Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 13 (Lust and Covetousness)

Sins of the Spirit Series: Lust and Covetousness

Tonight I want to speak on yet another sin of the Spirit. And once again, the sins of the Spirit are not necessarily actions. They are sinful thoughts, motives, attitudes in our inner man that displease God and that we need to lay aside. And we need to let the Lord have control over that area of our lives.

So tonight I want to turn to James chapter 1. James chapter 1, please. And we want to look at the sin of lust, the sin of lust this evening. Lust produces a variety of different actions of sin. But lust is in itself, not an action so much as it is a sin that resides, that exists in the inner man. And when I say lust, I should distinguish what I'm speaking of—sinful lust, which is usually what we mean when we use the word lust, talking about sinful desires, right? And this is what the Scripture means when it uses that word. That is the language of our Bible.

But in James chapter 1, we read here tonight in verse 12. I want to read three verses. It says in verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

I know there's more good stuff in this passage we could look at tonight, but I specifically want to look at just these three verses this evening. I want us to see every man is drawn away of his own lust, when every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. In verse 13, we just read, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Don't blame God for when you fall into temptation. Don't blame God when you fall into temptation. Because God is not responsible for your lust.

In fact, he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. And as he has made that atonement for us, it is only through the power of his saving grace that we can have the victory over lust, sinful lust. In fact, the thing that men have been trying to do from all the way back to Adam is to shift the blame and say someone else is to blame for my problems. Someone else is to blame for my problems. We see this in whether it be marital counseling, whether it be children, siblings in a home, whether it be workplace environment, there is the natural human tendency to say it is not my fault. It is not my fault. Or somebody else's fault, you know, the serpent, the woman that thou gavest me. Any number of things made me do it.

This is what psychology preaches, that there are environmental factors. There are factors in my past that influence or that, you know, maybe I can't help, that have happened to me or happened in my presence or have had an effect on me in the past and therefore I am the way that I am. But this passage tonight says that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. And say some of them, a few of them, says every man is tempted to, he falls in that temptation to sin. He takes the bait, so to speak. Not just so to speak, the language is here in this verse that indicates it is a baiting thing and he takes the bait. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

What does the world say? The devil made me do it or maybe not everybody in the world says that, but that's the devil made me do it. Or, you know, it's this or that or the other. Well, what is temptation? It's seduction to evil. It's solicitation to wrongdoing. It is an alluring to disobey God and displease him, the one who made us for a very specific purpose. And that very specific purpose was, why did he create us? He created us that we might for his own pleasure, for his own glory, right? That is why we were created. And for man to live for his own glory and to live for his own pleasure and to live for his own belly is an abuse and misuse, as we said this morning, of the very vessel, the body and spirit that God has given to us. It's a misuse of that.

You know, we have a tendency not to think that we're that bad, right? Because, you know, because we're just like everybody else, right? Yeah, we are. Naturally, in sin, we're like everybody else. Man doesn't think his sin is that bad. But as Christians, we know where our lust will take us.

Let's look over in 1 John chapter 5, please. 1 John chapter 5, in verse number 2. This word lust, as you know, I'm sure from our study of 1 John, our study of James and other portions as well. But particularly in those two books is that epithumias, epithumia. It is that lust, that lusting intensely and passionately desiring something, a craving after it, right? And then we notice here in 1 John 5 verse 2, by this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. In other words, we want to do that, right?

For whatsoever is born of God. So comes to temptation. Whatsoever is born of God lives in lust. Whatsoever is born of God? Yields to temptation? No, it didn't say that, did it? It says for whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world. Even our faith. Faith in what? I know I sound like a broken record by saying this, but once again, it's very simply faith. I believe, like we said this morning, I believe what God says, Jehoshaphat against all odds. What seemed like an impossible situation, we might say, with all these numbers of the Moabites and the Ammonites and others coming up against Him, believing God. He trusted God.

Well, faith. Faith. You know, if we look to ourselves, we will never, we will come to the conclusion if we look to ourselves, I can't overcome this temptation. Whatever it may be, but with God, we can. Because of what He's already done, already done for us on the cross.

Every day, we are going to face some form of temptation. Every single day that we live, we will be tempted in some way. I guarantee you the things I have spoken from my mouth today from this pulpit, from that lectern down there, the Lord is going to allow me to be tested tomorrow, the next day. Daniel, do you believe the things you said? Do you believe what I have told you in my word? Count it, mark it down. In some way, I don't know exactly how that test is going to come, but I know that it will be. It will be tested. And He will test all of us. But remember, God isn't tempted in His testing. He doesn't, His purpose is not for us to sin, it's to overcome. It's for us to overcome by faith in His wonderful grace that He gives.

How do we overcome temptation? Well, by faith, but what does that look like growing in the grace and the knowledge of my Lord and Savior? So many times, it's not about not doing something, it's about doing what is pleasing to the Lord. That's the key. It's not about, well, I hope I stay away from this and that and the other. No, it's that I must live for the Lord and for His glory. I must strive to know and to do what His will is. His commands, or I should say, His desires should be my commands in my life. I must ever be growing in the grace and the knowledge of my Lord and Savior. The trial was not about surviving the devil, it's about growing in the Lord. Surviving, yes, we will overcome the tempter and His fiery darts and all these things, but we got to actively put on the armor of God. We've got to actively be following the Lord.

Now, it says here in verse 14 that every man is tempted when he is drawn away. I know we pointed this verb out, exelko, when we were going through the book of James. It's literally to draw away like a fish is drawn out of its retreat by a bait or a lure. He's drawn away. What are the ones that are, what are the fish that are hard to catch? The old ones, right? The mature ones. I was just thinking about this this afternoon. What are the, we talk about deer hunting, right? Which ones are the hardest ones to get when you're deer hunting? You can put the doe scent out and you can put the corn pile out and all those kinds of things to bait them and bring them in. But which ones are the most difficult ones that are wise? The ones that are mature? The ones that don't easily fall for the imitations and the baits and the lures. Why? Because they seem to think or two, right?

How do we become wise? How do we overcome the temptation, the baits and the lures? Not in our own wisdom. Not in our own wisdom. We become wise when we trust God and obey His word. Knowing that whatever He calls us away from is for our good. We believe the love He has to us and therefore we trust and obey. What He tells us? We believe what His word says. Satan is always going to be baiting and luring. He's always going to be trying to entice, trying to entice, but is that an excuse to sin? No. It is not. It is not an excuse to sin. In fact, the key determining factor is this matter of lust.

Remember when we were in sin, when we were in sin. When we, in our BC years before Christ, and all of us had a different period of time that we can refer to as our before Christ years, Titus 3 will tell us what that looked like. In fact, in Titus 3, if you'll turn over there with me in verse number 3, it says there, He says, Paul says to Titus in Titus chapter 3 and verse number 3, says these words. That we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, foolish, disobedient, deceived. What does it mean to be deceived? Believing something to be true when it's not. The bait says this is going to be good. That smells good. It sounds good. You know, the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked like it was going to be good, didn't it?

But we were in that old life, we were deceived and we were serving that slavery language. We were serving as slaves in servitude. We were serving divers, a variety of different kinds of lusts, divers lusts, lusts for different kinds of things. Lust and pleasures, we were living in malice and in the hateful and hating one another. We've seen some of those sins of the Spirit already, haven't we? But we were slaves. You know, when the devil blew the whistle we jumped, so to speak. When he put the bait out there we ran. That's just how we lived. It may have all been, a lot of it may have been, especially if we were young and we didn't have a long time to live in sin. It might have been on maybe in our minds. It might have been mainly in our spirit and we were not able to actually act on all of these sinful lusts of desires but they were there and they were at work. And we were slaves to those things.

Slavery, you know, that doesn't sound like a very good thing, does it? We have horror in, you know, holding someone as your servant against their will. Even when Philemon, when, when, what was it Paul wrote to Philemon about Onesimus? Now that he's a brother in Christ. You know, I'm not telling you what to do but you ought to receive him as a, not so much as a servant now but as a brother in the Lord. Even though this is permitted legally to do so in the Roman Empire to keep him as your slave, you could actually kill him if you wanted to, I believe. But, but now he's a brother in Christ. Well, we were slaves to our own sinful lusts.

But we can, Romans 6, verse 6, it says there. Knowing this, it's good that we can know for sure, isn't it? We can know based on the surety of God's word that our old man is crucified. Our old man is crucified with him, Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. You know, those old, and I don't want to go too far with this illustration but I think the language is very much there. The idea of drawn away and enticed is talking 100% about bait. Those old fish smell and see the same bait the young ones do, right? The older deer, they smell that doe scent or they see that same corn pile but they have come to a maturity in how they view that now. They know there's a, there is a more to it than meets the eye, we might say.

That doesn't mean that we're ever free from temptation even as Christians, that we are free just because we're no longer slaves to the lust. Doesn't mean that we are not tempted by the sights and the sounds and the realities of this world in which we live. And yet we are no longer obligated to and no longer should we serve sin. Verse 12, Romans 6, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Talking about the language of a slave. Here we talk about the language of a king, sin reigning as a king in our mortal bodies. Let it not therefore reign in your mortal body because Jesus Christ has already crucified our old man. Our old man is crucified with him that therefore let not sin reign in your mortal body that ye should obey. That slave terminology, that's master terminology. You should not obey it in the lusts thereof.

And Ephesians 4:22 tells us that we should put off concerning the former conversation, the old man. Put it off which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Deceitful, it appears good on the surface but is actually evil, harmful, bad. Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 5 verse 16, he says there. Galatians 5 verse 16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Let me submit to you tonight that if we are truly growing in the grace, let me say it a different way. We cannot grow in the grace of God unless we're walking in the Spirit. We cannot, we, can we say it the other way, if we're walking in the Spirit, we're going to be growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? How do we know that? Because the Spirit of God, what does he do? He teaches us the things of Christ. He shows Christ and He is the one who is able through His working in our lives to draw us near to the Savior and as He's working in our lives, even as we're walking through the temptations and trials of life, Christ will be seen in us as He is at work and we're walking in Him, the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit. The Spirit will always teach us to do God's will, not our will. The Spirit will always empower obedience to Christ's commands. He does not empower rebellion. He does not empower us to lust, to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

When lust is conceived, it brings forth sin. To be tempted is not to sin, but when lust latches onto the bait, it says, I want that for myself. What are we doing when we say that? We're exalting something else above God in our lives. We're saying, I want this. And the Bible says that in the end times, I mean, the world is just full of men who are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. That's the world we live in. But the Lord has given us the power to overcome that thinking, that spirit in our lives.

Sin makes us a slave to the "I wish I could just have that" mentality. I wish I could have that. Sin will lead us to covet what someone else has or think, I would be happy if I just have that. You know this world is never going to be happy, truly. This world is never going to be satisfied. Sinners will never be satisfied outside of Christ. In fact, back over history, it's a, we see men over and over and over again trying to find happiness in something other than Jesus Christ. Trying to find happiness, but it's all glitter, it's all mirage, it's not ever truly fulfilling the deep desires that God has put in our hearts for Him.

When we covet, when we lust and pursue things that we think, not acknowledging the Lord in all our ways, but pursuing things we think we want, then it shows lack of patience and trust and the dissatisfaction with God, doesn't it? In His will. Well, please turn with me to Luke 12, Luke chapter 12, verse 15. It's there in verse number 15. Our Lord said, and He said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which He possesseth.

You know, we tend to think about, when we think about the word of lust, one of the passages that immediately pops into our mind is, you know, for man, look at the puddle of woman to lust after her and his heart is already committed to the adultery. That's obviously one of them. And that's obviously a very important one. It's a spirit, a sin within the inner man that God looks at just as much of a sin. We might say, even though there may be not be the consequences that fall out from a sin that is contained within the body, within the spirit of a man, it is a sin. And God's sight, it is repulsive, it is abhorrent to God, it is displeasing to Him. It is a misuse and abuse of our thoughts. It is a sin of lust in the inner man. But, and that certainly goes the other way. I mean, you know, we talk about a man lusting after a woman, that the other way is true as well. But we notice that this passage, the Lord seems to be indicating that there is some sort of coveting or lusting after possessions.

One is the old saying, keeping up with the Joneses. I'll be happy if I have what the Joneses have. And that may not be the same for everybody. We may not, we may not each one of us be tempted by the same things. In fact, probably most of us aren't tempted by exactly the same things in the same way. You know, everybody, I look at our children. Anna couldn't care less about some of the things Esther cares about. You know what I mean? And each one of us are wired. We have different desires for different things. There is legitimate desires. It is okay even, you know, to desire the Lord, would you give me so and so. It is not a simple thing. But if we go out and we take something that is not ours because we're coveting it, then that does become sin. That is motivated by a lust in our hearts to have something God has maybe not just said, you can't have that period, but he's not his will for us to have that right now. Have that thing.

You know, Ahab looked out his window and saw Naboth's vineyard. Well, it's fine to say that's a beautiful vineyard. I'd love to have it. But when it's not meant to be, let's not force it. If that's not meant to be, perhaps Naboth will sell that vineyard. Well, they didn't want to sell the vineyard. Well, then it's illegitimate for you to try to go out and get that, which is not, that is someone else's. And it's not, you would have to break God's law in order to get what you want, what you want for yourself.

You remember what James said in chapter four, look over in chapter four, James chapter four. Remember what he said there in chapter four? It is not wrong for us to do business and be entrepreneurial and make money. That's not the problem. But the problem is what he pointed out there in chapter four. This becomes the problem. James chapter four, verse number 13. What do you say there? He said this. Go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.

I know I've preached from this pulpit before that it is not wrong for us to make plans. But we must sketch them in pencil, not in stone, right? It is not wrong to make plans. We need to make plans. In fact, it is actually not a good thing not to have some organization to our lives and make a schedule. Have some plans because the devil can work through our lack of organization, our lack of prioritization in our lives. He can work through that too. We can see laziness set in where there is no planning being done. But you see the spirit of this planning here. The spirit of the planning James talks about is more like a growing and a boasting about, we are going to go here and we are going to do this. You know, almost you always add the words in there. Nobody is going to stop us. We are setting some and we are going to go here and do this. Well, you don't know that you are going to do that. You can plan on it but you don't know that it is going to happen. In fact, the attitude we should have here is that we ought to say, if the Lord will.

That is why we often include that little phrase or a willing. I was emailing somebody the other day and I told them about when we were having the Lord's Supper and they said, we will see you, Lord willing. We don't know what may come up in our lives. We can get sick. Well, it is good to plan but it is not boast. Let's not boast ourselves with tomorrow.

Looking at Galatians 5 verse 26. Galatians 5 verse 26. There are many things that we could lust after, covet, want to have so badly that we may forget God in it. We may forget God and just be thinking about our own desires and that can and will become sin to us if we don't have that attitude. Lord, this is what I like. Your word doesn't prohibit it. I think it would be a good thing but only if you want it. Only if you desire it for me. You know, the man that desires a wife desires a good thing. The man that would want to have a successful job to take care of his family, that would be good. That would be a good thing. But don't question God when he brings sickness and he brings, you know, get fired and laid off from your job. Don't think that God has just forgotten you in that or, you know, any of those things.

But Galatians 5 verse 26 says, let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Do you see a brother? I think about as a pastor, you know. There's times, I mean we're not a big church here. But I believe this is where the Lord wants me to be. I could look at someone else's church and say, you know, I just wish I had a bigger church. It's not my church to begin with. I wish I had this. You know, I wish we, I wish our church. Well, I can't really say that. I wish we had a bigger building. We've got a nice building here. Maybe somebody else could covet this building and say, well, I wish we had that building, you know. No, the Lord has put us where he wants us to be, if he wants to move us. If we're just going to serve him and we need to make sure our spirits are right towards him and that we are truly desiring to and honoring and glorifying him with what we have. Not wishing, you know, the grass is always greener over there on the other side of the fence. If I could just have that, I really want that thing. No, that's sinful to, what's it say here, envying one another is a sinful thing. Do we just read? It is a sinful thing to be desirous of vain glory. Why? So that we can say, look at what I did. Look at what I accomplished. Look at what I have. Look at me. No, we should be saying like John, he must increase. I must decrease.

We're not going to be happy if we, if we get the glory for things. We're not going to truly be happy because God's the one that made Saul as prosperous as he was when he was prosperous. God's the one that prospered Solomon. God's the one that prospered Israel as a nation. But he also said, if you, in so many words, if you forsake me or turn your back on me, then I'll bring curses upon you. It is all, it's all about the Lord. And his glory, it's not about us.

Remember David. David's downward spiral began with a look of lust. We might even say it began before that. We don't know all the details. But we do know that there must have been some sort of lack of, well, he was at home at a time when kings go to battle to war. And he was, he was not actively doing, it seems, what the war would have had to do at that time. And he had a time of vanity and a time of leisure and maybe even laziness. We don't know for sure all of the details of that. But we do know that he looked and he could have looked away. But instead, he, lust was conceived, it brought forth sin, right? Then when he did that adultery, then the cover-up, the lying, it led to other sins. But it began in that heart with the lust, right? It began with the lust.

Let's not think, though, that just because we may not have committed that sin. But there are not other things. There are not other things that we could also be lusting after in our hearts. In Exodus 20, look over in Exodus 20, I know that lust and coveting aren't the exact same words. But the thought is very much the same. Coveting is wanting to have something that God has not permitted us to have, right? It is a tense desire after that thing. I want it, I got to have it, I'm not going to be happy. I'm not going to be happy unless I get that thing.

Exodus 20, verse 17, Moses said, the Lord said through Moses, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. I wish I had that house. I wish I had that car. I wish I didn't have this car payment. I wish I had a bigger shed out back. I wish I had, I wish I had a bigger shed out back. I wish I had all of these things. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Nor his manservant. Nor his maidservant. We don't usually see neighbors that have manservants and maidservants today. Maybe we say, I wish I had my neighbor's tractor. I wish I had a neighbor's lawnmower. So he get more work done as the idea. I could get more things accomplished if I just had that.

My wife and I are, you know, we want to learn all that we can learn. We like the homesteading type things. But it doesn't make it. There's no point in going into debt to get all these things just as the Lord provides. And just be content with, we just need to stop and we find ourselves need to just stop and think the Lord for all the things that we have. We have so much. But even more than the things we have, our life consists not in the abundance of things we possess. We have children that love us. We have children that we love. We have a home we can come to where there's peace. And there's joy. The joy of the Lord, five of us have trusted in Christ. We're praying for Lucas and praying for growth in each of our lives. We have so much to be content with what things we have. And I'm just talking about myself because I know, you know, our own home, but each of us can look at our lives. There's things we need to grow in. There's things we'd like to have, you know, materially speaking if the Lord permits it. But if we die without those things, it's okay. The Lord is our portion. The Lord is our portion.

Well, I'm jumping away from the verse here. We're not to covet our neighbor's house. Our neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. Don't you like reading these verses where it gives you several examples and it says, or anything else for that matter. You know, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Don't covet anything. Glorify God in everything that you do. In everything by prayer. In everything give thanks. That's a good study to do. Look at all the everything's. And everything, you know, just covers the gamut. This is what you do in every situation, every application of life.

So it is never right. It is never pleasing to God. To have an intense burning desire, a lust, after the things that either A, he has prohibited us from having period, full stop. No. You, the Lord saves you from fornication and adultery. You should not desire. The Lord has saved us from a lifestyle of, of, of coveting. No, you should not have that in your life. But there's some things that may be honorable for us to have in God's will. But let's not, let's not get the cart ahead of the horse, so to speak. Let's not, let's not try to make it happen in the flesh. Let's walk in the Spirit. I believe that in, even if it doesn't look like what the Lord, what we imagine it to be, God will in his own way. He will grant the desires of our hearts. He will fulfill and satisfy our hearts in ways that we could never imagine if we step out in lust and say, I want it, I see it, the lust will be I, the lust of the flesh, I want it, I'm going to have it so I can be proud of life. Look at me. I've got this thing. I've got it.

Well, how do we not succumb to the lust of the flesh? How do we not fall for the bait when we walk in the Spirit? We grow in grace. We learn of Christ. And then we love him with all of our heart as we saw this morning. We know that only he can satisfy.

Well, may the Lord help us to see, identify when that we're always going to be tempted, but may we identify when the heart begins to see the, and in our physical eyes, we see things, and we hear things with our ears and we say, I'd really, maybe a legitimate thing. I like to have that. Well, if the Lord will, let's pray about that. If it's something that the Lord has already prohibited, run, turn away from it. No, and get your eyes on the Lord. Like we said this morning, think on the Lord, meditate on him, and be thankful for what he's given you. When you're tempted to sin, think on the Lord. Get your mind on him. Get your mind off yourself and off of whatever your neighbor has and get your eyes on the Lord, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these moments we've had in your word. We pray now that you bless us in the application of these things. You've given us a heart that has a potential to long intensely for things, to have a burning desire, or help us not to use and misuse and abuse the desires that God-given desires for sin. Help us to love you first of all with all of our heart, all of our soul, mind, and strength. Help these children tonight, will help us as adults to truly put you first in our lives in our thoughts, in our actions, our motives, or that we might truly want you more than anything else. And knowing and trusting, Lord, that putting you first, you will grant the desires of our hearts because after all, the thing we really want is what is your will because we know your will is best for us. It is the best thing that could possibly happen to us because everything we've received is good in our lives, even to this hour has come from above. It's been in your plan for us. So help us to look ever to you. We pray now these things we ask that you bless this final hymn, and in Jesus' name, Amen.