluted by the world.

• We live in a society full of temptation around us. We need to remember that we are born of God’s truth and we can triumph over temptation.