James 1:16-18

Welcome Message

Good morning everyone.

I’m very excited to be able to speak to you today.

When I first started preparing for this passage I was actually really nervous about it. I read it over and over seveal times, and I was really struggling to understand the logic of what James was trying to say.

And if you know me, you know that that is hard for me. I need to understand the meaning, I have to see the logic and the thread.

This isn’t always a good thing, sometimes there is no logic to be found and I just have to get over it even though my brain is struggling to accept it.

To me at first glance, it really appeared to simply be a collection of sayings sort of like proverbs.

But as I read it over in context, I really felt that couldn’t be right - James was definitely trying to make an argument and I was just struggling to understand it.

So after some prayer and meditation, I started to pick up a thread of what he may have been trying to say.

At that point is when I began to consult some commentaries to see what others way smarter than me had to say.

We are so fortunate to live in a time and a place where we have access to the work of absolute titans of the faith over the last 2000 years who can help us as we seek to understand what God is trying to tell us.

Experts in Greek - not just the words, but also the style used in the writing and the Jewish references that are being used - all of these people can help us to dive deeply into the word in ways that would be challenging to do without their help.

this is NOT to say that we can’t understand scripture without the help of commentaries, however, there is beauty and depth in scripture that we need to do a little more work than the original readers would have had to do to enjoy.

So thats what I want to do today - is expose to you this passage of scripture in a way that is maybe a bit deeper than how it appears at face value.

But first, let me start us off in prayer.

Prayer

Scripture

James 1:16–18 ESV

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Over the previous weeks James has been admonishing us about how we as Christians should be responding when confronted with trials of various kinds.

He equates enduring trials with testing of faith, that testing of faith then produces steadfastness.

He encourages us to cry out to God for wisdom when dealing with trials so we will know how to respond.

But he warns us not to doubt the power of God when we ask him for that wisdom.

He reminds us that our wealth or lack thereof is only temporary, being rich won’t save you in the end.

He again encourages us that as steadfastness is growing in us during our trials, to remain steadfast to the end and not falter - so we can receive the crown of life in the end.

Because James knows that suffering may cause us to be tempted to falter, he reminds us that temptation comes from nowhere other than ourselves.

And this brings us to our passage for today.

James continues his thought about temptation - last week we saw how James reminds us that God does not tempt, it is our own sinfulness that causes us to be tempted, and today we see that James offers the flip side - God does not tempt, IN FACT, God is the author of ALL good things.

But first, James gives us a warning about being deceived into doubting the goodness of God.

James 1:16 ESV

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

James warns us not to be “deceived” into the trap of blaming God when we are tempted to sin in the face of trials.

We have all been there. When we are struggling and under pressure - we can get angry. It is very easy and tempting to direct that anger at God.

I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, or maybe you have said it yourself, “I’m angry with God right now.”

When we are struggling financially - it is tempting to question why God is not providing for our needs.

When our marriages are hurting we question why God would put us in a relationship that makes us unhappy.

When we experience trauma we question the very goodness of a God who would allow such horrible things to happen to us.

Or maybe we don’t go so far as to try to blame God, maybe we try to blame others.

There was a time several years ago when I was really struggling and in a dark place. I was really having a hard time getting along with the men in my life. Whether that was my boss at work or other male leaders, it just seemed that no matter what I did it was never enough. I always felt as though they were disappointed in me or disastisfied with my work etc.

This really started to affect my mental and physical health. I gained a lot of weight and started to really struggle with depression and ultimately this turned into anger at those men.

Why were they so unreasonable?

Why did they not respect me or listen to me?

Why was nothing I ever did good enough?

Finally a friend of mine introduced me to a book written by a Christian counselor who specializes in men who are struggling with just the sorts of issues I was struggling with.

We did a small mens group and went through the book together.

It helped me to understand a lot about myself and about some of the things that had happened to me when I was young that had hurt me and was why I was responding the way I was responding to these men in my life.

However, most importantly I learned one critical truth.

Because of some hurts I had experienced when I was younger, I had made an idol out of the men in my life. I was so hungry for acceptance from them, that nothing I could do was ever good enough, and this was a viscious cycle that just got worse and worse over time.

My problem was not that these men were not respecting me or listening or whatever. My problem was that instead of seeking acceptance and love from my true father in heaven, I had been chasing after acceptance from the men in my life. Idolatry was my sin.

It took a time of repentence, prayer and fasting to be free from that sin, but since then I have never been burdened like that again with some rare exceptions that pass quickly as I am able to remind myself about the truth of who my Father is.

So this was me deceiving myself and blaming others for my trouble, but another way we can be deceived is by the devil himself.

Although its true that the devil can deceive us - he is the “father of lies” John 8:44 being deceived by the devil is not a valid excuse for the Christian because we are commanded:

Ephesians 6:11 ESV

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Of the several pieces of armor mentioned in this passage in ephesians, the “belt of truth” and the “sword of the spirit” are particularly relevant as they are exactly what equips us to be prepared to withstand the lies of the devil.

If we are full of truth and saturated with the Word of God, how can we be decieved by lies?

Anyone who has been coming to our worship gatherings for any period of time will understand the emphasis that we place on Christians having an expert level understanding of the Bible. this belief informs so much of what we do, it is why our preaching is expositional, preaching through whole books of the bible at a time to “expose” the truth that God would have us to hear - if you are coming here to listen to me or my opinions, well I’m sorry for you but you are going to be sorely disappointed - mostly because my opinions are worthless in light of the truth and also because Im frankly not that intersting to listen to, just ask Corrie.

The Word of God is referred to as a Sword - it is a weapon that we use to fight against the attacks and lies of the devil.

Just like in my story I told about the issues I was having - I had to fight against those lies with truth, and still to this day when I struggle have to remind myself of the truth or I can fall into the trap again.

So I cannot overemphasize how important it is that you are an expert in wiedling this sword that is the word of God, so that when you are being bombarded with half truths and outright lies from every direction, you will be able to look at them sideways and ask: “is that true?” in light of scripture.

So James implores you to not be deceived, the temptations you are facing are not because of God, in fact verse 17:

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

So the temptation you are facing is not coming from God, instead, all of the good and perfect gifts you have in your life are coming from God.

So as we are suffering through trials we can take comfort in this truth.

This does not mean that we should be stoics who feel no emotion when we are facing trials, and God does not expect us to laugh in the face of misery. Even a cursury reading of the Psalms shows the anguish that David felt at times when he was suffering.

Psalm 42:9–11 ESV

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Here we see David crying out in anguish to God. Yet notice at the end, he speaks to his own soul and asks himself, wait, why am I cast down, why am I so sorrowful? I will again praise him! David reminds himself of the goodness of God as a way to comfort himself when he was feeling sorrow and anguish.

And let’s not forget that Jesus himself cried out in anguish to God quoting psalm 22 when he asks “My God, My God, why have you foresaken me?”

So again, there is nothing sinful in feeling pain and sadness when we are suffering.

But, what we see through the psalms and what we are reminded to do here by James is when we are suffering, to think on the goodness of God and the many blessings he has given us. that will comfort us and carry us through our trials.

After this reminder, we see God is described as the “father of lights” - nowhere else in scripture is God referred to as the “father of lights” but “lights” in scripture generally refers to heavenly bodies, so by describing God as the “father” of those lights, James is affirming that God is the creator of everything and specifically the moon and stars.

this is the part of the verse that can be challenging to understand but most modern commentators agree that James is continuing with his “heavenly lights” analogy and contrasting the unchanging or “immutable” nature of God with those same celestial bodies such as the moon and stars that rise and set or are sometimes obscured in shadow like the phases of the moon. So James is essentially saying every good and perfect gift comes from God the creator of the sun and moon and stars, and unlike them, God does not change with the times or seasons.

Numbers 23:19 ESV

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

This unchanging or “immutable” nature of God is one of the most important characteristics of God, and one that gives us the most hope as believers.

God’s immutability reinforces his omniscience and perfection.

If God were to change in some way then it must necessarily be for the better or for the worse - because a change without any difference is not really a change. So therefore if God could somehow become better or worse through some sort of change, then that would mean that he is not perfect. This is flatly contradicted by scripture.

Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

No, God is perfect and therefore any change would be unneccesary.

God is also all-knowing or omniscient, so again, what would be the need for the change of mind? Did God somehow come into some sort of new information that he didn’t have before necessitating a change in his plan? Again, flatly contradicted by scripture.

1 John 3:20 ESV

for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

No, there would never be a time where God, would learn something new, causing him to have to change his mind.

But why does this matter?

God’s immutability secures our salvation.

Every one of us who in this room, if we are saved, are not instantly made perfect the moment we are born again. No, we continue to deal with sin and imperfection in our lives. Although if we are truly saved, we will see continual growth in a direction toward perfection until the day we die and are finally glorified and fully freed from sin.

But until that day, we will make mistakes, we will commit sins. So could God one day simply say: “whoa I made a mistake with this one” and then change his mind and take away our salvation?

What does scripture teach about this?

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

Every sunday part of our liturgy is to remind the believers in our midst of the “assurance of pardon” - as new creations, our salvation is not dependent on us but on God and the finished work of Christ. God himself will preserve us to the end - and this should give us tremendous peace even as we stumble and make mistakes.

After making this point, James continues to remind us of the incredible blessings that God our good Father has given us:

James 1:18 (ESV)

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James is continuing his analogy of God as Creator/Father and now turns to describe how this same Creator God, who created the heavens and the earth also brought us forth, or as some translations read: “give us birth” which makes sense considering the previous verses describing God as the “father” of lights.

Commentators see a couple of different things James could be trying to say here:

This is referring to our physical creation as humans and as the most important of God’s creation.

This is referring to the redemptive work of God and a spiritual birth and foreshadowing of the redemption of all of creation.

The second interpreation seems to be the more likely.

The verb “give birth to,” in its only other occurrence in the NT, has been used in v. 15 metaphorically with reference to spiritual birth. “Firstfruits” is a customary way of denoting Christians in the NT (see especially 2 Thess. 2:13; Rev. 14:4; and also Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:15). But the most important piece of evidence in favor of a redemptive “birth” here is the phrase “the word of truth.” The syntax suggests that this “word” is the instrument through which God brings people to life. All four of the other occurrences of the phrase in the NT refer to the gospel as the agent of salvation (2 Cor. 6:7; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:15).

Therefore we could read our passage today in this way:

Don’t be deceived brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift comes from God, the almighty creator of the universe, who unlike the moon and the stars never changes with the seasons, and the GREATEST of these gifts is the new life he has given us as Christians - not because of anything we have done, but simply because he chose to out of his love for us, so that our redemption would be a foretaste of the future redemption of ALL of creation.

But what does it mean that our rebirth as Christians is a foretaste of the coming redemption?

Romans 8:18–23 ESV

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So here we can see Paul is describing how all the misery and suffering in the world is because of the fall, and how this corruption has created a tension in all of creation. Creation is literally longing for redemption and restoration. What does that redemption and restoration look like? It looks like a Christian who has been redeemed.

We as the church should be a shining light of what is to come. the world should look at us and SEE the coming kingdom of God.

Or as Jarrod always likes to say, our lives should be so shocking to the world, that it demands a gospel explanation.

Can that be said of us?

How can we be that example?

Application

1. Guard yourself from Deception

1. Dont take my word for it

1 John 4:1 ESV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Scripture is full of warnings about false teachers. I feel like when I was young this was not so in your face as it is now. It seems the older I get the harder it is to find anything true anywhere. We are confronted with lies everywhere we go. Lies about politics, lies about our bodies, lies about God, lies about everything. Everyone claims to be the expert and the one with the secret knowledge or the evidence that “they” don’t want you to see.

Well I’m telling you now - the things I say to you are worth absolutely nothing unless they are confirmed by scripture. So take a lesson from the Berean Jews:

Acts 17:10–11 ESV

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Test my words against THE WORD.

Which leads me to my next practical way you can avoid deception:

2. Be filled with truth

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Do you know how long it takes to read the entire Bible in one year?

15 minutes per day. Thats half a TV show. Or 30 TikTok videos if you prefer.

We are commanded by God to be experts in the Word. Would you give a sword to someone who is untrained? They would misuse it and hurt themselves and others uintentioanlly.

Now, I’m not going to say to you that to be an expert in the word you need to read X number of minutes per day. In fact if someone were to try and say that you can’t be an expert unless you read several hours per day, I would question that just as much as I would question someone who says you can become an expert in any reasonable amount of time by reading one verse per day.

So I won’t stand here and be legalistic about this, but I will simply echo what the word of God itself commands - we need to know this Book. We need to know it so well that when confronted with claims of truth, we can discern what is true and not be deceived like so many professing Christians today.

3. Surround yourself with advisors not just friends

1 Kings 12:8 ESV

8 But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.

Rehoboam was Solomon’s son and after his father died the people came and asked him to ease the burden of labor that solomon had placed on them. Rehoboam’s advisors told him to respond kindly and lessen the burden, but his “friends” told him to push the people even harder. In fact his friends appealed to the pride of Rehoboam in making this recommendation, essentially encouraging him to prove that he was even more of a “man” than Solomon by being harsher with the people.

Of course, this resulted in catastrophe for Rehoboam.

The point here is not that you should ignore the young in favor of the words of the old although it is undeniable that with age comes wisdom - no the point is that Rehoboam rejected the counsel of his “advisors” in favor of the words of his “friends”. His advisors told him to do something that stung his pride a bit, and challenged him to do what was best even though it was not exactly what Rehoboam wanted to hear.

Looking at the headlines lately as it relates to the SBC and the investigation that uncovered abuse and conspiracy to hide abuse - we can see the danger of surrounding ourselves with “yes men” as opposed to people who are not afraid to challenge us to do what is right over what is comfortable.

In fact this is why as a church we have a plurality of elders. Jarrod, Joseph, and Jesse don’t all agree on everything. They don’t simply come together and pat each other on the back and tell each other that they each are all right about everything. I’ve been invited to attend some elder meetings since I am in the process and I have seen differing opinions, but what guides them is unity around the truth of scripture and the centrality of our Gospel Mission.

Is there someone in your life that you disagree with on some things so that you can understand a different perspective, or have your own perspective challenged? Specifically a Christian who perhaps has different ideas about the practical application of some of the truths of scripture than you do?

If not, then you are in dangerous waters and at risk of falling into an echo chamber that may lead you to destruction.

2. When you are feeling discouraged remind yourself of the goodness of God

Psalm 46 ESV

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song. 1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. 6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Throughout the Psalms we see David over and over crying out to God in lament. There is nothing wrong with lamentation - as I said before, we are not expected to be stoics or fools who laugh in the face of misery.

But the recurring theme we see throughout the pslams is lamentation followed by a remembrance of the good things that God has done. Modern science has confirmed this truth of scripture concerning the power of “self talk” or self image. Meaning that how we think about ourselves and our circumstances is often much more impactful to our mental state than the actual circumstances themselves.

For example in a 2013 study researchers found that women suffering from anoerexia thought of themselves as much larger than they actually were as evidenced by the way they angled their bodies to pass through doorways where there was no need for them to angle their bodies to pass through.

This goes to show how much our self talk impacts our perception of reality.

So we can learn from this and apply this by calling to mind those times where God has been good and faithful to us - remembering that every good and perfect gift comes from God.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

and Finally,

3. Use your hurts to help others

2 Corinthians 1:3–5 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

The final practical thing I have for you for how to set the example to the world as the “firstfruits” of creation is to use the hurts that we have endured as a way to help others.

It is very easy to allow the hurts and traumas we experience in life to cause us to become inwardly focused - crippling us spiritually and keeping us off mission.

To reiterate once again, I am NOT saying that there is no place for lament - and I know that some traumas are severe enough that they require intentional periods of healing, but part of that healing process should include using the hurts you have experienced as a tool to help you empathize with the suffering of others.

So if you are struggling in a trial today, don’t be deceived into thinking that the temptations you are experiencing are coming from God - instead remind yourselves of all the good He has done for you and in the world around you. And then think or people with whom you can empathize and comfort based on the hurts you have experienced.

Then you can be a “kind of firstfruits of His creatures” shining to the world as a foretaste of the redemption to come.

Prayer