James 1:13-15 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man:… I. THE BEGINNING OF SIN. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." This is the source of all evil. Before the act can be committed the purpose must be formed in the breast, which takes time, design, deliberation. Seduction, theft, perfidy, drunkenness, injustice, murder, the popular vices of the day, require design, arrangement, decision. II. THE PROGRESS WHICH IT MAKES IN ITS INFLUENCE OVER THE HEART AND CHARACTER OF MAN. 1. The causes brought into operation to produce this. One is the popular reading of the age. Associations with those who have made some advances in vice. 2. Let me show how these principles advance. "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." No man can become suddenly wicked. At first there must be awful violence done to the conscience. But when you have once gone into this moral contamination, when you cast off the fear of man, no one is astonished, because previously to this you have cast off the fear of God. III. THE END OF SIN. 1. The death of the body. "Death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned." But there is a natural tendency in sin to hasten this end. I read in my Bible, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." The glutton, the intemperate, the lascivious person, the debauchee, all these men shorten their days. 2. The death of the soul. And what is that? I cannot tell. (1) Allow me to make an appeal to those who are invested with parental authority. Beware lest by connivance and withholding due restraint, you become accessories to the ruin of your children. (2) Let me warn the young against the danger of yielding to the first temptation. (T. East.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: |
    |