Please open your Bibles with me this morning to the epistle of James. James chapter 1. And I would encourage you to, if you have a pen within reach, to pull out the insert from the bulletin because this sermon this morning is going to tie off a series, within a series if you will, that we are calling the battle plan for temptation. You say, are we ever going to get through James? Yeah, oh yeah, we'll get through James. I project we'll get through it this year, easily. But there's this tension that I feel as a preacher, and as a pastor, and as a counselor. I could have told you these three sermons in 20 minutes, and you would have been able to comprehend it. And we all probably would have forgotten it. All three of the weeks that we've been studying this text, verses 13 through 18, I've wanted you to put your mind down on one truth each week. You say, why is that so important? Because this is the kind of stuff right here that we talk about in counseling. And counseling is just private preaching, right? It's a temporary small group. And I want our marriages in our church, and I want the individual disciples in our church to once and for all understand and apply these three simple truths that we see in this paragraph. So yeah, I'm taking my time. I'm actually going to slow down like this. Between now and the end of chapter two, I'm going to slow down, I think, like this three more times. After chapter two, the epistle moves pretty quickly. But this time through, I want all of us to grab a hold in a life-changing way to very, very, very critical truths for our walk with Christ. So James chapter one. They say you age when you get to college. Others people say you do most of your aging at the beginning of your career or in the middle of your career. I have a different theory. I think you grow old instantly when you start teaching your first child to drive. Remember that? Now, for us, both of our daughters, twins, had to learn at the same time. And for some reason, I didn't read the small print, but Lori shoved them into my lap and said, take them up to the church and get them used to the van in the parking lot. So I took them up to the church and I taught them how to park and I taught them how to accelerate, how to use their blinker, how to look both ways twice before turning even if you're sure nothing's coming. I did all that in a bigger parking lot because I couldn't have them on the road yet. and you teach them about brights. You teach them everything. How to brake calmly so that all your people stay in the vehicle instead of going out the front windshield. Yeah, what do you check before you put it in drive? All that stuff. And we were repeating it twice for each of the girls when I was giving them each their respective turns. I started aging at that point. I used to have bangs that hanged in front of my eyes. I had to comb my hair. And I never had any of this gray stuff that I tell the barber to take off every month. But it even accelerated even more when finally they were old enough to, with supervision, take the vehicle onto the road. And I was surprised what started coming out of my mouth. I could be calm in the parking lot, but I didn't know I could hit certain pitches with my voice. Stop! What are you thinking? I hope I didn't say that. Maybe I did. But yeah, I was a nervous wreck on the road for the first time. Now with Jared, it was easy at that point. I was seasoned, and he was a good driver. But I just remember just listening to what was coming out of my mouth while we're on the road while one of my daughters is driving. And not just alarm and panic. But also things like this came out of my mouth. Now watch up here around this turn. There's usually a police officer sitting there. This is a 35. They'll get you for 40 here. Watch it as we're going down this road here. That's a good place for a police officer to hide. And I'm talking like this. I'm like, what are you saying to your daughters? What are you teaching your kids? I should be saying, you trust police officers. You don't distrust them. You appreciate what they're trying to do. They're trying to help everyone get home safely today. I was pointing out something that they should have felt safer with, and almost giving the impression that it makes the scene unsafe. Or you can put it this way, I was trying to, without even thinking about it, I was starting to teach my daughters to avoid what they should embrace. And even more so as I stepped into a new role for two years before moving here of being a police chaplain for the city of Chesapeake, Virginia, where I'm actually riding with these guys and going to crime scenes and going to death notices with these police officers. They're my heroes now. And I want my children to have a high regard for them, not to avoid them and distrust them, but to appreciate them and move towards them. You know, I think of that. I think of that whole teaching the kids to drive thing and how I caught myself building an unhealthy fear in my kids for the police. And I think of what James is writing here. What he's written so far, what we've learned together so far, that within our temptations that each of us has to work through, within our temptations, within our tests, there's a temptation. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, again, let me for the third week remind you that we have kind of divided the stage up here into four case studies or story problems of tests that all of us have to work through all the time in our life. The first test is the test of difficult relationships. Things are kind of sour. Things are kind of tense. But it's within these tests of relationships that Jesus is saying through the pen of James, his little brother, you can grow here. The second area we've been looking at, another case study, is the area of physical pain. And this is where we're going through life and it's either a brand new pain that's temporary or permanent, or we find ourselves deep in life with this pain that we're told will never go away. And while this is a test for anyone in this scenario, this test is an opportunity to grow. The third scenario, if you'll remember, is the area of sin consequences. This is where I've gotten off into sin, and God has rescued me. But just because you get rescued doesn't mean that there's still not consequences for bad decisions you made. And you find yourself moving past your sin struggle that you had, moving forward in life, but now you're chained to these consequences. And these consequences, Scripture warned about, these consequences, even though you've been reconciled with God and man, these consequences still present a test for you every day. But these tests can mature you. And then there's a fourth scenario where we've walked off on this stage for the third week now. And it's the scenario of just pressure, daily pressures. Your daily responsibility of getting up, having an orderly life, earning a living, raising a family if you have one, maintaining your purity in this world whether you're married or single. being engaged in ministry, and not just the easy ministry, but the difficult ministries with difficult people. You're going through this, and this presents unique tests to you. But those tests are maturing you. Here's our temptation that we have in every temptation though. We have a temptation, and every temptation, whether it's relationships, or the pain, or sin consequences, or pressures, the temptation in each of these four scenarios is this. The temptation within the temptation is, I want to blame God. The temptation over here is, I want to blame God. Why did He allow me to marry this person? Why do we have this child? Why did I take this job? I prayed about getting into this job, and now I'm around these difficult... Why, why, why? And the temptation in this temptation is to blame God. It's the same with our physical pain. It's the same with our life responsibilities and our sin consequences. We're looking around and we directly or indirectly say, why God? Thus, indicting God. We treat God as if He's unsafe. And like that police officer that I was teaching my daughters to not appreciate. We treat God in our temptations and in our tests as unsafe, when in reality, He should be the one we're looking for the most, and the one we trust the deepest in our tests. This is the temptation in our temptations. When we're involved in these pressures, in these relationships, in this pain, and in these consequences, If we lose sight of who God is, we lose the true north on our compass. And some of us have been spinning around without a north on our compass in our unique tests for some time. That's why we rejoice when we come to passages like James 1.13-18. a text written by a pastor to a herding scattered flock who was being dismantled with persecution and their church itself was becoming dismantled by conflict against each other in reaction to the test they were enduring. And they were trying to make sense out of their trials James is saying, I'll help you make sense out of your trials, but even more important than your trials is this, what is God using your trials to produce in you? And so I'm calling verses 13 through 18, the battle plan for temptation. Now look at your notes, if you're taking your notes here. We've already been through the first two parts. Just quickly remember with me, part one of this battle plan. We called it, locate the blame for your temptation. Remember that? Locate the blame for your temptation. And we saw this in verses 12 through 14 and verse 16. Look at verses 12 through 14 and 16. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he's been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who believe. That's bridging the context between the first 11 verses and what's coming up next. Note verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for he 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. And then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. And look at verse 16 again. He says, "...do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." When we say, locate the blame of your temptation, we're simply making this statement from the text. We cannot blame God. He is the Sovereign, yes. He placed us where we are. Yes. He's the Creator. Yes. He made us like we are. Yes. And we have unique strengths and weaknesses. All of us have different propensities. Yes. But that doesn't mean that God is not powerful and that He is not safe when we're in scenarios like what we're talking about. We can't blame God for our giving in to sin. You say, locate the blame for our temptation. Yes, after we looked at verse 14, we saw that indeed, we only have to look inside. We don't blame our environment. We don't blame God. We look inside. The battle is in the mind and hearts of God's people. Locate the blame for your temptation. You say, well, what's going on on the inside? If I don't look at my environment, I don't look at God to blame for my failures in giving in to temptation, and I have to look inside, what in the world's going on inside? And this led to the second part of our battle plan for temptation, which we saw last week. Roman numeral two, we called it recognize the process of your temptation. Recognize the process of your temptation. Again, we saw these two verses as crucial in our understanding of what goes on in our heart. Verses 14 and 15. 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. And we saw here, in these two verses, is an amazing, predictable pattern that no matter what you struggle with, and your struggles will be different than mine, I mean, he knocks himself out there in verse 14 trying to make this point. Each one of us, there's no exception, all of us are in the game and struggling against temptation, but each one is drawn away and enticed by his, and the word is, his own unique lusts. Every one of us is battling temptation, without exception, every day. And every one of us is also battling unique temptations, without exception, every day. But no matter what we are battling, no matter what our unique designer lusts are, as Jim Berg says, if we fail, if we give in, we will follow this pattern every single time. And the pattern consisted of four words. We saw dissatisfaction, part one, leads to substitution, part two. Part three, gratification. And part four is devastation. I would encourage you to listen to last week's message online if you weren't here, and do so quickly. There's a battle going on in your heart. If you understand the battle, you understand the solution. Listen, if you're blind to the battle, or if I can put it this way, the way we've been talking this year, if you can't see it, because you're not in Scripture, You'll never know the solution. And you'll continue your downward spiral in those relationships, in reacting to the pain, physical pain, in dealing with sin consequences, or just the grind pressures of life. You'll continue to do this, with only brief interruptions of rest and joy. See, well this is intense. This battle in the heart is intense. And I understand after studying these two verses that it's on me. I mean, I can't be pointing around in my environment and say it's on them. I can't point to God and say it's not on Him, it's on me. And when I look inside and when Scripture peels back the layers of my heart and shows me what I'm doing, I'm dissatisfied with Christ, I substitute something else for Christ, and then I gratify it for the passing of time, repetition, familiarity, and it brings forth devastation. It can even be a living death. I know that. I've lived that. And I'm on my own to fight that? Quite honestly, after the first two parts of the battle plan, I'm overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. But there's a third part to the battle plan. It's important you don't misunderstand the first part of the battle plan. We never said God's not there. We said you can't blame Him when you give in. But we've never said He's not there. And this brings us to one important point I want you to take home this week and pray over and chew on and meditate on every single day. And it's the third part of our battle plan. Find the Lord in your temptation. Find the Lord in your temptation. You find yourself struggling with these relationships, this marriage, this parenting, or these parents, or these co-workers, or these people in ministry. You find yourself here with this excruciating pain and there's no relief in sight. You find yourself here just buckling under the consequences of sinning your past. You find yourself here in the grind of life wondering, will there ever be any relief? Is there any joy? When you find yourself there, wherever you are, Look around! God is there! I don't watch a lot of reality TV. I might watch the outdoor channel, because the deer is really getting shot, or the fish is really coming out of the water. Or I might watch a sporting event. I enjoy watching a football game, basketball game, some Tigers games. But sometimes when I'm visiting other folks, and particularly one of my sisters, they enjoy some of these reality shows. So I'll sit and watch and get captivated by them. And they showed me one. I think I've only watched it once or twice. It's called Undercover Boss. Have you heard of this one? You ought to, because it is an Emmy-winning reality series. And what captured me the first time I ever watched this with my sister is that I was living in Chesapeake, Virginia, and they were covering a company in Chesapeake, Virginia. I don't know if that was where the headquarters were, but it's where this thing was being built. It's called BELFOR, B-E-L-F-O-R. It's where they come in and restore properties that have been ruined by fire or water or something like that. And you say, what's the gist of undercover boss? So undercover boss is you have a CEO of a company, a big, powerful individual. I mean, the yes and no man or woman in that organization. And what they do is they disguise themselves. They might even go to a different location of their company where people don't know their face. And they will come into that company at the lowest level, at the starting level. And what they're doing is they're watching how are new employees treated in my company. They don't know who I am. And not only how do new employees get treated in my company, but what are some of the struggles that some of my employees are going through? Employees so far removed from me, I don't even know they exist. They don't know who I am. I never knew who they were. But I want to listen. I want to be there. And it's really cool. At the end of each episode, spoiler warning, They disclose their identity. And the look on the employee's face is priceless. I've been eating lunch with the CEO. He's been in the same room for weeks and I didn't know it. What's also cool is they help solve some of the problems they unearthed. Not just in their organization, but even on a personal interest level. Maybe giving someone extra cash or some advance to help them get through something difficult in life that they found out at lunch. But I love that moment when, out of the blue, this employee realizes, what? This lady I've been sitting by with the group at the coffee shop after work is the boss? They've been here the whole time, and I've never known it. You see where I'm going with this, right where James is going with this. Some of you have been blinded by the immensity of the pressure on your life, and those relationships, and your physical pain, and your sin consequences, and in the pressures of life, only to realize, wait a minute, I was never alone in these. God was here with me. And I put it this way in your notes. You have four bullet points next. Those four bullet points are going to spell out one sentence. Here it is. You say, God's with us in our temptations? Yes. I put, not as the source of your temptation. We figured that out. He's there, but not as the source of your temptation, nor as a spectator of your temptation. Sometimes we're like, okay, I know I can pray for any temptation, and I can pray for Jesus to come out of the stands and to give me a little help here. God's not in your temptations as a spectator. He's not the source, nor a spectator. Part three, but rather as the sovereign over your temptation and your sustainer in your temptation. Oh, he's there. He's there. Look at this sentence. He's not the source of your temptation. He's not a spectator of your temptation. No, He's the sovereign over your temptation, and your sustainer in your temptation. So here's my question for you. If you find yourself in one of these scenarios I've painted, or another one, and again, I don't want to list them all, because I'll miss yours and I'll hide mine. But in your temptations, can you see Him? Do you recognize Him? Look for him, he's there. And James is gonna point him out to us, help you see, help you see this morning. Number one, simply, he's the one who is holy. He's there and he's holy. He's totally separate from sin. So much so that we're guaranteed He will not put you in a place where your only option is to sin. He will test your faith. But you and I can hijack any test from His hand and turn it into a temptation and fall. But our fall does not mean our temptation was sourced in God. Our fall happened because of verses 14 and 15. But make no mistake about it. God is right in the middle of this. And He's holy. Look at verse 13 again. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. Both Testaments agree to His holiness. Isaiah 6, we see the angels with six wings declaring, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. So what are they doing with their wings? Well, they're using two to stay elevated, according to the text. Two, they're covering their feet. And two, they're covering their eyes. Whatever this degree of holiness is that makes our God a thrice holy God, even in the eyes of angels, it's overwhelming to them as well. Habakkuk records in Habakkuk 1.13, you, God, are of purer eyes than to even behold evil. You can't even look on wickedness. Psalm 5.4, for you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. 1 Peter 1.15, He who called you is holy. You say, wow, I'm not sure that point's helping me a whole lot. I mean, I'm over here struggling and I know I have my problems handling these relationships. I can get elevated or I can clam up and just kind of disengage. I'm really struggling. And you're saying there's a holy God here with me? Yeah, that seems to be making it worse. I'm complaining a lot about pain and questioning God, and you're saying a holy God is here? Yeah, I'm missing the part where that's an encouragement. You're saying, well, I'm really struggling with these consequences that God said would come, and I'm really struggling sometimes with saying, God, enough's enough, and you're saying, a holy God is here? Or I'm over here just kind of trying to grind through it, hardly able to lift my head up every day, And you're putting a little pressure on me by saying there's a holy God in that test with me. How can God's holiness and His imminence, His presence with you, His up-closeness with you in your test, in your battle against temptation, how can that encourage you? In an amazing way. One commentator by the name of Boyd Carpenter puts it this way, and it's the best I've seen it written. In the stainless purity of His character lies our security. If saints can give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness, struggling men may take courage also, since God's purity is not against us, but for us in our conflict with evil." And then he writes this. It is madness to throw away this sheet anchor of faith. This anchor of God's holiness holds." You're in those scenarios where you're battling with dissatisfaction with God, and substitution, and indulgence, and you're battling, and you're doing it again, and again, and again. And then you remember by God's grace, because you saw it in the Bible, that God is present, and He's holy, and He's with me. You say, that's good news. Yes! Because everything I'm not, God is perfectly here. And with all my struggles with disobedience, listen, Jesus Christ, we read in Hebrews 4 earlier in the service, perfectly endured all temptation without sin. And as a child of God, I get credit for His perfection. I get credit for His holiness. And you know the other side of the exchange. He has fully suffered for my failures in this. I need Him to be present, and I need Him to be perfectly holy. That's my anchor that gives me hope in my struggle. He's the one who is holy. Can you see Him? But secondly, look for Him. He is the one who is giving. He is the one who is giving. Now look with me at verse 17. 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 or a shadow of turning. What does that mean? There's a lot of interesting discussion in the commentaries on verse 17. Most do point out that there's almost a cadence, a rhythm, in the Greek language. Because of the words used for giving, it says every good gift, I mean, that phrase in the Greek, and every perfect gift. Those are two different words, but it creates almost an audible cadence in the Greek. And that's interesting. Some have even surmised, based on that, that this is a line from an early Christian hymn, which would have to be really early Christian hymn if it's in James, one of the earliest New Testament books. if not the earliest. But we can at least say this, in the New American Standard, it says, every good thing given. The idea there is the act of giving, with that particular Greek word. And the second phrase, every perfect gift, that's talking about the individual gifts given. And incidentally, here in your English text, you have perfect gift. You see that word perfect there in verse 17 before gift? You've already seen that word in James chapter 1, haven't you? In the Greek it's teleos, but you've seen this word perfect somewhere else. Where? with the promise at the beginning of the chapter that God is making you perfect, mature, teleos. And he's using that here in verse 17 to describe that everything God gives to you is perfect. It's helping you on your journey to maturity. You say, tie this off. What is this? When you need to see God in your temptations and the Word of God opens your eyes and you're like, wow, He was there the whole time. He's not only holy, but He's giving. The picture here is of a very benevolent, present, up-close Savior in your moments of temptation. He's there. And everything He's giving is perfect. Everything He ordains is just precise. He'll never give you evil. He'll never give you a cheap shot. Everything that He gives to you is perfect. You say, well, how do I know that He doesn't go like 70% good gifts, 30% bad? I'll even go with 95 good, 5 bad. I just need to have a little bit left so I can blame Him when I'm in my tests. That's 100% good. And it never changes coming from God. You say, well, how do you know that? Look at the verse. It refers to Him as the Father of Lights. Now, when you have this concept of a Father of anything in Scripture, it's dealing with the Creator, in a sense. As a matter of fact, in Job 38.28, I believe, it talks about the Lord being the Father of Rain, the Creator of Rain, the Sender of Rain. The Father of Lights is talking about God as Creator. It's ringing in the ears of the Jewish readers with the sound of Genesis 1.14-19, where we're in that creation week, watching a whole thing unfold in real time, and it says that He made the greater lights and the lesser lights. God is the Creator of everything. And James is saying basically to his readers who are removed from him geographically, look up in the sky. When you're overwhelmed and you think God's not good or not present, wherever you are, wherever you've been scattered to, look to the heavens at night. And you're going to see those beautiful stars, and you're going to see the moon, and during the day you'll see the sun. But all of them, while created by God, He's over them all. He's not only that awesome, but all these lights, because of their movement in the heavens and the cosmos and the Earth's rotation, across the night sky, the theater of the heavens, everything's always moving. I mean, the Big Dipper's over here, then it's over here. Cassiopeia's over here, and then it's over here. And the North Star does a little thing like this through the seasons. It stays north, but everything's moving. And James is saying to them and to us, yeah, as much as all those mighty bodies in the heavens move, just remember, God is not like that. He doesn't shift. He's not moving around. God is not wishy-washy. He's not capricious with how He deals with His children. He's always giving. And it's always perfect. Well, suddenly I don't feel alone in these scenarios. I'm starting to see Him. He's holy. And He's the one who is giving. I'm so thankful for Malachi 3.6, for I am the Lord and I do not change. Revelation 1.8, Jesus speaking, I am the Alpha and the Omega. beginning and the end says the Lord who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty he's the one who's giving and he's not only the one that allows the test to come that we turn into a temptation and a failure those tests therefore are good that's what he's been saying early on in this chapter because the good of the test is maturity in the Saints But He's also perfect in His giving of the resources and of Himself to sustain us in any test, in any temptation. Can you see Him? He's with you. He's the One who is holy. He's the One who is giving. But one more truth. Can you see Him? He's the One who is conforming. He's the One who is conforming. I need you to stay with me on this point. We're going to do a little bit of theology. Are you up to it? Look at verse 18. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be kind of first fruits among His creatures. Maybe you can remember back to your childhood Your family's getting ready to go on a vacation. You're excited about the vacation. Your parents have packed your suitcase. You're going to see your cousins and nephews. It's a long journey. You haven't slept out of your excitement for a long time. And so you find yourself as a child, while everyone's packing, getting ready to go, you fall asleep in a nap on the couch. And then you're startled to be awake again, only to find that your father or your mother, without waking you up, had placed you in the back seat of the car. And you were still sleeping. Maybe you've had that experience. Maybe you can draw it up in your mind as I express it. And as you look out and as you wake up, you're like, wow, we are on this trip. And the station wagon is moving. We are going. We're going to get to that destination. That's kind of what's going on as the believers that James is writing to, and us as readers. This is what's happening as we come to verse 18. 18 is a wake-up to us that, whoa, this trip has started. We're on it. We're on the move. And we're moving towards the destination. I want to give you three words to put in the blocks of that chart that I have in your notes. In the block on the left side, put the word initiation. Initiation. I put another word with that one in mine. I don't know if you care to. The word will. Will. It's coming right out of verse 18. In the exercise of his will. Say, who started this trip? God. You know Jim Newcomer would never be saved had God not made the first step towards him. The initiative in my salvation is not Jim's. You say, well, You were lost in your sin, and you were screaming for help, and someone threw you a life raft, and the waterfall's coming up. You know the scene. So, I mean, really, you had a part in it. You had to go for the life raft. Now, if you want a real accurate picture of that, I'm not floating, crying for help. I am dead without breath and consciousness. My heart is not beating. I'm at the bottom of the river. And God wakes me up. the word and truth of the gospel. As we read in verse 18, I was brought forth by the word of truth. God took the initiative and rescued me. It says in the exercise of His will. But what's the second box going to say? The first one says initiation. Put this word in the second box. Regeneration. Regeneration. And if you want to put another word there as well that I chose to put in my notes, it's the word birth. It's the word birth. Where does that come from? Verse 18. In the exercise of His will, He, and here it is, He brought us forth. This is language of birth. By the way, you just saw this Greek word a few verses back. I don't know if you realize it. Same Greek word. Verse 15, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is accomplished, and here it is, brings forth death. It's producing something. What is this? This is the new birth. God takes the initiative to rescue me. and He causes me to be born again. And the faith and repentance I have, I will forever give Him praise for the gift of believing and repenting. In Acts, repentance is a gift of God. Even my faith, Philippians 1.29 says, it's been granted unto you not only to believe, but also to suffer. This is called the new birth. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 1, 22 and 23, "...since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren..." Look at this. "...love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever." It's like James is quoting Peter, and Peter, James. And they're both referring back to what we read of Jesus and the new birth. In John 1, verses 12 and 13, "...as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name..." Listen to this. "...who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of..." What? God. You have initiation. God takes the initiative to save us. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, happen before time began. And this initiation brings us to regeneration. And in that third box, I want you to put one more word. Glorification. Glorification. You say, where is that from? We're still in verse 18. Okay, let's read it again. In the exercise of His will, He birthed us by the Word of Truth, the Gospel, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among His creatures. We need to look at that for a moment. I'm calling it glorification. This is what Paul is referring to in Colossians 1.27 when he says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is what Paul is writing about in Colossians 3-4 when he says, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ is revealed, you'll also be revealed with Him in glory. This is what John writes about in 1 John 3-2. We're children of God and we don't know yet what we're going to be, but we know that when He appears, we're going to be like Him for we'll see Him as He is. This is what Paul's writing about in Philippians 1.6, where he says, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ. Or as one writer put, what God starts, what? He finishes. He finishes. You say, what's this whole first fruit thing? What is that? If you're a farmer and you're planning a harvest, these are the first the first crops that come up and produce food. This is the first. Just the beginning. And there's a lot more to come. What James is saying here is, yeah, you're going to be part of a big crowd of Christians someday. No, no. It's true. Your salvation that God initiated and He brought you forth as a birth to be born again, Jesus will say in John 3, He's doing all that. It's only the beginning of something much bigger than you can even wrap your minds around. Because he's doing that hundreds of thousands of times in every generation through all the centuries. But even that's just a foretaste of what's coming. This is big. You are a player in something bigger than you realize. I want you to hold your finger here and go to just one more text. Look with me at Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Verse 18. For I consider, Romans 8.18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the anxious longing of the, what? Creation. Waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation. was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it. And hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but we ourselves also having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Here's what he's saying. He's teeing it up right where James has it. He's saying as we, as God's children, He initiated this, He pursued us, He gave us new life, we call it regeneration. We're in this together, but we're marching towards something as a growing mass of new humanity, redeemed humanity. We are walking towards the absolute renewal of everything. Paul just stated in Romans 8 that the entirety of the cosmos, all of creation, four times, grown. and is in anguish because of the fall that man brought on creation through his sin. But not only is God rescuing people, and you're one of them now, but this group is growing. It's just the first fruit still. Because someday we'll be in his presence, but that's not the end. And in his presence, there's gonna be a new heaven and new earth eventually. and creation will stop groaning because it'll be new, and then everything will be consummated in the absolute glory of God for all eternity. You coming to saving faith is just the first fruits of that. Can you see them? In your pain, in those relationships, and those consequences and those responsibilities. Oh, He's there. We never said He wasn't there. He's holy. He's giving. And He's maturing you. And gonna use your story as part of His glory. So I end with two questions. This part of your battle plan answers these two questions. But let me ask them anyway. Number one, no matter what temptation you're struggling with and no matter how long, will God ever stop expressing love to you? And the answer is, well, no, he doesn't shift. He'll love you, as MacArthur says, he'll love you to whatever extent he needs to to make you holy. Number two, will God ever start working against my maturity as a Christian? Ever. The answer is no. Brothers and sisters, you are not alone. See Him. He's not the one to run from in your temptations. He's the one to run to. on New Year's Day years ago in the Tournament of Roses parade, there was a beautiful float in that parade that sputtered and stalled. Right in the middle of the parade. Stalled. It was out of gas. And the whole parade was held up because this one float stalled and ran out of gas. Say, well, that's a bummer. That's got to be embarrassing. Yeah, it's especially embarrassing if that float represents your company and your company says that it's the standard oil company. Really happened. With all its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas. I want to say to believers like you and me, we have amazing resources. We do not have to stall out in this pain, or relationships, or consequences, or pressures. Psalm 511, but all those, let all those who rejoice in you put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you.