Sermon Tone Analysis

James 1:16-18 “Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

I. Intro

Today, we are going to consider the fact that we should be thankful that our Lord never changes.

That God is always the same today as He was before Creation.

There are too many things in our world today that are changing ever changing.

People change, laws change, our leadership changes, anything you can think of changes.

But God NEVER changes.

God’s laws never change.

His standards never change.

His opinion of you never changes.

His perfect plan for mankind never changes.

His promises to us never change.

I have noticed that over the years, our world has taken God’s standards and twisted them to meet our own agenda.

What do I mean by this?

First of all the Bible is our instruction book for this Christian life.

Things we are doing today, we wouldn’t dare do say 20-30 years ago because it violated God’s law.

Why is this happening?

We have allowed Satan to infiltrate our world view and even our church to fill our heads with lies and lead us from the truth.

Today, we will go over three lies we have allowed Satan to trick us with, and three truths that will never ever change.

II.

Lies Satan Tells Us

Justifying missing church on Sunday morning.

This is a big one.

Many people have been led away from the truth in justifying missing church on Sunday morning.

Some of the lies we allow Satan to whisper to us- Well my job is making me work on Sunday, so I will have to miss church.

Don’t listen to that.

Take a stand for Jesus.

Don’t be at a job that requires you to miss out on God’s blessings on Sunday morning.

(4th commandment) Exodus 20:8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

Being faithful to God and keeping His commandments will result in God being faithful to you and blessing you.

Others will see the stand you take for God, and will be drawn to your witness.

Satan will lie to us and tell us that watching online services are the same as being at the house of the Lord on Sunday morning with our church family.

This, however, does not apply to those that are not physically able to attend services due to a sickness or physical ailment.

If you buy into the idea of only watching online, you are missing out on God’s blessing and feeling the Holy Spirit move during the service on Sunday mornings.

If you are attending work, a sporting event (this includes your child’s sports), going fishing/hunting on Sunday morning, or doing anything else other than being faithful to God on Sunday morning, you are making that an idol before God.

(1st commandment) Exodus 20:3 “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

We can lose our salvation by sinning too much.

This is one of the most commonly asked questions to pastors.

1 John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Paul answers this questions all throughout his epistles.

To paraphrase, if we can lose our salvation, then Christ’s death on the cross was in vain.

This is doubt that Satan places in our minds, and if he can convince us to doubt our salvation, he can cause doubt for God altogether.

One of the enemy’s tricks is to convince us that our Father is holding out on us, that He does not really love us and care for us.

When Satan approached Eve, he suggested that if God really loved her, He would permit her to eat of the forbidden tree.

When Satan tempted Jesus, he raised the question of hunger.

“If Your Father loves You, why are You hungry?”

Revelation 3:5 “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

God has forgotten about us or doesn’t love us.

i. James warns us not to be deceived.

The devil will tell you God has changed about forgiving you,

loving you, saving you, or being good to you.

But as the old saying goes, “God is good, all the time;

and all the time, God is good.”

ii.

John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.

He was a murderer

from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he speaketh a

lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

III.

What We Can Count On

Nothing can ever stop God from loving us.

One of the enemy’s tricks is to convince us that our Father is holding out on us, that He does not really love us and care for us.

When Satan approached Eve, he suggested that if God really loved her, He would permit her to eat of the forbidden tree.

When Satan tempted Jesus, he raised the question of hunger.

“If Your Father loves You, why are You hungry?

The goodness of God is a great barrier against yielding to temptation.

Since God is good, we do not need any other person (including Satan) to meet our needs.

It is better to be hungry in the will of God than full outside the will of God.

Once we start to doubt God’s goodness, we will be attracted to Satan’s offers; and the natural desires within will reach out for his bait.

Moses warned Israel not to forget God’s goodness when they began to enjoy the blessings of the Promised Land.

We need this warning today!

Deuteronomy 6:10-15 “And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.”

b.

His promise of Salvation

James says, “He chose to give us birth.”

It was God’s decision to give eternal life to all who acknowledge his Son’s sacrifice for their sins.

He chose to give us birth by giving His one and only Son, for our sake.

God chose the cross long before man chose to rebel.

Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

God chose to provide for mankind’s salvation, even before He made man, who He foreknew would rebel against Him.

God already had a plan for man’s salvation in place before the problem of man’s sin ever arose.

By the way, that’s the way God always works, as the cross is proof.

Whatever problem arises in your life, remember the cross is proof that God has a plan in place before your problem every arose.

God chose the cross long before man chose to repent

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Before we repented, and were still living for sin, God chose to provide new birth for us through the sacrifice of the cross.

c.

God chose the cross even though not all chose to respond

1 John 2:2 “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

God chose to provide salvation even for those who would never respond to His invitation to receive it.

Still, the gift of eternal life has been purchased through Christ’s sacrifice at the cross for everyone.

None of us can earn it or deserve it.

That is why it is a gift.

“God chose to give us birth” James says.

In order to do this, He had to fully pay the price to make that possible, and He did so through the cross.