Mike Davenport's sermon, 'Equipping Ourselves for the Hour of Temptation', explores James 1:12-18, emphasizing the necessity of understanding and preparing for temptation. He outlines four key points: correcting wrong thinking about God and temptation, understanding the nature and cycle of temptation, being convinced of God's unchanging goodness, and having confidence in the transforming power of new birth. Davenport warns against attributing temptation to God, reminding us that God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He tempt anyone. Instead, temptation arises from our desires, leading to sin and ultimately death. He highlights the importance of prayer, wisdom, and proper understanding of trials to prevent fleshly desires from leading to sin. The sermon underscores the importance of recognizing the internal source of temptation, often driven by personal desires, and how Satan exploits these. Davenport urges believers to stay vigilant against the deceitfulness of sin and to rely on the unchanging goodness of God for strength. He concludes by emphasizing the need for confidence in the transformation brought about by new birth, which empowers believers to resist temptation and pursue righteousness.

We're going to be reading in James 1. I'm going to begin in verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But let each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Then when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of his own will he brought forth brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Let's pray.

Oh Lord I pray that we would hear these words that are preached. Lord, I pray that you would be with the words that are spoken. Lord, I pray that you would teach us. Lord, that we would run from sin. Lord, I pray that we would be your first fruits.

Amen. On the 12th of December 1984, Dense fog shrouded M25 near Godstone in Surrey, a few miles south of London. The hazard warning lights were on, but were ignored by most drivers. At 6.15 a.m., a flatbed semi Carrying huge rolls of paper was involved in an accident, and within minutes, the highway was engulfed in carnage. Dozens of cars were wrecked.

Ten people were killed. A police patrol car was soon on the scene, and two policemen ran back up the motorway to stop oncoming traffic. They waved their arms and shouted as loud as they could, but most drivers took no notice and raced on toward the disaster that awaited them. The policemen then picked up traffic cones and flung them at the car's windshields in a desperate attempt to warn drivers of the danger. One told how tears streamed down his face as car after car went by and he waited for the sickening sound of impact as they hit the growing mass of wreckage down the road.

Here in our passage today, James, as it were, stands on the side of this highway, a highway on which we all find ourselves. He stands there as one of these policemen drawing our attention to the hazard warning lights mounted on the on this pulled structure that spans across the highway above us, waving and shouting as loud as he can to warn us of what lies ahead. Many have gone on before us experiencing the warnings of James but ignoring them to the destruction of their own souls. How will you respond to these fresh warnings today? Will you press on thinking all is well?

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit has to say to us today. This morning we will consider James 1, 13 through 18, and will do so under the following four headings, several of which are borrowed from a sermon preached by Sinclair Ferguson on this very passage. First, we need to be concerned about wrong thinking about God and temptation. Second, we need to be conscious of the nature of temptation and its cycle. Third, we need to be convinced of the unchanging goodness of God.

And then fourthly, we need to be confident that we have experienced the transforming power of the new birth. I've entitled the message, equipping ourselves for the hour of temptation. How can we equip ourselves for that hour of temptation? Well, first, we need to be concerned about wrong thinking, about God in temptation. Verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil Nor does he himself tempt anyone James warns his readers about the corruption that remains in their hearts a self-deception and a self-righteousness that remains even in these that he believes are his true brothers in Christ.

He opened up the letter, My Brethren. Such is the description of our hearts that we are not willing only to declare ourselves not culpable of our sin, but to actually lay that culpability at the feet of the God of heaven and earth. As in verse 3 that we saw last week, so here in this verse James again uses this word when. It is not a matter of if you will be tempted, just as it is not a matter of if you will fall into trials. There is a certainty of temptation, and The when focuses on the unknown timing of it.

James has a reason for talking about the subject of temptation after he has been dealing with trials. What happens when we are not praying for wisdom in the midst of our trials? What happens when we are not praying for wisdom in the midst of our trials? What happens when we are not letting patients have its perfect work in completing and perfecting us? Well in such instances our trials actually become occasions for our flesh to fulfill its desires.

And because we have not been praying for wisdom, and we are not thinking correctly, And when we are not thinking correctly, we are apt to think wrong thoughts about God. And so when temptation arises, James says, let not one of you say, I am being tempted by God. We would like to think that such words would never come across the lips of any Christian. Certainly not our own. But do not forget who James is writing to.

My brethren, The fact of the matter is that we can say things without actually saying them. We all know this. It's been that way from the very beginning. Do you recall the passage that was read earlier in our service, Genesis 3? After Adam had eaten of the forbidden fruit, God called him to give an account of his sin.

God directed his question directly to Adam, Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded that you that you should not eat? Adams response was the woman whom you Gave to me she gave me of the tree and I ate. In reality, he was saying that he was being tempted by God. But we can do this in other ways as well. If we blame our circumstances, we blame the one who orchestrates our days.

If we blame our upbringing, we blame the one who placed us in the families in which we grew up. If we blame the people in our lives, we blame the one who has knit our life with the lives of those particular people. If we blame our genetics, it's just the way I am, then we blame the one who knit us together in our mother's womb. What does such thinking reveal? What does such thinking reveal?

It reveals that we either do not know our God, or if we do, that in our thinking and processing the current circumstances that we find ourselves in, we are not being consistent with that knowledge of him which we have. Which we have. What James calls us back to theology 101, and we should never think ourselves beyond a return to theology 101. First James reminds his readers that God cannot be tempted by evil. Unlike with us, evil finds no welcoming place in the presence of God.

God is in his very essence holy. He cannot allow evil to abide in his presence. And because he is holy, righteous, good, and unchangeable, he cannot be tempted by evil. Secondly, James reminds them that God has not and cannot and does not tempt anyone with evil. God does not tempt anyone with evil.

Paragraph 5 of our confession, dealing with the providence of God, states the following, all sinful actions both of angels and men proceedeth only from the creatures and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin." We cannot take this admonition from James lightly. We must be concerned about our own wrong thinking in regards to God in this matter of temptation. If we don't get this wrong thing cleaned up, if we fail to mind the character of God and to meditate on it, we will never be able to fully accept and acknowledge what James is getting ready to tell us about ourselves. It starts here. A healthy knowledge of self begins with the right knowledge of God.

So having sought to address who God really is, let us consider what James has to say about who we really are. In order to be equipped to deal with temptation, secondly, we need to be conscious of the nature of temptation and its cycle. We need to be conscious of the nature of temptation and its cycle, verses 14 through 16. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." Taking what we just saw in the previous verse, we must proceed with right faults about God and His providence as we approach these next few verses. God's own hand brings trials into our lives in order to cause our faith to grow. But James would have us understand how temptation differs from trial. The Puritan Thomas Watson said, the devil tempts that he may deceive, but God suffers us or allows us to be tempted to try us.

Hence we read of the subtlety or the cunning of the evil one in Genesis chapter 3. The Apostle Paul speaks of the devil's strategies in 2 Corinthians 2, 11, lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. To the church in Ephesus, Paul wrote in Ephesians 6-11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We must be equipped with knowledge of the enemy as well as with the whole armor of God we must resist the devil and keep him at bay but James intention here is not to teach us to say I was tempted by Satan I'm not going to say I was tempted by God. I was tempted by Satan.

That's not his intention. His intention is to draw our attention to the traitor within. To demonstrate what lies within our very hearts. You see, the problem is that there is a traitor within the castle walls of our heart, a Trojan horse of our own making. And so James declares to us the source of our struggle with falling into temptations.

Falling into temptations, he says, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Thomas Brooks, in his book entitled Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices says the following about Satan's strategies with men. Satan loves to sail with the wind and to suit men's temptations to their conditions and inclinations. He doesn't he doesn't go against the wind. He suits the temptations for you and for me based on the conditions that he finds and our own inclinations.

You see, Satan studies the habits of those whom he entices. He cannot see what's in our hearts. He can't see what's inside. But he studies what it is that draws our attention. He watches where the eyes linger.

He pays attentions to the expressions that come across our faces as we make our way through the streets of vanity fare. But he also studies our history. He knows our past failures. He senses our present weaknesses and he is aware of the press of current conditions upon our daily lives. Tiredness, hunger, pain, sorrow, disappointment, and the like.

And so he baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish. He seeks to work in conjunction with our own sinful appetites and tendencies and not against them. And so the devil sets before us the baited hook. The hook is hidden. It's hidden well.

And the bait is all that is seen to our naked eye. And so it is that each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. At this stage of the temptation, John Owen would caution us. Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man but only draw out what was in him before. William Gurnall cautions us as well.

There is a secret disposition in the heart of all to all sin. Mark, tis Satan tempts, but our own lust draws us. Do you recall the words of Christ to his disciples found in Mark 7 20 to 23? What comes out of a man? That defiles a man.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, communications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. James knows the heart of man. He knows how prone we are to deception. He even addresses that proneness to deception in the heart of the very believers he is addressing.

Look down at verse 16. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Note, the subtleties and deception of temptation are as real and as powerful for the believer as they are for the unbeliever. Do you think that you are immune to this deceitfulness? Do not like Peter just simply judge of your willingness and zeal to follow Christ and not to fall.

For truly the spirit may be willing and may be strong, but the flesh is weak. Also, do not think yourself incapable of any sin because of your present lack of appetite for that particular sin. To be so is to be deceived. These words that James uses, drawn away and enticed, are described by Sinclair Ferguson as attracted and then preoccupied. The devil sets the bait before us and then we we find ourselves attracted by it and that attraction if not cut off at its first rising becomes the preoccupation of our mind.

Thus the cycle begins And so it was with Eve in the Garden of Eden. What should have preoccupied her mind in regards to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What should have preoccupied her mind regarding that tree is what God said about that tree. But once the temptation was placed before her, the fruit of the tree became attractive. And that attraction gave way to preoccupation.

And at this point in the cycle, it's often the point of no return. Consider the words read earlier in our service. Read earlier in our service. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate." John Calvin provides the following comments. Eve could previously behold the tree with such sincerity that no desire to eat of it affected her mind.

For the faith she had in the Word of God was the best guardian of her heart and of all her senses. She had passed by it a hundred times with an unmoved and tranquil look. For now, having shaken off the bridle, her mind wanders dissolute and intemperately, drawing the body with it to the same licentiousness. What James continues to instruct us regarding this cycle of temptation, Having drawn us away by attraction and enticing us by allowing the temptation to take up residence in our minds desire then conceives and It gives birth to sin It is a dangerous thing when temptation is allowed to take up residence in our minds. The preoccupation will not allow us to rest.

Desire has then conceived, and a birth is imminent. Sinclair Ferguson notes the particular imagery that James uses here, and he notes the outward manifestations of the great sin of David. Attraction led to preoccupation. Preoccupation led to conception, and conception led to the birth of sin. Listen to the wisdom of John Bunyan expressed in the following poem.

Sin, rather than twill out of action be, will pray to stay though but a while with thee. One night, one hour, one moment will it cry, embrace me in your bosom lest I die. Time to repent, says it, I will allow and help if to repent. You know not how. But once you give it entrance at the door, it will come in and may go out no more.

This birthing process that James refers to can occur in the mind and in the heart as well as in the manifestations of the flesh. Christ made it clear in his sermon on the mount that lusting is actually adultery, that hatred is actually murder. The preoccupation of our minds with the the beauty of that woman or the looks of that man, the preoccupation of our hearts with the hurt that person has brought us, or our envy of what they have, These preoccupations conceive and give birth to real sin, though that sin may never be outwardly manifested. But dear ones, please note that the cycle does not stop here. Recall again what we stated earlier, that James is writing to those whom he considers his brethren.

Let your eyes fall again on verse 16. Do not be deceived, my brethren. He's still talking to those whom he has every evidence to believe that they are in Christ. We must not be deceived regarding the destination of temptations cycle. When sin full grown, it brings forth death.

The wages of a life given over to sin is death. Sin that is not Death. Sin that is not dealt with. Sin that is allowed to remain. By that neglect and by that allowance is allowed to mature and become fully grown.

We cannot afford to be ignorant of this cycle of temptation. Temptation. An attraction, a preoccupation, a conception, sin, death. This is the cycle. This is the cycle.

Woe to the man when the temptation, when his desire, and when the opportunity meet at the same time. Puritan pastor Thomas Manton gives us a warning to heed. A stone at the top of the hill, when it begins to roll down, ceases not till it reaches the bottom. Thou thinkest it is but yielding a little, and so by degrees are carried on, till thou hast send away all thy profession, and all principles of conscience by the witchery of Satan's temptations. You Know too well the words of John Owen by familiarity.

How well do you know them by practice? Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also. These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root. Do you mortify?

Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live. Cease not a day from it. Be killing sin or it will be killing you. Too often we do with our sin what Jehoshua did with Joash when Athaliah sought to destroy all the potential heirs of the throne.

Joash was hidden. He was kept alive and after some time had passed he ascended to take the throne. Or like King Saul we don't complete the task of Annihilation that God has set before us and we spare something that God would have us destroy What pet sin What temptation are you winking at are you? Coddling Are you hiding away? Passing over and allowing to remain?

Bring it out! Bring it out that it may die and not gain strength and take the throne. Bring it out like agag that it may be cut into pieces in obedience to a holy God. Do not allow that sin to reach maturity. When it does, it will bring death.

It will. Death. It will. Now point number three. In order to be equipped for the hour of temptation.

Thirdly, we need to be convinced of the unchanging goodness of God. We need to be convinced of the unchanging goodness of our God Verse 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Having equipped us with the knowledge of ourselves and the cycle of temptation, James also knows that our equipping involves certain convictions and confidence in regards to God and His work. So not only must we be concerned with wrong thoughts about God and temptation, not only must we be conscious of the workings of sin and its cycle, but we must be equipped with the conviction of the unchanging goodness of God. Such conviction will bring us joy, peace, and assurance, and in so doing will allow us to flee from temptation.

Note what John Owen says about this conviction of the unchanging goodness of God. It is just here that men deceive themselves. It's just here that men deceive themselves. It is not that they do not want the gospel privileges of joy, peace, and assurance, but they are not prepared to repent of their evil attitudes and careless lifestyles some have even attempted to reconcile these things and ruined their souls. Note first the two uses of the word gift in these verses.

Every good gift and every perfect gift. In the Greek, they are actually distinct from each other, yet they have the same root. The German-born commentator Linsky rightly translates the opening phrase of this verse in the following way. All giving that is good and everything given that is complete is from above. All giving that is good and everything given that is complete is from above.

Both the act of giving and the gift actually given are from above. Note secondly the use of the word perfect. There is a good gift. The word good is obvious. It has nothing in its meaning that adds anything to that word, but the word perfect.

We've run across this same word already in James, back in verse four. It conveys the idea of completion. We saw last week that we are to let faith do its Completing work in order to bring us to completion Here in this verse James remind us that everything that comes from God is given to us in Order to perfect us this gift is a perfecting gift It completes us But James does not want us simply to be convicted of the source of all giving that is good and the completing nature of everything given, but in order to be equipped to withstand temptation when it arises, he wants us to be convinced that this goodness of God toward us is unchanging. He wants us to be convinced not only of the source of this good, but the fact that it's an unchanging goodness. This goodness comes down to us from above from the Father of lights.

When we turn our heads upwards and look to that which is above we naturally see the lights that God has placed in the firmament above. The sun, the moon, the stars. God is the creator of all these things and they reflect His glory. But as created things we see in them variation. Sometimes they are not visible to our sight.

Sometimes they appear brighter than they do at other times, and Sometimes they can burn out and no longer give light. But such is not the case with God our Father, the Father of all these lights. His goodness toward us is unchanging. It does not fluctuate. It does not diminish.

It is always visible to the eye of faith. There is not even a shadow. That is to say not even a hint the presence the hint of a presence of his possible turning the unchanging goodness of God We sing of these realities in the hymn, Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever, forever wilt be. My friend, are you convinced of this unchanging goodness of your father? Do you make this unchanging goodness the preoccupation of your mind?

Going back to Genesis 3, this is where Eve began to slip. Her initial response to the serpent was the acknowledgement of the goodness of God. We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. Yes, God is good. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

But the serpent convinced Eve to doubt the goodness of God, to doubt the reality that all of God's giving is good and that everything necessary for her completion had been given to her. The serpent sought to make Eve think that God think that God was actually withholding something good, withholding something needful. God knows. God knows that if you were to eat it that you'd be like him. My brothers and sisters, once we begin to doubt the unchanging goodness of God, we are on a steep and slippery slope that leads nowhere but down.

Once we call into question the character of God, once we begin to doubt what the Word of God says about the deceitfulness of our own hearts, then we begin to act without true acknowledgement of who he really is and who we really are. Asaph began Psalm 73 with the statement, truly God is good to Israel to such as are pure in heart. But at the time that he said that, he himself was not convinced of it in his heart. He knew it. He knew that God was good to Israel, but he wasn't convinced of it in his own heart.

He looked upon the wicked and assumed that there was variation with God. He was drawn away and the prosperity of the wicked preoccupied his mind. What did he write after saying truly God is good to Israel? He said, the wicked, they prosper. They go on their ways as if God doesn't exist.

What God said would come to them has not come to them it's come to me until until he went to the house of God and he began to preoccupy himself and his mind with truth and what equipped him to withstand these temptations toward evil to withstand these temptations to consider that it's a vain thing to walk in the ways of God. Well it was the actual conviction of the statement he had made at the beginning of the Psalm. It became a conviction to him. Having gone to the house of God, now this truth of God has become his reality. God is indeed good.

And God's goodness now preoccupies his mind. Listen to how he finishes the Psalm. He says, thus my heart was grieved and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant. I was like a beast before you.

Nevertheless, nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you and there is none upon earth that I desire besides you my flesh and my heart fail see he's thinking right about God he's thinking right about himself my flesh and my heart fail but God but God is my strength the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed those who are far from you shall perish.

You have destroyed all those who desert you for a harlotry. See, he's equipped now. He's equipped to fight the temptation. But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all your works.

Oh dear one be be convinced of the unchanging goodness of our God. Thus you will be equipped to stand in the hour of temptation. But James gives us one more thing to equip us for facing our temptations. Point number four, we need to be confident, We need to be confident that we have experienced the transforming power of the new birth We need to be confident that we have experienced the transforming power of the new birth verse 18 of His own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures You see this is why temptation cannot come from God. It runs contrary to his very purpose in redeeming, sanctifying, and completing his people.

This is what God is about. Apart from the grace of God, our desires conceive and bring forth their fruit. But the grace of God points us to God's desire, not ours, but God's desire. And what does God's desire to do? It also brings about a process of birth, new birth, of his own will.

He brought us forth by the word of truth. James is seeking to root the confidence of his readers in the will of God for their lives, that they would plant their confidence and place it in the work he began and will continue to completion. Be confident that it was his own will and not yours that brought about this new birth. Be confident that the means of bringing about this new birth was the very word of His truth. That's what did it.

It wasn't something you came up with. This wasn't your will. It was His will. Be confident of it. It was by the word of His truth.

Be confident of it. And be confident that he will accomplish the purpose for which he brought you forth and what is that purpose that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Just as Christ was the first fruits of all Christians in his resurrection, he's the first fruits. Even so, as Christ is the first fruits of all Christians. So Christians are the first fruits of all the creatures.

The work of God in bringing about this new birth, it transforms us. It transforms us. Do you have confidence that you have experienced this transforming power? In regards to this point, Gordon Keddie, a commentator on the book of James, makes the following observation, God is the giver of good and perfect gifts and only good and perfect gifts, And the giving of his son to be the savior of his people is the confirmation of this truth in the experience of everyone who has been saved by His grace. God's unchanging goodness?

Why is it unchanging? Because Paul tells us in Romans 8, how can God who freely gave us his own son, withhold anything good from us? The giving of his own son confirms the very fact of God's unchanging goodness. Paul spoke of such confidence that he had in the congregation in Philippi, Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you Will by this transforming power complete it until the day of Jesus Christ? This confidence in the transforming power of the new birth is bolstered, okay, it's bolstered by the promise given by God through the Apostle Paul when he reminds the Corinthians in his first Epistle chapter 10 verse 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.

No new bait, no new hook. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. God is faithful, Paul says. We should be convinced of his unchanging goodness to us, that he will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear.

His goodness provides a means of escape, so that his people may be able to endure this temptation. This transforming power means that we will never ever ever be tempted above what we are able. We need to be armed with that confidence when temptation holds before us that bated hook. God has made a way of escape. Paul reminds us of this transforming power that accompanies the grace of God that comes to us in the gospel.

In the epistle he wrote to Titus chapter 2, 11 through 14. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us, redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. So I have sought to sprinkle application throughout the message, even as the book of James tends to do because of the the practical nature of the things which James writes of. However, I do want to give one additional application and it is this. Withdraw, this, withdraw the fuel that may kindle the desires of your flesh.

Withdraw the fuel that may kindle the desires of your flesh. As much as lies within you, avoid all temptations. Take heed to note all that nourishes sin and expel it from your heart. No matter what it is. No matter what it is.

No matter how innocent you think it may be in and of itself. If it nourishes the flesh, expel it, cut it off. It may be as radical as the cutting off of arms and the plucking out of ice. But better it is to enter heaven, maimed and without a member, than to be whole in body and cast into hell for the torment of the fire for all of eternity. Remember the warning that God gave to Cain, if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you.

Its desire, my friend, is for you and it but lies at the door of your heart but you should rule over it listen to me young man Listen to me, young woman. Listen to me, dad, mom. Proverbs 5 14 lays before us the real possibility of someone who is able to say, I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation. I was on the verge of total ruin, and I was in the very midst of the assembly and of the congregation. Don't be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Don't be deceived. Oh traveler, you have been warned. James knows of the danger ahead and he has not stood idly by. He has instructed you. He has warned you.

He has sought to equip you to stand in the hour of temptation. There is a growing mass of wreckage further down the road, where lies the mangled souls of those who have ignored these warnings of James. The warnings of James. Will you be the next casualty? The writer of Hebrews says in 313, he warns us of the danger of the hardness that comes over the heart as a result of the deceitfulness of sin.

It can lead to unbelief in a hardness that leaves a heart without God. Let us, as that writer says, hold fast, hold fast to be attracted by, be preoccupied with the beginning of our confidence and hold it steadfast to the end. But maybe you're here this morning without Christ. You my friend are traveling this same highway. And what James has set before us is for the equipping of the saints.

This is for the equipping of the people of God. There is no such equipping for the hour of temptation for those who were outside of Jesus Christ. Your automobile, as it were, is traveling towards this growing mass of wreckage without working brakes. You can't stop. In fact, you're not even behind the wheel.

Your desires are in are in control of that vehicle. You can't stop. You're being taxied toward this very destruction by your own desires. Bail out! Bail out!

I don't care how fast the vehicle is driving, bail out! Flee from the destruction that awaits. Find peace, find grace, find forgiveness, find joy in Christ and in him alone. Then you too can know the transforming power of this new birth. And you will experience for yourself this unchanging goodness of the Father of lights and you will be enabled to escape the temptation when it is set before you and you will be able, like we read in verse 12 last week, you will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Be equipped. Be equipped. Flee to Jesus Christ. He is the strong tower And the righteous flee to him and are safe Let's look to him prayer Oh God Come to us by the power of your Spirit. Leave us not in our present state.

Leave us not to the sinful desires of our flesh. Give us grace, O God, to be conscious of the workings of sin and temptation, conscious of the cycle that it goes through. Give us eyes to see this cycle when it comes up in our hearts that we might flee. Give us grace to be convicted and convinced of your unchanging goodness. And Lord, may we be convicted that we ourselves have truly experienced the transforming power of this new birth.

Lord, for those who cannot be equipped, oh Lord, Save them from that destruction to come Lord may this car be brought to a halt May the warning lights be seen while it is called today Lest they be swept away into eternity when the whirlwind comes and wisdom which cried out to them to turn turn at my reproof and that wisdom Then laughs as their destruction comes spare them. Oh god. We pray in Jesus name Amen Let's have a few minutes of silence meditation before