Crosspoint Baptist Church Blog

In about an hour and a half I am going to be preaching out of James 1:16-18. We started a series out of James a few weeks ago and the reason we want to study this book, like any other book in scripture, is that we may grow in the likeness of our savior Jesus Christ. James desired for the believers of his day to demonstrate their faith in Jesus Christ in all they do. We have been learning how this applies to our day as well. Trials can derail our faith in God and thus cause us to not live it out each day. Through a series of statements, James has made it clear that God always uses trials in the lives of His people to accomplish His purposes. He has encouraged us to seek God’s wisdom to endure, to remember both our identity with and inability apart from the Lord Jesus, and to understand that we are blessed for having endured trials. Now, he encourages us to remember the unchanging goodness of God. This helps us understand a little more about the nature of God and it shows us the heart of God. The following outline is the sermon outline for today and I hope it will remind you to seek the Lord each day and to live for HIS glory and to love HIM above all else. God bless my friends.

Text: James 1:16-18

Proposition: The Unchanging goodness of God is an encouragement for believers.

Intro: Recap –

1.) Trials are used by God to accomplish His purposes in the lives of believers.

2.) Believers are encouraged to seek by faith the wisdom of God to endure trials.

3.) Believers are reminded of both their identity with and inability without the Lord Jesus Christ.

4.) Believers are blessed for having endured trials.

5.) Believers are warned against the temptation to sin in the midst of trials.

6.) Believers are encouraged in the midst of trials by the unchanging goodness of God.

Job said, “The LORD gives and the LORD takes away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21

It is easy and almost expected to change our view of God when difficulties hit our life. James very sternly tells them to avoid being deceived and to be encouraged that God never changes. The same good purpose he had for their life before the persecutions is the same good purpose he is going to bring about.

Transition: Again, it is easy and almost expected for someone to change their view of God when difficulties hit their life. Yet, in stark contrast, the UNCHANGING goodness of God is an encouragement to us because…

1.) We are taught about the Nature of God: vs. 17

EXEGESIS: James teaches the persecuted believers that every (all, entire) gift comes from God (is from above). To clarify his exact point, James uses 2 different words for gift. The first is the word dosis and it means the act of giving. The second word is dowrema and it means the perfecting of the gift. Thus, every good act of giving and the perfection of that gift are both from God. Trials, as seen throughout chapter 1 and the scriptures always are portrayed as being a gift. Therefore, James concludes, God is no less good because he allows trials to happen in the lives of his people.

Another aspect of God’s nature seen in this verse is the unchanging nature of God, often called his immutability. James uses the word picture of light cast by the sun to demonstrate what he means. God, unlike the variation of sunlight or the shadows often cast by the sun, never changes. Louis Berkhoff uses 4 words to summarize God’s immutability: being, perfections, purposes, and promises. The word picture here is that God who created light to shine is above them in that He does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (1 John 1:5; Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6)

APPLICATION: The application of this text teaches us to understand, as best we can, the nature of God. We are encouraged when we begin to see that God is good and that he has not changed. There is no variation in his character nor is there any deception in his actions. It is easy to have our view of God changed when trials occur but we can be encouraged by the unchanging goodness of God.

ILLUSTRATION:

2.) We are taught about Heart of God: vs. 18

EXEGESIS: In this verse, James begins shifting direction away from the importance of living out faith in the midst of trials by teaching something about the heart of God. Again, this verse serves as a bridge that connects the whole of his message and the message he now moves to is God’s unchanging goodness is most clearly seen in his redemption of people. James uses the same word picture he uses in verse 13-15 to describe a birth that results in life rather death. Unlike those verses, redemption is seen as an intentional act of God’s will to give life to sinful rebels through the word of truth, the gospel. The heart of God is redemption. The greatest display of God’s unchanging goodness is his salvation of his enemies. The text here describes this as regeneration. The word means that God has given new life to a dead sinner. This is often called the new birth. Regeneration is the result of something only God can do and it is the beginning of a new life in Jesus Christ. This life of faith is then lived out each day before a world that needs to know the gospel. The purpose of our regeneration is that we may be presented as the first fruits of God. This is an agricultural term that gives the picture of those first crops that are harvested. It is a picture of consecration. One day all of creation will be regenerated and the salvation of people are the first products of that coming harvest.

APPLICATION: God’s heart is in redemption. He desires that we see his unchanging goodness and be encouraged through it. As we seek to demonstrate our faith each day, we must keep in our hearts and mind the fact that he has given us new life. He has demonstrated his love for us at the cross and through the resurrection. He has not changed nor will he change. Be encouraged and look to him.