[Originally preached 29 August, 2004]
James 1.17-18
It may appear that James is onto a different topic in our text today. But he isn’t. He is still dealing with the topic that he began his letter with. He is still dealing with trials and temptations. He picks up where he left off in verse 15. He is dealing with the threat of death. Here, he offers hope to his readers - and to us. His goal isn’t just to describe the situation. It is to help the saints as they live that situation. And so, as any good pastor, he exhorts and encourages. If you boil down the encouragement of our text it’s simply this. ‘Behold your God’. That is such great advice. When in need, look to your God. Consider what kind of God He is. Remind yourself that He is bound to you with bonds of love because of Jesus. Learn how to depend on Him. Get to know Him well so that you can lean upon Him, especially in times of trial. That’s what James is trying to get us to do. Let’s see how he goes about doing that.
To start with, did you notice that James focuses on something specific about God? He does that, in part, by the title for God that he uses. The different names of God aren’t just for variety. Each one has something about it that reveals God’s nature to us. The name James uses here is ‘Father of lights’. Why? What is it about this name that is intended to be helpful? Let’s take it apart. To start with, we need to understand what these ‘lights’ are. They are the heavenly lights. In fact, that is how some translations render it. James is referring to the sun and moon; the lights of the sky. Then, by calling God the ‘Father’ of these lights, he is reminding us that our God has created all these lights. Our God is the ‘Father of lights’.
It’s as if James were telling the saints. ‘Look up to the sky. What do you see? You see the sun and moon, the heavenly lights that God created. And why did He create them? Why did create these lights? He created them to dispel the darkness.’ We do not appreciate the importance of these heavenly lights. Most of us live in or near a city. We have streetlights to keep the darkness at bay. But go to some field in the middle of a forest where there are no streetlights or the like, and wait until dark. Choose the time when there is a new moon. It will be quite striking because you’ll see all the stars. And that will be beautiful. But try walking. Try finding your way back home. You can’t see the roots that trip you nor the ditches that swallow you up. The heavenly lights dispel the darkness and help you to see. They are gifts from God for you.
What a great picture of a basic truth. You are surrounded by the darkness where the temptations to sin abound. How do you find your way? How do you avoid the pitfalls into death? James tells us. It is by the gifts of the Father of lights. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…’ [James 1:17] As the reality of your need presses in upon you, look to your God. Remember who He is and what He does for you. He is the God who gives the gift of light to dispel the darkness. It is by His light that you will find your way.
But, as James points out, the reality is even better than the mere reminder. Consider these heavenly lights. Think about the sun and the moon. The sun rises and sets. It creates shifting shadows and then disappears for hours at a time. The moon goes through its phases from full to new and back again. These variations might be intriguing to the creative photographer, but they are a problem if you’re trying to find you way in the midst of darkness. These variations are the deficiencies of the heavenly lights. But, says James, not so with your God. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ [James 1:17] His light does not vary. It isn’t bright at one time and then dim at another. He is consistently bright. He is always there to shine His light to dispel the darkness around you. He does not change in this. The reality of who God is for you is better than the mere reminders in the sky.
All of this points back to something that James wrote earlier. ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.’ [James 1:5] It’s the same dynamic here. When a need is felt we look to our God to meet that need, knowing that He will always respond by some gracious gift. In verse 5 James is specific. He points to God’s gift of wisdom, that insight into our God and His ways so that we can understand this life. Here, in verse 17 James is more general. But whatever the need, whether it is wisdom or something else to help when you are confronted by sin and death, look to your God. He will graciously give and meet your need. His light will expose hidden roots and ditches along the way and it will guide you past the danger.
James is not done reminding us about who our God is. ‘Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.’ [James 1:18] The language of ‘brought forth’ is the language of birth. James is pointing us to the new birth. He’s pointing us to the act of God which made us His children. Here, just remember Nicodemus hearing Jesus’ say, ‘You must be born again.’ James highlights some things about this. First, the new birth is ‘by the word of truth’. You know that I stress that we do not believe in some mystical zap theology. I remind you of the importance of the Word and how the Spirit doesn’t act without it. Here is one place where you can see this truth stressed. We know that it is the Spirit of God who applies new life to people. Jesus comments to Nicodemus tell us that. But here James tells us the means by which the Spirit does that. We are brought forth into the new life of God by means of the word of truth. Peter also speaks to this. ‘…you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; … And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’ [1 Peter 1:23,25a] God uses His Word of the Gospel, especially as this Word is preached, to bring new life. The Word is so important. And one reason for this is that it is so powerful. James will come back to the importance of the Word and how to respond to it later. So, we’ll return to this topic in a later sermon.
James also tells us that God gave us this new birth ‘of His own will’. What is this about? If you think about it we all have at least one thing in common. We all got here the same way. We were all born. Because of decisions that your parents made, you exist. Now, how much input did you have into those decisions? How much input did you have into making sure that you were born? None. It was all because of your parents. You had nothing to do with it. Imagine! The most important decision of your existence, the thing that makes you what you are, and you had absolutely nothing to do with it. What a blow to pride. Now, take the next step. How much input did you have into making sure that you were born again? None. It wasn’t because you were especially good or especially attractive to God, or especially beneficial to His cause. You had no input into it. God, ‘of His own will’ decided to love you and give you new life. Now, there are some who get all hot when they hear this and talk about this making us robots or that this means that we should be passive as Christians since doing anything doesn’t matter anyway. But it’s much better to see how incredibly helpful this fact is, especially when you’ve really blown it, when twisted desires have fooled you and you fall into sin. There are too many faithful Christians who, at this point, think, ‘What I did was really bad.’ And then they freeze. They feel so guilty. Any hope of being restored to God dries up. ‘How could He love me now?’ But think. You had no input when He first included you in the family. You weren’t included because you were especially good. Why should that be a factor now? When He contemplated including you and decided to love you, what were you to Him but a filthy sinner? It can’t be any worse now. This isn’t to minimize the sin but to maximize God’s love for you. That love is without variation or shadow of turning. So, when you sin, don’t doubt His love. When you lose a battle with some twisted desire, don’t give up because you think the situation is hopeless. When you sin you know what to do. Repent of that sin. Believe again the Gospel of Jesus. And do that assured that your God will receive you again as one of His own.
Then there is the third thing that James points out. ‘Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.’ [James 1:18] The goal of God’s sovereign decision to love you is that you might become a firstfruits to Him. Now, what does that mean? Firstfruits was an Old Testament festival in Israel. At that time each year the best of the harvest was offered up to God. As a part of the ceremony, the people recounted God’s goodness in keeping His promise to bring Israel into the Promised Land. There are a couple of things that stand out from the ceremony and fit well in the context of what James is writing. First, the offered portion, the firstfruits of the harvest, is especially God’s. It was freely acknowledged that all of the harvest was God’s, but the offered firstfruits was especially so. The second thing is that God keeps His promises. Picturing the saints as the firstfruits is so fitting as you battle against temptation and wrestle with the threat of sin and death. You are special to God. There are something like 6 billion people on this globe. All of them are God’s creatures. But it is only the saints who are especially His. All the kids of the neighborhood might be at the playground, on the monkey bars, the slide and the seesaw. The Mom who is there may notice all the kids, but her eye is on her own children. Are they okay? Are the having fun? Are the safe? If one of the other kids gets hurt, she’ll help to soothe the wound, but it is an entirely different matter when one of hers gets hurt. Every day of your life you are mixed in with the mass of humanity, ignored by most. But your Father is keeping a sharp eye on you. You are special to him. He will keep you safe. Remember that as you wrestle with those desires, are confused by all the trials, and feel the need for more of God’s grace. Behold your God. You are special to Him. He will never forget that. You shouldn’t either.
But don’t forget the other aspect of the firstfruits ceremony. God keeps His promises. He has promised you that you will get to the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. But all those temptations lie in your path. Sin and death looms. The threat is real. But despite all of that remember this simple fact: your Father promised. He promised to get you through it all and to get you home to be with Him. Our God keeps His promises. Getting there is never in doubt. It’s just a matter of when. Now, again, some will take and twist this and make it into something it is not. They will say that this is an excuse to coast as a Christian since it doesn’t matter what we do. After all, God has promised! But such a person is a fool and has no true saving faith. We know that the promises of God are rather an encouragement to work all the harder since we know that our efforts at faithful endurance are not in vain, even when it feels that way. We know that our efforts will bear good fruit. We know that our God will use our efforts to get us home.
Let me close with this encouragement. Let me encourage you to get to know your God. And how does that happen? It happens when the Spirit responds to your prayers and uses the Word that you have stored away in your heart. Get to know your God so that you can enjoy who He is for you.
James 1.17-18
It may appear that James is onto a different topic in our text today. But he isn’t. He is still dealing with the topic that he began his letter with. He is still dealing with trials and temptations. He picks up where he left off in verse 15. He is dealing with the threat of death. Here, he offers hope to his readers - and to us. His goal isn’t just to describe the situation. It is to help the saints as they live that situation. And so, as any good pastor, he exhorts and encourages. If you boil down the encouragement of our text it’s simply this. ‘Behold your God’. That is such great advice. When in need, look to your God. Consider what kind of God He is. Remind yourself that He is bound to you with bonds of love because of Jesus. Learn how to depend on Him. Get to know Him well so that you can lean upon Him, especially in times of trial. That’s what James is trying to get us to do. Let’s see how he goes about doing that.
To start with, did you notice that James focuses on something specific about God? He does that, in part, by the title for God that he uses. The different names of God aren’t just for variety. Each one has something about it that reveals God’s nature to us. The name James uses here is ‘Father of lights’. Why? What is it about this name that is intended to be helpful? Let’s take it apart. To start with, we need to understand what these ‘lights’ are. They are the heavenly lights. In fact, that is how some translations render it. James is referring to the sun and moon; the lights of the sky. Then, by calling God the ‘Father’ of these lights, he is reminding us that our God has created all these lights. Our God is the ‘Father of lights’.
It’s as if James were telling the saints. ‘Look up to the sky. What do you see? You see the sun and moon, the heavenly lights that God created. And why did He create them? Why did create these lights? He created them to dispel the darkness.’ We do not appreciate the importance of these heavenly lights. Most of us live in or near a city. We have streetlights to keep the darkness at bay. But go to some field in the middle of a forest where there are no streetlights or the like, and wait until dark. Choose the time when there is a new moon. It will be quite striking because you’ll see all the stars. And that will be beautiful. But try walking. Try finding your way back home. You can’t see the roots that trip you nor the ditches that swallow you up. The heavenly lights dispel the darkness and help you to see. They are gifts from God for you.
What a great picture of a basic truth. You are surrounded by the darkness where the temptations to sin abound. How do you find your way? How do you avoid the pitfalls into death? James tells us. It is by the gifts of the Father of lights. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…’ [James 1:17] As the reality of your need presses in upon you, look to your God. Remember who He is and what He does for you. He is the God who gives the gift of light to dispel the darkness. It is by His light that you will find your way.
But, as James points out, the reality is even better than the mere reminder. Consider these heavenly lights. Think about the sun and the moon. The sun rises and sets. It creates shifting shadows and then disappears for hours at a time. The moon goes through its phases from full to new and back again. These variations might be intriguing to the creative photographer, but they are a problem if you’re trying to find you way in the midst of darkness. These variations are the deficiencies of the heavenly lights. But, says James, not so with your God. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ [James 1:17] His light does not vary. It isn’t bright at one time and then dim at another. He is consistently bright. He is always there to shine His light to dispel the darkness around you. He does not change in this. The reality of who God is for you is better than the mere reminders in the sky.
All of this points back to something that James wrote earlier. ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.’ [James 1:5] It’s the same dynamic here. When a need is felt we look to our God to meet that need, knowing that He will always respond by some gracious gift. In verse 5 James is specific. He points to God’s gift of wisdom, that insight into our God and His ways so that we can understand this life. Here, in verse 17 James is more general. But whatever the need, whether it is wisdom or something else to help when you are confronted by sin and death, look to your God. He will graciously give and meet your need. His light will expose hidden roots and ditches along the way and it will guide you past the danger.
James is not done reminding us about who our God is. ‘Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.’ [James 1:18] The language of ‘brought forth’ is the language of birth. James is pointing us to the new birth. He’s pointing us to the act of God which made us His children. Here, just remember Nicodemus hearing Jesus’ say, ‘You must be born again.’ James highlights some things about this. First, the new birth is ‘by the word of truth’. You know that I stress that we do not believe in some mystical zap theology. I remind you of the importance of the Word and how the Spirit doesn’t act without it. Here is one place where you can see this truth stressed. We know that it is the Spirit of God who applies new life to people. Jesus comments to Nicodemus tell us that. But here James tells us the means by which the Spirit does that. We are brought forth into the new life of God by means of the word of truth. Peter also speaks to this. ‘…you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; … And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’ [1 Peter 1:23,25a] God uses His Word of the Gospel, especially as this Word is preached, to bring new life. The Word is so important. And one reason for this is that it is so powerful. James will come back to the importance of the Word and how to respond to it later. So, we’ll return to this topic in a later sermon.
James also tells us that God gave us this new birth ‘of His own will’. What is this about? If you think about it we all have at least one thing in common. We all got here the same way. We were all born. Because of decisions that your parents made, you exist. Now, how much input did you have into those decisions? How much input did you have into making sure that you were born? None. It was all because of your parents. You had nothing to do with it. Imagine! The most important decision of your existence, the thing that makes you what you are, and you had absolutely nothing to do with it. What a blow to pride. Now, take the next step. How much input did you have into making sure that you were born again? None. It wasn’t because you were especially good or especially attractive to God, or especially beneficial to His cause. You had no input into it. God, ‘of His own will’ decided to love you and give you new life. Now, there are some who get all hot when they hear this and talk about this making us robots or that this means that we should be passive as Christians since doing anything doesn’t matter anyway. But it’s much better to see how incredibly helpful this fact is, especially when you’ve really blown it, when twisted desires have fooled you and you fall into sin. There are too many faithful Christians who, at this point, think, ‘What I did was really bad.’ And then they freeze. They feel so guilty. Any hope of being restored to God dries up. ‘How could He love me now?’ But think. You had no input when He first included you in the family. You weren’t included because you were especially good. Why should that be a factor now? When He contemplated including you and decided to love you, what were you to Him but a filthy sinner? It can’t be any worse now. This isn’t to minimize the sin but to maximize God’s love for you. That love is without variation or shadow of turning. So, when you sin, don’t doubt His love. When you lose a battle with some twisted desire, don’t give up because you think the situation is hopeless. When you sin you know what to do. Repent of that sin. Believe again the Gospel of Jesus. And do that assured that your God will receive you again as one of His own.
Then there is the third thing that James points out. ‘Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.’ [James 1:18] The goal of God’s sovereign decision to love you is that you might become a firstfruits to Him. Now, what does that mean? Firstfruits was an Old Testament festival in Israel. At that time each year the best of the harvest was offered up to God. As a part of the ceremony, the people recounted God’s goodness in keeping His promise to bring Israel into the Promised Land. There are a couple of things that stand out from the ceremony and fit well in the context of what James is writing. First, the offered portion, the firstfruits of the harvest, is especially God’s. It was freely acknowledged that all of the harvest was God’s, but the offered firstfruits was especially so. The second thing is that God keeps His promises. Picturing the saints as the firstfruits is so fitting as you battle against temptation and wrestle with the threat of sin and death. You are special to God. There are something like 6 billion people on this globe. All of them are God’s creatures. But it is only the saints who are especially His. All the kids of the neighborhood might be at the playground, on the monkey bars, the slide and the seesaw. The Mom who is there may notice all the kids, but her eye is on her own children. Are they okay? Are the having fun? Are the safe? If one of the other kids gets hurt, she’ll help to soothe the wound, but it is an entirely different matter when one of hers gets hurt. Every day of your life you are mixed in with the mass of humanity, ignored by most. But your Father is keeping a sharp eye on you. You are special to him. He will keep you safe. Remember that as you wrestle with those desires, are confused by all the trials, and feel the need for more of God’s grace. Behold your God. You are special to Him. He will never forget that. You shouldn’t either.
But don’t forget the other aspect of the firstfruits ceremony. God keeps His promises. He has promised you that you will get to the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. But all those temptations lie in your path. Sin and death looms. The threat is real. But despite all of that remember this simple fact: your Father promised. He promised to get you through it all and to get you home to be with Him. Our God keeps His promises. Getting there is never in doubt. It’s just a matter of when. Now, again, some will take and twist this and make it into something it is not. They will say that this is an excuse to coast as a Christian since it doesn’t matter what we do. After all, God has promised! But such a person is a fool and has no true saving faith. We know that the promises of God are rather an encouragement to work all the harder since we know that our efforts at faithful endurance are not in vain, even when it feels that way. We know that our efforts will bear good fruit. We know that our God will use our efforts to get us home.
Let me close with this encouragement. Let me encourage you to get to know your God. And how does that happen? It happens when the Spirit responds to your prayers and uses the Word that you have stored away in your heart. Get to know your God so that you can enjoy who He is for you.
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