Introduction

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

• Last week we talked about the first half of verse 17… Every good and perfect gift is from God.
  • And a what sermon that was…
  • In it I urged all of us to stop saying good things could come from anywhere other than God…
    • To stop saying “Not every good thing is a God thing”.
    • And instead to change our mindset to “If it’s not from God, it’s not good!”
      • Because God is not simply the Best option out of a variety of good options.
      • Doing thing’s God’s way is not “the best option out of a variety of good options”
      • In fact, obeying God is the only good option, living for God is the only good option, the gifts from God are the only good gifts…
        • Everything else is a distraction, a deception designed to tear you away from your creator!
  • And the church really seemed to receive that part of the message really, really well!
    • In fact, I had one brother text me “I got a job offer right after your sermon, and now I know not to make a pro’s and con’s list, but instead to seek the will of God!”
• I am so blessed the church received that well, because I was concerned that there would be hurt or push back because the mantra “Not every good thing is a God thing” has become commonplace.
• Then there was the second half of the sermon, where we focused on the opposite end of the spectrum… 
  • Saying “God only gives good and perfect gifts”…
  • I made the bold claim “God does not send saints in good standing suffering, pain, sickness, or affliction”.
    • Let me say that again, because it’s important “God does not send saints in good standing suffering, pain, sickness, or affliction”.
      • Meaning: If you are a born again Christian and you are not living in sin, then God is NOT going to cause you sickness, or pain, or affliction.
• This morning, as we talk about the second half of James 1:17, we are going to clear up some confusion that arose from this point… and then we are going to double down on how glorious it is that God is always good!

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

• The word “change” here is translated from the Greek word par-al-lag-ay (παραλλαγή).
  • Now, what is interesting about the word Par-al-lag-ay is that it is not found ANYWERE else in the Bible. This verse, right here is the only place it is used.
    • Now when we are trying to study what a Biblical word means, normally the first thing we do is check how it is used in other Bible verses… but we can’t do that here…
    • So, the next step is to see how is it used in antiquity, how do other ancient documents from around the same time period use this word?
    • And when we do that we find out that this word, Par-al-lag-ay, is an atrological word…
      • It means “Orbit”.
        • It is used to talk about the phases of the moon based it and the earths orbit of the sun.
        • It is used to talk about the phases of seasons based on earths orbit.
        • It is used to talk about the phases of night and day, based on the earths rotation.
    • Believe it or not, the Bible actually teaches that the earth is round, and we see it right here in James 1:17… we actually see that in a lot of places… just in case you wondered if we are flat earthers, we are not…
  • But, James uses the orbit of the earth around the sun and the earths rotation to explain what God is and is not Like.

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

• God is the Father of lights! So He is like the Sun. The source of Light.
  • There is no shadows on the Sun.
    • The Sun doesn’t decide to be bright one moment and dark the next.
      • It is not like the sun stops shinning for 12 hours a day to give us night time.
  • No matter what time of day it is, no matter what season of the year… the sun is still the sun, and it is still shinning brightly.
• Now the earth on the other hand… it rotates… on the earth there ARE shadows due to change… one moment you are facing the sun and it is daytime… but then the earth continues to rotate… and shadows start to be cast… and before too long you can’t see the sun anymore and it is night time…
  • That’s not the suns fault…
    • The sun did not create the shadows, the sun did not create the darkness…
    • No, the change created the shadows, the change created the darkness, the change created the night.
      • The earth rotated, the earth changed, the sun stayed the same…
• That brings me to my first point this morning… The shadows are not from God.

Point One – The Shadows are Not from God

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

• Last week when I preached everyone seemed really encouraged by the first point, that God is the only source of good.
  • But some confusion arose from the second point, that nothing bad comes from God.
• So our first point this morning, that the Shadows are not From God, is going to serve as a recap of that point and hopefully adds some clarity to that point.
• To begin with though, as we talk about the fact that the Shadows are not from God… the dark spots are not from God… the pain and the suffering is not from God… I want to first make a few points crystal clear, because some people missed this last week so I want to make sure I don’t leave any room for confusion, and I apologize about that if I left you confused last week… so some points of clarity… when I say that God does not cause suffering, that the shadows are not from God, I don’t mean that Christians will not experience suffering…
  • Christians will still experience suffering and affliction.

Psalms 34:19 ESV  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

• Experiencing suffering does not mean you are outside the will of God.

2 Timothy 3:12 ESV Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

• God allows Christians to suffer, but even in this there is grace.

1 Peter 2:19 ESV  For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

• God uses these hardships to grow us.

Romans 8:28 ESV And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

• God is not the cause or source of these hardships.

James 1:2-3 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  (3)  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

James 1:13 ESV  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

James 1:16-17 ESV  Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.  (17)  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

• I had a slide made with these points just to be clear:
  • Christians will still experience suffering and affliction. (Psalm 34:19)
  • Experiencing suffering does not mean you are outside the will of God. (2 Timothy 3:12)
  • God allows Christians to suffer, but even in this there is grace. (1 Peter 2:19)
  • God uses these hardships to grow us. (Romans 8:28)
  • God is not the cause or source of these hardships. (James 1:2-17)
• And you know that second to last point is particularly beautiful, Romans 8:28 is particularly beautiful when you get this point of theology down…

Romans 8:28 ESV And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

• Now if you have slightly off theology, if you are just slightly wrong on this you might look at this verse and say “God has given me this shadow… this sickness, this calamity… whatever…” you might say “God has given me this sickness in order to use it to grow me, to produce character, and steadfastness, and faithfulness, and hope. God has given me this bad thing to use it for my own good”.
  • And that sounds well enough… and you are so close, because suffering does produce endurance, which produces character, which produces hope… and God sure does use our suffering for our good…
  • And sounds so beautiful. But if you get this right, it is so much more beautiful:
• The correct way to look at Romans 8:28 is this “Satan has caused me this suffering (because we know that God only gives good gifts and in Him there is no shadow) Satan has caused me this suffering in order to bring me down, to slow me down, to weaken my resolve, to tempt me to curse God… BUT… God has taken what Satan has given me and is using it for my good
  • What Satan meant to tear me down, God is using to build me up.
  • What Satan meant to weaken me, God is using to strengthen me.
  • What Satan meant to cause me Sorrow, God has turned into pure joy!

James 1:2-4 ESV  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  (3)  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  (4)  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

• Satan causes it, God uses it.
  • Sin causes it… God uses it.
  • Evil people cause it… God uses it.
  • The cursed and fallen world causes it… God uses it.
    • God doesn’t cause it, in order to use it… but He doesn’t allow it to go to waist either! And that’s a beautiful thing.
• Now after I preached last weeks sermon, I got the flu… influenza A to be precise…
  • I got it, my wife got it, my 8 year old got it on his birthday, my 6 year old daughter got it, and my 8 month old daughter got it.
    • Not only that but Pastor Jared and His wife and 5 year old got it…
    • I texted him and was like “what the heck”
      • And he texted back “Bro you literally told Satan to “Bring it” from the pulpit on Sunday and he was like “bet”.
    • I was texting brother Eric Hartmann this week, he and one of his kids were sick too… I was like “What is going on”
      • And Eric texted back “Satan is throwing a tantruam… like a three year old not getting their way”
        • Amen Eric, that is exactly right…
• This is what I want church, I want us to put our crosshairs on Satan. I want SATAN, not God, to have the target on his back.
  • THE SUN DOES NOT CAUSE DARKNESS, the change of the earth, it’s rotation causes darkness.
  • GOD DOES NOT CAUSE SUFFERING… the change of man and the enemy… our sin and his sin, and others sin… causes suffering and sickness and pain.
• No one more final point of clarity, because there was a lot of confusion about this…
• What is the difference between God causing something to happen and God allowing something to happen?
• Is God allowing you to be sick, when He could have stopped it, really any different than God causing you to be sick?
  • Yes there is a difference, and I will prove it to you.
    • Church, do you believe that God causes people to go to hell…
      • That it is not up to the person and their choices, but from creation God creates people to go to hell.
      • Do you believe that God causes people to go to Hell, or that people and their own individual choices and sin cause them to go to hell?
    • I think we can all agree that God does not cause people to go to hell, He is not the reason they are in hell… Amen?
      • But we can also agree that God allows people to go to hell.
      • He could make us all be robots, with no free will or decision making power… he could force us to love Him and obey Him. But He doesn’t, He allows us to chose.
        • And that means allowing us to sin, which means allowing us to pay the consequence of that sin, which means allowing us to go to hell.
  • So we can agree that God does not CAUSE people to go to hell but He does ALLOW people to go to hell, amen?!
    • Therefore there must be a substantial difference between causing and allowing… amen?!
      • Now, were that line is, and what that difference is, we could talk about and study for 100’s of years and not come to a firm conclusion, people much smarter than me have been arguing about it for centuries…
    • But we can agree that there is a difference…
• Therefore we can be a church that says “God does not cause suffering on those who love Him”.
  • We can do better than Job and his friends did… and instead of blaming God, we can blame Satan.
    • WE WON’T BE A CHURCH THAT SAYS GOD GIVES BABIES SICKNESSES!
    • God was not up in heaven last week thinking “What should I do today? I know, I will give little 8 month old Esther Sue a fever of 104 to teach her some endurance!
    • NO NO NO NO.
      • We don’t believe that at this church, we don’t teach that at this church… We will be a church of firm theology that Honors God as good! because God is the source of good! Because there is no darkness in HIM.
• He is the Father of Lights!

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Point Two – God Hasn’t Changed, God Doesn’t Change, God Won’t Change

• Point two this morning is that God hasn’t changed.
  • God hasn’t changed, God doesn’t change, and God won’t change.

Malachi 3:6a ESV “For I the Lord do not change…”

Numbers 23:19a ESV God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind…

Hebrews 13:8 ESV Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

• GOD HASN’T CHANGED! GOD DOESN’T CHANGE, GOD WON’T CHANGE.
  • If you are struggling with all of this…
    • And trust me I still struggle with this…
  • If you are struggling with this, then this point is for you.
    • And listen, church, I have been studying for the past two years about the character of God, and slowly God has been changing my theology into believing that He is good, and only good, and always good… and that He doesn’t want us to suffer or be sick or be in pain or have sorrow.
    • Slowly He has been showing me that I have been deceived in little ways, here and there, and it has effected me…
      • And that has taken me two years of intensive study to come to some of these conclusions, so I don’t expect a couple of 45 minute sermons to change people over night…
    • But this point is so beautifully simple that I think it clears everything up.
• GOD HASN’T CHANGED! GOD DOESN’T CHANGE, GOD WON’T CHANGE.
  • When you are struggling with the character of God…
    • Why does God allow suffering and pain?
    • What is the difference between God causing and God allowing?
    • Does God want me to suffer?
  • These are big time questions… but they can be answered like this…
• GOD HASN’T CHANGED! GOD DOESN’T CHANGE, GOD WON’T CHANGE.
  • How does that answer these questions pastor?
    • Because, I can study the Character of God in a much simpler time… and if it was true of Him then, it is true of Him now.
• We can examine the Character of God before there was sin in the world… before Satan brought temptation, before Eve feel to temptation, before Adam and Eve sinned… and we can see the character of God.
  • Whatever question you are asking “Does God do this?” you can ask “Did God do this to Adam and Eve”.
  • Because God’s Character doesn’t change.
• God was good in the garden of Eden, before the fall… wasn’t He?
  • God is good now!
• God didn’t cause Adam and Eve to get sick in order to grow their Character.
  • God didn’t do it then, He doesn’t do it now.
• God didn’t need sorrow, or suffering, or pain, or calamity to use as tools to shape Adam and Eve…
  • God didn’t do it then, He doesn’t do it now.
• No in the Garden, His word and His fellowship was enough.
  • His Word and His fellowship are enough for us now.
• GOD HASN’T CHANGED.
  • Now the reality is, there is suffering and there is pain, and there is calamity.
    • Now what does that say about God’s character? NOTHING! Because God hasn’t changed. God remains good.
    • SO GOOD, that as Romans 8:28 teaches, HE USES THOSE THINGS FOR OUR GOOD.
      • He uses them, yes, He doesn’t let them go to waist, but He does not create them.
      • God doesn’t create the shadows, but God doesn’t waste them either.
• But listen, you want to know the character of God… simply ask “What was His character in the Garden”… or you can ask “What is His character in New Jerusalem… when we spend eternity with Him?”

Revelation 21:3-4 ESV  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  (4)  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

• He will wipe away every tear, death will be no more, no more pain or mourning, or crying…
  • Now some people talk about pain and mourning and crying like they are good things…
  • But if that is the case why would God take them away in heaven.
    • Pain, sorrow, crying, mourning, death… THESE ARE BAD THINGS. THESE ARE DARK THINGS.
    • These are not things that God give’s to His saints… these are things God TAKES AWAY from His saints.
      • Again, we are talking about Christians not living in sin…
        • God will pour out His wrath on you if you are living in sin, do not get me wrong…
    • But pain, sickness, mourning, crying, death… these are things God never gave in the garden before sin, and these are things God takes away in heaven after sin is no more.
  • So when we look at the character of God in the garden we see no pain, no sickness, no calamity coming from God.
  • And when we look at the character of God in Heaven after sin is no more we se no pain, no sickness, no calamity…
• The same God who walked with and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden…
• And the same God who will walk with and talk with you forever in Heaven…
  • This is the same God who walks with and talks with you today.
    • He hasn’t changed.
• Whatever you are going through dear saint…
  • Whatever pain…
  • Whatever sorrow…
  • I don’t know the depths of the hardships that have been thrown on your life…
  • I don’t know the depths of the pain and the hurt…
  • The tears and the sorrow…
  • The sickness and the suffering…
  • Whatever you are going through, please know that God is with you, not against you.
    • Yes He will use these things to grow you… He will use these things for your good.
    • Yes He allows them to happen and it is hard to understand why sometimes…
    • But these awful things, they are not His fault.
      • He did not give them in the garden, and He will take them away in heaven.
        • HE HAS NEVER STOPPED BEING GOOD.
        • HE HAS NEVER STOPPED SHINNING.
        • JUST BECAUSE IT IS NIGHT TIME, DOES NOT MEAN THE SUN HAS LOST IT’S GLORIOUS LIGHT.

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Conclusion

• So what do we do with this message?
  • And how does it help us with other hard questions…
    • I mean, I am not living in sin, I am living holier than I probably ever have… yet I was sicker than a dog all week… why?
    • My daughter is 8 months old, I rebuked her fever… it didn’t leave… why?
  • Why is it that I can pray over a blind man in east Timor and see him miraculously healed…
    • And pray over my daughters fever and get nothing…
  • Why can I pray for the backs of 15 different men and see them all miraculously healed…
    • And I pray over my back and it still hurts?
• And the answer is… I don’t know…
• I don’t know why some days Paul’s handkerchiefs would be enough to heal people…
  • And yet other days Paul has a thorn in His flesh that even his own prayers don’t heal.
• I don’t know why on one day Paul is bitten by a viper which should have killed him, but it didn’t effect him at all…
  • And yet on another day Paul is being beheaded by Nero.
• Man I don’t know, I don’t know the answer to all these questions… but I know this. GOD HASN’T CHANGED.
  • He is still good, He is still every molecule of good there could ever be.
  • And His will in heaven is that I would not be sick, nor in pain, or sorrow…
  • And His Son, Jesus Christ, told me when asked how to pray to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
    • THEREFORE WHEN I PRAY I WILL PRAY ACORDING TO GOD’S WILL IN HEAVEN.
      • I will pray that I am not sick, and that you are not sick, and that we do not have to suffer anymore.
      • God hasn’t changed so my prayers aren’t going to change…
      • And if you get sick, or calamity comes… I will pray against that sickness..
      • God hasn’t changed so my prayers aren’t going to change…
      • And if you don’t get better and the calamity doesn’t go away… I will continue to pray against that sickness and that calamity…
      • God hasn’t changed so my prayers aren’t going to change…
      • I will continue to pray boldly in faith.
      • And somedays my shadow will heal people.
      • And other days His grace will be sufficient.
        • But I will always know this:  That God is good… all the time… and all the time… God is good!
• Gospel Call quick.
• (All Church Meeting in 15 minutes After Blessing)

Aaronic Blessing