GOD PERSPECTIVE

GOD PERSPECTIVE James 1:16-18 October 24, 2010 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction I trust you brought your Bible with you. Get it on your lap and let it fall open to James 1. That’s 87% of the way through your New Testament, a mere 38 pages from the end. We are now an eighth of the way through the epistle of James. We just finished a look at temptation and sin in verses 12-15, where we encountered God’s wisdom that sinful humans will never in this life escape temptations, because when we are tempted, it comes from our own evil desires. This morning we will be looking at the one attitude that Christians can cultivate that will strengthen our wills against falling into temptation and sin more than anything else. We already concluded last Sunday from James 1 that our key to overcoming temptation is devotion to Jesus. In the next 3 verses James will go a step further and show us what to do to stay close to Jesus. Eduardo Rivera, 43, was in court in Reading, PA, awaiting his hearing on a charge of receiving stolen property when he was rearrested after he carved his name into a courtroom bench.. David Joe White Jr., 32, of Attala, AL, having just pleaded guilty to 42 burglary charges, was arrested again after stealing his lawyer's portable tape recorder from the defense table. Chan Kwok-keung, 34, was sentenced to four months in jail for stealing a court reporter's purse; he was in the courtroom on theft charges, and had just been declared “not guilty.” Stories like these help us see the value in verse 15: Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Going on with verses 17-18: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. Here is what James warns us to not be deceived about: good and perfect gifts come from God! It is when that assurance of God’s goodness gets partially erased or smudged that our souls begin to falter and the evil desires in our hearts get bolder, more lusty. When God’s character is called into question by our doubting minds, and we begin to wrongly think of God as mean and demanding instead of loving and generous toward us—that’s when we are most vulnerable to temptations to sin against Him. So, for lots of very good reasons, we should rehearse loudly and often from His Word the true nature of God and how He loves us. His Inexhaustible Bounty The first of three observations by James about God is this one: He has an inexhaustible bounty of good gifts. Our translation cheats us just a little bit here: the NIV translates the word “every” only once. In fact it appears in the Greek two times, as every good and every perfect gift. That’s not a significant issue, but the more serious student of the Word should know that James deliberately chose to write “every” twice in order to put emphasis on the truth that the good things that come our way are, every one of them, from God. In fact, given the full revelation of scripture we can say with certainty that there is nothing good that is not from God. Think about that, please, for just a moment. And we can also safely say, There is nothing bad that comes from God. We have a picture coming into focus of God who has a vast, limitless warehouse of good things, even perfect things, that He is prepared to send as gifts to people. Think for a moment about some of the many truly good things in your life, in our world, and picture them with little Hallmark gift cards on them. The cards simply read, “Love, God.” And He showers these on humanity, as well as the rest of His creation, but most especially on human beings—men and women, boys and girls—to show His love for us. We should really take the time right now to give each of you a stack of loose leaf paper and pencils so you can write down all His blessings in your life. But we don’t have the time—the 3 or 4 months it would take—to rehearse them all. James is telling us that God has a lot of good things to give to those He loves and He is busy sending such good and perfect gifts all the time. Personally I have been thinking more and more lately of one awesome treasure I have in my life—the one whose mother and dad named Charlotte. From God—to me—for me—a good and perfect wife. I thank her often for being one with me, but even more do I owe gratitude to God who has so wisely, lovingly and generously allowed us to be married over 41 years. You have a long list, too—a list much longer than you could possibly ascertain in these brief moments. May I encourage you to be mindful that every one of those good and those perfect gifts has come down to you from God? Be continually thankful to Him for each and all of them, as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 commands us, and be intentional mindful that they are from God to you. Among other great results of that continual mindset will be greater resolve to live for Him, be devoted to Him and to then more successfully resist those temptations to sin against Him. One other thing we should keep in mind—God created not only us and the physical universe, but every one of the good and perfect gifts, and He fashioned them just for us! Psalm 24:1 says The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it—the world and all who live in it. His wisdom, His creation, His resources are all immeasurable. His Incredible Benevolence Verse 17 reminds us that we are the delighted recipients of all these gifts. The words tell us all about the source of the blessings we have in our lives and God’s free choice to send them. In a recent book, Bill Hybels writes: If one of my kids ever called me and said, "Daddy, please, please, please, I beg of you, I petition you, I'm pleading with you to listen to my need." I'd say, "Time out. I don't like the underlying assumption here. You don't have to go through all those gymnastics. What can I do for you? Nothing in my life is more important than you." What gives me greater pleasure in life than meeting the needs of my children? What? This is the mindset of God, Who identifies Himself here as “Father”. Way back in history, St. Augustine wrote: God is more anxious to bestow his blessings on us than we are to receive them. Did you ever receive a gift from someone when you had the distinct impression they didn’t really want to give you the gift, but felt some kind of pressure to do so? Or maybe the impression came to you this person is setting me up—they’re getting ready to ask me for a favor? The thing about God is, He is the consummate gift-giver. His gifts are good and perfect, but He even gives them perfectly. He is intentional about wanting to express His providential love when He gives gifts. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. You just can’t do better than to give gifts out of love for the recipient. But verse 17 also reveals that His gift-giving doesn’t stop. He doesn’t shut down His benevolence if we disappoint Him in some way. He isn’t fickle with His generosity. He sends His rain on the just and the unjust. Acts 17 Paul says that God gives all men life and breath and being, so that they would seek him, reach out to Him and find Him. The terminology may seem awkward or a little finny when you first read it. God is described as the Father of the heavenly lights when James identifies Him as the source of good and perfect gifts. 1 John 1:5 says, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. In Genesis, light is the first thing God creates. He is committed to light. He reveals Himself in the light of glory, and He even says that those who obey Him in faith are light—the light of the world. The thing about the lights that God created, and of which He is therefore “father” (progenitor), is that they are reliable. All of them, the sun, the moon, the stars. They shine just as He tells them to. It is a picture for us, says James. God is like that: dependable, keeping promises always and forever. Further, he says, God doesn’t change. He is not like the capricious and temperamental people around us—He is utterly static in terms of doing what He promises. Among our human relationships we are often let down, disappointed by others, even family and friends, spouses and parents, but God is not like that. He is dependable and faithful. Now, He is not “predictable” in the sense that we can control Him, but in everything He says and promises He is absolutely to be trusted. You always know where you are with God, but you don’t always know what He is going to do next. We don’t find security in knowing what God is doing, but there is absolute security in who God is. We know, for example, because He has promised us, that nothing in the universe can ever separate us from His love, and that His love is unchanging. It will never diminish toward us. He does not change in character or virtue. Thus, we may know Him, trust Him, love Him and serve Him in confidence. He simply doesn’t change, like shadows. We once had a bunny as a pet. We had her in a nice wire cage that we bought at the pet store. On Monday after the weekend of our furry purchase, we decided Fluffy might enjoy being outside in the spring freshness while we were gone for the day. I found a nice shadowed spot on the lawn in the back yard, placed the cage and we left. I was the first one home later that day and discovered what had earlier not dawned on us—that shadows move. Poor Fluffy had baked in the hot sun with no protection. It was sad. We may be thankful that God doesn’t change like shadows. He is constant, faithful, reliable. His Incomparable Best By far the greatest demonstration of God’s giving is summed up in John 3:16—God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. God loves His created world—which is to say, the people in His world. In fact, He loves us with a perfect, undiminished, unqualified love. He is perfect in His love. But He is also perfect in His Righteousness and Holiness. And therefore He cannot abide sin. Those who sin are then separated from God and condemned to that separation the Bible calls spiritual death forever. But God loves us and does not wish for us to suffer such eternal condemnation. But He cannot simply dismiss our sins that have offended His perfect righteousness. From a human perspective, we might say, God is in a pickle, His love and His holiness at odds with one another. His answer was that at just the right time He would send His Son to earth to live a perfectly righteous life as a fully human being, earning the right to be the perfect sacrifice in the place of sinners. Jesus, the righteous—the only One who did not deserve the separation called death, died on behalf of all those who had sinned and did deserve the punishment of eternal death. That’s you and me. Thus, as Romans 3-5 explains, He demonstrated God’s perfect love in giving His life, simultaneously satisfying the demand of God’s Law that required souls that sin would die. Jesus paid our debt for us. Throughout the ages God had promised through many prophecies that He would save people who trusted in Him through the sacrifice of the Messiah. And the Father, who does not change like shifting shadows, kept His promises in Christ. Verse 18 summarizes His most profound good and perfect gift: He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. And what a dramatic, life-changing gift this is for all who receive it. It is, as we can feel from James in this passage, the best of all good and perfect gifts. To know that I am forgiven of my sins and made right with the God Who made me! To hear from God Himself, Who never never lies, never tempts, and never changes, that life is new in Him, that I never need to taste eternal death, because Jesus has taken my place, taken my guilt and taken my punishment. This kind of freedom and joy is what God gives us through the Word of Truth. When we knew that it is true for us, our lives are new, fresh, free. Indeed, we have been made a kind of firstfruits of all he created. Salvation means tasting the kindness of the Lord, according to Hebrews 6. We have found renewal and reconciliation with God our Maker through the gift that Jesus gives us. That is His purpose in Christ—to save us. He has chosen us—all who will believe His Word and trust in His Son. And when by faith we choose Him as Savior and Lord, the transaction is set in motion. The process is simple: You hear the message, the gospel, and let it capture your heart and mind—that God in Christ has paid your penalty of death and offered to usher you into a new life in Him. The message is in His Word, because faith comes by hearing and that hearing is through the word of Christ (Romans 10). It is the Word of God that makes you understand, that makes you believe. And finally, it is His power that saves you, not yours. Don’t trust in yourself, in your own ability to make your life right before God. You can’t; only He can, because the power of the gospel is in this simple truth: God has done it for you! Calvin Miller, in his book, The Taste of Joy, says, God ... does not lavish his children with a jolly discipleship so that they may swim in spiritual ecstasy between conversion and death. God is a giver, but he does not give happiness. He gives redemption, meaning, security, love, victory, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And happiness is our response to his gifts. Conclusion So there it is—the truth that can not only set you free from sin and death, but that can actually empower you against the temptation to sin! It’s all in the right perspective on God. I want to ask you a series of questions as I close: 1. Do you believe the Word of God that He Who has unlimited good and perfect gifts is your Provider, and that He will give you the forgiveness of your sins on the basis of Jesus’ sacrifice for you? 2. Do you acknowledge God’s awesome generosity toward you—that He is willing and able to give you good and perfect gifts? That, in fact, all of your life, He has been the source of all that is good? 3. Do you believe in your heart and soul that God has saved you through the death and resurrection of His only Son, Jesus Christ? Has He made this good and perfect news clear to you through His Word and are you ready to make a stand for Him?         [ Back to Top]