Well, if you would, please turn in your Scriptures once again to the letter of James, James chapter 1. Today we come to verses 17 and 18 for our sermon passage, but we'll be reading verses 12 through 18 for the immediate context in which these verses find themselves. Before we come to the reading and preaching of God's Word, let's go to the Lord in prayer. O gracious and heavenly Father, we do pray that our trials, our troubles, even our temptations, again, would be those things in which You would draw us closer unto Yourself. That we would count it all joy in our trials and circumstances that we have, knowing that the end is, again, to maturity, to complete, again, conformity in the image of Christ, to life, in your holy presence. And the means by which we are to make this track is through endurance and perseverance. in these things. And so, Lord, these are counted as joys and we ought to count them as joys. We thank you again, Lord, that you do not lead us into temptation, but you do bring us through tests and trials that we might again draw us close to yourself. Thank you for your gifts, O Lord, for they are endless and they are good. And let us see them again from the light of your revelation and bless your holy word to us, your people. And we pray it again in Christ's name. Amen. I'd ask that if you're willing and able, please stand for the reading of God's holy word that comes to us from James 1, verses 12-18. I do remind you, Knox Orthodox Presbyterian Church, these are the words of your God. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning or his own of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first roots of his creatures. The grass withers and the flower fades with the word of our God. It stands forever. Please be seated. Children, I am sure that one of the most important lessons that you learn from your parents is to be grateful when you are given gifts. How often do you hear your parents tell you after receiving something from someone, now what do you say? They are helping teach you and guide you in all of this to respond with thank you. Well, who is it that we all need to be eternally grateful toward and say thank you to all the time? It is our Heavenly Father, who is the always giving God. And James reminds us all of this truth in our passage today. You need to recognize that God is the offended one. When we sin and when we disobey, when we are ungrateful, He is the offended one. And yet when we fall into temptation, our sinful fleshly nature desires to respond by accusing us, or accusing the eternally good and giving God of something evil. That's what, again, James tells us in verse 13. My friends, this should not be. James reminds us that the guilt of it lies always at our own feet and not at God's. James gave instruction concerning God's nature in verse 13, but from a negative point of view, defending the Lord from error, erroneous thoughts and conclusions. But now he returns in verses 17 and 18 to a positive proclamation of God's gracious character. According to verse 12, there is a way forward for you and I that leads to life. That is the fullness of life, the goodness of life, the wholeness of life. And it consists of responding to trials and troubles from the proper perspective, from God's perspective, and of making the proper choices in that moment. And not succumbing to temptation, of not blaming God for them, but instead of enduring. And as we saw, the key to endurance and perseverance is love. The key is of loving God, come what may. It means responding to these difficulties and making decisions out of love for Him, holding on through the thick and the thin for His sake. But according to verses 14 and 15, This would appear to be impossible since James states unequivocally that our heart produces desires that are insistent and alluring that again lead us away that give birth to sin and death. So how are we to make steps forward on the pathway to maturity in life when the whole thrust and pull of our heart is given over to that which is opposed to God? How are we to love and keep loving God when our hearts are springs of death-bearing desires? This is the problem that James sets forth. before unveiling the solution in our passage today. Again, this brings us to our purpose statement for our message, which is every good that you need is in and from and unto your graciously unchanging Father above. That's a mouthful. Every good that you and I need is in and from and unto your graciously unchanging Father above. We'll consider this truth from three points this morning. And our first point is the giver of all good. the giver of all good. Again, this is important and it's emphasized by James. Here is what we should not be deceived about. Again, when James ends in verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. This is what we should not be deceived about and should know undoubtedly that the Father is the supreme giver. that God the Father is the supreme giver. We have already considered this truth about Him in verse 5, but here James shouts it, as it were, from the rooftops. And he is the giver of all good. And in giving, he is inexhaustible. He is inexhaustible. That's why James says that every good gift, every perfect gift, he gives everything that could possibly be needed. He gives everything, holding back nothing. Not only that, but in giving He is beneficent. He is beneficent for the very nature of His gifts that they are given and they are good. They are good. They don't always appear that way, do they? We just sung about that in the hymn. Sometimes they appear bad. They are crushing us. And yet from God's perspective, they are good. The Scriptures begin here in Genesis 1. Did we not read? Everything that God made, behold, it is good. Very good. And the Bible continues from beginning to end, testifying to this truth. Praise the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. David says, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from. And again, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. The sons of Korah agree with David. Yes, the Lord will indeed give what is good. Jesus himself said, your heavenly father gives good gifts to those of you who ask him. He also says that no one is good except God alone. God is good. He is beneficent. He gives inexhaustibly. And also His gifts are, what does James say, perfect. What does he mean by that? They are perfect. It means that they are exactly appropriate to what is needed. It's the same word here that he used in verse 4, teleos. It is that which reaches the mark, that hits the target, right? That reaches the goal. It matches its objective. So your need and mine is the objective and his gift is that which exactly and perfectly meets it. That's James's point. And what is your need? What is your need and mine? Well, James has told us we need loving hearts. If we are to endure and persevere through the trials, through the trouble, through the hardship and difficulty to finish the race, to reach our journey's end, if you and I are to walk on in life, eternal life, our hearts must be filled with the love of God. The love of God for God and for others. And yet in and of ourselves, all we can offer is self-fulfilling hearts, those that produce selfish desires that only serve what pleases us. So we need a new loving heart. But before James speaks of this perfectly good gift, which we desperately need. He sheds more light on the good-giving God that gives it to us. And that brings us to our second point. The changeless, heavenly Father. The changeless, heavenly Father. Now, James doesn't use the word heavenly, does he? But he certainly alludes to it, since he says that the Father's gifts come down from above. What's above, children? Heaven, right? And what particular gift does James hint at here that comes down from above? Well, it's light. Doesn't James refer to God as the father of light? But he again, James reveals this in a very unique way among the rest of biblical writers. He's the only one that refers to our heavenly father as the father of lights. Again, recall what Jesus says, that you should love your neighbor Even your enemy. Why? Why ought you to do this so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, who makes his son his son to shine upon the good and evil? He shines down his light from above upon us. This title, Father of Lights, points us back to creation in Genesis 1, when God created light. But here, the word is lights, plural, probably pointing more specifically to his making the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. Children, what are the two great lights? What are the two great lights that rule the day and rule the night? The sun and the moon. Very good, Maggie. The sun and the moon, yes. And we are told that He set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. So we see from the creation account in Genesis 1 that God, the creator, is committed to light. He's committed to light. His first command to bring order to the chaos of darkness is to call light into being. And then on the fourth day, in order to make this his world inhabitable for us, he concentrated his light in and through the great heavenly lamps those light-bearing bodies, especially the sun and the moon. The Apostle John tells us that God reveals His goodness, His kindness, His holiness, and His righteousness not only by giving light and shining light, but by Himself being light. Is that not what, again John says, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all? Jesus said, I am the light of the world. This truth, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, upholds the truth that James states in verse 13, that God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone, because there is no darkness in Him, because He is holy light. He is pure. He is clear. He is luminous with all goodness. But His created lights, such as the sun and the moon, also reveal Him by contrast to these created things. For they are not always in the same place, are they? The sun and the moon are not always there. They move. And their light doesn't always shine with the same intensity, does it? They are subject to variation. A word here in the Greek, paralege, again, from where we get the term parallax, It's referring to the change of position or movement. Moses speaks of the changes of the sun during the months to produce fruit in their season. And then James refers to the turning of the shadow. It may refer to the measure of time by the shadow on the sundial. A shadow is a dark figure image cast by a body intercepting light. The sun and moon shine light, but that light, when blocked, casts a shadow. As the earth rotates, the shadows move, grow, and diminish. So these lights appear to cast shadows. But James's point is there are no shadows of darkness produced from God the Father. The light is in all this again, the light these created lights give is by no means steady, is no means persistent, but at best is variable. In this sense, the Creator is unlike His creation. There is a distinction. There is a difference. Again, God never changes His position. He never alters either the fact or the intensity of His outshining goodness. He is consistent. He is stable. He is immovable. He is immutable. He never changes. That's James's point. And therefore, you never need doubt his character, his nature, his goodness. His willingness to give you what you need when you need it. Which brings us to our third and final point. James tells us what the preeminent gift that God gives us is that we need. He has given us new birth. He has given us new birth or rebirth by His Word. And now we come to the heart of the matter. We come to the heart of the matter. James's argument runs like this. A continual endurance, steady persistence is necessary if we are to make headway to complete maturity and life. But in order to persevere to the end and reach the final goal of perfect Christ-likeness, and eternal life, we need a heart that loves God. We need a heart that loves God. But our seemingly insurmountable problem is that our heart, our natural heart, is itself the primary enemy. Because of its contrary desires, its contagious sinfulness and its susceptibility to death. Or in other words, more reformed words, we are totally depraved. James warns us of doubting this truth, of being deceived into fooling ourselves about our state apart from God. But there is a solution to our problem. And where is that solution? It's from Heaven. It's from Heaven. From Heaven we may expect absolutely every needed good thing coming down to us where we are from the unchanging Heavenly Father. He shines His light on the darkness of our hearts and the darkness of our lives. And in particular, there's one thing God has freely chosen to do for you and for me. He has made us alive again spiritually by His Word. For the purpose that we should be especially His children, and since we are His, that we should be holy. That's James' point. You know, the concept of a new beginning runs throughout the Scripture, throughout the Bible, and therefore can be defined as God's favorite promise. God's favorite promise to both make and fulfill. You see, there's a problem. Because God's creation, in which He made everything very good, has fallen into corruption. And yet, has this thwarted the plan of God? The theologians are compelled to say no. In fact, St. Anselm, this was again what he sought to defend in his book, Courteous Homo, Why of a God-Man. Why was the God-man necessary to send in order to bring us a new beginning? But it was promised before he was sent, is it not? And this is God's favorite promise. You see, Moses speaks of us being given a new circumcised heart. He tells Israel that God will circumcise your hearts and these hearts will be one whose desires are not fleshly, but flow forth the love of God. Jeremiah speaks of God making a new covenant with his people Israel, in which their hearts shall be tailor-made, knit together by God for obedience to his law, since his law is embroidered upon them." These new hearts. Ezekiel 2 speaks of God's gift of a new heart and a new spirit, one expressive of the true human nature, which the Lord intended. Therefore, a heart of flesh replaces, again, the removal of our hearts of stone. And the Lord would perform the spiritual transplant surgery by the work of his indwelling spirit. Paul speaks of the new creation in which the old passes away and the new has come. He also speaks of our new self or the new man created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness and knowledge. But of course, James particularly refers back to Jesus's teaching, that very teaching which baffled the teacher of Israel, the man who came to Jesus by night. Children, who came to Jesus by night asking questions? It was Nicodemus, right? Nick at night, right? That's how you remember. Nicodemus is the man who comes to Jesus by night. It baffled him what the Lord told him, but Jesus spoke of being born again. Of being born again. Or perhaps more correctly, being born from where? From above. being born from above, that good and that perfect gift from above coming down from the Father of lights. Here then is the new beginning presented in its most vivid terms. Earthly life originated with human parents from whom we receive human nature in all its fallen helplessness and hopelessness. But there is another birth coming to us irrespective of the age we have reached in human life, and wholly apart from our own or any other human agency, it is a birth of the Spirit of God. Birth of the Spirit. With this new birth comes a new beginning, new life, new energy, new prospects, and above all, a new fresh relationship with God. He becomes our Heavenly Father. He becomes our Heavenly Father by whose sovereign will our new birth has come about. I want you to notice the contrast that James sets forth against the previous verses, especially verse 15. James uses the very same language to draw a comparison, but the results are exactly the opposite. In verses 14 and 15, it is our own desires that draw us away from God, giving birth to sin, which brings forth death. Notice the language. It's birth language. birthing sin. Again, it arises from our own will, our own desires that lead us away into enticement and eventually to death. Here in verse 18, it is God's own will or desire that brought us forth. The very same words as verse 15, which produces fruit, which is the evidence of God's life. If we have life flowing in us from God through the Lord Jesus Christ, then we bear fruit unto Him. So in verses 14 through 15, we see the cycle of death. But here in verses 17 and 18, we see the cycle of new life, of new everlasting life. So rather than our own will and desires, we find it is the Father's will. the father's will in fulfillment of his own purpose. Here, new birth and natural birth are similar in that the decision is that of the parent, not of the child. Birth is something that happens to the child as a result of the actions by others, the parents. Your conversion or spiritual birth was by the will of God. Jesus says, you did not choose Me, I chose you. And He says that He chose you in order that you might bear fruit. He also said, no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him to Me. You also learn that the very faith you exercise in believing in Jesus is the Father's gift to you. Is that not what Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 8? For by grace you have been saved. That is, by the gift of God, you have been saved through faith, through your believing in Jesus. And that very faith is not from you, but is a gift from God. So we all learn that behind our choice, making it possible and making it real is the wonder that he first chose us. This is what James refers to when he says of his own will, he brought us forth. The decision was the father's. our conscious experience of conversion, of committing our lives to Christ, of receiving him into our hearts. All this is the result of his decision and action. Just as the love we give to our human parents is a reflex of their parental love and care for us and is indeed part and parcel of the life in which they gave us. This is why John declares, we love Him because He first loved us. So having made His decision, the Father secondly implements it. He puts again His decision, His will, into action. So James next reveals the instrumental means God uses to deliver us in the new birth. He brought us forth by the word of truth. By the word of truth. In verse 21, James will speak of the implanted word. He implants it in us, which is able to save your souls. The same God who created light and the great lights in the heaven recreates us by His word. And of course, the word of truth here is the good news of the gospel of our salvation. God speaks it inwardly into our dead souls, imparting life to us, bringing us to new birth, and also presents that same word of truth to us as a preached gospel to which the new life within us makes a personal and believing response. This is one of the most glorious truths in the whole Bible and what sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. Salvation is truly all of God. Amen? It reaches us that salvation is truly all of God. For until new life is imparted, we are dead in our trespasses and in our sins, Paul tells us. New life, new birth is needed if we are to respond to God in repentance and faith. If anything is to be done, he must do it. If any blessing or change is to come to us, it must come from outside. If any agency is to be at work, it must be other than ours, for we are dead. And our only activity is to increase in corruption. Here is the greatness of His mercy, the sufficiency of His power, and the depth of His condescension. He has come right down to us in our death, and He raises us up into life. And it is all due to His rich mercy prompted by His great love in Jesus Christ. It is no more possible for us to be agents or contributors to our new birth than it was for us to be so in our natural birth. I cannot command you be born again. You don't have the power to do that. But I am called to command you to believe, to repent. And if you do believe, if you do exercise faith and repent, it's because you've been born anew from the Father, by means of His Word. Again, all the work from the initial choice to completed deed is His, so that all of the glory is His. But there's something else as well. Inherent in this great truth of a new birth is the security of our salvation. The security of our salvation. Again, were salvation to depend on my choice, it would be uncertain, wouldn't it? There would be no assurance of it. because my will fluctuates. It blows back and forth like the waves of the sea, becomes hot and cold, and reflects my divided, fallen nature. But it is His choice. It's based on His will. And until His will changes, His word alters, or His truth somehow proves false. My salvation cannot be threatened or forfeited because it's based and grounded upon His holy, immutable, changeless will. Praise be to God. That is glorious assurance. And that is a living hope. Not only does the Father initially choose to give us new birth and to implement it by His Word, but third, we have revealed the fulfillment of His purpose. The fulfillment of His purpose to make us His and to make us holy. To make us His and to make us holy. This takes a little bit of explaining because James says in order that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. In order to understand that we need to go back to the Old Testament. Right? James here draws on the Old Covenant regulation which required the giving to the Lord the very first part of the crop that was harvested. And there are three primary truths that flow from this. First, out of all that belongs to the Lord, which we know is everything, right, ultimately, the first fruits are especially His. An example, right? Israel would be His as a special people among the rest of the nations, Old Covenant. Among Israel, the Levites would be His among the tribes of Israel, especially His. Among the Levites, it was the family of Aaron, right? It would be Him. The priests would be especially His among the tribe of Levi. Do you see how God is taking His special ones and again, setting them apart? That's what this whole regulation of the first fruits, as you go and you pick the grain from the field, as you harvest the fruit, the first batch that comes out is the Lord's. Out of all of it that belongs to the Lord, the first fruits are especially his. Secondly, they had to be the best and were set apart as holy to him. What's it mean to be holy? That's what it means. Set apart from the rest. Third, this offering was a continual reminder that the Lord keeps his promises to his people. And what promises at the time? Old covenant, delivering them from bondage and slavery, bringing them and giving them a homeland to call their own and providing everything that they need for their good. This is why James speaks of you and I as the Lord's first fruits. Because he brings us to new birth, demonstrating to all that he keeps his promises. In this case, the covenant promise to gather and keep a worldwide people for himself. I will be their God and they shall be my people. If you've been born again, born from above, in union with Jesus Christ, then you are the Father's firstfruits. You are reborn especially for Him and unto Him, and are therefore holy, set apart. You, His reborn children, make up the firstfruits of His creation. We don't see the new heavens and the new earth yet, do we? But you are the first fruits of it. That's the point. That's why we've talked before is you are the new humanity, the new heavens and the new earth. And in that reality is the power of God to live a holy life. So as His children, be grateful and forever thankful for every good that you need is in and from and unto your graciously unchanging Father above. Although you continue to struggle and fight against the old sinful nature, he has given you a new beginning in Christ. By his word and spirit, you are born from above and have become his first fruits of his new creation. Your journey through trials and even temptations has an eternal destination. Holy perfection and fullness of life. He has willed it. He has implemented it. And He will surely fulfill it. For after all, He is your never-changing Heavenly Father. He surely finishes what He begins, to make you His own and to make you holy for your good and His eternal glory. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious and heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You again for Your Word, for revealing the depth of Your love for us. And because You have loved us and poured out every good and perfect gift to us, bringing us into this new life, this new beginning, this new creation, by the new covenant that You have made in Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, that we can love You And by loving you, we can endure and persevere to the end. We thank you for all your gifts, Father, and we pray it to your glory. Amen.