November 2001 chaplain's corner

The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.

Chaplain's Corner - November 2001

Rev. Rich Hines

This message is primarily for those serving as correctional or rescue mission chaplains within the United States, and who call upon the name of Christ as their own Lord and Savior. It is for those who minister His gospel.

In this month's Chaplain's Corner, I want to speak to you chaplains - and through you to your inmates or residents -about thanking God, for all of His gracious and precious blessings.

The world wants to draw our attention away from the true God, the Creator of all things. It wants us to claim for ourselves the glory and take the credit for the good things we have. It tells us we ourselves or someone else (not the God revealed in the Bible, revealed most completely in Jesus Christ) is the source of our blessings.

Therefore, this month I want you to look with me at James 1:16-18, it says:

16 Do not be deceived (imperative), my beloved brethren.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His

creatures.

This passage breaks into two parts, a warning in verse 16 and then a presentation of God's gifts, including His life-giving word, in verses17,18.

First, let's look at the warning in verse 16. It's very simple and very strong.

16 Do not be deceived (present imperative passive voice), my beloved brethren.

The word "deceived" here means to be led astray. Sometimes we lie to ourselves and thereby deceive ourselves. At other times it's others that actively seek to lead us astray, to deceive us about the truth. The action here is that of a deception that was being done by others to the believers, rather than by themselves. For the verb "deceived" is in the passive voice and that means others were doing it to the brethren.

But there's also a command here to stop allowing others to keep on doing it to them, because the negative verb is also a present tense imperative.

Verse16 literally says "Stop being deceived, my beloved brethren!"

It is a command (present imperative passive voice). The form of the command means to stop an ongoing action. Putting it all together, what it's saying is "Stop allowing yourselves beloved brethren, to be deceived by others."

Then in verses 16,17 we see what the first century society was trying to deceive Christians about. Today Christians are still being deceived about these same things. The world was and is trying to deceive people about the Source of blessings. This is nothing new. Almost one hundred forty years ago our President, Abraham Lincoln, when he set about to establish the national holiday of Thanksgiving, wrote the following words as part of his Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and persevering grace, too proud to pray to God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people."

What was true in the earliest New Testament letter, James (45 AD) and in Lincoln's time (the 1860's) has been true in 2001. We have today as Lincoln wrote "forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our (own) hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own."

Theologically, the ideas held by society that Lincoln humbly described, and really was speaking against, are called humanism. Humanism centers in the idea that ultimately man is his own deliverer. His own savior. He has problems, but he can always come up with the solutions. If things go well - then we have ourselves to thank. That's wrong. In fact, it's sinful.

Over 2700 years ago, God said it like this:

"My people have committed two evils: they have forgotten Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves cisterns - broken cisterns that can hold no water." (Jer. 2:13).

And through James God says " Stop being deceived."

Normally, when there is a verse like this, the warning and command to not be deceived proceeds the subject others seek to deceive us about. Here are some examples:

Matt. 24:4,5 " Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name saying 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many."

Mark 13.5,6 is similar and in the same order "take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come.saying"

Luke 21:8 "And He said: 'Take heed that you not be deceived, for many shall come in My name, saying, 'I am He', and 'The time has drawn near.' Therefore do not go after them."

Whenever we read in the Scripture "Do not be deceived," we are to assume the presence of deceivers. This is not theoretical, it is a warning, of the danger afoot to deceive us about the very truth that God then sets forth.

1 Cor 6:9

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (present imperative passive voice). Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor transvestites, nor sodomites (meaning homosexuals), nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Cor 15:33

Do not be deceived (present imperative passive voice): "Evil company corrupt good habits."

Gal 6:7

Do not be deceived (present imperative passive voice), God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

1 John 3.7,8

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who continually sins is of the devil, ...

But here, in James 1 the warning in verse 16 about letting others continue to deceive us goes both ways, backwards and forwards. That makes verse 16 the key verse in verses 13-18. Backwards, looking at verses 13-15, we are not to be deceived about the source of sin and about God's role in temptation.

Stop letting people tell you it's God's fault you get tempted and by extension when you yield, that you sin. Stop being deceived that God is to blame for your moral wrongdoing.

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God;" for God cannnot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.

14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown , brings forth death.

But as I have shown, looking forward we are also being warned to stop being deceived about the source of all blessing.

16 Stop being deceived, my beloved brethren. -

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His

creatures.

This passage then, really begins to talk about God's gifts -

We must not listen to the pride of the world that tells us we ourselves are the source of our own blessings. If we let the world, that is the society around us, wrongly influence us on this, we'll begin to think like they do.

I want to break down each phrase of verse 17 and 18 for you. Look again at verse17 .

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, "

"From above" is another way of saying, "from God." He is the true source of the gifts. God is good. That's His basic nature. He gives, and all his gifts are good. They are also perfect. In other words, what God has for us is always beneficial in its effect and lacking in nothing.

His gifts are complete. He completely meets the need of the recipients of His wonderful gifts. Verse 17 also focuses on two aspects of God as the Giver. The first use of the word "gift" in verse 17 denotes the act of giving, and the second speaks of the thing given. That means His acts of giving and the very things He gives - are all good and perfect. Not only is the Giver good, He is also all-powerful, incredibly intelligent, all-knowing and unchanging.

Here in verses 17,18 we must also begin to re-focus on God's wonderful works

In verse 17 God is called "the Father of lights." That means He is the Creator of all the starry hosts we see in the dark sky as glimmering lights. That's power. That's also all knowledge, omniscience.

Lastly, He's unchangeable or immutable. This verse tells us there is "no variation" with Him. That means He never changes from a course or pattern of direction. As He has been, so will He always be. He's faithful.

We can count on His sameness. Furthermore, James 1:17 says with God, the Creator of the stars, there is "no... shadow of turning (or shifting shadow)." The root word there has to do with a shadow cast on a sundial by the change of position of the sun in the sky as the day goes on.

The shadow on the face of the sundial is forced to change position by the action of the sun on it. But with God, there is nothing whatsoever that could act on Him and thereby force Him to change. Isn't that wonderful?

I want to ask you, what's your personal response to such a good God and His good gifts? Have you rejected what the world doesn't say about Him and would have you not believe about Him. Have you rejected what the world says about we ourselves or others being the source of our blessings?

Do you through Christ know and love Him who is the omnipotent, omniscient, Creator - as well as the immutable, sovereign source of salvation and eternal life for repentant sinners, who in faith turn to Christ?

Of all the wonderful works of God, the salvation of sinners is even more wonderful than creation.

Look at verse 18

"Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."

That's talking about salvation. The personal spiritual new birth of both James and most of the people he wrote to, and by extension our own personal salvation, if we're born of God. It is also talking about God's sovereignty. Look at it.

The cause of the blessed gift of new life and forgiveness, of salvation - is not the receiver's goodness. As sinners we have none, "There is none who does good, no, not one" (Rom. 3:12). The cause of this salvation is God's goodness and determinate will.

In the New Testament, there are primarily two words that get translated in English versions as "will." One actually means desire or what someone wants or wishes was so. The other word is stronger, and means determination, a deliberate design, that which is purposed. That's the word used in James 1:18 - "Of His own will."

It simply fit His eternal purpose and omnipotent determined will to save some sinners. "Of His own determinate will He literally birthed us," - not physically here but spiritually - for note also the birth, that bringing forth to life in verse 18, was and is - "by the word of truth." The word of truth is the gospel message, the word of God.

Salvation then, is on account of God's absolute predetermined will, but through the instrumentality of His word. The word of God tells us salvation was paid for by Christ at the cross and guaranteed to believers through His resurrection (Rom. 4:24,25). But the thing God also uses to cause sinners to repent and believe in Christ is His powerful and perfect word.

Look at 1 Peter 1:23-25. There, speaking to people that had been saved, the Spirit through Peter said:

"having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because 'all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.' Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you (plural, you all)."

Again, the instrument of the new birth and the bringing of salvation to believers is the powerful and incorruptible word of God. We ought to also look at the word of God as another of His wonderful gifts.

The gift of new life from God, will end in a perfect new creation. Look back at our text in James 1:18. A saved man writes to saved people about their common new-birth and says it is "that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."

"Firstfruits" means the first sampling of a crop that guarantees what will definitely follow.

In Romans 8 :19-22 it says:

19 ...the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; (the plan of God to even help the cursed creation in this physical world)

21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now.

Our salvation in Christ includes a deliverance from corruption, and every semblance of the curse that sin brought on this world. God set out to fix sin's curse, and the first sample of how the creation will be fixed is the glorification of believers bodies - made new and without the possibility of ever sinning again - when Christ completes believers salvation at His appearing. What a wonderful gift is this salvation in Christ!

16 Stop being deceived, my beloved brethren, -

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom

there is no variation or shadow of turning.

18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

I ask it again, what is your response to such a God? To His gifts? And to His wonderful works? Do you constantly thank and praise Him for who He really is and for what He's done?

Speaking of Christ, and the salvation only He can provide, 2 Cor.9:15 says:

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

Are you truly a receiver of His salvation? If your answer is "Yes," how could you ever listen to the world's lies about sin, about God, and about the sources of blessing?

This passage has commanded us to not be deceived. We've also been warned about specific areas of deception. We've seen the goodness and gifts of God's wonderful works. The greatest being the new birth and the reception of salvation through Jesus Christ. This is the message of the word of God. Be thankful for it.

This Thanksgiving, reserve your thankfulness for God alone, and teach those God has put under your care to do the same.

Rich Hines - Minister To Chaplains