I've entitled the message, Enduring Temptation, Enduring Temptation. Now the word temptation is used
in two different senses in the scripture. Both of them are in
James chapter 1. First, temptation to sin. Look what he says in verse 13,
let no man say when he's tempted, and that's talking about tempted
to sin, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted
when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust
hath conceived it, bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren."
And then there's the temptation of which he speaks of in the
first part of the chapter, verse 2. My brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into diverse temptations. That doesn't mean
you count it joy to fall into temptation to sin, but you don't
even look for trials and temptations. But when he sends them your way,
we're called upon to count it all joy, knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience. Now in the scripture
I just read, he's talking about trials, troubles, temptations. Now, the Lord taught us to pray,
lead us not into temptation. And I mean that in both of those
senses. Lord, don't let me be tempted to sin. I know what happens
when I am, so don't let me even be tempted. Deliver me from temptation. And Lord, I don't want any trials.
I mean, if you send them my way, holy and reverend is your name,
and I trust I'll benefit from them, but I'm all for getting
out of any kind of trials. I would rather my life be easy
and simple, and I'd rather just believe the gospel instead of
have to learn things the hard way. And the Lord taught us to
pray. Lead us not into temptation. That's something we ought to
pray every day. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation. Blessed. Now, those who do not
believe the gospel use this word a lot. I mean, you see athletes
after they score a touchdown or whether they get a game-winning
hit, when they're interviewed, they'll say, I'm blessed. I'm
blessed. Sometimes it's a reference to
being blessed by God. As a matter of fact, most of
the time I guess it's a reference to being blessed by God. I'm
blessed, I'm fortunate, I'm well off, I'm thankful. But when the
Bible uses the word, it's always a reference to those whom God
has given His grace to. It is always a word that is used
with reference to those that God has given His grace to. They are blessed. David said
in Psalm 65, 4, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. Now that's blessing, isn't it?
Being chosen by God. I'm, I stand amazed at that.
He, why me? He chose me and caused me to
approach into his presence. What, what greater blessing could
there be than that? Blessed is the man whom thou
chasteneth. What's blessed about that? Well,
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son he receiveth. So yes, indeed, that is a great
blessing. Blessed are the dead. that die
in the Lord. What a blessing that is. And
this is the same word used to begin the Beatitudes. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are they that mourn. Blessed are they which hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed
are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now this
blessedness, this state of blessedness is what God does for those he
gives his grace to. It's something that only the
believer possesses. Now sometimes the word is translated
happy, but you know I like blessed a lot better. Happiness has to
do with happenings. Happiness has to do with circumstances.
Everything's good. Got plenty of money. I'm healthy. I'm not having any particular
conflict with anybody. Everything's good. Everything's
easy. I'm happy. Blessedness has to do with the
divine favor, not circumstances, but the divine favor. You take the rich man and Lazarus.
The rich man was happy. Scripture says he fared sumptuously
every day. I dare say Lazarus was not real
happy as a beggar, having the dogs lick his sores, sitting,
hoping for food to come from the rich man. I dare say that
he wasn't happy, but Lazarus, oh, how blessed he was of God. The rich man, the happy man,
he didn't have God's blessing. He was under God's curse. Oh,
I want the divine blessing, don't you? I want the Lord to bless
me. Now, the man who is blessed of
God, we read in our text, is the man who endures temptation. He endures temptation. He makes
it through temptation. Trials. Trials of prosperity. trials of adversity. I think
of that scripture in Genesis 22 1, God did tempt Abraham. God did tempt Abraham. Every
trial you have came from him. You remember when the Lord says
to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? Have you considered
him? Now, he intended for Job to go
through everything he went through. And God is in control of these
trials. But you think of these trials.
I'm not going to say a lot about this because I preached just
a few weeks ago on the trials of life, but trials of prosperity,
trials of adversity, trials of health being taken away, trials
in the home, trials in the marriage, trials with your children, Trials
on the job, trials of conflict, trials of persecution over the
gospel, trials in the church when there's conflict and discord
in the church. Mental trials, emotional trials,
physical trials, spiritual trials. Now we've already been told to
count it a joy to fall into these trials. If you find out you have
cancer tomorrow, you know what you're supposed to do? Thank
you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. It came from you. It came from
my good. Any trial that you have, we're
to count it a joy. It doesn't mean we rejoice in
the trials, but we rejoice in him who sent the trial. Blessed is he that endureth temptation. Now, I dare say that all of us
have our trials right now. I doubt that there's anybody
in this room exempt of trials. Painful trials. Troubling trials. I've got a few of my own. And
I think about them every day. And it's like a black cloud over
my head every day. And it seems like the Lord keeps
it that way. I don't remember the last time it wasn't like
that. The Lord sends trials. Somebody says, well, my trials
don't bother me. Well, then they're not a trial.
You can be sure of that. It's like, if it doesn't bother
you, if it's easy, I got through that with flying colors. It's
not a trial. I don't know what it was, but
it wasn't a trial. Turn with me for a moment to Luke chapter
8. Luke chapter 8, while you're
turning there, I'm going to turn the air conditioner on. Forgot to turn it on, and
it's getting hot for me. It won't get you all this. Now this is the parable of the
four different types of hearers. Look beginning in verse 4 of
Luke chapter 8. And when much people were gathered
together and were come to him out of every city, he spake by
a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed,
the gospel, And as he sowed, everybody heard the same message.
This is not a false gospel. This is very important. The seed
is the word of God. All of these people heard the
truth, the gospel of God's grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
gospel of God. A sower went out to sow his seed,
and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, the hard beaten
path, and was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured
it. And some fell upon a rock, shallow soil because of that
rock as soon as it was sprung up it withered away because it
lacked moisture and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang
up with it and choked it and others fell on good ground and
sprang up and bear fruit and Hundredfold and when he had said
these things he cried he that hath ears to hear Let him hear
Well, I want ears to hear don't you? Oh, would to God that he
would give me ears to hear. Verse 9, and his disciples asked
him, saying, what might this parable be? And he said, unto
you it's given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to
others in parables that seeing they might not see, and hearing
they might not understand. Now the parable is this, the
seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside, the hard-beaten
path, are they that hear. Then cometh the devil, and taketh
away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and
be saved. Now what does that mean? Does that mean you can
hear and believe and all of a sudden the devil can just pluck it out
of your heart and you don't believe anymore? No. This person heard, but not
with understanding. And all the devil has to do is
come and interject another thought, and you forget it. You just forget
it. It's not important to you. It's
gone. Verse 13. They on the rock, that's
the shallow soil, are they that when they hear, receive the word
with joy. I don't know how many times I've
seen that happen. They hear and they receive the
word with joy. This is the best thing I've ever
heard. I've never heard anything like this. This is great. I love
this. Why haven't I heard this all
my life? They receive the word with joy. True story. Brian DeVore can testify to this. Somebody came and acted like
it was the greatest thing they'd ever heard. And I said to Brian
afterwards, he was kind of excited about it. He said, they won't
be back. And Brian said, why are you always so negative? And
I don't know, I'm sorry. And he said, maybe the guy broke
his arm or leg or something. And sure enough, the guy comes
back the next week with a cast on his arm. But he's not here
anymore. And I'm not saying that gladly.
What I'm saying is he received the word. rejoiced in it, was
happy about it, but look what it says next. These have no root,
which for a while believe, and in time of temptation they fall
away. They don't endure temptation. Blessed is the man that endures
temptation. This man, when he sees what the
gospel costs him, it's not worth it. In time of temptation, he
falls away. He doesn't endure through temptation.
Look at the next one in verse 14. And they which fell among
thorns are they which when they have heard, they believe, they
receive, but they go forth and are choked with the cares and
riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit. to perfection, to maturity. They hear, but they bring no
fruit. They're taken up with the cares,
the pleasures, the riches, the deceitfulness of this life, and
they bring forth no fruit. Now, I think these people really
never leave the church. They just sit there, but they
bring forth no fruit. Verse 15, but that on the good
ground Are they which in an honest and good heart. Honest, honest
before God. I love what Barnard said, honest
people don't go to hell and they don't. Those who are honest before
God, honest about their sinfulness and their need of His grace.
This honest heart is the good heart given in regeneration.
It's that new heart, it's that pure heart the Lord spoke of.
On the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart,
having heard the word, keep it." They keep it. And they bring
forth fruit unto perfection. This is the man that endures
temptation. Blessed is he that endureth temptation. Now, this thing of endurance
is perseverance. I remember probably 12 or 13
years ago, Bruce Crabtree preaching here, and he was trying to say
perseverance, and he said, perseverance, perseverance. And he coined a
word that is so good. We persevere because we're preserved. And we're preserved through perseverance. enduring temptation. They persevere
in the faith. They don't quit. They persevere. The Lord said in John 8 31, if
you continue, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples
indeed. It's that one who continues.
The Lord is said to present every believer holy, unblameable, and
unreprovable in his sight. What a blessing! But the next
verse says, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved from the hope of the gospel. We're made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning. of our confidence, steadfast
to the end. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. And that's what he's talking
about when he's talking about blessed is the man who endureth temptations. It's the man who perseveres,
who continues in the faith. He that endureth to the end shall
be saved. Now, if a man doesn't persevere,
let me tell you something. Listen real carefully. If a man
doesn't persevere, if he begins, and he doesn't persevere, that
man never really believed he was a sinner. He never believed
he was totally depraved. He might have given lip service
to the doctrine, but he didn't believe it about himself. He's
certainly not someone God elected. He's not somebody that Christ
died for. He's not somebody that God the Holy Spirit has called,
because if he was any of those things, he would persevere all
the way to the end. Blessed is he that endureth temptation. Now, there are people who leave
quickly, There are people who leave after many years, but it's
only the man that endures temptation that is described in our text. And what's my thought to that? Lord, keep me or I will fall. Keep me or I won't be around. If I'm brought up to the very
threshold of heaven and then left to myself to take the last
step in, you know where I'll end up? In hell. I know that. I must be kept. Now look what it says back in
our text in James chapter 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation. He perseveres. For when he is
tried. Now that word tried is translated
every other time in the New Testament by the word approved. Approved. Made to see to be genuine. Now that word comes from coins that were the proper weight. At that time, all there was for
currency was brass, silver, golden, copper coins. And particularly
with the silver and gold, what they'd try to do is they'd try
to shave little bits of it off, little bits of it off, and they'd
give a coin that wasn't really approved. It wasn't the genuine
weight. And an approved coin was a coin that was the genuine
weight and had not had any shaving done on it. Now, it's only the
person that endures temptation that is genuine. He has the grace
of God the Holy Spirit, the new nature that enables him to endure.
And I appeal to every believer, how quickly would you fall away
if he didn't keep you? How quick? You know that you
would be gone like that if he didn't keep you. preserve you. How thankful we are for Jude
24, now unto him that's able to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be honor and power
and glory both now and forever. Amen. Aren't you thankful to
be kept from falling? Kept by the power of God through
faith into salvation. Now, I've been a believer for
a number of years and I know the only reason I continue to
believe is because He continues to keep me. That's why I'll persevere
all the way to the end. Now, when He's approved and made
to seem to be genuine and real, when He's approved, what happens?
James 1 12. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he's tried, when he's approved, and seen
to be genuine, he shall receive the crown of life. Now, how blessed he was in this
life, but beloved, this is not life, really. I love where the
Lord said, when you enter life. This is not life. When you enter
life. Now, this man receives a crown
of life. And this is an allusion to the
Greek games. Well, what does a crown mean?
What does a crown mean? This is talking about when you
won a race, you're given a crown. If you won a wrestling match,
you're given a crown. It's the Greek Olympics, and
it's the garland. It's not the crown a king wears.
It's the garland given to the victor in the Greek games. Well,
crown has to do with something done. A race finished. A battle fought. Paul said, I
fought a good fight, I finished my course. I've kept the faith. Henceforth there's laid up for
me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge
shall give me on that day and not to me only but to all them
that love his appearing. Now he's not talking about some
kind of special crown. You know, there's so many doctrines
developed around the crowns, believers. There's a soul winner's
crown. There's a pastor's crown. There's
a martyr's crown. They've got all these different
kind of crowns. That's ridiculous. Every believer has the same crown. Are you somebody that loves his
appearing? Do you love his appearing when he appeared as your surety
before time began? Do you love his appearing? Do
you love his appearing when he became flesh and kept the law
for you? Do you love His appearing on the cross when He put away
your sins, when He died? Do you love His appearing when
He was raised from the dead? Do you love His appearing as
He ascended back to the Father and even now, right now, is appearing
in the presence of God for you? Do you love His appearing? Will
you love His appearing when He shall come with trumpet sound,
though may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness
alone, faultless to stand before Him? Do you love His appearing?
I do. I do. Now, this crown is going to be
given to all who love His appearing. And listen to this. This crown
was something appreciated by Him that gave the crown. God,
by grace, appreciates our lives. That's by grace. You say, how
can you say that? I said by grace, didn't I? I
didn't say because of your works, but God by grace appreciates
our lives despite our imperfections and sins. He sees what we desire
to be. What do you desire to be? Just
like Christ. That really is your desire. And
your desire actually is what you are. You see, that's what
your heart really is. It's the new heart He has given. And He's going to say to you,
well done. thou good and faithful servant. That's going to be said to every
single believer. Now, it's hard to get a hold
of that, but that's what the Bible says. Well done, thou good
and faithful. I didn't do well. Well, he did,
and what he did is what I did. So yeah, I did do well. Yeah,
I did do well. If he did well, I did well. And
that is my true righteousness. That's the real me. That's the
true righteousness that I had before God. Well done, thou good
and faithful servant. And it's a reward that is the
reward of grace, reckoned of grace, and not of debt. Don't
you love that in Romans chapter 4? He said now if the reward
be reckoned of works, then it's not of grace. But it's reckoned
of grace. It's the gift of His grace. And it's a crown of life. Eternal life. The life David
spoke of when he said, As for me, I will behold thy face in
righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. Now that's life. That's life. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. It's the crown of life. Now, I and every other believer
who's given this crown are going to have the crown of life, the
satisfaction of not sinning anymore. Never having to feel guilty,
never having to feel alone, perfectly conformed to the image of His
Son. The crown of life. And look what
it says next in verse 12. For when he is tried, when he
is approved, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him. Now everything we have is
because of what? The promise of God. This was
a promise made before we were ever born. That's why it is so
sure. God, who cannot lie, promised
this before the world began. Listen to this scripture. This
is one of my favorite scriptures. I've got a lot of favorite scriptures,
but this is one of them. 2 Timothy 1, 9. He saved us and He called us. Which came
first, the saving or the calling? The saving. He saved us and He
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which were given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Everything I have, this
crown of life, the faith, the repentance, is all given to me
because of the promise of God. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised." God, when He promises something,
it's done, isn't it? It's past tense. It's past tense
before it takes place. It's that sure when He promises
something. Oh, blessed is that man who endures
temptation. For when he is approved, he'll
receive a crown of life which the Lord hath promised. And I love this last phrase,
to them that love him. To them that love him. Now the only ones who endure
temptation, the only ones who are given a crown of life, the
only ones to whom God has made these promises to are described
as them that love Him. Now this is the key to perseverance. Yes, we persevere because we're
preserved by invincible, irresistible sovereign grace, and we can't
do anything but that. But that doesn't mean that we're just
drug by the hair and pulled along, kicking and screaming against
it. We love Him. And this world doesn't have anything
to offer that we would sell Him for. We love Now, I do not want Lynn to love anybody
better than me except for one person. I want her to love the
Lord better than she loves me. And you know what? She wants
me to love the Lord better than I love her. No mortal can with
Him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is He than all the
fair who fill the heavenly train. Them that love Him. Now let me give you two reasons
why we love Him. And we do. We do. Here's the first reason why we
love Him. 1 John 4, 19 says we love Him because, can you quote
the rest of the verse? Because He first loved us. We trace our love to Him. to His amazing, unspeakable,
glorious, eternal love to us. You see, the Lord's love is not
going to go unrequited. Now it's possible that you can
fall in love with somebody and they never love you in return.
That's happened to many people. They become infatuated with somebody,
thought they were in love with them, but no love in return. But you know, the Lord never
loves anyone where His love is not returned. Every single one
of his people love him and here's why we love him because he first
loved us Now here's the second reason this one just as good
We love him Because he is all together lovely Everything about
him is lovely. We wouldn't change anything about
him if it were in our power to do so. He is altogether lovely. All of his attributes are lovely.
We love every single attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
love his sovereignty. Aren't you glad he's in control? Do
you love the fact that he controls everything and everybody? Aren't
you glad that salvation is by his sovereign grace? Aren't you
glad His justice is magnified in your salvation and that you're
saved in a way that honors His justice and righteousness? You're
glad. Don't you love His immutability, the fact that He never changes?
Don't you love the fact that He is eternal, that He never
began to be and never will end? Don't you love His wisdom? Don't you love His love, His
grace, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, the Shulamite
said. He's altogether lovely. Now that's why we love him. That's
why we persevere, because he's altogether lovely. He causes
us to. We love him because he first loved us. And He's altogether
lovely. We love following Him. And by His grace, like Samuel
Rutherford said, if I had to jump in hell to get to Christ,
by His grace I'd do it. And that's the way every believer
feels. By His grace. By His grace. We
know that we'll chicken out and coward out and fail to confess
Him if He doesn't enable us to. But oh, He is altogether lovely,
isn't He? That's why we endure temptation.
because of his loveliness, because we love him. Blessed by God. Oh, how blessed that man is who
endures, who makes it through all the trials God sends his
ways. And you've got ones coming your
way that you don't know anything about and be glad you don't know
about them, but they'll be for your good and his glory. Blessed
is the man who endures temptation. For when he is tried and proved,
and we see he's real, he's genuine, he's the real thing, he's somebody
that God has indeed done a work of grace for, that person will
receive the crown of life. What a crown that is. And he'll be given it to because
of the Lord's promise. Because of His eternal promise,
He gives this crown of life to all who love Him. May that be the description of
me and you. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank You for the
beauty of our Savior. Lord, give us grace to love you more. Lord, by your grace, may we never
outlive our love to thee. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us to be these blessed men, blessed by your grace. Lord, we ask that
we might be enabled to endure temptation, and trial, and that
it would mature us and cause us to be more lowly, and more
broken, and more humble, and more merciful, and more gracious,
and more like our Redeemer. Lord, we confess that the crown
of life that you give to us is a crown of thy grace. Oh, to
grace, how great a debtor daily we're constrained to be. Let
thy goodness, like a fetter, bind our wandering hearts to
thee. And Lord, by your grace, we do
love thy son. And we know that we love him
because he first loved us. and we love him because he's
altogether lovely. Lord, we know he's altogether
lovely to you, and he is altogether lovely to us. Bless this message
for Christ's sake, in his name we pray. Amen.