Loving God Under Trials: Part 1

Redeeming Grace Church

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So as we look at this, we've already seen how we can profit from trials, right?

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And then we looked at the perspective of the rich and poor from verses 9 through 11.

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And then we're looking at right now, we're right in the middle, or I don't want to say in the middle, we're just about finished with it, loving

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God under trials. So let me show you a little bit about my direction here I'm going. We're going to cover today pretty much one verse, verse 16, then we're going to look at verse 17, and I'm going to pick up next week,

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Lord willing, on God's changelessness. He's immutable.

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That's an attribute of God, and we're not going to be able to cover that today. We're going to just basically look at every good gift and every perfect gift is from God above.

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That's enough for us to look at, believe me. Scripture says a lot, and I would not even scratch the surface on that.

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So we're looking at that, and then like I said, next Lord's Day we're going to look at God being unchangeable, immutable, and look at God's attribute there.

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And I believe that will be very encouraging for each one of us, knowing that God does not change, and it's impossible for Him to change.

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He cannot change. He cannot change within Himself. We change.

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Change begins from the beginning of time and the end of time, but God dwells in eternity.

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He's changeless, impossible for Him to change. So isn't that wonderful about God?

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Never changes in His love, His mercy, His goodness, in all that He is.

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So we're going to look at that, and then the following Lord's Day, on that I'm going to preach a message in maybe two,

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I don't know, of verse 18, of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

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And that's speaking about the new birth, beloved. That's talking about regeneration. You see where James is going with this.

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It's so important for us to really get a hold of these great truths. So in a sense, I say

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He's a practical teacher, but He's also, there's always doctrine here.

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There's always doctrine. There's always doctrine. Forget about these people that talk about, they don't preach doctrine.

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Well, if they're not, hey, they're preaching something. They're preaching some kind of doctrine. They may say that, but there's something coming out.

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They just taught you something by saying something like that. Probably ignorance, but anyway, you have a lot like that.

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But we believe in sound doctrine, sound teaching, and that's why we want to be very careful going through these verses. Okay, so we pretty much covered verses 12 through up to this point, through 15.

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And in James chapter 1, so as we look at this together, we're going to be looking today just two verses.

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Look at verse 16 and 17. Hear the word of the living God. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the

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Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

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And I'll stop right there. Let's pray and seek our God this morning. Our Father in heaven, it is so evident that you're right in the midst of us.

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And Father, we desire to continue to glorify you and praise you in all of your greatness and your glory.

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We thank you, Father, for all the great gifts that you've given, the greatest that you've given is your word.

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Your word, salvation, has come through your word. We would not know about anything of you unless it would be by your word.

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We thank you for life. We thank you for our existence. But even above that, your word endures forever.

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We're going to go back to the dust. But we do thank you for our existence, even if it's for a short time here on this earth, that we desire to glorify you.

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Help us to set our minds and our hearts and our affections on eternity. Lord, we thank you today that there is, and again, any good gift, any perfect gift, we recognize that it comes from your hand from above.

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It comes down to us. It comes down right to us by your loving favor, because you alone are the source of it.

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You never change. You are immutable. So Father, we thank you for the greatest gift of all, your word, the written word, but Father, we thank you for your son, the living word.

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Paul said it was thanks being to God for his unspeakable gift.

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Your unspeakable gift. And Lord, we want to give thanks to you also for the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. Father, without the Holy Spirit of truth, we would not even know you.

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He's the one that applied it all to our heart. You made it happen. You gave us, we were reborn.

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We were regenerated. You gave us a new heart. So Father, we thank you for all this. There's so many gifts we can just number, and these are just a few.

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But Lord, we thank you that the Holy Spirit has brought us into the kingdom for such a time as this. So Father, we thank you.

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We thank you, Father. We thank you, Son. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for the new life you have given to us.

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And all these good gifts and perfect gifts that's from above. And we pray and we would ask to come as you already have met with us, that Fathers would continue to glorify you, that your word and your presence would change us, challenge us, transform us, and to be more like in the lovely lightness of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. And we, each and every one of us, would be careful to give you all the glory.

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We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, Apostle James has just given a sobering warning, and we looked at this last week, that death and sin could be the very result if one yields to temptation by his own desires and his lust.

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That's what he's given us. He's given us a sober warning. And in light of the grave danger that he's given,

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James introduces a life -giving command now. Now, it's interesting that he softens the blow.

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He softens it with an affectionate phrase, notice, in verse 16.

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He says, He says, Do not be deceived. Now, we're going to look at that, but notice the phrase,

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My beloved brethren. That is a sense he softens it.

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It doesn't mean he's compromising it, but he's, in the sense which he clearly indicates his sincere concern for their souls.

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That's why he says, My beloved brethren. Beloved means, you're loved of God.

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Don't take that word for granted. It's a very important word. It means you're loved of the

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Lord, beloved. You are loved of God. It shows a great concern.

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He has a pastoral heart. James knows that what he is warning about is deadly serious and wants to be sure they are open to hear him.

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Now, C .H. Spurgeon said this, Do not err, that means do not be deceived, about anything, but especially do not err about this matter of temptation where you may so easily make a blunder.

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And then he says, Do not err, my beloved brethren. How true that is.

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Commentator Herbert, I think I pronounced him right, Herbert, interprets the warning against deception as follows, and there's some verses mixed in here, but I like what he says.

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Quote, The warning may be connected with what immediately proceeds in James 1, 13 -15, or with what follows in James 1, 17 and 18.

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He goes on to say this, If the former, the warning is not, I'm sorry, is to not be deceived about the source of and the consequences of sin, if the latter, it is a call to beware of casting suspicion on God and His benefit activities.

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The verse has a transitional function, and like a bridge, and I like this, he says,

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Like a bridge, it provides connections in both directions.

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But what has gone before, this is his opinion now, seems primarily in view, and I'm apt to agree with him on this.

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He goes on to say this, for reasons why, and I quote him,

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The same formula occurs elsewhere to establish the rejection of a false opinion of what is being said.

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Now how can that be backed up? You don't have to turn there, but the Apostle Paul uses this same formula, and the commentator is absolutely correct.

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I agree with him here. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, the Apostle Paul tells the church of Corinth, Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

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That's a question, that's a great question. Do you not know this? Very sobering, isn't it?

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And then he says, Do not be deceived. For four words, do not be deceived, deception, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, notice the list, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, verse 10, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortiners, will inherit the kingdom of God.

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Black and white. But notice the four words. He gives the question, then he says,

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Do not be deceived. Another time, 1 Corinthians 15, 33, a shorter verse, but an important verse.

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He says, Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals.

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To the point, Galatians 6, 7. He says it again.

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Do not be deceived. You notice the repetition. God is not mocked.

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For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. And this introduces an appeal to Christian consciousness.

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And that's what the Apostle Paul, that's what James is doing. And to the experience, to confirm the writer's statement.

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That's what James is using, and I believe the commentator is absolutely correct in that.

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To harbor the false concept that God tempts people is to cast suspicion on his character.

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Actually, that's what exactly happened in the Garden of Eden. When temptation came to Eve, when

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Satan was using the serpent to speak through as an instrument, and the temptation was actually to cast suspicion on God's character.

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That God is not being good to you. You see that. That is actually what

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Satan does. He slanders God's character. That's what it's all about.

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That's why he hates mankind. It's not because he hates mankind, because it's just you personally.

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There's something that Satan sees in each and every one of every human being on the face of this earth, no matter what state they're in.

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He can care less. He just wants to take you down, destroy the image of God in the human race.

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You see that. So it becomes a spiritual battle. It's a grievous doctrinal error that we must take note of, that must be of dangerous consequences for daily conduct for each and every one of us.

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So let us remember these four words, and they're sobering words of warning.

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Be not deceived. Be not deceived. What does that mean?

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What does that mean? Think about it for a little bit. Have you thought about those four words? It's a warning.

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It's a warning. And I think we should take heed of the warnings that are given to us in the Word of God. It means don't allow yourself to be led astray.

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Don't be led astray into this. Don't allow yourself to be caused to wander.

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Don't be misled. Don't be fooled. Don't be duped. Don't be suckered into something.

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You see, that's deception. Stop being deceived. That's what he's saying. Stop it.

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Don't be deceived here. This is important. This is a strong command, but it's a good one, full of tough love from the

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Apostle. But it's a good one, isn't it? So this command is really sandwiched,

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I like to use that word, it's sandwiched between two sections. It can actually be read as going with one or for the other.

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But primarily, I believe, as the commentator says, it is for his readers to beware of ascribing to God any evil motives in his activities.

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You see, God has no evil intentions whatsoever, period. It's nothing but good.

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And that's where he's going to. You notice the direction James is going. No evil comes from God. Now, people say, well, if he's sovereign almighty, why does all this evil take place?

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That must be from God. Beloved, God is not the author of evil. How it works is, he may allow the evil, and he may work his purposes through it.

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He uses it. And he actually gives Satan permission.

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You get this. But God is not tempting people to evil, nor he can be tempted himself to evil.

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So in other words, there's no character flaw in God. It's in us.

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It's sin. And God comes to deal with sin, he hates sin. And that's why this doctrine is so important.

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It deals with the character of God. And it's so critical for us to get this right.

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So it deals with, we do not cast suspicion on God's character, and in God's activities, for he is the very essence of goodness itself.

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And all that he does is good. Pastor John MacArthur had a great commentary about this, a comment about this from his commentary.

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I quote him, in light of the sobering truths I've just read about speaking in verses 14 and 15.

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He says this, James and Poise, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Stop blaming other people, circumstances, or even

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Satan for your temptations and sins. And he is saying, above all, do not blame

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God. Take full blame on yourselves, where it belongs. Realize that your enemy, your fallenness, your lust, your weaknesses, your rationalizations, your sins are within and have to be dealt with from within.

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When a believer wins the battle on the inside, he can say with Paul, in 2

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Corinthians 1 .12, For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.

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He ended that quote with a scripture I love, as having a clear conscience before God.

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Well that's pretty much my introduction. So let's move to the next verse, verse 17.

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I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time in verse 16, that's a whole sermon actually about deception. But we must move on and see what is being said.

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Verse 17, this wonderful verse is loaded up, beloved. It is loaded up, believe me.

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It's a wonderful verse with truth about the nature of God. And we're not going to finish it,

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I'm breaking it up. So it's here we would like to spend most of our time, because of it's important truths and focus for us, because it deals with God's character.

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Who He is. His nature. It's nothing we can pass over lightly. So in verse 17, let me say it again, you can't hear this enough, can we?

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Notice, every good gift. Stop right there, okay? Then, He says, and every perfect gift.

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Notice what He's saying. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the

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Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. The literal translation, now you're going to find this interesting, reads, every gift good and every gift perfect from above is continually coming down.

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Don't you love that? That's the original translation. Every gift good and every gift perfect from above is continually coming down.

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That's God. Now James, in chapter 1 verse 5, has already characterized

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God as a giving God. He cannot out give God. God has an immense giving.

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There's no end to it. You see, because He's God. He doesn't fill up or empty.

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He may empty, but He's always full. You see what I'm saying? And let me say,

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He doesn't empty. He gives, but He doesn't empty. Let me rephrase that.

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He's a giving God, and here James reiterates that attribute as he refutes the claim that God is a good, and that basically he's saying

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God is a good gift giving God. That's the way I like to phrase it. Could tempt men to sin.

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He's refuting that. He's always good. He never changes in His goodness.

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He never tempts men to sin, and once again, as Spurgeon says, you ascribe all evil to yourself, to the world, and to Satan, but you ascribe all good to God.

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And then he goes on to say every good gift and every perfect gift, and then Spurgeon goes on to say every grain of goodness, every trace of excellence that there is in the world comes from God, but no evil ever comes from Him.

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Pretty much gets right to it, doesn't it? Well, my outline follows this, and I'm going to just look at two points.

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I had a third one right here, so I scratched it, okay? First of all, we're going to look at every good gift comes down from the

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Father of Lights. Second, this is, believe it or not, this is divided up.

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Every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, and my third point was we're going to look at the nature of God being good and perfect, that He never changes, but we're going to look at that next week, that He is immutable, and then we're going to look at some applications, but scratch number three, okay?

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We're going to look at number one and number two. Let's look at it. Number one, every good gift comes down from the

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Father of Lights. Think of that. Every good gift comes down from the

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Father of Lights. Notice James says, verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift.

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I said that once, but I'm reiterating myself and repeating myself because I think this is extremely important.

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The word every is important as well. It means without exception. Without exception.

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It comes from God every time. Every good thing, every perfect thing, every gift, good gift, every perfect gift is from God, for the

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Lord is good, and the word good here is the Greek word agathos, agathos.

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That means intrinsically, the definition says, intrinsically good, inherently good in quality, but with the idea of good, which is also profitable and useful.

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Notice this. It is profitable, it is useful, it benefits others, it is benevolent, marked by or disposed by to doing good.

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Good and doing good is the idea here. Agathos describes that which is beneficial in addition to being good, and Jesus said this, only

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God is good. Only God is good. Remember the rich young ruler came up to him and he said, good master.

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Oh, he's trying to flatter Jesus. Jesus picked the right, hey look, you can't fool perfect wisdom, and Jesus says, why call us any good?

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Only God's good. Jesus did not take flattery. Nicodemus tried the same thing, and it didn't work.

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But Jesus knows how to change the gears in wisdom and direct them in the right way to go in their conversation and take them to the truth.

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Agathos, this Greek word, is that which is good in its character, beneficial in its effect, and or useful in its action.

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It's an action word. So let me say that again. It is good in its character, beneficial in its effect, and it's useful in its action.

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I don't know if you noticed, but if you read through the book of James, it's nothing but action going on here.

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Practical, down to earth, action. That's faith. It's genuine faith.

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Agathos is also used in the New Testament primarily of spiritual and moral excellence. Paul the

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Apostle uses Agathos to describe the gospel as glad tidings of good things in Romans 10, 15.

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The gospel is good news. You see that? Good. It's not bad news.

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Aren't you glad? It is good news. It's good news that you and I can be saved from the wrath of God.

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It's good news, beloved, that we can be saved from eternal burning hell.

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It is good news that God saves you from yourself and your sin.

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You see, that's good news. You can rejoice about that. It's beneficial. You see that?

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It's useful. It is good. Good is good. And I think of all the times when

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I say that word good, only God is really good. Good is God's word.

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Actually, it's another O that's added right there. God and good go together.

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The gospel is good news of good things. The writer of Hebrews uses it in the same way in Hebrews 9, 11 of good things to come.

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And that's something we can rejoice about that. It's beneficial. There's heaven. That's a good thing to come.

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Not hell. God saves you by the blood of Jesus Christ and by faith alone, in Him alone, for His glory alone, and by which

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Christ appeared as a high priest and of which the law was only a shadow. But now we have the reality.

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That is Jesus. You see the shadows in the Old Testament. You see what I'm saying? Whose shadow is it?

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Well, it's Jesus' shadow. But He comes to fulfill the law completely. He's the reality.

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So, you see the two different Greek words for gift emphasize the perfection and inclusiveness of God's graciousness here.

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Agathos denotes also the act of giving. I like that. The act of giving. There's an action, act of giving, and notice it is from above, not below.

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It comes down, emphasizing that every good and every perfect gift comes from the

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Father of Lights. That's an interesting phrase. I got this from MacArthur and he says this, this is an ancient

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Jewish expression for God as the Creator, with lights referring to the sun, the moon, the stars, in Genesis 1, 14 through 19.

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Matthew Henry says, God is the Father of Lights. The visible light of the sun and the heavenly bodies is from Him.

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He said, let there be light and there was light. Thus God is at once represented as the

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Creator of the sun and in some respects compared to it. End quote.

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So, notice that. James is saying to the believers by ascribing all good things, all good from the

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Father of Lights. And I think there's a reason for that. He's the source.

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God is the source. James is going directly to God. He exalts

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God, that He's the Creator. God Himself gives everything that is good and perfect.

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And I'm going to bring this up probably again, but the sun, God created these things.

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And I don't know if you noticed through Scripture, and if you've read it, there are sun worshippers. They're still around today.

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They're earth worshippers. It's Romans 1. They worship and glorify the things that God created.

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But don't worship and glorify God. See we're not to worship the created things.

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And as great as they are, we go beyond the gifts and go to the source.

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You see that? We never are to worship the created things. Now I'll bring that out in a minute.

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But there's a Scripture that comes to my mind, and go with me to the book of Job. Now if you ever studied

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Job, Job is a wonderful book. There's a lot of detail. And this is what

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I think that comes to my mind in Job. Job is probably the greatest book on wisdom.

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And if you want to learn about how to get the doctrine of sovereignty and suffering together and balanced, read

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Job. And that is extremely important because there's a lot of people that's mixed up about God's sovereignty and about suffering.

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Why does God allow suffering? There you go. You read through the book of Job. When you get to the end of the chapter,

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I promise you you will have the answers to that. But Job is a rich book of wisdom literature.

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Now I can't prove this, and maybe somebody can in this room, maybe Miss Lily and Keith and Ben and Brother Michael, and you have studied

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Scriptures. I really believe Solomon possibly read the book of Job.

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Why did I say that? Well God gave

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Solomon, and we're going to look at this in a minute too, they gave him a gift, and it was wisdom. Heavenly wisdom.

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But he had to read, didn't he? And reading is where a lot of the learning comes. The oldest book in the

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Bible is the book of Job. It's full of wisdom. And I'm presuming on this, but I'm thinking that Solomon possibly read the book of Job and got a lot of his wisdom from the

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Word of God. So I can't prove that, but you can see a lot of the things.

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And the fear of the Lord, he speaks of, is in Job first and foremost.

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We learn more about the fear of God in the book of Job before we even see it in the

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Psalms, before we see it in the Proverbs. Do you see the order?

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So Job is the oldest book. But in chapter 33, if you go to chapter 33,

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I want to read something here. We're going to kind of look at a few verses here. Notice verse 8.

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I'm going to kind of go backwards here, but notice what he says. Verse 8, but there is a spirit in man.

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God put that spirit there. And we're not talking about the Holy Spirit, we're talking about your soul. We're talking about who you are.

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You're more than a physical being, even though we operate on physical levels. We have a brain, we have senses, eyes, and all this.

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But the most important part about you is your spiritual being is a spirit of man.

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God put that there. That's a gift. And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.

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And I like this. Notice it says in verse 9, great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.

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Have you noticed that in this world? Just because a person is aged does not mean they're wise.

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I mean, they may have some knowledge and experience, but true wisdom comes from God and from above.

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And fear in God. You could be younger and have a lot of wisdom because you fear

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God. A lot of people can have a lot of head knowledge and get puffed up in that head knowledge and lack godly wisdom.

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And I'm telling you, Brother Keith was talking about this earlier. You can have earthly wisdom and not have heavenly wisdom.

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There's a huge difference. The fear of the Lord is the core foundation of having wisdom from God.

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Amen. It's the beginning of wisdom. Now notice this. I found this interesting. I was reading this and I said,

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I need to read this because here's a man that speaks some very wise words.

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And if you go back to verse 1, what's happening? Elihu is contradicting

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Job's friends. I like this. My study notes say this.

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The phrase, these three men, seems to stress the distant relationship between Job and his so -called friends.

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These three friends tried to comfort him, but they didn't have true wisdom from him.

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Even though what they spoke, the Holy Spirit was breathing upon them. You see what I'm saying? They said a lot of wise things, but they didn't know how to really comfort

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Job. And here it says, there was a guff that existed partly because the trio had been accusing

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Job of self -righteousness. Job, you sinned, you're self -righteous, you had done something wrong.

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And Elihu was of the tribe of Buz and of the family of Ram and perhaps an ancestor of King David according to Ruth 4 .19.

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His name actually means, he is my God. Interesting. Elihu was also angry about both

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Job and his friends, what they've been saying. Like the other friends,

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Elihu thought that Job had only justified himself. So you see this, but notice what it says here.

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The scripture says this in verse 1. So these three men, these so -called friends, ceased answering

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Job at this point. They were exasperated. They had given all they could in their self -righteous ways because he was righteous in his own eyes.

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Then the wrath, this is interesting, this word wrath pops up several times. Of Elihu, the son of Berechel, the

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Buzite, the family of Ram, was aroused against Job. His wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God.

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Also against his three friends, his wrath was aroused. He was really upset at Job and these three friends.

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Because they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job, in verse 4, now because they were years older than he,

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Elihu had waited to speak to Job. Now that's some wisdom there on this man's part, I would say that.

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And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was aroused.

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So Elihu, the son of Berechel, the Buzite answered and said, notice what he says,

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I am young in years. He was much younger. I don't know exactly his age here, but he said I'm young in years and you are very old.

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So these other three so -called friends of Job are much older. Therefore I was afraid.

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He didn't speak out and he dared not declare my opinion to you and I said age should speak.

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You see the context. He gave respect to the elderly and the older people and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

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And then he says there is a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Great men are not always wise and do the aged always understand justice.

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He got that. He got that. I will agree with him on that one. So you know, that's a tremendous verse as I was looking and I said, you know,

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I didn't make plans to read all that, but I thought it would be good for the context of the passage.

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It throws a lot of light on it, doesn't it? See God gives life and he gives breath. That's a gift.

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May we never ever take our life and our breath for granted. That is a gift from God. What a gift.

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It also, God gives understanding. Go back to, let me see,

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I'm sorry, I'm not there yet. We pretty much covered that. Go to 1 Kings.

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Go back, yeah, it's going backwards. Go to 1 Kings chapter 4.

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You know where I'm going. There was a man who was the son of David.

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His name was Solomon. You know about him. Tremendous wisdom.

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Let's hear what the scripture says. First Kings chapter 4, look at verse 29 and 30.

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God gave, there it is, underscore that. God gave.

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That's the good gift right there. God gave Solomon wisdom.

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And notice what he says. An exceedingly great understanding. And I love this part here.

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Underscore this. If you ever want to ask something from God, don't only ask it from wisdom, ask for a largeness of heart.

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Have a large heart. He asked for largeness. God gave him largeness of heart like the sand of the seashore.

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Thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

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Now my question is this. Why? Why? Because the wisdom that Solomon had was from God, the father of lights.

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That's why. It came from God. And God gave this gift to him. God was pleased with this gift to lead the people of Israel.

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What a wise gift. I mean, it's wisdom. It is. Wisdom came from God.

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And he feared God. It came from above. There was so many good gifts we can look at.

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But that's just a few that came to my mind. We can look at many, many more. But we know that every good gift comes from above, doesn't it?

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I like this, too, to make a parallel with this. John the Baptist said something interesting to his own disciples in the transition when

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Jesus was coming on the scene. And in John chapter 3, verse 27, and it was all about purification.

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There was a dispute. You can almost see the Jews and John's disciples disputing about purification.

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And here they come. They come to John the Baptist. All of his disciples and the

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Jews. And John the Baptist gets it right to the point about the dispute and answered them in such a wise way.

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Why did John the Baptist have a lot of wisdom? Because he feared God. Verse 27, John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it had been given to him from heaven.

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You see that? That's the first thing he says. And then he continues. He talks about Christ and glorifying

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Christ and that John the Baptist is basically just representing

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Christ and pointing people to Jesus. And actually, he says, he must decrease.

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Christ must increase. And he didn't mind that. He didn't have any ego, beloved, to bruise.

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This man was a God -fearing man. And his purpose and his existence. And the Bible starts when it starts introducing

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John the Baptist as a man sent from God. He's a gift. John the Baptist was a gift.

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And Jesus said, out of all the men that's been born women, there's none greater than John the Baptist.

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Well, in context, John the Baptist was emphasizing that God's sovereign authority is granting ministry opportunity.

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He understood that comes from God. You notice what these men do. They always go to the very source who is

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God. They never point people to other men. The only one was the man

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Christ Jesus, because he was God. You see that? And John had a revelation from God the

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Father about him. He was more than just a cousin, beloved. He was the son of the living

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God. And he knew he was the lamb of God. Well, I can go on there, but the source of authority and John the

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Baptist understood that. Well, let's go to the next word. This is my second point. Every perfect gift is from above.

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The Greek here is telios. Telios, it's a different Greek word. This is interesting. First is agathos.

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Now it's telios. It means an end, a purpose, an aim, a goal.

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It means to complete, mature, fully developed, full grown, brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, in good working order.

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I like that. Telios signifies a consummate soundness.

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It includes the idea of being whole. Thus, the Greek word is used 19 times in the

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New Testament. Telios speaks of totality. It means opposed to the partial, unlimited, and when used of things means in full measure, undivided, complete, and entire.

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Don't you love that? In Romans 12 too, this is what

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Paul, he uses the word telios right here, referring to the will of God.

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That's everything. What does he say? That the will of God is what? Good and acceptable and what else?

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Perfect, but it's the same word. Amen, it's the same word. Perfect means complete.

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That's what he's referring to, telios. So the word telios also speaks of which is fully developed as opposed to that which is immature.

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And next is telios can refer to that which is in a state of full preparation and readiness.

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I like this and this is another commentator. I was digging and I said, I can't leave this out. Commentator McDonald says this, quote, applies this truth in writing that God's gifts are as perfect as himself.

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Listen to that. God's gifts are as perfect as himself. Therefore, it is unthinkable that he would even entice man to sin.

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Temptation comes from man's own evil nature. Let us test our faith on the subject of unholy temptations.

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Do we encourage evil thoughts to linger in our minds or do we expel them quickly?

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When we sin, do we say that we couldn't help it?

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Do we blame God when we are tempted to sin? That's good, isn't it?

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There's some wisdom behind that and he gets right to it. See, that's a valid and good test, isn't it?

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It's a testing of our faith in God. So every good gift, every perfect gift, identifies the gift as lacking nothing from completeness, thus lacking nothing to meet the needs of the recipients.

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Another commentator says, Phillips, it says, the best defense against the temptation to stray from God is to possession by experience of his rich gifts that meet all desires.

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And he's speaking about holy desires, by the way. We should feel the holy desires and you know that battle that goes on.

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We've already looked at that in Romans 7, right? Those unholy desires must be crucified and the holy desires must fill that spot.

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And how do we do that, beloved? It's treasuring up, hiding the Word of God in our heart, memorizing the Word of God, being obedient to the

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Word of God. And that's how we can do this. And notice every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and it comes down from the

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Father of us. Just look at that, it comes down. Think about that. It descends from a higher to a lower place.

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God is on his throne. Earth is what? His footstool. You see,

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God is high and lofty. He is the high and holy one.

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He is higher than the heavens. The scripture says, even the heavens and heavens can't contain him.

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Amen. You can fill the universe with God and even more of God.

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I think about also the Father of lights. They're talking about the celestial bodies and I couldn't help but think, the auroras, the lights in the north, the glories of that.

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Doesn't all the heavens declare the glory of God? If you look at the sun and its strength and see the sunset or the sunrise, don't you think of the goodness of God?

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That this comes from the Father of lights, that this great ball of fire that God placed in the universe to warm our planet and our planet circulates around it in its course and God upholds the worlds by the word of his power, that it all goes to God.

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And see, the believer sees that. The unbeliever, well, how can it just pop into existence? It's ridiculous.

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Takes much more faith to believe in that than the faith that I definitely don't have. But anyway, it descends.

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It comes down. These good and perfect gifts comes from God and there's two

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Greek words here. Comes down. I don't know if I could pronounce this, but I'll try to.

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Kata, equal to down, plus banio. Now, I probably abused those

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Greek words, but it means to come or go down or to descend from a higher to a lower place.

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This word describes God descending to a fort A to the oppressed. Isn't that great?

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You see, God comes down. How many times in the Old Testament you see this? God comes down.

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See? He sees all things, but he literally pays a visit, a personal visit.

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Brother Michael mentions about the day of visitation. That's when God pays a personal visit.

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That's what we want. That's salvation. That's when God comes down. But in Acts 734, it says this, and in quoting actually from Exodus 3 .8,

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I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and I have heard their groans and I have come down, come down to deliver them.

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Come now and I will send you to Egypt, speaking to Moses. This is a word that's used, listen to this, 81 times in the

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New Testament. Wow. 81 times in the New Testament. Well, comes down, comes from the source of where?

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God. God is the source, always God. James speaks of God the Father in context to the text as the source of being, the lights.

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Reflect the glory of the creator. I've already mentioned Psalm 19, when the heavens declare the glory of God, they make a declaration.

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And the firmament shows his handiwork. Psalm 136, seven, to him, speaking of God, who made great lights for his mercy endures forever.

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There is the compassion of God. It's all about his goodness. It's all about his compassion, it's his mercy.

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So these luminous celestial bodies must not be, again, as I mentioned, worshiped.

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That was not God's intention. They are to testify to the creator's beautiful nature, see?

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And the glory and the dignity, declared the very nature and the essence of God. Doesn't John the Apostle say that?

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God is light and in him is no darkness at all. That's what scripture says.

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He is also the father of our spiritual illumination. Don't you think, don't you praise God, you have the physical illumination, but how about the spiritual illumination?

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How about 2 Corinthians 4, 6, and I love this verse. For the apostle Paul says, for God who said light shall shine out of darkness.

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And then he goes on, is the one who has shown in our hearts to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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See, that's the illumination. That's where true light is. You know, is the light, it's outer light and it's inner light, you know?

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So that's God, the Holy Spirit. So another point is that, like I said, all of this is unchangeable from God.

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God never changes. And we're gonna look at that Lord willing next Lord's day. Well, I'd like to give two applications very quickly.

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And I think this will benefit all of us. From that one verse,

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I was tempted to really take off like a rocket right there, but I had to say, I gotta bring this plane down.

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You know, I was listening, we was listening to Piper, me and Michael was last week, and he said, fly the plane well. And I said, well, you know, it's the word of God that does the work.

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And he says, preachers, he's talking to preachers. He said, fly the plane well. And I told brother Michael, I said, my problem is getting the landing gear down.

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I fly, I can fly it brother. But I have a hard time getting the landing gear down anyway and see the runway and eventually land it.

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I like soaring, beloved. Keep me up there with the Eagles. Fly like the

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Eagles, praise God. Well, let me give some practical applications. I think this will benefit all of us.

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And when I was writing this down, it was just, I was, my heart was eating this up. And I think it's gonna really bless you.

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Before the two applications, oh, before I give these two applications, let me say this. The phrase father of lights in that the word father points not only to God's creative power, it also points to his tender, loving mercies, to his tender care, to his creation.

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I love that. His compassions. So when James is saying that with the father of lights, there is no variation of shadow shifting, turning, he is drawing a comparison with the sun.

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I want you to think about this. He is, he's got this in mind. That's why he brings this out.

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Like the sun, we were talking about this earlier, God does not vary in his essential nature, which is light.

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See, he always is steadily light. No change whatsoever.

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No shifting of shadow with God. You can count on God. He will never be moved.

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He is God. Nothing can change him. God is always good, never changes.

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And on earth, we do not always experience the steady light of the sun, do we?

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But like this past week, we've experienced cloudy and rainy days.

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But does that mean the sun has changed? The sun's still there. It's still burning in its brightness.

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The clouds just covered it. And I want you to think of this. There's a scripture, I can't remember,

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I think it's Nahum. It says, the clouds are the dust of God's feet. Clouds is nothing to God.

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Our God is great. This little genie in a lamp that these people in churches are worshiping is another

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God. It's another God and another gospel. It's not all about their blessing and them and them and them.

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You read this book, it's about the glory of God. It's about God. And Jesus is the one that gets us up right to God, you see.

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So the changing seasons you have, we don't make the mistake of thinking that God has changed in any way in his essential goodness.

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He hasn't. His nature, his purpose towards his children are steady and they're steadfast.

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So we can trust in God at all times in every difficult circumstance. Spurgeon said this, the storms are faith's illuminators.

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The storms are faith's illuminators. It is and Spurgeon had some wisdom.

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He said this, to trust God in the light is nothing. But to trust him in the dark, that's faith.

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And that is so good. God is, and he said this, God is, and there's a song they wrote and this comes from Spurgeon.

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I didn't know this when I first heard that song. I said, I got a song about it. And actually he took the words of Spurgeon, made a song.

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I think he'd like that. Well, he says this, God is too good to be unkind. He's too wise to be mistaken.

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And when we cannot trace his hand, we must trust his heart. Isn't that good?

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And you can do that. Here's my first application to what I just said. Understanding God's attributes as revealed in his word is absolutely essential for you and me and our spiritual wellbeing and for the good of your soul and my soul.

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Understanding God's attributes as revealed in his word is absolutely essential for your spiritual wellbeing.

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What am I talking about? The single most important thing is that you and I must know

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God. Amen. Without that, life is vain. That's why we exist.

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The chief end of man is what? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Not just know about him, but know him.

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Know him intimately, but know him. And this is through knowing his son, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, through the new birth. And Jesus is both God and man.

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He's the one that bridges. There's no way we can get to a holy God unless we have

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Jesus. You see what I'm saying? That's man's religion. That's man's problem. He tries to attempt to go to God.

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How to get to God. How to work his way to God. But isn't it wonderful? Christianity is what

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God has done for us. He comes to us. He comes down to us. And that's what he did in Jesus.

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Emmanuel, God with us. And that's the gospel. Christ comes to us. Jesus said he is the way, the truth, and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through him. He is the mediator. He's the only mediator.

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The man, Christ Jesus, that can bring us to God and the

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Father. Jesus prayed this in John 17, three. And this is eternal life. That they, who's they?

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The elect may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ.

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You get that? And Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Jesus was the great missionary.

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And the greatest. So first and foremost is knowing God through Christ, not that we may conceive him or wish him to be, but as he has revealed himself through the

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Bible, the word of God. You know, I've heard many professing liberal Christians say, well, you know, my

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God's not a God of judgment and wrath. He's a God of love. Have you heard that?

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He's good. He won't send nobody to hell. He will not do that. Well, if that's the kind of small

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G you have, and that's a God of all love and no justice and wrath, then their

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God is not the God of the Bible. It's a God of their own making. It's a God of their own imagination.

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It's an idol. He's a God of their own making. But the

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God of the Bible is both a God of judgment and a God of love. Period.

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No argument. That's not Pastor David. Let God be true. And every man found liar.

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Beloved, you know what that means? All of us are wrong. Come on, man. Hey, I'm telling, let me say this.

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Tozer had it right. His philosophy was this. Everything's wrong until God sets it right.

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You know why he said that? Because only God is right. This is the only truth.

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Yes, right. So, hey, all of the world is guilty before God.

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That's what Paul says. None righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come, what?

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Short of the glory of God. No, hey, you can't argue with God.

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God's gonna be the one get it right. It doesn't matter what people think. They're wrong. You know what it means?

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God is right in everyone in the whole entire world and the universe. If there's people on other planets, which

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I don't believe. But God is focused on this little planet Earth. But you know, think about Romans 11, 22.

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Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity toward you. Goodness, if you continue in his goodness.

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Wow, don't you love that? There must be a continuation of God's goodness in God's goodness.

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Otherwise, you also will be cut off. That doesn't mean you're gonna lose your salvation. MacArthur says this, all of God's attributes work in harmony.

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There's no conflict between his goodness and love and his justice and wrath. Those who accept his gracious offer of salvation experience his goodness and those who reject it experiences severity, end quote.

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There's nothing in between here. No straddling the fence. So in the context, those who fell,

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Paul's speaking about the unbelieving Jews. You see that. And those who reject

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God's offer of salvation bring upon themselves utter spiritual ruin. That's to the context.

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He's not talking about losing your salvation. If you continue, there is a persevering.

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You know, a lot of people may see this verse in the negative. I see it in the positive because God's people, the elect, will continue.

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They make it to the end. If I'm saved, then God's gonna sanctify me and then he's gonna eventually glorify me.

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I will make it, you will make it if you are born again of the spirit of God. Faith always perseveres to the end.

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So how can we understand more who God is? First, read the

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Bible over and over and over again. Saturate yourself with the Bible, meditate on it, memorize it, renew your mind.

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Spend time, treasure it, desire it, love it, make it your source of food. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

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And by doing this will help you have a firm foundation. Joshua 1 .8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.

01:00:02

You shall what? Meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all, not some, that is written in it.

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For then, you get that? You will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

01:00:20

That means, in other words, that God will bless you in that. And then he says, I love verse nine.

01:00:26

He gives a promise. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the

01:00:31

Lord your God is with you wherever you go. God's with you. This is a parallel too to Psalm 1, 1 through 3.

01:00:38

I'm not going to go there, but in your devotional time, you know what it says about the one that will bear fruit.

01:00:45

He meditates day and night. That's his delight is the word of God. God's word is our ultimate delight.

01:00:54

My last application is very similar. I got to make this quick. Interpreting your circumstance, and this is important.

01:01:03

Interpreting your circumstances in the light of God's attributes is very important, absolutely essential for your spiritual well -being and for the good of your soul.

01:01:13

What do I mean by that? Interpreting. Okay, we must know God, but then when trials hit us, we have to process what we know in light of our difficult situation.

01:01:26

And what I mean by that statement is this. By faith in God, by trust in God and his word, we must know what is to be true.

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That will be your foundation of everything that hits you in life.

01:01:43

I'm telling you, I don't know, and we don't know what tomorrow holds. Jesus said, the day is sufficient thereof for the evil.

01:01:50

We will not have to worry about tomorrow. Take it day by day, but let me say this. I don't know what path

01:01:56

God has for each and every one of us, but whatever comes your way and what God's ordained, it can be tough.

01:02:05

And what I mean by this, it's not necessarily to be according to our own opinion and our interpretation that matters.

01:02:12

It's what God says, and that's what you gotta take. You gotta take God's perspective and put it in your brain.

01:02:19

You see what I'm saying? You've got to allow the Holy Spirit, and as you read the word of God, this is what

01:02:25

God meant by this, and this is truth, and truth stands, whether I like it or not, and believe me, there's some hard commands in here, and it tears into the flesh.

01:02:34

It hits hard, but we must say this is what God says, and it's true. It endures forever.

01:02:41

Nothing's gonna change it. Might as well obey it, because you're not gonna fight against God and win. This flows to us in a personal, living way.

01:02:51

We have to rehearse ourselves through the lens of Scripture. So, I'm trying to land this plane now, so what we know to be true, maybe a hundred times a day, okay?

01:03:03

This is why it's important. Let me give you an illustration. Very important. It's critical to get the gospel right. Saturate yourself with the word of God.

01:03:11

Read the gospels. Read the Bible. Read it over. Get its interpretation.

01:03:18

Make sure I'm interpreting it right. Be the kind of Christians, the Bereans were, that they searched the

01:03:24

Scriptures daily whether those things were so. The psalm, and one example

01:03:31

I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of the psalms, the psalmist. Let's look at this in conclusion here.

01:03:36

Most of the time, it's David, the sweet singer of Israel, had a heart after God. He rehearses himself.

01:03:43

He encourages himself in the Lord. You see through the psalms, he pours himself out before God. He knows about God's character, his covenant promises, but there are many other psalmists as well, and by the end of the psalm, if you notice, the circumstances necessarily haven't changed.

01:03:58

If they're in trouble, they come to God, their focus is on the trouble, but then that changes.

01:04:04

His attitude and emotions change dramatically and radically by the end of the chapter.

01:04:10

Why? Because he has interpreted his circumstances in the light of who

01:04:15

God is, and he has changed. We see this time and time again.

01:04:22

We change by the word of God and His power, not by His own power, but let's give an illustration here.

01:04:29

Go with me very quickly in closing here. Psalm, look at Psalm 42. This is just an illustration, and I thought of this.

01:04:38

Psalm 42 and 43. Now, these two psalms literally are connected.

01:04:44

They're like brothers and sisters. They go together. It's like one huge prayer.

01:04:51

The translators divided it up, but really, Psalm 42 and 43 is so connected, you can't really disconnect it by chapters.

01:05:02

They did this for our benefit, but I want you to notice something very quickly with me, and I think you'll like it as I land this plane.

01:05:12

Notice with me in these two chapters, there's a refrain. The refrain is a rehearsal, okay? The psalm is a psalm.

01:05:21

It's given to the sons of Corin, I believe, the musician, and we don't know,

01:05:27

I don't think it's David here, but in this particular two chapters, the psalmist is talking to himself.

01:05:35

He's rehearsing it, and I want you to notice this in verse, look at verse five of chapter 42.

01:05:43

Why are you cast down, O my soul? What a question. He's talking to himself.

01:05:48

He's meditating. Why are you cast down? You ever ask yourself, why am I cast down? What's wrong with me?

01:05:55

And why are you disquieted within me? And then he answers himself, in the hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

01:06:09

So you notice what he's doing. These words are repeated in verse 11, and here in next chapter 43, five, the psalmist reminds himself that one day he will experience a new presence of God, and the end, and his hope is in the

01:06:24

Lord, and will not be misplaced. Now, there's three verses that go right to it, and there's a little difference here

01:06:34

I'd like for you to see, but notice in the last, look at verse 11.

01:06:39

Why are you cast down, O my soul? The same thing. And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my

01:06:51

God. Verse five of chapter 43. Why are you cast down,

01:06:56

O my soul? Same thing. Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my

01:07:08

God. What's the difference between those three verses? They're identical except for one, one small word.

01:07:16

Verse five of chapter 42. For the help of his countenance,

01:07:24

God's countenance. Do you see what he's doing? In the light of God's countenance, his countenance has changed.

01:07:34

You see that? Verse 11, verse five of chapter 43.

01:07:40

He ends it with the help of my countenance and my God. The help of my countenance, but if you notice in verse five of chapter 42, for the help of his countenance.

01:07:53

You see, God's countenance changes everything. God's countenance will change your countenance.

01:08:01

Well, you know something? A commentator said this, rehearsing the truth about God before him over and over again is so important.

01:08:11

Self -communing is a major refrain of these two Psalms. As commentator Kidner says, it is an important dialogue between the two aspects of the believer who is at once a man of convictions and a creature of change.

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He is called to live in eternity. His mind is stayed on God, but also in time, now this is us, in time where mind and body are under pressures that cannot and should not leave him impassive.

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And he gives a scripture, John 12, 27. Jesus said, now is my soul troubled. Jesus said that.

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The Psalmist refrains, teaching us to take seriously both aspects of our existence. There is no hint that his distress was avoidable on the one hand, for it arose out of his love, or endurable on the other, for it did not shake his faith, end quote.

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I couldn't help but think of this. Here, through the trials, God has allowed and ordained for you and me to test our faith.

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Our complete faith and trust in God, in God alone through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages is what's gonna count.

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Our faith must rest in the truth and in God and God alone, period.

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And what the word of God says, and who God is, and in the facts about who God is, and declared in his word, in his truth, he's good, his mercy endures forever.

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An old hymn writer, William Cooper, said this, God moves in mysterious ways. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.

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He plants his footsteps in the sea, he rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds and never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will.

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Judge not the Lord by his feeble sense, by feeble sense, I'm sorry, but trust him for his grace.

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Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfold in the midst of the storm.

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His words are bolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.

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Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain.

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God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. I love that, let's pray.

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Father in heaven, we thank you for this time we've spent together and to your word.

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Lord, I pray that you're glorified. May we take some of these truths home. May we remember a lot of these truths.

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Lord, we do forget them quite often, but Lord, help us to remember that you're good always, and you love us always, and you do call us and command us to repent.

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That's a gift, faith is a gift. These are gifts from you, and we thank you for them, to bring us to salvation and bring us to yourself.

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I think about the great song, some through the water, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood.

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Help us, Lord, to trust in you. Give us grace to trust in you alone and not put our trust in princes.

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We need your grace, Lord, to help us in every day and every hour, every second from beginning to end.

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It's all of your grace in this life's journey. Grace and grace alone. Grace began us and grace will end us.

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So help us, Lord, to set our affections in minds above where Christ is, who is our all in all.

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I cannot help but think about Amy Carmichael, Lord, or this godly woman that laid her life down on the mission field, and she wrote such a beautiful prayer.

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And Lord, may this be our prayer today. Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire.