The Giver Who Never Changes

An old preacher was once asked in an interview to share an unforgettable memory from all the countries he had visited and the sermons he had preached. Without taking long, he answered that he could never forget a certain old pulpit. When he walked into the church, there it stood, and stuck to it was a small note — a request from the congregation to whoever would preach. It read simply, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” The old preacher said he took a moment and asked, “Lord, help me to present you well today.” That is my prayer as I stand before you. You do not need a man’s voice; you need God’s voice. And your request to me, I trust, is the same: sir, we want to see Jesus, we want to hear his voice.

Our text is James chapter one, verses sixteen to eighteen. “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” Let us pray. Lord, what we know not, teach us today; what we have not, give us today; what we are not, make us — so that all of us would testify that God was present, that he spoke, and that we will walk out saying, God has blessed me with a word and I can face my tomorrows. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Before we explore these three verses, it helps to understand the man who wrote this letter. It is only five chapters, yet there is no compromise in it — around fifty imperatives, fifty commands. For James everything is black or white; there is no gray area. A word he keeps returning to is “perfect”: you who want to be perfect, suffering makes you perfect. The Christian life, for him, is about pursuing a perfect God and becoming like him. Read the five chapters in one sitting and something else leaps out: the Sermon on the Mount. Many themes from Matthew five to seven echo through James.

And who was this man? In the earthly ministry of Jesus, this is James, the half-brother of the Lord — James and Jesus growing up under one roof. Yet what was his opinion of Jesus? In John chapter seven, verse five, we read that his own brothers did not believe in him. Jesus would rise in the morning to proclaim the heavenly manna to the people, and his brother James would say, I don’t believe this. People came with testimonies — your brother prayed and my blind eye was opened — and James, as we read in Mark chapter three, verse twenty-one, would say, he is out of his mind; my brother is out of his mind. Think of the tension in that house, and of Mary wondering how she would ever convince this son that his half-brother was the Son of God in human flesh.

But then turn to Acts chapter one, verse fourteen. There, after Jesus had appeared, you find this same James gathered with Mary and the others in prayer. What happened to him? The skeptic who doubted everything God was doing, the man who said, I have nothing to do with Jesus, is now in the prayer meeting. In Acts chapter twelve, verse seventeen, when Peter comes out of prison, the first thing he says is, please tell James that I am out. James had become such a leader that he pastored the Jerusalem church for thirty years. In Acts chapter twenty-one, verses eighteen and nineteen, at the close of Paul’s third missionary journey, Paul reports to James all that God had done through him. In Galatians chapter one, verse nineteen, Paul says that on his first visit to Jerusalem, three years after his conversion, he saw no other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. And in Galatians chapter two, verse nine, after fourteen years, Paul describes James as a pillar of the church alongside Peter and John. The skeptic, the confused man, had become a pillar.

What is this magic? My dear brothers and sisters, I want you to believe that we serve a God who encounters people. If you are praying for someone — a friend, a father, a brother — if you have shared the gospel, handed out the pamphlets, given the invitations, and still nothing has happened, believe today that the Lord who appeared to James is the same God yesterday, today, and forever, and expect a miracle in answer to your prayer according to the will of God. For the secret of James is nothing other than that one verse, 1 Corinthians fifteen, verse seven, where Paul writes that Jesus appeared to James, and then to the apostles. That appearance, that encounter, turned a skeptic into a pillar and a confused man into a leader.

Now look again at verse sixteen: “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.” Remember, this is a seasoned pastor who shepherded the Jerusalem church for thirty years, and he is writing to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations — a symbolic way of speaking of the restored Israel, the church at large, scattered abroad. As a senior leader he goes straight to the core issue of Christianity, then and now, here and now. What is that issue? Don’t be deceived. We are so careful in the material world — with our currency, our investments, our decisions we take counsel after counsel because we do not want to be deceived. But when it comes to church, to spirituality, to discipleship, James says, don’t be deceived. And he is not writing to unbelievers or to outsiders. He is writing to the restored Israel — people who said they believe in Jesus, who are baptized and speaking in tongues. To them he says, don’t be deceived.

And this is not the only time. In verse nineteen he says again, my dear brothers and sisters. In verse twenty-two he says, do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. In verse twenty-six he says that those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves. For James it is all about thinking straight. Are there areas in our lives where we are deceived?

What deception is James writing about? Verse sixteen is a response to the paragraph before it. Verses thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen form one unit, and verses sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen answer it. Look at verse thirteen: when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. So often we are deceived because Scripture is not alive in front of us. To grasp this fully we have to step back to the original language. The same Greek root — peirasmos, from the verb peirazo — lies behind two different English words here. Its first appearance is in verse two: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” That word “trials” is the very word translated “tempted” in verse thirteen. Verse three speaks of the testing of your faith; trials are tests. Verse twelve says, blessed is the one who perseveres under trial. The same Greek word can be rendered trial or temptation depending on the context. On one side it is a test that approves you and takes you to the next level; on the other side it can be something that destroys. It depends on who is facing it.

Sometimes we believers think that once we have accepted Jesus, taken water baptism, and spoken in tongues, life will be a bed of roses — that we once worshiped idols but now we worship a kind of superman who will shield us from every disease and every financial trouble and grant us smooth sailing. Then suffering hits, and the questions come: Where is God? I decided to serve the Lord, so why did this happen to me? What is wrong with me? Others are getting jobs and doing well — how is God helping me? Trials come, but they are mistaken for temptation. People think God is not behind the trial, that it is the devil’s temptation which God is permitting in order to destroy them.

Another English translation makes verse thirteen plain: “No one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God. No one who is undergoing a test should say, God is against me.” My dear people of God, I do not know where you are in your personal and Christian life, but yesterday evening and this morning I had a strong urge in my spirit to tell you this. Some of us carry the question deep within: why me? It was meant to be a trial, a test, for your good and God’s glory — but we believed a lie and told ourselves, God is tempting me, something is wrong with me. Read verse thirteen again: no one undergoing a test should say, God is tempting me. And the next sentence settles it: God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

Then why are we sometimes made to think, I am tempted, this trial is destroying me? Verse fourteen answers: each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Whether what comes to us is a trial or a temptation depends on our inward disposition. The trouble with many believers is that we profess Christ, but the inward transformation has not happened. Our dreams, ambitions, and affections are still shaped like the world’s. We look at colleagues, friends, neighbors, and relatives, and we say, I want to rise like them; I am praying and fasting, take me to greater heights — and when something does not go well, we conclude, God is against me. But if the inward transformation has truly happened, we will never look at a trial and call it a temptation sent to destroy us. The test that comes is there to prove who we are and to strengthen our spiritual muscles. Delays and setbacks are not a sign that God has abandoned you. God wants you to be a witness to the world, declaring through it all that your God lives and reigns.

Set verses thirteen to fifteen beside sixteen to eighteen and you see the contrast. In verse fourteen there is desire entertained even after the new-birth experience — high ambitions and dreams shaped like the world. That leads to sin in verse fifteen, where desire conceives and gives birth to sin: the shortcuts, the fake certificates, the ways we grasp to climb the ladder of success like the world. And sin, full-grown, gives birth to death. Entertaining a desire that is not from the Lord, a desire born in carnality, can cost us everything — spiritual death.

So our text is a response: don’t be deceived. And the deception is precisely the thought that my God is not for me, that my God is against me, that my God is not fair. We do not measure the goodness of God by what we ate yesterday or by what we are wearing today. We measure his goodness by looking at the cross and saying: I was a sinner, unreconciled to the living God, doomed to hell; but because of his sacrifice I am reconciled, adopted, bought with a price — you are a good God. Our praise should not be influenced or silenced by our circumstances. We worship because we are chosen and selected by God, not to be affluent or powerful, but to be with him and to exemplify the character of Christ here and now. So do not, after the new birth, go on carrying an unregenerated heart and the lie that God is not with you. Have contentment. Live with what you have, trust him for your tomorrow, and there you will find a joy and a peace that passes all understanding.

Why does James write this to the twelve tribes, to Jerusalem and the other churches? Their situation was very different from many of the testimonies of our day. They were a poor messianic community, economically poor and undergoing suffering. After they accepted Christ, many had to sell their possessions and flee. James the brother of John, the son of Zebedee, was beheaded. Peter came out of prison only to flee Jerusalem. As James looks over the congregation he pastors, everyone has a story of what they lost and sacrificed — children who were meant to attend good schools but were persecuted, families who had to run away. The Jerusalem church was a poor church. That is why Paul, everywhere he goes — in Romans fifteen, verse twenty-five, in Galatians two, verse ten, in 1 Corinthians sixteen — asks the churches to collect money for the poor believers in Jerusalem.

When financial freedom is not there, when you do not know how you will live or pay your dues or survive in the city, do not think God is against you. He can provide at the very point of our need. He taught us to pray for daily bread. When there is no bread in the refrigerator, pray for daily bread — otherwise, at some point, we will begin to question whether our God is good, saying, I cannot afford this, I cannot afford that. The trials of many kinds that James speaks of in verses two, twelve, and thirteen include economic trials, the very poverty of the Jerusalem believers. Somewhere they were asking: we took a step to follow Jesus, and God is not good; he is tempting us. And James says, do not be deceived. God is not against you. God is for you.

Then something else unbelievable surfaces in this congregation. From chapter two, verse one, we learn they were showing favoritism in the church: believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes. They would look at the rich man and say, how God has blessed you — and then envy him, wanting to become like him by hook or by crook, through fasting and prayer and deliverance meetings. It was imprinted on their hearts that great wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, and that because God was not letting them have such possessions, God must be against them and unfair. And it showed in the church: the rich were honored and the poor were not. So in chapter two, verse five, James says, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world? Think like God. How can you discriminate against and dishonor the poor when God has chosen them? Never discriminate on the basis of economic status.

James does not mince his words — the radical transformation of a man who had an encounter comes straight at you. In chapter four he says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? If you have had a new-birth experience, then let God transform your desires, so that you will not give birth to death but to discipleship in your daily living. When we are not transformed from the inside out, the result is double-mindedness. We come to church and sing hallelujah, but we step outside and the vocabulary changes, the thinking changes. You may sit in the meeting now and say, yes, God is in control, my trials are not temptations but tests to promote me and strengthen me — and by this very evening say, but why me, why us? Chapter one, verse eight describes such a person as double-minded and unstable in all they do. Before the youth leaders and others in church we might think this person is next to Jesus, but on Monday, in a different setting, you see a different vocabulary, because there is no deep transformation. Chapter three, verse nine reflects the same thing: with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings. When the mind is fixed on Jesus we praise; when it drifts to questioning God we curse. So James says in chapter four, verse eight: come near to God and he will come near to you; wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

My dear people of God, hear the voice of the Lord this morning. If there is any area in your life where you are double-minded — on one side thinking God allowed it, and on the other thinking it is not fair — the call is to trust the Lord completely and wholeheartedly. Let us believe he is a good God who does everything for our good and for his glory. But what were these believers thinking? In verse thirteen they were thinking God is tempting them. And in verse seventeen — the reason James insists that every good and perfect gift is from above — they were thinking the opposite: what God gives me is not good, not perfect, not complete. I wish God had given me that other job. Sometimes within a family, between husband and wife, this confusion begins — ten years into a marriage someone says, I had another proposal back then, I wish someone else had guided me into a different relationship. Don’t be deceived. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. If you are a child of God seeking after his will, never doubt in the dark what God has done in your life in the light. He is a good God; he cannot make a mistake with your life. Everything he blesses you with is good — it transforms us and brings glory to God — even when Satan tries to make us think it is not good.

Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights. The Christian life includes suffering. The people of Jerusalem and the surrounding churches were going through severe trials, and some of them came to church with no hallelujah in their mouths, because they thought God had made a mistake, that God had tempted them, that God was not constant and good but changing. That is why James says he will not change. Look at verse seventeen: he does not change like shifting shadows. Shadows shift; even our aunties and uncles change — they promise much and then change like shifting shadows — but our God does not change. He is unchanging, he is fair, he is good in all his ways. That is what gives us a deep adoration, so that even when I do not feel it today I can still declare, Lord, you are good, and your goodness endures forever.

Tim Keller reflected on what happens when things do not go the way we plan, even for believers. He said that no matter what precautions we take — with all our insurance and planning and scheming and investment — something will inevitably ruin it. But then he added something worth listening to carefully: you don’t really know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. When you reach the point where Jesus is all you have, that is when you truly know he is all you need. Where will my bread come from? It will come, if Jesus is there. Where will my healing come from? By his stripes we are healed. Yet at times God allows hardship — not as a temptation to destroy, but as a test. With all the fasting and prayer and consultation, with all the money spent, sometimes it still does not happen: the sickness is not cured, or a couple is married for years without children. Trust his ways. Trust his wisdom. Good and perfect gifts come from God, and God cannot make a mistake in your life.

I say this as a man who waited nine years to see our first child. Those nine years were hard, with questions all around me — something must be wrong with this man, you have to pray more, you have to do something. I have heard it many times. But looking back, we now know: you do not know God is all you need until you have only God. He is not a shifting shadow; he does not say one thing and do another; he makes no mistake. Those nine years were appointed by God to shape us, to draw us near to him, to let us taste the goodness of God beyond earthly things. He was good then, and now, with three children, he is still good. He is good forever. God has brought you here today to hear this word: do not be deceived into thinking God is making a mistake, and never think that God is tempting you.

Let me put it all together in three things to remember. First, beware of deception. God allows a trial, but Satan comes from the other side to whisper that God is not for you. Second, believe in the goodness of God. As verse seventeen says, every good and perfect gift is from above; he is a good God who will not change like shifting shadows. And third, as verse eighteen says, he chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. The word of God has been planted within us. In every trial we go back to that implanted word, and there it comes alive. Perhaps you have known moments like that — in despair or confusion you open the word of God, and it comes straight to you, because the word is implanted in us. We are to become what we have been called to be: the firstfruits of God.