Active Faith (Part Five): Check the Source

Transcript

JRNT 5
10/30/2022
Active Faith (Part Five): The Enemy Within
James 1:13-18
Jesse Randolph

I read a story not too long ago, it arose out of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005. And as the story goes, there was this elderly Christian lady somewhere along the Gulf Coast, who because of Katrina, had not had power for several weeks. One day, as she and one of her pastors were out in her backyard rummaging around the mess of what had survived surrounding her house. And they came across this storage freezer that was packed full of crawfish. Now mind you, it was mid-September somewhere along the Gulf Coast, no power, and this crawfish had been boiling, albeit without power, for several weeks. So, when the woman and her pastor approached this storage freezer and they pry it open, as the smell of congealed crawfish wafted out, the woman exclaimed, “It’s the devil!” To which the pastor calmly replied, “No ma’am, it’s just crawfish.”

I tell this story because it highlights a tendency that exists, not only culturally, but within Christianity, to be too quick, too aggressive, in pinning our problems, our difficulties, our struggles, our battles, our arguments, our tests, our trials, our temptations, and yes, our sin, on Satan. We’re very quick to blame the prince of the power of the air for our pride. We’ve very quick to blame the god of this world for our worldliness. We’re very quick to blame the father of lies, when we’re caught in a lie. We’re very quick to blame the tempter when we’re tempted. The line “the devil made me do it” is found not only in old Flip Wilson comedy bits, and found not only in old Tom and Jerry re-runs, you know, with the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder. The line is often used as a crutch by Christians for their own devilish behavior, “the devil made me do it.”

Even more insidious, though, is when we attempt to lay blame for our own foibles, our own issues, and yes, our own sin, not at the feet of the devil, but at the feet of God Himself. If we’re not careful to guard our minds, our thoughts, and our tongues, we can find ourselves directly or indirectly blaming God for the offences, the sins, that we commit against Him. We’ll say things like, “If God hadn’t sovereignly moved me into that new department at work, I would have never sat next to that attractive young woman, and therefore never would have had those lustful thoughts I’m now having about her.” We’ll say things like, “If God hadn’t settled my family in Lincoln, Nebraska, I never would have experienced the sinful anger I experienced yesterday when Illinois beat the Huskers. We’ll say things like, “If God hadn’t sovereignly spared my life in that car accident many years ago, I never would have met my husband, who I’m currently so angry with, and so distant from, and so unwilling to submit to.”

If God hadn’t, if God would have, but He didn’t. This twisted line of reasoning goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. You’ll recall that infamous three-person interaction in Genesis 3 between God and the man Adam and the woman Eve. God in Genesis 3:11 says, “Have you eaten from the tree” pointing to both of them, “of which I commanded you not to eat?” Adam, the man speaks up in verse 12 and says, “The woman whom You gave [me], she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” And then the woman speaks after God points to her and says, “What is this you have done?” and she says, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Will Rogers once said that there have been two eras in American history, the passing of the buffalo and the passing of the buck. Now, I’m pretty sure the bible doesn’t say anything about the passing of the buffalo, but it certainly does speak to the passing of the buck.

From the Garden of Eden and onward, there has been this tendency in humanity to either subtly accuse, or directly indict God. That has been stitched into the fabric of our common human existence. As sinners, with cheeks flushing and stomachs sinking and sinful pride soaring, seek to palliate their own feelings of guilt, by shifting blame to the God they know they sinned against.

Well, in our text for today, we see a major corrective for, and indeed a clear rebuke of this way of thinking and this way of acting. Turn with me, if you would, to James 1:13. We’re in our series in James and we’re going to pick it up in James 1:13. The word of God reads, “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. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.”

We’re now into our fifth message in this series through the book of James titled “Active Faith.” And what we’ve just come out of is this section which runs from verse 2 all the way down to verse 12, in which James, the half-brother of Jesus, has told this scattered group of early Jewish Christians, a group that was facing ostracism, a group that was facing poverty and rejection and opposition, that they were to live a certain way. They were, verse 2, to “consider it all joy” when they experienced various trials. Those are words that in isolation don’t always go down easy. Those are words that in isolation can lead to a few lumpy throats and furrowed brows. As we considered and studied that command to “consider it all joy” in its proper context, we see that the command makes complete sense in light of James’ eternal mindset, and in light of the eternal mindset he’s seeking to impress on his audience.
Not only was James’ audience to “consider it all joy” though when they encountered various trials. They were to recognize, verse 3, that the testing of their faith produces endurance, steadfastness. We saw the Greek term there as “hupomene,” which ultimately would lead to what we see in verse 4, this place of Christian maturity in which they would “be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Next, James instructs this dispersed early group of Jewish believers to ask God for wisdom as they navigated the various trials that were sent their way. Verse 5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” And then last time, James led us to a place where we were exploring the unique form of trials that are experienced by the poor of this world versus those that are experienced by the rich of this world. We saw that through his trials the poor man, the lowly brother, “is to glory in his exaltation,” while “the rich man is to glory in his humiliation,” [verse 9-10]. And to both groups, and to all Christians, they are to heed what James says in verse 12, that we are to “persevere[ing] under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

And that brings us back to our text for today, James 1:13-18. Now, by the way, I do believe that though there are many different ideas running through these passages, we’re about to see these verses that we’ll look at today represent a single syntactical unit. A syntactical unit that’s presenting two different competing ideas and competing truths but is nevertheless one single unit. And here are the two truths, or the two ideas, that really are going to frame the sermon this morning, and come out of the text. Truth #1 is that temptations to sin come from within. We see that in verses 13-15. Truth #2 is that good gifts come from above. So, if you’re a note-taker, those are the two points this morning, temptations to sin come from within and good gifts come from above.

Let’s start with the first one, “temptations to sin come from within.” Look again at verse 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.” Right out of the gate here, James is issuing this corrective. It’s actually a directive, meaning it’s a command. “Let no one say”, that’s command-type language, “when he is tempted.” Note, it says when he is tempted, it doesn’t say if he is tempted. It says when he is tempted, meaning temptations will happen in the Christian life. It’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when.” Which is why Thomas Brooks helpfully said it this way, he says, “God had but one Son without corruption, but He had none without temptation.”

Now, interestingly, the word for tempt and tempted here in verse 13, is the verb form of the same word for trial, that we see back in verses 2 and verse 12. The verb form here in verses 13 and 14 is “peirazo.” The noun form back in verse 2 and 12 is “peirasmos.” It’s the same term expressed, one is a noun, one is a verb. One in the English coming across as trials, one in English coming across as temptations. So, if James then, because he’s using the same word, is he saying that trials and temptations are the same thing, in the same way in each and every respect? Is there a perfect overlap between these terms, trials and temptations? The answer is no. Instead, what we have here, is an instance of polysemy. And all that means is that this is an instance in which the same word, identical word, can have two distinct meanings. We shouldn’t be all in arms or alarmed by this. By the way, this happens in English quite frequently. Think of the word “sanction” or “sanctions.” Right? The word “sanction” can be used to describe approval. But that same word “sanction” can be used to describe disapproval. By way of example, the U.S. government can “sanction” the appointment of an ambassador to a certain nation. But the U.S. government can then levy “sanctions” against that same nation to whom it has appointed that ambassador. The same word can have different, even competing, meanings both in English and in Greek.

So, it is with this word “peirasmos” or “peirazo.” Now, in some settings, as we’ve seen in verse 2 and verse 12 of James 1, that word can refer to an external trial, an outward trial. But in other settings, as it does in our text for this morning, it can refer to an internal desire, an internal temptation. Which meaning of the word the author has in view in any given passage comes down to the context, the context of the passage. And it is clear from the context of James 1: 13-15, which we’ll be getting into in just a moment, that what James is addressing here, is the latter sense of the term. That internal desire to temptation. James is saying, both to his original audience and to us today, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God.’ ”

Now, we’ve seen over the past several weeks, as we’ve worked though these first verses of James 1, that God is sovereign in our trials. And we’ve seen that God is doing something in us, and for us, through our trials. We’ve also seen that God, in His sovereignty, will test the faith of His people in the trials, and that He will do so, ultimately for our good. And we’ve seen that truth is found, not only in James 1, but in other places in scripture. One common cross reference is 1 Peter 1:6-7 which says, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 12:5-6 says, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
And of course, we all know Romans 8:28 which says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Because we know these truths. And because these are eternal truths. And because these are eternal realities. What these passages, passages like these tell us, that we can rejoice as Christians when God allows us to walk through a specific season of difficulty. We really can, as James 1:2 commands us to do, “consider,” count “it all joy when [we] encounter various trials.”

But note, here in verse 13 James is cautioning us. He’s cautioning us against taking the truths that he’s laid out so far, and taking them in an unhelpful, and ungodly direction. He’s cautioning us from thinking that because God puts trials in front of us, that that is not necessarily must mean that He’s the source of our temptations as well. That, friends, is a slippery slope downward. Now, it’s true that every God-ordained trial brings with it the opportunity for temptation, and with that, a person might say, if they’re not careful, if they are not guarding their minds and their thoughts, that “God is testing me too severely here.” And taking it a step further, they may say, if they are not being careful, “God is pushing me toward sin so that I might fail.” And when such a person faces the tests or the trials that will inevitably come, and when they fail to endure, and when they fall on their face, they are going to be looking for someone to blame. And guess who it is they’ll blame? God. They’ll say something like, “He’s tempting me,” “He’s leading me to ruin.” They’ll bring in all the bad theology from the book of Job and leave out the good stuff. In response to which James here is throwing a flag. Which is why he says what he says in verse 13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God.’ ”

And now, look at the second part of verse 13, he says, “for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” James here is making two significant theological statements.
Statement #1, “God cannot be tempted by evil.” God is absolutely holy. And His all-encompassing holiness leaves no room for evil within His presence or within His nature. There are no weak points for temptation to gain a foothold with God. It is utterly unthinkable that He could or would ever be tempted by anything or anyone. That He’d be the source of or have an inroad to corruption or sin or evil.

Statement #2, “And He Himself” it says, “does not tempt anyone.” By the way, that last one, that second one, is phrased (and this is an admittedly geeky Greek moment) as a gnomic present. You know, like the garden gnome, gnomic present. And all that means is that James here is saying that God never tempts His people at any time. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. That’s what a gnomic present does. God does not tempt anyone to sin, ever! No exceptions. No loopholes. No arguments. Now, God does test people, Genesis 22:1, “God tested Abraham.” Exodus 16:4, God tested the Israelites. We’ve already seen that God allows various tests and trials to come into our life to strengthen our faith. We’ve seen it in James 1, earlier. And we just read it from 1 Peter 1:6-7. But God never ever entices anyone to sin. He never has. He never will. He has no ulterior motives. He has no sinful impulse to trip us up. In fact, we actually see quite the contrary in scripture. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 10:13. This would be in response to one who might suggest that God would tempt or find some sort of delight in tempting the believer. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as it common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” God doesn’t tempt His children. God doesn’t delight in the temptations of His children that they experience. Instead, as what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 10:13, God always provides the way of escape from the temptation.

And back to James 1:13, after James tells us that God does not tempt us to sin, we might naturally think, ok, now he’s going to tell us who really tempts us to sin. If its not God, it must be who? Satan! Because it certainly isn’t me. But that’s not what he says. Now, James knows that the Devil does play a role in temptation. In fact, he addresses Satan’s role in the life of believers and the temptation he provides to believers, elsewhere in this book, James 3:15, James 4:7. But that’s not James’ focus here in James 1:13. James’ emphasis here, rather, is on people like you and me, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ensuring that we are owning our responsibility when temptations arise. We can’t blame our weaknesses. We can’t blame our tendencies. We can’t blame our surroundings. We can’t blame our friends. We can’t blame our families. We can’t blame our economic circumstances. Plain and simple, “The devil made me do it” won’t fly. Rather, the responsibility for sin and for temptation lies squarely with us. Blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the man and the woman that’s looking in the mirror. Proverbs 19:3 says, “The foolishness of man ruins his way, and his heart rages against the Lord.”

And that takes us right into verse 14 which says, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” So, verse 13 states the matter negatively. Responsibility for temptation, verse 13 says, does not rest with God. But then verse 14 states the matter positively. Responsibility for sin, for temptation, lies with us and only us. “But each one” it says, “is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” We are responsible for how we react in times of temptation.

Now, this would be a good time to note, that temptation, the incident of temptation, in and of itself in isolation, is not necessarily sinful. The incident of temptation, the moment of temptation is not sinful per se. Even Jesus was tempted we know from Matthew 4 and Luke 4. But Hebrews 4:15 says, He is the “one who has been tempted in” every respect as we have been, “yet without sin.” It’s how we respond to temptation that’s the key. Do you flee from temptation, like Joseph from Potiphar’s wife? Do you look to and seek help from Jesus when you are tempted? Hebrews 2:18 says, “since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He” meaning Jesus, “is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Do you go to Him? Do you call out to Him? Do you cry to Him? Do you ask Him to come to your aid? Or do you yield to temptation? Do you give into temptation? Do you succumb to its power? Again, the occurrence of temptation is not necessarily sinful. It’s the person’s response to that temptation that brings about the potential for sin. Martin Luther illustrated this very colorfully, in a way only Martin Luther could. He said, “Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them rest in our hair.” Get it? It took me awhile.

But what James is really zeroing in on here in verse 14, and for that matter, when we get to verse 15, is how temptation works. You know, he starts in verse 14, by giving us this illustration from nature. And then in verse 15, he’ll give us an illustration from the whole process of procreation. Let’s take those one by one. How does temptation work?

Let’s look at verse 14, where he says, “each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” Now, the word there for lust is “epithumia.” And it can be also translated desire and in biblical terminology, desires are not always intrinsically evil. In Luke 22:15, it says, our Lord “desired to eat this Passover” with His disciples. Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2:17 spoke of his “great desire to see [their] face.” The man who aspires to the office of overseer/pastor/elder, Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:1, “it is a fine work he desires,” same verb, “to do.” However, if we simply count up the number of times that word “epithumia” is used in the New Testament, most of the time, that desire, that lust is referred to in sinful terms, in sinful categories. Which is a reminder that even desires which began with noble or good aims, can quickly devolve and turn into something evil.

For instance, a woman’s beauty is a morally neutral thing. The beauty of a woman is intrinsically good. In the same way that an objectively beautiful piece of art hanging in a museum is intrinsically good. Beauty, by itself, never forced anyone to sin. A man ought to be, key words, “men,” “ought to be,” capable of noticing God’s handiwork in fashioning and forming a beautiful woman with objectivity, detachment, and innocence. But many men have difficulty keeping things at that objective and detached innocent level. Instead, when a man sees a beautiful woman, if his heart is left unchecked, he can find himself quickly moving from objectively approving her beauty, the way a museum-goer would approve the beauty of a piece of art on a wall, to desiring her beauty, to lusting after her because of her beauty. And where does the fault lie in that situation? With the beautiful woman? With the God who gave her beauty? No. The fault lies with the man, who has allowed his initially objective observation of her beauty to turn into sinful lust.

And how scenarios like that happen in our lives, how those things take root in our lives, is described in these two verbs James gives us here in verse 14. A person is “carried away” and it says he’s “enticed.” Those are interesting words, “carried away” and “enticed.” The first one, carried away, comes from the world of hunting. It refers to luring an animal into a trap by placing bait in the trap. The second term, enticed, comes from the world of fishing. And the verb literally, whenever its used, refers to baiting a hook to catch a fish with that bait. What powerful and appropriate illustrations those are, here used by James! Temptations often creep up on us unnoticed, do they not? Like a trap laid before a hunted animal. Or like a hook dropped in the water in front of a fish. And that’s why we hear people who become later ensnared in their sin, saying things like, “I don’t know what came over me,” “I don’t know what I was thinking,” “I wasn’t thinking right,” “I didn’t realize…,” “It just sort of happened,” “It was so out of the blue.”

And James here is saying, in only the way James can say, “And whose fault is that? Do hooks catch fish? Or do fish catch fish? Do traps catch animals? Or do animals entangle and ensnare and trap themselves? So it is with temptations and sin. God certainly isn’t to blame. Even Satan isn’t ultimately to blame. We are.” Look at the language of verse 14 again, “each is… carried away and enticed”, look at the last few words there, “by his own lust.” Though Satan may place the trap, though Satan may bait the hook, the problem ultimately isn’t with him. It’s with us. Which is why one commentator said the problem is not with the tempter without, it’s with the traitor within.

James here is showcasing for us how subtle and insidious temptation is. It’s like the sparkling lure that’s attached to a fisherman’s pole, as he throws it out into the water. If flies through the air, it drops into the water, it lands right in front of our face, it lands right in front of our path. Even when we’re not looking for it, it has the allure and has the appeal of something good, something pleasing. Something enjoyable, something tasty. It seems initially like it would satisfy some need of ours if we pursue it. If we circle it. If we chase after it, just a little bit. If we nibble it, just a little bit. And then finally, we clamp down on it, and “bam”! It takes us. It takes us. We’re hooked. We’re dragged. We’re reeled in. And we’re pulled away to our death. “He is carried away” verse 14 says, “and enticed by his own lust.” And it all started with that initial source of temptation. That glimmer of the lure. That glance at the girl. That rumbling in the stomach. That appetite for intoxication. And now, we’re one bite closer to gluttony. We’re one drink closer to drunkenness. We’re one click away, one text away, one DM away, one call away, one mile away from adultery.

And when this happens, our natural inclination, if our hearts are left unchecked, is to pin the fault on others, to place the blame on others, to blame our upbringing, to blame our friends, to blame the school districts, to blame the government, to blame our families, to blame our circumstances, to blame our conditions, to blame Biden or Camala, to blame Trump or Cruse, to blame anything or anyone else that we can blame but ourselves.

But James won’t have any of it. He’s clear. If we do fail, if we do fall prey, it’s because of our own desires, our own lusts. Our own lusts, our own desires, are what lure and entice us. The fault for my sin rests with me. The fault for your sin rests with you. We have desperately sin-sick hearts, which aren’t helped by the fact that we live in a desperately sin-sick world. The problem lies at the core of who you and I are. So, brothers, sisters, whatever sin you’re flirting with right now, whatever deception you’re buying into, whatever desires you’re fulfilling, whatever hook you’re nibbling on, whatever trap you’re tiptoeing around, stop it! Run away from it! Flee from it! Or, as we’re going to see, it will kill you.

Well, as we turn to verse 15, it’s too late, the bait’s been taken, and the person who has been tempted is now ensnared. And with this same person in view and this progression of sin and temptation, James now switches his metaphors. We’re still talking about lusts, desires, “epithumia.” But now James is moving away from the realm of fishing and hunting, and into the realm of childbirth as he continues to make these broader points about temptations and lusts and desires. Look at verse 15, he says, “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” The picture here is of a mother, here personified as lust, conceiving a child. And that child, verse 15 says, is sin. And that child, sin, then in turn brings forth death. Desire, lust, “epithumia” is the parent. Sin is the child. Death is the grandchild.

And what James is highlighting for us here, with that illustration, that picture, is that sin is not isolated or solitary. Sin doesn’t just fall out of the sky. It’s not a one-time event that just drops into our laps. No, the testimony of scripture is that sin is progressive. Sin is the result of a process. And that process, James says very clearly in verse 15, brings forth death. The wages of sin, Romans 6:23 is what? Death, meaning physical death, the separation of the soul from the body; spiritual death, the separation of the soul from God; eternal death, the separation of both the soul and body from God. Now, James here doesn’t specify which form of death he’s referring to. Nor is he really delimiting what he’s saying in terms of categories of believers and non-believers. Rather, what James is saying really broadly here is that all sin ever brings or does or produces is death as sure as physical conception of a child brings about birth. “When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin”, and James says, that “brings forth death.” Unchecked, sin brings forth death.

James is not out on some island with his theology here, by the way. Rather, what he’s identifying in verse 15 about unchecked sin leading to death, is supported by what we see in various places in both the Old and New Testaments. Adam and Eve, Genesis 2:16-17. The woman saw that the fruit was pleasant. She desired the fruit. She took the fruit. She ate of the fruit. And what did that bring about? Death. Or the story of Achan, in Joshua 7. (By the way, we’ll be talking about Achan tonight in the evening service, come back for that.) Achan, he saw shekels of silver. He coveted those shekels. He took those shekels. He hid those shekels. And what came about? Death. Or the account, of course, of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. David saw, lusted, and sinned with Bathsheba. He then sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to the front lines of battle so that Uriah would be killed. David saw, David lusted, David sinned. And what was the result? Death.

What James here, drawing on that heritage, is saying in verse 15, is that for those who give free reign to sin in their lives, they will not receive what is promised in verse 12, what we saw last time. They will not receive the crown of life. Instead, what they will receive, he says in verse 15, is death. Now, I can already hear the objections. I can already anticipate the e-mails. I can already anticipate the note that’s going to be passed to me after this service, “Wait a minute, Pastor, are you saying a believer can lose their salvation? I thought it’s once saved, always saved?” Yes, and amen, it is. Indeed, once saved, always saved for true believers, for true followers of Jesus Christ. Indeed, a true follower of Jesus Christ, will not, cannot, will never lose their salvation. John 10:28, the Lord confirms that, “I give eternal life to them.” He says, “and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” But not all who claim to be followers of Christ, in fact, are followers of Christ. Not all that glitters, is in fact, gold.
Maybe they’ve said a prayer. Maybe they’ve said grace. Maybe they’ve done the church thing their whole life. But their walk has never measured up to their talk. Their life has never measured up with their profession. They demonstrate no fruit of the Spirit. And their track record of giving into sin and temptation points to a life devoid of the Spirit, as if He’s not there. Yes, a true follower of Christ will not, cannot, lose their salvation. But a life of persistent sin, and a track record of continually giving in to temptations that will inevitably arise, can indicate that a believer was never truly a believer to begin with. They haven’t truly been born again. They remain under the wrath of God. And they face, not only physical death, as we all do. But spiritual death and eternal death.

The main idea underlying verses 14 and 15, by the way, if I can just put a bow on this, is this. Sin does not just happen like a bolt from the blue. It doesn’t just fall out of the sky. There’s a process behind it. And there’s a choice one must make when they are encountering a temptation to engage in it, in sin. There are two potential paths, as we see from this whole section of James 1, that we can take when any trial or any source of temptation arises. Testing, met with endurance, which we’ve seen in the past weeks, will make us mature and complete. That’s the path to life. Those people receive the crown of life. The other path refers to temptation met with selfish desire, which if unrestrained and unchecked and not repented of, leads to sin and death.

Alright, well, we’ve worked through these first three verses, 13 through 15. We pick up the main idea, the first main idea of this morning’s sermon, which is that temptations to sin come from within. In just a minute, we’ll get to the second main idea, that good gifts come from above. But you’ll see that in between these two main ideas, and these two groups of verses, right here, verse 16, where James says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” “Do not be deceived.” James here is using a similar connecting language, this is a hinge verse that Paul uses in other places. Paul in Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked.” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived; bad company ruins [corrupts] good morals.” James here, in verse 16, is doing something similar. He’s stressing the point that he’s just made in verses 13-15, which is this main idea of temptation to do evil not coming from God. But he’s also setting up the point that he’s about to make, about what God actually does provide. And to that, he says, “do not be deceived.” If James’ recipients were already being deceived, they were to stop. And if they had not yet been deceived, they were here forewarned.

And then James calls his audience, here in verse 16, “my beloved brethren.” “Agapetos adelphos,” “my beloved brethren.” This is a term of warm affection, that’s really meant to soften the blow of all the hard truths he’s given them, in the three verses that we’ve just covered.

And then, this pivot point happens. What are we to do in the midst of trials? What are we to do in the midst of trials? What are we to do when temptation crashes upon us? What are we to do when we’re otherwise prone to fixating on our circumstances and our surroundings? What are we to do when we’re prone to being dragged away and enticed by the desires that threaten to overtake us? James tells us in these next couple of verses. We’re to remember the character of God, we’re to remember the nature of God. And we’re to remember all that God has provided. Which takes us to our second main idea, “good gifts come from above.”

Look at verses 17-18: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.”
Having established that God does not send temptations, the path is now left open here for James to tell us what God does send. And James tells us, in verses 17-18, He gives good gifts, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above.” In the Greek text it literally says, “all good giving and every perfect gift.” That’s a little bit choppy for us for our English ears to process. So, like the ESV translation has it as “every good and perfect gift”, that’s perfectly suitable to the text. In the NASB, we have “every good thing given and every perfect gift”, also a suitable translation. But the main idea here, in context, is that not only is God not a tempter, He is a giver and a giver of good gifts. Whereas temptation takes, God gives. And God’s gifts are always good.

Matthew 7:11, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” As we saw back in sermon #1 in this series, James often pulls back, draws back, from the words of his half-brother during His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ -- imports teachings from Christ, and this is one of those. Now, the good and perfect gift which James appears to have in view here, the gift that God gives freely from above, in the context of James 1, is wisdom. We already saw a few weeks ago, James 1:5, “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach.” You could also jot down James 3:15 and James 3:17, as reflecting the gift of wisdom that God gives.

But we know from the testimony throughout scripture, that God gives other gifts as well.
We know from Psalm 94:12, that He gives discipline, “Blessed is the man” it says, “whom You chasten, O Lord.” God gives all the good which our households possess, Deuteronomy 26:11 says. And these gifts, James says, are coming down from above, that is, from God. “Coming down” is a present tense participle, which is suggesting continuous, repeated action, indicating how God is consistently lavishing His gifts on us.

And next, we see that He is this giver of good gifts who is also “the Father of lights.” That’s the descriptor James gives here. He’s the Father of lights. That’s a way of saying God is the Creator. He’s the one who created the lights in the heavens, the sun, the moon and the stars. Indeed, He’s the one, Genesis 1:3, who said “Let there be light.” He not only created those lights though. We know from His word that He is light. 1 John 1:5, “God is light, and in Him there is not darkness at all.” He is the Father of light, an artful and beautiful way of saying, He’s the Creator of all things.

And not only that, verse 17 says, He is the one “with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” He’s not subject to variation, to change. The theological term for that concept is immutability. There’s no variation, no change in God. He is the unchangeable God. He always is everything He is. He never won’t be what He is. He never once was something else. And He’ll never be anything else. He is constant and steady and unchanging and entirely trustworthy. Malachi 3:6, He says this clear as He could say it, “I, the Lord, do not change.” A terrifying truth for the unbeliever. But a great source of comfort and security for the believer. He also says there’s not “shifting shadow” with God, meaning there’s no dark side of God. You know, all lesser lights are subject to changes, to dimming, to waxing, to waning, to burning out, to fading. Even the sun up above is occasionally eclipsed. Not with God. There’s no “shifting shadow” with God. He doesn’t dim. He doesn’t fade. And that’s all rooted in the reality that He does not change.

And that now brings us to the final part of this section in verse 18, where he says, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” Let’s start with the phrase right in the middle there where he says, “He brought us forth by the word of truth.” Now, this of course, is the ultimate gift. God has resolved, because of the great love that He had for us not to leave sinners like you and me in our natural state, in our plights. Rather, in His infinite goodness and wisdom and love, He saw fit to grant spiritual life to each one of us who has trusted in Christ through “the word of truth.” That phrase, “the word of truth”, appears a total of five times in the New Testament, right here in James 1:18, and then four other times in Paul’s writings. And whenever Paul uses the phrase, he leaves no doubt as to what he’s referring to. He’s referring to the gospel. By way of example, Ephesians 1:13 says, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” The two terms are linked -- the message of truth, the gospel of salvation. Or Colossians 1:5b-6a says, “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you.” They are not separate things, they’re the same thing. Peter says it also in 1 Peter 1:23-25, he says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

God’s supreme good and perfect gift is salvation, the new birth that is offered through the good news message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the preeminent example of a good gift that God offers us. And note, James here is using in verse 18, almost like this flip side, flip around birthing language to refer to the good gift for which He brought us forth. He talked earlier in verse 15 about sin being birthed in us and now he’s saying, God “brought us forth.” We were brought forth, birthed, through this “word of truth.” This is a major turn around in the thought here.

Now, go back to the first few words there in verse 18, where it says it was “in the exercise of His will” that “He brought us forth.” See, spiritual birth or regeneration is not only a work of God’s sovereign power, it’s a product of His sovereign, loving choice. Our new birth or birth from above is rooted and sourced in God. John 15:16, the Lord says, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” Surely, we might remember with varying degrees of clarity in this room, the day and the hour where we decided to follow Jesus. But since scripture teaches that no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him, John 6:44; and since scripture teaches that the very faith that we exercise is the Father’s gift to us, Ephesians 2:8; we understand that behind our choice, behind us saying, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” is the wonder of wonders, which is that He first chose us. “In the exercise of His will”, James 1:18, “He brought us forth.”

Friends, that is one of the most glorious truths in the bible. That God appoints sinners unto salvation. Salvation truly is all of God, right? Before God saves us, Ephesians 2:1 tells us very plainly, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. And what’s the one thing dead people are good at? What do they do? Stink! We are totally heartless. We are totally hapless. We are totally helpless. And if we’re to be brought to life, it must be because of some outside source. And putting a finer point on it, God must be the one who does it. And the bible teaches, very plainly, very clearly, that is actually what happens. If I can paraphrase from Ephesians 1:3-11, He chose us before the foundation of the world. He did so according to the kind intention of His will. And He did so “to the praise of His glory,” [verse 6]. That’s the ultimate gift, from the good giver of gifts that we see here in James 1.

And when we receive His gift of salvation, by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, James 1:18 tells us, we become “a kind of first fruits” it says, “among His creatures.” That’s drawing from the language of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Israelites would offer to God the first fruits of the fields and the flocks whatever those fields and flocks had produced. And of course, James here speaking to a Jewish audience, he’s drawing on that Jewish practice to explain to them, now that they have trusted in Christ how precious they are.

A few key principles are related to this idea of first fruits, which James, again drawing from that background of his, would have been familiar with. Here’s one principle, from all the produce of flock and field, though it came from God after all -- God gives the rain, and God causes plants to grow -- though it all came from God, the first fruits were especially His, so, that they could be used by the priests in their tabernacle service. Principle two, the first fruits that the Israelite worshiper was to bring were to be the very best. And only the best. Exodus 23:19, “You are to bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.” Third principle, the first fruits were an annual confession that God had supplied the year’s bounty to that particular Israelite. That God had, yet again, been faithful to His covenant people for one more year. And here in verse 18, James is appropriating that terminology, bringing these concepts to God’s people here in this diaspora, calling them first fruits. Meaning we are the first and the best of His produce. We are the ones to whom He will continually prove Himself to be faithful, as He cares for His people year by year, even as He cared for Israel in the wilderness.

As we’ve seen already through our study of the book of James thus far, and I trust as our individual experiences would affirm, the Christian life is not always the pain-free, tranquil-free, and easy experience that some might have expected or anticipated. Christians are no less subject to trouble and calamity than are other people. Our physical bodies are just as susceptible to disease and injury as those of our unsaved neighbors. Our houses catch fire. Our crops fail. Our cars are stolen. Our jobs are lost. Our marriages have highs and lows. Our confidence ebbs and flows. Just like anyone else. And sometimes, when we’re in the heat of the battle, when we’re in the fires of the crucible, when we’re in the midst of a trial, when we’re subject to temptation, when we’re in the grip of our desires, God can seem somewhat distant to us, maybe even very distant to us. We can forget who we are in Him. We can forget Him. We can forget what His word says. Let’s not be those people. Let’s do everything we can, with the Spirit of God leading us, strengthening us, conforming us in the image of Christ, to battle, fight and claw. To endure trials. To fight temptations. And to bring God glory. Richard Sibbes said this: “There can be no victory where there is no combat. The victory lies not upon us but upon Christ… Let us not look so much who are our enemies, as to who is our Judge and Captain.” Amen.

Let’s pray. God, we thank You again, for a morning in Your word. How precious are the truths Your word contains. I pray that we would walk out of this place transformed, changed, motivated, to live these precious truths out. May we be a people who understands that temptations will arise. Temptations to sin will arise. But may we be resolved to be a people who don’t point the finger at Satan. Who don’t point the finger at You. But rather, point the finger at ourselves, as we look in the mirror and realize we are the ones who are the problem. How we are the ones who need to suppress temptations and desires and lusts. We are the ones that need to look to You, the all-powerful, all-wise, unchanging Father of lights, in whom there’s no variation or shifting shadow. And look for strength from You to help us endure, to persevere. And to bring You glory. May we be a people, corporately and individually, who strive to honor Christ in all that we do -- in our temptations, in our trials, in every aspect of life. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.