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The Genealogy of Transgression and the Anatomy of Death (James 1:14-15) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. So if you break your arm, the
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X-ray shows this jagged white line, right?
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Right. Yeah, and the doctor just points
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right to it. Yeah, and it's like broken or
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not broken, It's clean. It's, you know, it's comforting
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in a weird. Way because it's visible, you
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can categorize it. Yes, we like physical problems
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because they make sense. But what happens when you step
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into the world of human morality or temptation and all the things
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that just ruin our lives? Suddenly that X-ray machine is
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just totally useless. It really is.
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I mean, we look at it our modern world and we see this absolute
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obsession with victimhood. Oh, everywhere.
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It's everywhere. It's a culture entirely built on
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external blame, this idea that, well, bad circumstances make us
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do bad things. But today, our mission on this
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deep dive is a forensic examination of human temptation
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and sin. And we are basing this on a
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really rigorous exegetical, historical and theological
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breakdown of James Chapter 1. Specifically verses 14 and 15,
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because the Apostle James, he steps into this, this diagnostic
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muddy water with a piercing surgical truth.
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He really does. He does not point to your
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circumstances or your boss or like your biology.
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He locates the true executioner right inside our own hearts.
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The surgical precision of James is staggering.
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I mean, he removes every single false comfort we cling to.
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Yeah, he takes no prisoners. Right when you read those two
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verses, you are just stripped of all your usual defenses.
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James forces a mirror in front of the human soul and he just
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refuses to let us look away. It's uncomfortable.
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Very he diagnosis the root cause of all our misery and, well, all
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our rebellion. It is not an environmental
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issue. It is an internal structural
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corruption. Which means the stakes for you
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listening right now could not be higher.
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I mean, understanding this text is the literal difference
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between living in a self justifying delusion and
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experiencing genuine grace driven freedom.
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Absolutely. OK, let's unpack this.
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Because we have this primordial defense mechanism embedded in
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us, which is transferring guilt. Oh yeah, we treat our moral
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failures like catching a cold from the weather.
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Right, rather than a genetic condition we were born with.
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I look at the news, I look at modern therapy, and the
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conversation is always, always centered on socioeconomic
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environmentalism. Or biological determinism.
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Yes, the premise is always that the world is broken.
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And well, the world broke me. But this habit of pointing the
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finger, it goes all the way back to the beginning of human
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history. It goes back to the very first
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moments after the fall in Eden. I mean, the ink was not even dry
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on human history before the blame shifting began.
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It was immediate. It was God asks Adam what he has
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done, and Adam immediately points his finger.
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He says The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit
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of the tree and I ate. Which is such a crazy response
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if you think about it. It is.
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And notice this subtle strategy there.
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Adam is not just blaming Eve, he is indirectly indicting God.
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Yeah, he's basically saying if you had not put this woman here,
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I would be totally fine. Right, the environment you
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created caused me to fall. And then Eve turns around and
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blames the serpent. It's just a chain of deflection.
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From that exact moment, humanity has desperately sought to
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transfer the burden of guilt outward.
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We want to believe we are a pristine slate, you know, a
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clean canvas ruined by a messy world.
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That myth of the innocent slate is just everywhere today.
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I mean. In preparation for this deep
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dive, we looked at the 2024 State of Theology survey by
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Ligonier Ministries. And those numbers are shocking.
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Staggering 67% of Americans agree with the statement that
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everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God. 2/3 yeah.
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That means a massive majority of the country believes infants
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enter the world completely pure, with a totally clean slate, and
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then society corrupts them later on.
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Which is entirely unbiblical. And what is far more alarming is
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that a concerning number of professing evangelicals agreed
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with that statement to people sitting in pews every Sunday.
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Think human nature starts off neutral.
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Well, what's fascinating here is that this statistic reveal
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something intrinsic about our fallen nature.
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We just assume our default state is innocence.
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Theologically, we categorize this cultural assumption as
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Pelagianism. Pelagianism.
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Let's talk about that. Yeah, so Pelagianism is
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essentially the default religion of the natural man.
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It is the belief that human nature is fundamentally
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untainted by original sin. Pelagius taught that we are
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fully capable of choosing good or evil on our own steam without
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any divine intervention because, well, we do not inherit A
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corrupt nature from Adam. So under that view Adam just set
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a bad example. That is it.
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Adam just set a bad example, but we are born with the same
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neutral will he had before the Fall.
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And even within the Church, historically, you see this
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impulse mutate into various theological errors just to
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soften the blow of our own corruption.
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I need to push back on that for a second, or at least ask for
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some translation here. Sure.
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When you say theological errors that soften the blow, what do
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those look like in a practical sense?
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Because the average person listening might think, well I do
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not know who Palladius is, so I am in the clear.
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Right, right. But.
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You were saying this mindset sneaks into church doctrine in
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other ways. So how does this show up in
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systems that people might actually recognize?
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Think about the system of Arminianism.
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In its attempt to guard human responsibility and avoid the
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absolute sovereignty of God and salvation, it assumes a sort of
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moral neutrality of the will. OK, so it softens the fall?
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Yes. It proposes that the human will
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can simply choose righteousness or choose sin at any given
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moment, totally independent of a prior sovereign work of God to
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change the heart. So it puts the control back in
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our hands. It flatters the Sinner by
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suggesting they hold the deciding vote in their spiritual
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state. It tells you that your will is
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sick, perhaps, but not dead. Sick but not dead.
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That's a huge distinction. It is then you look at Roman
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Catholicism. They have a dogmatic formulation
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regarding original sin that claims inherent concupiscence.
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And concupiscence is just a big word for what?
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It is that internal tilt or inclination towards sin.
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OK, they say that inclination is not actually sin in and of
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itself until explicit behavioral consent is granted.
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Wait, really? So just wanting to sin isn't a
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sin to. Them right, They say the
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lingering desire to rebel is like a tinderbox, but it is not
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technically a sin until you strike the match.
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Oh wow. Both of these systems provide a
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false cushion for the conscience.
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They tell you that your internal wiring is either neutral or at
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the very least not legally condemnable until you physically
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act out. That distinction is just huge.
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You are saying we want to define sin purely as an action we take
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rather than a condition we possess?
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Yes. Why is the human conscience so
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desperate for that false cushion?
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I mean, we seem terrified of admitting that the call is
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coming from inside the house. We really are.
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We will do all sorts of psychological gymnastics to
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avoid saying I am the problem. Well, because if the problem is
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external, then the solution is. Manageable.
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Oh, that makes sense. Right, If my environment makes
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me sin, I just need a better environment.
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If my biology is the issue, I need better medication.
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Right, if my lack of education is the root cause, I just need
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better schooling. Exactly that.
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If the problem is just that I make bad choices sometimes I can
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fix that with a self improvement program.
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A podcast, a book, whatever. But if the problem is an
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executioner living inside my own breast, a fundamental corruption
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of my very nature, than I am entirely helpless.
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Which is terrifying. It is I cannot fix myself.
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I cannot educate myself out of a dead heart.
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I am cast entirely upon the mercy of a holy God.
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And you know, the natural man hates being helpless.
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The natural man wants to be the captain of his own soul.
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So to understand how James shatters this false cushion, we
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really have to look at who he was talking to and the agonizing
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pressure they were under. The context is everything here.
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It is. Here's where it gets really
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interesting. James, the brother of Jesus, a
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pillar of the Jerusalem church, is writing this letter very
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early on. We're talking 8045 to 48.
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Very early, likely the first New Testament book written.
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Yeah, and he addresses it to the 12 tribes in the dispersion.
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Now these are Jewish believers who have essentially lost
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everything. They are completely displaced.
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The Crucible they were in was unimaginable for most of us
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today. What were they actually dealing
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with? Well, following the martyrdom of
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Steven, a massive wave of persecution swept through
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Jerusalem. These believers were just driven
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from their homes. Like refugees?
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Yes, they were scattered across the Roman Empire into places
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like Syria and Asia Minor. They lost their livelihoods,
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their property, their social standing.
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They'd. Lost it all.
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When you read through the letter, James outlines the
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specific brutal realities they were enduring.
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They were facing intense economic exploitation.
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Wealthy land owners were defrauding them, holding back
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their wages. And you have to remember, in an
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agrarian society, if a day laborer does not get paid at
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sunset, his family does not eat that night.
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They just starve. They faced violent
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marginalization and corrupt courts that favored the rich
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aristocrats. They were living as refugees,
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trying to maintain their faith while watching their children go
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hungry. All while the people oppressing
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them were living in luxury. Yes.
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I'm thinking about the psychology of that situation.
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Let's let's put ourselves in their shoes for a minute.
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If you are losing your home, if you were being oppressed by
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corrupt politicians and greedy land owners, isn't it entirely
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logical to view your anger, your bitterness, or your moral
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compromises as excusable reactions to a terrible?
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Situation. It feels very justified.
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I mean, who would blame a man for losing his temper when his
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wages are stolen right to his face?
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It is so easy to justify stealing bread when your kids
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are starving. Right.
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It's so easy to justify hating the man who dragged you into
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court and took your land. You would think James would
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write a letter of pure comfort telling them they are victims
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and they get a pass for their behavior.
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You would think so, but if we connect this to the bigger
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picture, we see why James structures his letter the way he
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does. The literary flow of James
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Chapter 1 is a masterpiece of pastoral care and theological
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correction. How does he start it?
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In verses 2 through 12, James addresses the external
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circumstances. He tells them to count it all
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joy when they meet trials of various times.
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Which sounds insane to a starving person.
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It does, but He validates their suffering.
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He just frames it through the lens of God's sovereign
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Providence. God is using these fiery trials
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to test their faith, to burn away the dross, and to produce
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steadfastness. So the trial has a purpose.
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God designs the trial for their holiness.
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He does not dismiss their pain. He elevates their pain by
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showing them that God is using it like a refiner's fire to
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purify their faith. But James knows human nature.
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He knows they're going to take that theology of God's
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sovereignty and twist it to excuse their own sin.
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He absolutely anticipates their defense mechanism.
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So in verse 13 team, he draws an absolute unyielding boundary.
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What does he say? He commands the believer never
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to say I am being tempted by God.
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He shifts from the external trial to the internal
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solicitation to do evil. OK, because the human mind is so
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prone to make a fatal logical leap there.
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Very prone. We think God sovereignly
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ordained this terrible situation.
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This terrible situation makes me so angry.
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I want to see violent revenge, therefore God is the author of
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my sinful anger. Yes, and James shuts that down
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immediately. God tests for holiness, but he
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never temps with evil. The holy God cannot solicit
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rebellion against himself. He provides the test, but he
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does not bait the hook. I want to pause here and look at
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a historical debate that I think is highly relevant because it
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shows how people have misunderstood James for
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centuries. Oh, the liberal scholarship
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stuff. Yeah, there has been a lot of
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noise, particularly from liberal critical scholarship like FC
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Bauer and the Tubingen School back in the 19th century.
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Yes, they created this narrative that James and the Apostle Paul
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were in a theological cage match.
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It's ridiculous. It is, they claim, that James is
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writing this legalistic pushback against Paul's doctrine of
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justification by faith alone. They really try to pit the two
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apostles against each other. That entire premise from the
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tubing in school must be firmly repudiated.
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It is a total misunderstanding of both Paul and James, and it
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reads a false conflict into the text.
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They aren't fighting. They are not in conflict at all.
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They are in organic harmony. Paul is in the trenches,
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defending the ground of our justification before the bar of
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God's justice. Which is the imputed
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righteousness of Christ alone, received through faith alone.
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Right. Paul is arguing against
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legalists who think they can earn salvation by works.
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James, on the other hand, is fighting a different battle on
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the exact same front. OK, what's his battle?
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James is defending the character of that justifying faith before
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the eyes of the world. He is dealing with a suffering
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church that is in danger of using their trials as an excuse
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for antinomianism, which means lawlessness.
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Oh, I see. They are tempted to say we have
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faith so our behavior does not matter.
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Our circumstances are too hard for us to live holy lives right
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now. But God understands because we
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believe. Wow.
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And James is not having it. Not at all.
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James is saying that a faith which produces no food of
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holiness under pressure is a dead, spurious faith.
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True faith survives the fire. So if God does not author the
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temptation and these crushing circumstances, as terrible as
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they are just the stage setting, where does the actual lore come
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from? Good question.
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If the trial is just the environment, where is the
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assassin hiding? This brings us to verse 14,
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where James uses this vivid hunting metaphor to answer the
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question. Yes, verse 14.
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He says, but each person is tempted.
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When he is lured and enticed by his own desire, he isolates the
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individual. He says each one.
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There is nowhere to hide. He points the finger right at
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your own chest. And the Greek phrasing James
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uses here is clinical in its precision.
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The source of the temptation is his own desire, and the Greek
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word there is epithymia. Epithymia.
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Yes, this is the absolute root of the issue.
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When we look at how Hellenistic philosophers wrote back then,
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they often separated the different faculties of the human
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mind. How so?
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Well, Jacobs deliberately avoids certain words.
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He does not use the lemma, which refers to the intellect, and he
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does not use Belisys, which refers to rational deliberation.
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If he had used those words, he would have been suggesting that
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sin is a highly rational, calculated decision made by a
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neutral mind weighing pros and cons in a vacuum.
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Wait, explain that. Are you saying we do not think
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our way into sin? We usually picture temptation as
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you know, a devil on one shoulder and an Angel on the
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other, and we rationally listen to both arguments before making
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a choice. That is the cartoon version,
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yes, but by using epithymia, James shows that the affections,
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the internal cravings are structurally corrupted before
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the mind even has a chance to reason.
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The desire itself is broken. It is a disordered longing.
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The mind is often just the lawyer hired to justify what the
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heart already wants. Well, that's good.
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The lawyer hired by. The heart and James pairs this
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with terrifying, violent imagery from ancient woodcraft and
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angling. He uses the word exelco, which
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means being dragged out from a hiding place.
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Dragged out and deliazo, which means to beta hook.
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Extra Biblical writers like Plato and Xenophon use these
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exact same terms to describe how passion completely overthrows
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reason. You are dragged out of the
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safety of God's law by your own cravings.
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So what does this all mean for us, practically?
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Let me let me use a fishing analogy to make sure I'm
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grasping the mechanics of this. Go for it.
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You drop a line into the water with lure on it.
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The fish swims toward the bait not because it has a conscious
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desire for death or a hook through its jaw.
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No, of course not. It swings toward the bait
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because its appetite is utterly deceived by the disguise of
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nourishment. The bait promises life.
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It looks like a juicy worm, but here's the kicker.
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Bait is completely useless to a fish without an appetite for it.
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You can drop the most expensive lure in the world into a pool,
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but if the fish has no biological craving for what that
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lure represents, it will not bite.
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The fish provides the vulnerability.
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What's fascinating here is the deceptive action of desire in
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our own lives. Sin rarely, if ever, presents
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itself, is destruction. It never looks bad at first.
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Never. It does not knock on your door
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and say hello. I'm here to ruin your marriage,
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destroy your career, and alienate you from God.
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No, we slam the door. Exactly.
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It comes disguised as a solution to your current pain.
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It presents itself as freedom. It presents itself as justice.
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It presents itself as much needed relief.
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The angry man believes his outburst is righteous
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vindication against a cruel boss.
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The employee padding their expense report believes their
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theft is a rebalancing of unfair corporate economics.
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We justify. It the spouse seeking comfort
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outside their marriage believes an affair is finally finding
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true intimacy and being understood.
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The human will is not a neutral bystander observing options.
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No, it is a self segregating captive lured out of the safety
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of God's commands by its own corrupt passions.
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We are our own worst enemies in the most literal sense.
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We provide the appetite for the devil's bait.
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Satan does not have to force us into anything.
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He really doesn't. He just has to figure out what
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flavor of bait are epithemia craves and drop it in the.
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Water. Just drop it in and wait.
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And once that prey takes the bait, James moves from the woods
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in the water into something even more disturbing.
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He shifts metaphors. Yes, in verse 15 he outlines his
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horrifying organic process with clinical medical precision.
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When we move into a biological metaphor, it is the genealogy of
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death. The shift is marked by the
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temporal conjunction, then the Greek word it Ida.
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Yes, this word signifies a mechanical sequential
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progression. It is an unavoidable chain
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reaction. We are no longer talking about
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hunters and fish. We're in the realm of
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obstetrics. Obstetrics.
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James writes The desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to
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sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
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He maps out the life cycle of a rebellion.
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I was looking at the original language here before we were
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recorded and it is actually kind of disturbing.
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He stops talking about fishing and shifts into this dark
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terminology. It reads like a twisted family
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tree. It really does.
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Walk us through the syntactical progression here, because the
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words he chooses are so specific and they build on each other in
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a really terrifying way. First, desire conceives.
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Jennings uses a classical medical term for pregnancy.
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Here, desire acts as an illicit spouse that seduces the human
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will. OK, once the will consents to
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that corrupt desire, a spiritual conception takes place.
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The union of your will and your corrupt affection creates a new
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entity. A new entity.
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Then it gives birth the Greek word ticte to actual
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transgression. This is the outward visible act
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of sin. The thought becomes an action.
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So it moves from the inside to the outside.
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Yes, but the lineage does not stop there.
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Sin then matures or becomes full grown, translating the word
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apothelestasa. Patolistha.
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It reaches its completion, it establishes a pattern, it builds
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a stronghold in your life, and finally it violently spawns or
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whelps death. Whelps spawns.
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Those are strong, ugly words. It is the Greek word apoke.
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It is a highly visceral, graphic word.
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It is not the word you use for a beautiful human birth in a
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bright, joyous delivery room. No, it's animalistic.
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Because it refers to the raw, animalistic spawning of beasts.
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Contrast this with verse 18 just a few lines later, where Genus
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talks about how God brings us forth by the word of truth.
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Totally different tone. God grants a noble, beautiful
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birth to his children. But sin?
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Sin behaves like a parasite. It violently spawns death.
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And we must be clear, this is not just physical death.
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Physical death is part of it. But James is warning about
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eternal judicial separation from the presence of God under his
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holy wrath. The end result of unchecked
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desire is hell. Wait, I have to push back here.
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This makes it sound like there's no such thing as a minor sin.
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Oh, there isn't. But if every single passing
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thought, every little spark of desire, is a potential
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conception of a beast that spawns death, how do we
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function? That sounds like a recipe for
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absolute paralyzing anxiety. I can see how it feels that way.
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Are we just supposed to walk around terrified of our own
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brains? Yeah.
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How can anyone survive if a fleeting moment of envy or a
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quick flash of anger carries the death penalty?
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That is a very natural reaction to the absolute severity of
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God's law. When we finally see the standard
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it is crushing it is. But we have to understand the
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organic nature of sin. Think of an acorn.
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An acorn is not a 60 foot oak tree.
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You can hold it in the palm of your hand.
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You can crush it under your heel.
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It looks harmless. But the full DNA of the massive
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oak tree is contained within that tiny acorn.
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If planted, if watered, if allowed to follow its natural
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biological progression, it will become an oak.
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That's a sobering thought. Unmortified desire is
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structurally bound to mature into eternal condemnation.
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Sin is never static. It is never just resting in your
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heart. It always aims at total mastery
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over the host. Always.
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So no, there are no Meyer sins in their nature, only in their
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current stage of development. The seat of murder is in a
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moment of bitter anger. The seat of adultery is in a
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lingering glance. That terrifying internal
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diagnosis leaves you and me completely stripped of any
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defense. If our own desires are the
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assassins and they are already inside the house, how can anyone
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survive? You can't, not on your own.
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We cannot trust our own intellect, we cannot trust our
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own affections. We cannot trust our own will.
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This feels like a locked room where the walls are closing in
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and the air is running out. Yes, if our own biology is
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rigged to spawn death, we are a lost cause.
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Someone from the outside has to break the sequence.
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It is supposed to feel that way. James is driving us to the end
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of ourselves so that we look up. The law always functions as a
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schoolmaster to drive us to Christ.
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Bring us to the end of our rope. Right.
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James is setting up the massive contrast between the fatal
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lineage of human desire and the absolute purity of Jesus Christ,
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the Second Adam. We need a champion who can step
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into the arena of human temptation and defeat it
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completely. OK, let's talk about Jesus in
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this context, because this brings up something I have
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always wanted to clarify. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 says
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that Jesus was tempted in every respect, as we are, yet without
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sin. Yes, but if temptation involves
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this internal conception, this epithemia rising up to meet the
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bait, how did Jesus avoid that? Did you feel the pull of the
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bait? Did he have to wrestle down his
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own corrupt desires? Because if he did, that makes
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him sound just like us struggling with an internal
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executioner. This is a crucial theological
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distinction that guards the absolute sinlessness of Christ.
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Jesus had no internal epithemia in the corrupt sense.
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He was fully human, yes, but he was conceived by the Holy Spirit
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and born without original sin. He had no internal
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concupiscence. The tinderbox we talked about
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earlier? Right.
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He didn't have it. In John 1430, Jesus says the
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ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me or in
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older translations. He has nothing in me.
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He has nothing in me. Jesus had no dry Tinder in his
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holy soul for Satan's sparks to ignite.
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He possessed a completely pure, unfallen human nature.
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So when Satan tempted him in the wilderness for 40 days, how is
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that a real temptation if Jesus didn't have the internal
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mechanism to take the bait? When the devil offered the bait
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in the wilderness, the bait was entirely external.
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Satan said command these stones to become bread.
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Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world in
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exchange for an act of worship. Now Jesus had natural sinless
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human desires. He had biological hunger after
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fasting for 40 days, which is normal.
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It is not a sin to be hungry. He had a righteous desire to
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rule the nation's which was promised to him by the Father.
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It is is not a sin to desire your rightful inheritance, but
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there was no corrupt desire to satisfy that hunger or claim
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that Kingdom in rebellion against the Father's timing and
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the Father's will. The bait was dangled right in
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front of his face, but Christ's holy soul had 0 appetite for the
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hook. 0 appetite. He faced the full, concentrated
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fury of external temptation, far beyond anything we will ever
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face, because he never gave in. He endured the maximum pressure
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of temptation and repelled it completely.
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This connects so perfectly to the covenant of grace and the
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framework we find in documents like the Westminster Confession.
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They really do. Chapter 5, Section 4.
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The Confession talks about God's holy Providence extending to the
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sins of men. Yeah, God is never the author of
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sin. Yeah, Jesus steps into this
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framework to do what Adam failed to do in a perfect garden and
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what we failed to do every single day in a broken world.
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Yes, he enters the exact same environment of trial, but he
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brings a perfect obedience. Exactly or well, spot on.
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We speak of Christ's obedience in two distinct categories,
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active and passive. Break those down for us.
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His active obedience refers to him Florida State fulfilling the
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law of God. Throughout his entire earthly
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life, he never once allowed desire to conceive sin.
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Not even a single thought. He loved the Lord his God with
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all his heart, soul, mind and strength.
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Every single second of his life He provided a garment of perfect
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righteousness for his elect. And the passive obedience.
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Then you have his passive obedience, which refers to his
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suffering and death. Remember the genealogy of death
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from James, the sequence that ends with sin spawning death.
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Yeah, the terrible biological chain.
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Jesus stepped directly into the path of that biological
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certainty. He had no sin of His own to
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spawn death, but He will willingly absorb the unmitigated
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stroke of death that was spawned by our transgressions.
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Wow. The wages of sin is death, and
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Christ took the absolute fullness of those wages upon
26:04
Himself on the cross. This raises an urgent question
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for the listener. If Christ has accomplished all
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of this, if he has fulfilled the law and paid the penalty, how
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does it actually become ours? How do we apply it?
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Yeah. How do we get victory over this
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internal executioner today in the middle of our own trials and
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temptations? Because I am still dealing with
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epithemia right now. I still have those cravings.
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The answer is monarchistic regeneration.
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Monarchistic regeneration. That is a theological phrase
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that means God works alone to bring about the new birth.
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Christ does not just look down from heaven, offer forgiveness
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and say now try harder to fight your desires.
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Look out there. Right.
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That would be cruelty. If He left us with our old
26:45
nature, we would just keep spawning death.
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Through the Holy Spirit, He performs A sovereign, unilateral
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work of new birth. Completely new heart.
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He takes out the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh.
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He gives a new will, new affections, and breaks the
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absolute dominion of that genealogy of death.
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So we aren't slaves to it anymore.
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You are no longer a helpless slave to epithemia.
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You still have lingering sin. You still face temptation.
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But you have the spirit of the living God dwelling inside you,
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providing the power to actually fight back.
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The sequence is broken. Which means the believer is not
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left in despair, but is called to rigorous, aggressive action
27:24
on the battlefield of daily life.
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We have to fight. Because Christ has conquered the
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grave and provided a new heart, we actually have the capacity to
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fight. We have a job to do.
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This brings us to the pastoral application of all this heavy
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theology. The great Puritan John Owen
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famously wrote Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.
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It is a fight to the death. Owen understood James perfectly.
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The Christian life requires constant unyielding vigilance
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and this completely shatter so much of modern church practice.
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Oh totally. When you understand the lethal
27:59
nature of unmortified desire, you have to reject the seeker
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sensitive, pragmatic church growth models.
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The ones that just cater to what people want.
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You cannot treat the unregenerate desires of people
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as neutral market indicators to be entertained.
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You cannot look at a community and ask what does the flesh want
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and then build a worship service to cater to them that desire.
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Because you're just feeding the beast.
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If you do that, you are essentially feeding the very
28:24
beast that wants to spawn death in your congregation.
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You are handing out bait. And on the flip side, you have
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to reject these modern mystical spiritual warfare movements.
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You see this a lot on social media, where people bypass all
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personal accountability by blaming their moral failures on
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territorial demons or ancestral curses.
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It's just another form of blame shifting.
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It is they teach that your anger issue is an anger demon and your
28:51
lust issue is a lust demon that needs to be cast out.
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I always think blaming A territorial demon for your
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temper or your greed is like looking for a monster under the
29:01
bed when the real threat is already sitting in the living
29:03
room holding the television remote.
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That's a great way to put it. You are the threat.
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It is a brilliant distraction tactic by the enemy.
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If you are busy yelling at an imaginary territorial demon
29:13
casting out spirits over your city, you are not doing the
29:16
hard, painful work of crucifying the lust in your own heart.
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You're distracted. James leaves no room for
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gimmicks. Your primary problem is not a
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spirit hovering over your neighborhood.
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Your primary problem is your own unmortified desire.
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The call is coming from inside the house.
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So what are the practical aggressive steps for the
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listener? If the enemy is inside, how do
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we actually fight this day-to-day?
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You have to interrogate your desires upstream.
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Do not wait until the imagination is fully fed and the
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will is actively negotiating a compromise.
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You can't wait until you're on the edge.
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Do not wait until you are standing on the edge of the
29:52
Cliff to decide if gravity is real.
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You must catch the desire while it is still a passing thought,
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and you must stop using therapeutic euphemisms for your
30:01
sin. What do you mean by that?
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Do not say I have a personality flaw where I get frustrated
30:06
under pressure. Say I have a lethal monster of
30:08
wrath that wants to murder my family's piece.
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Wow, that hits hard. Do not say I struggle with
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visual temptations on my phone. Say I desire what God absolutely
30:16
forbids and it is dragging me toward hell.
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Specific confession strips sin of its camouflage.
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Call it what God calls it. Give us some specific examples
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of how this hidden bait works in daily life.
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Because sin is such a shapeshifter, it disguises
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itself so well. Let's take anger.
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The bait of anger promises you control.
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It tells you that if you lash out, you will establish
30:39
boundaries, people will respect you, and you will get your way.
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It feels powerful in the moment. It does, but the hook hidden
30:47
inside that bait produces total destruction of relationships and
30:50
alienates you from the grace of God.
30:53
Or take envy. Envy is a sneaky 1.
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Envy promises a sense of justice.
30:58
It tells you that you deserve what your neighbor has, and
31:00
feeling bitter about their success is a form of balancing
31:03
the scales. Like you're evening things out
31:05
in your head. You think you are protecting
31:07
your own worth, but the hook produces deep, rotting misery in
31:10
your own bones. You cannot enjoy what God has
31:14
given you because you are obsessed with what He gave
31:16
someone else. And what about materialism?
31:18
Materialism presents itself as security and wisdom for the
31:21
future, but it is actually the bait of greed that chokes out
31:25
generosity and reliance on God. You have to ask yourself every
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single day, what is this desire promising me and what is the
31:33
hook hidden inside the bait? It is a massive contrast that we
31:36
have exposed today. On one side you have the
31:38
deceptive death bearing womb of human desire, constantly luring
31:43
us out to take the bait, constantly promising life and
31:45
delivering a grave. Yes, on the other side you have
31:48
the life giving, grace secured rescue of Jesus Christ, the
31:52
second Adam who took the death we spawned and gives us his
31:55
perfect life. The contrast is total.
31:58
That is the dividing line of humanity.
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Every person listening falls into one of two categories.
32:03
Which lineage do you belong to? Are you trusting in your own
32:06
righteousness, which means you are still in the lineage of
32:08
death? Or have you been transferred
32:10
into the lineage of grace by the cross of Christ?
32:12
For you listening, you cannot rely on your own willpower, your
32:16
New Year's vows, or some secular self improvement program to
32:19
fight an internal executioner. It won't work.
32:21
Those things are like putting a Band-Aid on a massive internal
32:24
hemorrhage. You cannot out think a corrupt
32:27
heart. Your only hope is fleeing to the
32:29
baitless conqueror of sin for a new heart and the life of the
32:33
Holy Spirit. Flee to Christ.
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He is the only safe harbor. He is the only one who broke the
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genealogy of death. We started this deep dive
32:42
talking about the Muddy Waters of diagnosis and our tendency to
32:45
blame everything but ourselves for our failures.
32:48
So I want to leave you with the final lingering question to Mull
32:50
over this week. A really important question.
32:53
The next time you face a severe trial or frustration, whether
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it's a financial hit or relational conflict or an unfair
32:59
situation at work, ask yourself, Are you looking at that trial
33:03
through the lens of God's refining grace, trusting that He
33:05
is using it to build your faith? Or are your own desires quietly
33:09
interpreting that trial as a justified excuse to take the
33:12
bait?