I wanna just say that I appreciate Pastor Ryan so much for numerous things, but also just sharing the pulpit with me. I enjoy preaching and the many opportunities he’s given me, and he’s very generous to share it, or he just likes seeing how bad I am, I don’t know, but very, very appreciative of him.

James chapter one, verses 12 through 18. I’m gonna go ahead and read those verses. So starting verse 12, James, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes, Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is being tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening’s service, and we thank you for your word. We thank you for the book of James, where we can learn to live as godly Christians in this secular, ever-changing world. And I pray that as I preach this evening, the Holy Spirit would speak through me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Just by way of quick reminder and quick intro, just to remember where we are, in one through 11, and just all throughout chapter one, James is introducing these key themes. And in one through 11, we see that he really seemed to be focused on enduring through trials. How Christians are to live in this world, enduring through trials, and then asking from God for wisdom in the midst of those trials. And as we talked about in the last sermon, no matter your financial status or status, it’s your status in Christ is what matters. And when we come to verses 12 through 18, he seems to be shifting to a discussion that is centered on God and His character.

Now, of course, every book of the Bible deals with God, but some particular passages deal more specifically with God and His character. And when we get to 12 through 18, we’re seeing a little bit of that. And we’re looking at how God has no part with sin, gives freely and graciously to his children, and how he is unchanging. And when we read James 1, 12 through 18, we see that we have a good God who does not tempt us, but gives to us. And we’ll be looking at this idea two main ways.

The first main way is the good God who doesn’t tempt. And that’ll cover verses 13 through 15. I will come back to verse 12, but I’m gonna come back to it in our second point. James is no longer talking about the trials and tribulations of life. Going back to verse two, consider all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. And then we move down to verse 13, let no one say he’s being tempted, I am being tempted by God. So when we look at it in the original language, the root word for trials and temptations is very similar. But as we move into verse 13, James is shifting from talking about the trials of life. He is now talking about sinful temptations. And he’s talking about what we can control. So we can’t control the various trials that come our way, the losing of a job, the car wreck, whatever it might be.

There’s many things in life, a natural disaster, we can’t control. It’s kind of what James was talking about early on in the chapter. But when we get to verse 13, and these verses we’re talking about this evening, he’s talking about our response to sinful temptations, and that we can control our responses, or how we respond to temptation. We choose to sin or not to sin, and that’s what he’s talking about in 13. Now, the Holy Spirit can give Christians the strength to fight sin, and we must listen to him. But even as Christians, we still sin. And that helps get our mind ready for verse 13. We’re not talking about the various trials of life that James is talking about in verse two, but the temptations that we face. And verse 13 makes it clear that our good God does not tempt us.

Verse 13, let no one say when he’s tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil. And he himself does not tempt anyone. There’s no ambiguity about that verse. It’s not vague, it’s clear. God does not tempt anyone. Yes, he allows us to go through difficult times that will test us, but remember these difficult trials we talked about earlier on in the chapter are actually good for us, even though in the midst of them that seems hard to understand. But he never seeks, God never seeks to cause us to stumble. His goal is not to cause us to sin, and he will never lead us into sin. That’s why we have a good God. And it’s possible that James had maybe heard that some of these Christians were blaming God for their sinful actions.

They were maybe saying things like, if God had not caused this hardship, I would not have sinned. If God had not caused these economic troubles, I wouldn’t have responded this way. If God had not caused my coworker to be mean, I would not have lashed out at him like I did. And when we read this verse, sometimes I think we can think, oh, of course, I would never do that. But then we get in the midst of life and our daily life, and I think there’s probably times where we can think, oh, I did have that thought. I did maybe think, well, if God hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t have done this. But James is saying that’s not what we’re supposed to do. That’s not what you are supposed to do. And he’s gonna show how silly this argument is.

This argument of, well, well, I’m gonna blame God for this. This is ultimately God’s fault. I sinned, but it’s God’s fault. And he’s gonna show how ridiculous it is. And he roots the silliness of their argument in the character of God. And God, he notes that God is opposed to all sin. He just doesn’t like sin. It’s not that he just doesn’t care for sin. He’s opposed to sin. He stands in the opposite of sin. He literally can have no part with evil, which is hard for our human minds to grasp. Because we can have part with evil, we can sin. But he cannot sin. It’s like expecting a monkey to grow wings and fly. It cannot happen, unless it’s maybe the Wizard of Oz or something like that. But in real life, monkeys, animals, whatever it is, don’t grow wings and fly. And I use that expression to show how ridiculous it is to think that God can be tempted by, that God can do evil or can sin. It cannot happen.

And one thing this verse reminds us, verse 13, that God cannot be tempted or that God does not tempt us and cannot sin. It reminds us that God is holy, the holiness of God. We’re just saying holy, holy, holy. He is totally separate from sin in his being and morally. So he’s separate from sin in who he is, and he’s separate from sin in his actions. He doesn’t do evil, and he is not evil. So not only does he choose not to sin, but he cannot sin because it is not part of his nature. For all of eternity, he’s existed as the perfect God.

Psalm 99, verses one through five. The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion, and he is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. The strength of the king loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool Holy is he so we see the word use the word holy used in these five verses Saying God is holy in verses 1 through 3 of that psalm of psalm 99. So that God is holy in who he is and He is great and exalted above the people.

Remember that our holiness comes from God. It doesn’t come from us. When we’re saved, the holiness that we have is given by God. We’re not holy on our own. We don’t get it from somewhere else. It comes from God, who is the holy being. He’s always existed in his holiness. And verse four of Psalm 99 talks about how his actions are holy. He loves and executes justice. He is righteous. So God is holy in all of who he is, everything he does. And you cannot talk about the righteousness of God without talking about his holiness. One thing we talk about a lot, we should talk about a lot, is the righteousness of God and how he’s just. But when we talk about the righteousness and justice of God, we’re also talking about the holiness of God. A holy God is a just and righteous God.

So this just and righteous and holy God cannot tempt us, cannot cause us to stumble. And this should also remind us to be careful how we use the word holy. We shouldn’t use it in such a flippant manner, because when we understand the gravity of that word, what the word holy means, especially in reference to God, we should be careful how we use it in our day-to-day lives. James is showing how God is good and holy, and because of this, he will not seek to cause his children to stumble, And as we move from verse 13 into verse 14, we see that James is showing what could be described as the natural progression of sin.

I’m gonna read verses 14 and 15. Verse 14. Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. So verse 13, let no one say when he is being tempted, I am being tempted by God. James is showing in 13, God does not tempt you. It’s not God’s fault, don’t blame God. He moves into verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is, and James is showing, you’re tempted, you sin because of you, not because of God. In this verse, 14 to 15, he’s showing how sin comes about and how it ends. We are the ones who sin. It starts with us. And we often don’t like to think of that, even as Christians, someone who’s been saved for many, many years. We still don’t like to think of the fact always that we’re sinners and that when we sin, it’s our fault, but sin starts with us many, many times.

Now, yes, When we’re talking about sin, we have to talk about Satan and his demons. And they do, in fact, tempt us. Demons tempt. Satan tempts. 1 Peter 5, 8. Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So Satan and his minions are seeking to devour people, seeking to cause people to stumble. Ephesians 6 12 says for our struggles not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the powers against the world forces of this darkness Against the spiritual forces of wickedness and heavenly places. So as Christians we do face Satan we do face his demons and they do tempt us However, we have to remember that we don’t need Satan or his demons to tempt us with sin We are capable of sitting perfectly well on our own.

And notice the verse says his own desires slash lusts. Each one is tempted when he’s carried away and enticed. My version says by his own lusts. Some may say their own desires. Our own desires, what we want. It’s personal. James is making it personal. He’s showing this is what you do. This is what happens in your life. These are the decisions you make. Your desires, your lusts. Cannot blame someone else for what we do. must take responsibility for our sins. One thing I’ve noticed about our current culture is that when someone does something wrong, maybe it’s a crime or whatever the situation might be, the tendency in the past few decades has been, well, let’s look at what the person did and see what their circumstances, let’s see what made them do this, why did they do this?

Maybe it was this aspect of their home life, maybe work wasn’t good, maybe they were stressed, and all these different things, which do affect us, but the problem with that mindset and that philosophy is that it takes away personal responsibility. When you sin, you are the person sinning. So when you get to heaven and God says, why do you do this? You can’t point your finger and say, it was the other guy, because he’s going to point the finger at you and say, no, it was you. It’s your lusts and your desires. We are sinners, and even if we are saved, we still sin at times. And it is worth noting how this verse, verse 14, stands in contrast to the God who cannot be tempted. We talked about God’s nature is perfect and holy. He cannot be tempted. Human nature is imperfect and corruptible. We can be tempted to sin.

So James is showing, 13, God cannot be tempted by evil, but we can be, and we sin. And when we allow our desires to drag slash carry us away, and entice us, then we sin. Scholars point out that these two metaphors of being carried away, enticed, or dragged away were commonly used in the ancient world and would have invoked images of fishing and hunting. So when the first century Jews would have read, each one is tempted when he’s carried away and enticed by his own lust, then maybe we would have thought of a hunting or fishing imagery.

Now, I am not a fisherman. I’ve never been a fisherman. Last time I went fishing was my junior year of high school. I woke up like at 4 a.m. to go to this lake out in the middle of somewhere, sat on a boat for five hours and caught like two fish that big maybe. You know, it was, you know, it was just not my thing. I’m a terrible, terrible fisherman. But one thing about fishing, one thing I do kind of know, is that when you throw the line in the water and you have the bait on it, which is to bait the fish, and once the fish is hooked, you’ve got it. Now, yes, there may be some times when the fish gets off, but if you’ve got it hooked well, you’re dragging or carrying the fish in. I’ll have to ask Rich afterwards if this fish example is working, but when you’re bringing the fish in, it’s hooked. And if you’ve got the fish hooked well, it can’t get out. It’s stuck, and it’s being dragged and carried through the water until you pull it out and it dies. And just like that, we are hooked to sin.

We are carried away by our desires. But each one is tempted when he’s carried away and enticed by his own lust. Look what he says, carried away and enticed. It drags us. Our evil and filthy desires will take us away. An individual may think, I’m just gonna have one drink tonight with some buddies. It’s been a long week. I had a bad week. I just need one drink to cool off. Or you know what, just this one look at the computer screen, nothing else is gonna happen. Or I’m just gonna have this one thought, nothing else is gonna happen. I’m just gonna do this one thing and nothing else is gonna happen. The problem is, that’s not how sin works. You don’t sin and then you just stop sinning. Unless by the power of the Spirit and God. But what happens is, you’ll continue to sin. It’s a pattern in lives.

And that’s what we, when we think of, when we see carried and enticed and dragged away. And James is showing how sin comes about. He’s explaining in great detail to show these people, to show these Christians that they’re sinning on their own, that God is not the cause for their sinning. And verse 15 describes how sin comes from those unchecked desires that are left to drag and carry us away. Verse 15, then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. He is showing how easy it is to be carried away and sin leads to death, physical death and spiritual death, eternal death, eternal damnation, eternal punishment and hell.

Now God does not cause us to sin, we cause ourselves to sin. When we look at this passage, these few verses, and we see how that we can apply them to our lives, the first thing to note is that we are not to blame God for our sinning or for the temptations that we face. We might be tempted to blame God, but we should not. It is not him but us. Rob Plummer, a New Testament scholar, he points out that instead of blaming God for the enticement to sin, fallen humans need look no further than their own deceptive hearts. Even as Christians, our hearts can sometimes still deceive us and say, point the finger at God. He did this. And if you are here today and have not confessed the sins of your wicked heart to Christ, you need to.

Because the only way to effectively fight sin is by being a slave of Christ and having the Holy Spirit in your life. That deceptive heart I just talked about. You need the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to regenerate you. You need to believe in Jesus Christ, like Pastor Ryan talked about this morning. Like what the people of Sychar did. They believed, not like the people of Galilee. People of Galilee received because they heard of all the wonderful things Jesus did, but they didn’t believe, but the people of Sychar believed. And that is believing in the gospel. And once you are saved and you are a Christian, you must fight, we, we must fight sin daily. It’s a daily battle. It’s not easy, it never will be, but it is worth it to fight it.

We need to ask, and one thing we need to do when we’re talking about sin is ask the Lord to reveal your sin to you. And that’s not always easy. It’s not something we think to do or even want to do, but we need to ask, Lord, show me what my evil heart desires are. Show me what my sin is. We need to know what we struggle with. Sometimes we might struggle with something where we think, oh, I could never struggle with that. There’s no way that could ever affect me. I could never have that problem. Not me. Sin does not discriminate. Ask the Lord to show you what your heart and evil desires are. When tempted to sin, pray and read your Bible.

When you’re being tempted, Lord, help me with this temptation, help me to fight it, read your Bible. Instead of being carried away by your evil desires, be carried away by the word of God. Go to this book, read James 1, 12 through 18. and reach out to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Oftentimes in the church, we hear of the term accountability partner. Those are great. Accountability partners are great. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to encourage one another, build one another up, check in on one another. How are you doing in this struggle? How can I be praying for you? That’s part of what the body is. That’s what a local body is, holding each other accountable. God is not the tempter. but he is the giver.

That brings us to our second point, the good God who gives, covering verses 12 and 17 through 18. So God doesn’t tempt, he’s the good God who gives. And we need to go back and look at verse 12. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. And this verse actually serves as a summary statement of sorts of verses one through 11. The one who endures through these trials is blessed. That’s how the verse starts, blessed.

Now this word blessed is used often in the New Testament. We think of the Beatitudes when Jesus says blessed, blessed, blessed in a row. And it’s important to understand just kind of how this word would have been understood in the first century. In one sense it would have been referred to as having the Lord’s favor. So blessed is the man who perseveres. The Lord’s favor is on that man. But it’s also helpful to understand in the sense of happy. When you see the word blessed, think of happy as a man who perseveres. Problem with the word happy is when we think of it, we think of maybe jumping up and down and you’re happy because you got, I don’t know, cool birthday present or cool Christmas present. But that connotation of happy doesn’t really fit with this. It’s better to think of the word blessed almost in a sense of flourishing.

So blessed is the man who perseveres. The man who perseveres and endures through trials will flourish because he’s following Christ, he’s being faithful. And this endurance shows that the person was faithful and really born again. The genuineness of their faith has been proven. The unbeliever, the one who does not truly know Christ, will not endure to the end. And many of us who have been saved and in the church many years, I’m sure we’ve seen individuals who have claimed to know Christ, who have said they know Christ, who have come to church on a regular basis, been part of different ministries, but then they’ve walked away from the faith. And they’ve showed that they were not truly genuine. But those who truly know Christ will endure to the end through the trials and tribulations of life. And these trials and tribulations test the genuineness of a person’s faith.

And remember, verse 13 I said, we’re now talking about temptations that we face, sinful temptations. Well, we’re talking about verse 12 right now. These are the trials and tribulations of life that James talked about in James 1, two through four. the trials and tribulations that we can’t necessarily always control. And they test a person’s faith, the genuineness of our faith. When Christians are found genuine slash approved by God, he will give them the crown of life. He will give them the gift of eternity.

And this echoes Christ’s message to the church of Smyrna that’s found in Revelation 2 verse 10. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. To those who have loved and served God faithfully, no matter what they have experienced, to them He will give eternal life. And what a comforting thought that is. that no matter what we face in life, if you are in Christ, if you know Christ, you will spend eternity with Him, and with your Heavenly Father, and with all the saints. That is the ultimate gift.

And the imagery that we see here, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. It brings imagery of an athlete. It makes us think of an athlete. Maybe in the ancient world when they would have received sort of a laurel wreath. This would have been the days of the Olympics, the early Olympics in ancient Greece in this time period. And when the victors were crowned, they were literally crowned with sort of a laurel wreath that went on their head.

I remember my senior year of track and field. I was running one of my races, the 800 meter race, and I got fourth, which doesn’t sound that great, but getting fourth place meant that I was gonna get to go to state. I remember when I, and I still have that ribbon, when I got that ribbon, that fourth place ribbon, it meant I’m going to state. I’m going to compete with the best. But that pales in comparison to the crown of life. Eternity with Christ. That ribbon means nothing in eternity. And that’s what James is talking about here. That’s what God gives.

And this is a promise God will never break. It is a gift that he gives, and he will give it. And as we finish verse 12, and now we go to verse 16, we need to remember that verse 16 is coming after 13, 14, 15, where James is saying, hey, God doesn’t tempt, you’re the ones who sin. And verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. And I love how he says my beloved brothers. Because when you see that, you see that James really cares about the people he’s writing to. He loves them, my beloved brethren. He wants to see them do well in life. He wants to see them live faithful lives. He loves them.

And that’s how your pastors and elders here at Fellowship Baptist Church feel. We love you, we love our congregation. Pastor Ryan might sometimes get annoyed with the guy who’s in the office next to him, but I think most days he likes me okay. But we love you. And we see that James really loves these Christians. And 16 is interesting because it serves as a transition from 13 and 15 to 17 to 18. It’s sort of a hinge point between the two sections. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. So don’t be deceived. God does not tempt you. God does not cause you to sin. God does not cause you to stumble.

But what he does do, and then you go into verse 17, James says, 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. So God does not tempt you. God does not cause you to sin. God gives you good and perfect gifts. That’s what God does. He’s the great and perfect gift giver. He gives us what we need.

My wife, Carrie, is an amazing gift giver. She knows me so well, one of the things she loves to get me are these drinks called Body Armors. And they’re kind of like a, I don’t know if they’re a nutritional drink, but they’re what you drink after you’ve worked out. They’ve got electrolytes and all that healthy stuff in, and they got really good flavors, and I love them. And she’s such a good gift giver that she gets me the real stuff, and not that nasty, fake, zero sugar stuff. Because she knows if she gets me zero sugar anything, I’ll just be upset, because zero sugar isn’t real drinks. You need sugar. There’s my soapbox for the night. If you drink zero sugar, I still respect you somewhat.

No, I’m joking, I’m joking. But she knows what I love, and she also knows, in a sense, I mean, these body armors aren’t the most important thing for me, but after a workout or a hard run, I do need them. So she knows what I love, she knows what I want, and then she gets me those things. But when we come to God, he not only knows what we want, what we need, but he gives us more than we think we need and what we want. He cannot give a bad gift just like he cannot sin.

It’s impossible for him to give a bad gift. Everything he gives is good and for our benefit. Now at the time, it may not seem like it, but it is for our benefit. Our father who knows what is good for us. He’s our heavenly father. He’s the one who from the beginning of time, or even before time began, made his plan of redemption that involved us being saved. He chose to save us, he chose to love us. So I think the God who chose to save us, who chose to love us, knows what’s best for us, knows what’s good for us. And James was just talking about trials. And we’ve talked about, I’ve talked a lot about how even these trials can be lessons that we can learn from and they’re gifts. And we see in 17, it says, every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights.

And the Father of lights seems to be a reference to God’s creative power. He’s the creator of stars and the heavenly bodies. And if he’s the creator of stars and heavenly bodies and he can design all these planets and all these universes and all these galaxies and all these different things that make up space and give them what they need, then surely he can give his children what they need. And this reference to him being the father of lights also introduces what will be an illusion that we’ll see at the end of the verse, which is an illusion to astronomical bodies.

Now as we get to the end of verse 17, Verse 17 reads, 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. Now some versions may say changing, but the final, those last three words of verse 17 are hypoxlegomenons, meaning it’s their only time they’re used in the New Testament. And these words, these three words, were used in ancient astronomical writings. And they refer to the different astronomical bodies and how they change.

Now, I am not an astronomer or know much about space or anything, but I do know that, you know, the moons and planets have different phases, stars will change and, you know, things change. They’re different movements in phases. And that’s what these three words would have meant, would have referred to the way that these planets and different astronomical bodies would have been moving and changing. But the reason that these three words are significant in how they’re being used is that it’s showing that, okay, so these astronomical bodies, these planets, these things in space change, but God doesn’t change. And the use of these three terms also seems to fit with God being called the Father of lights and the good gifts we receive coming down to him from us.

So unlike these heavenly bodies that change and shift, God does not change. Which reminds us of a very important doctrine in reference to God, and that’s the immutability of God. The fact that God doesn’t change. No part of his being has ever changed, and no part of his being will ever change. We talked about how he’s always been holy and who he is, that won’t change. We’ve talked about how he’s holy in his actions, that won’t change. He always does what is good, he always does what is righteous. And He always does what is good for us. His attributes do not change. He is always holy, loving, and righteous. Malachi 3.6, for I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, the sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.

Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. God doesn’t change, and He never will. Herman Bavink, a famous, I believe he’s Dutch, theologian, points out that if God changes, he will cease to exist. And his point in that statement is that everything that changes in life, us, a plant, I mean anything, grass, trees, food, anything that changes ceases to exist. It’s the natural cycle of life. I talked about that in my last sermon. Life has a natural cycle.

Something lives, something is born, it lives and it dies. We change, we get old. I’m 27 years old, I’m not that old, but I’m an assistant cross-country coach at Lakeland Christian this year, and I run with the runners, I enjoy it, but there’s been a couple moments where I was like, 10 years ago, 10 years ago, I coulda had you, but not now. But you know, we change, and we’ll eventually get to the point where we will cease to exist, where we will die. But God doesn’t change. He cannot change because if he did, he will die or cease to exist, but he doesn’t. And this is how we will know he will always keep his promises to us. If God doesn’t change, he will honor what he says, which brings us back to verse 12 that says, blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

So God has promised the crown of life, and because he doesn’t change, he will give the crown of life to those who persevere. It’s a promise he will keep. And this is a very, very comforting doctrine. It’s a comforting teaching. Our God isn’t swayed by emotions. When you read the mythology stories of the ancient world of the Greek and Roman gods, they have the same emotions as humans. Their motivations and actions are pretty much the same as ours, except they have superpowers. But when we talk about God and we read of him, we see that is not the case. He is not swayed by emotions like we are. And we need to thank him for that. And when we come to verse 18, we see that the greatest gift that God gives is the gospel. Verse 18, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. He gives the gift of salvation through his son. He gives new life through his son by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Craig Blomberg, a New Testament scholar, says that the use of the word firstfruits reminds readers that just like the first literal firstfruits that appear on a tree signify more fruit to come, so also the first generation of Christians anticipate the salvation of many more people throughout the rest of history. So when these first century Christians would have read this word firstfruits, that we would be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures and anticipates that more people will be saved, that more Christians are coming. These first century Christians are not the only ones, there will be more. And even with us today when we read this passage, we can be reminded that more Christians will come as well. Now, Christ could come back tonight or he could come back tomorrow, I have no idea. But until he comes, people will be saved and it’s our job to evangelize and spread the gospel. And we have a good God who gives abundantly to those who are his. And when we look at these 16 through 18 and we see how we can apply them to our lives, we need to remember that God gives gifts to his children and he gives graciously.

Now the greatest gift he has given is salvation. And that’s a present and future reality that we can call ourselves children of God. If you’re saved now, you can call yourself a children of God, but it’s a reality that will go on to all of eternity. You are always a children of God. You don’t stop being a children of God. It’s something that you will have forever. He gave us his son. He literally sent his son to earth to die on the cross for us. Pastor Ryan’s going through John, and we’re reading all about this son. He’s given us his word. In the 21st century, someone can’t, I mean, especially those of us in the Western world, you talk to someone, hey, do you read your Bible? Oh, I don’t have a Bible. That’s not a good excuse, because you can literally get a Bible anywhere. You can have it on your phone. You can listen to it.

We are blessed to have great access to the Word of God, to so many wonderful translations. We can have access to the Bible in the original languages. We have great access to the Bible, and we need to be reading it and studying it. He’s given us the church. The church that exists to proclaim His name. So as a church, we exist to proclaim Christ’s name, exalt His name, and that’s the benefit for us. We’re here to praise His name, to honor Him, to build each other up like I talked about earlier. The church is a gift. And He does provide for us, from food to even our friends. These are gifts from God. Now, the gifts we receive may not be in the way we want them, or the way we think we should get them, but He does give us what we need and what is best for our benefit. He gives us exactly what we need and when we need it.

When we read about the Israelites in the wilderness in Exodus 16, we see how God provided manna and quail for the Israelites six days of the week while they were in the wilderness. He didn’t provide it on the Sabbath, but that’s because the other six days he gave them plenty so that they didn’t need to gather anymore on the Sabbath day. He provided them all they need, all they needed. Granted, they still found time to complain, but he gave them exactly what they needed, and he does the same thing for us. And we need to give thanks for how much God gives, because he does give graciously, abundantly.

God is truly good. He does not tempt us, but gives to us. He is the unchanging, holy God who is not to be blamed for when we are tempted and sin. Our good God is the one who sent His Son to earth for us so that we may have a personal relationship with Him, and He continues to give us grace and mercy each and every day. So when you’re tempted to blame God for your sin, when you’re tempted to shake your fist at him and say, why did you cause this? Remember that he did not cause it. He is not the cause of it, but he is the cause of your salvation.

Please stand as we close in prayer this evening. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word, and I thank you that you are a holy, unchanging God, who gives graciously and abundantly to your children. I pray that when we are tempted to get angry or frustrated with you because of the temptations we face and our wrongdoing, we remember what you have given to us and that you do not cause us to sin. Bless us all as we leave here this evening and bless our weeks. In Jesus’ name, amen.