Sermon Tone Analysis

This week we are in a new section of James.

everything that we have covered up to now has been about trials and suffering.

this week however is on a new topic, lets find out what it is.

Please stand in honor of Gods word as we read

this starts with “do not be deceived” do not be deceived by what?

well we have two main choices it can either refer to the passages before or after this statement.

If we look at what we talked about last month we can make a case for this being related to it.

if (for example) we looked at verse 13

(NASB95)

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

James could be saying not to be deceived by this statement.

God does not tempt us for every Good thing comes from Him! this works, but I feel that it is to narrow.

this view Limits the good and perfect gifts that come from God, to only refering only to temptation and trials.

In other words if we put “ do not be decieved” in the last passage James would be saying that God doesn't give us temptations He gives us trials, which are good for us!

while this is true and it is what James has said, he already said it before!

James here is moving us on to a new subject while still referring to the old one!

this passage unlike the verses before is focused on only the Good aspects of God, not on the good through the bad, only the good.

This passage is a breath of fresh air before we plunge back into the muck of our dirty lives, back into how God fixes us and how far we are from Him.

This passage is here to remind us that our God is good unlike every other god this world has tried to worship.

For example the Greek and roman gods ( who were the most commonly worshiped at that time) they were just more powerful versions of man! they constantly argued and fought between themselves and had constant affairs with men (Figuratively and literally) and Caesar who was worshiped as a god was a man and a very flawed one at that.

however our God is good and all good things come from Him and through Him

so then we can make a safe assumption that “do not be deceived” is referring to verses 16-18

now what does that mean? in the next verse we see the theme of what these verses are talking about

every Good thing and every perfect gift is from God.

This is something to remember when we are in trials, but also when we are experiencing great blessing, in times of plenty and times of poverty, anything good is from God “the Father of Lights”.

The Father of Lights is a referance to one of the first things He did, turn with me to

He made the great Lights these are one of the good gifts that James is talking about in fact God even calls them good

so God made the heavens and the earth and they were good, James says that God does not change or vary and here he uses a very interesting illustration he says there is no shifting shadow.

this is a fairly powerful image that you can use multiple ways in this context we are given.

firstly shadows are cast by light does the sun have a shadow?

well God is light and is the father of Lights

also shadows dance and change rapidly

also shadows dance and change rapidly yet God does not change

also shadows dance and change rapidly

shadows are cast by light

shadows are always scary in times of trouble, but He is our refuge in troubled times.

and shadows are always scary in times of trouble

we also have the idea of how a shadow lies about the object that it was cast from because it is a 2d picture of a 3d object and we often make shadows or versions of God that are not close to who He really is.

we get these Ideas because we are tiny and have a limited view of who and what He is! in Isaiah 55:9

we also have the idea of how a shadow lies about the object that it was cast from because it is a 2d picture of a 3d object and we often make shadows or versions of God that are not close to who He really is.

we get these Ideas because we are tiny and have a limited view of who and what He is! in Isaiah 55:9

“As high as the sky is above the earth

are my ways higher than your ways,

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

we have the idea of how a shadow lies about the object that it was cast from because it is a 2d picture of a 3d object and we often make shadows or versions of God that are not close to who He really is.

we get these Ideas because we are tiny and have a limited view of who and what He is

so then since we know that He does not change or vary and He has already given us good gifts starting with the sun, moon and stars.

we can count on Him to give us good and perfect gifts.

“so then,” you may ask me “when will I get my mansion and brand new car and $1 million” there is only one of those things that I can guarantee that is the mansion and all that you have to do for that is die and then you will receive the one that Jesus is building for us! other than that why would He give us those things??

He said GOOD gifts!

money is not a good gift!

first off its a lazy gift and God is not lazy, its a gift for someone you dont know well and He knows you better than you know yourself!

also He calls it evil.

(NASB95)

“As high as the sky is above the earth

are my ways higher than your ways,

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

How is this a gift that He would give us if He loves us as He claims to.

if not those than what gifts will He give us?

well one of them is wisdom we covered this in v.5

another is the skill that He gave you.

He has given us each a call, a job to do, a mission to perform and within that job I can promise peace and joy also challenge and trial, but as we have covered before those are good.

I would even say that they are gifts!

also, and this is the biggest one of all, He gave up His son for us

That is a good gift!

He, out of His love gave up His son to die in our place so we could escape punishment for our evil

in light of all of these gifts that He has given us He has earned praise and I would like to do something odd lets turn back to that psalms passage I am going to read this and I would like you to respond with the second line “For His lovingkindness is everlasting” we will go through the whole psalm and I would also like you to listen to all of the gifts that He gave to us and to the nation of Israel

please stand as we give thanks to God

thank you.

now in verse 18

it says that He brought us forth or gave birth to us through the word of truth and of course the word of truth is referring to the scriptures, all of them not just the gospels.

it also serves to ground us to the word as that will be a constant theme in the passages to come.

according to a commentary on James we can sum up this last verse like this

James, therefore, appeals to the “new birth” of Christians as a striking example of God’s good and faithful giving.

James stresses the free and unconstrained nature of this giving by beginning the verses with the participle “willing” (boulētheis), variously translated “in the exercise of his will” (NASB); “in fulfillment of his own purpose” (NRSV); “he chose” (NIV).

God’s grace has been extended through the gospel to people so as to bring into existence a foretaste, or down payment (“firstfruits”), of a redemptive plan that will eventually encompass all of creation.

we are His firstfruits and the firstfruits in the old testiment were a sacrifice to God or you could say that we are a good gift that God is giving to the son Jesus Christ!

now tonight we will be taking communion and here at set free communion is open to all believers who attend here or somewhere else.

just to clarify by believer I am saying someone who has come to a point in their life that they have admitted to God that their life is not in keeping with His rules and that they want to accept the good gift that is Jesus’s death on the cross and that by raising from the dead Jesus has payed the price of all of our wrong doing and this allows us to spend eternity with Him in paradise.

If that is you then we welcome you to join us, however if you have not made that decision we would ask that you take this time to consider your life and to think about the gift that has been offered to you.

you will miss nothing by not taking communion its a oyster cracker and some juice in a tiny cup, its not magic it will not forgive sins it guarantees nothing, we do it as a reminder of what Jesus went through and as a reminder that we are under a new covenant that does not require a sacrifice for every single sin.

we rather can count on Jesus’s sacrifice at the cross to cover all of our past, present and future sins.

this is what we celebrate here tonight.

in exodus we have the first covenant which had the 10 commandments and also much more

and then in Jeremiah we get the foreshadowing of a new covenant

this is the covenant that we live under and this is why we practice communion.

it is to remind us that we still have a covenant we need to remember what it is so that we do not break it and so we can please Him.

Let us pray