Salvation and Sin, Beginning to End

For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life.

Whatever trials God brings you through, He has a reward waiting for you. Your testing ends with the crown of life. Most commentaries point out that the crown being referred to here is not a royal crown, but instead it's an Olympic laurel. It's the wreath that was used to crown the champion of the Olympic Games. And even today, the Olympics is the highest competition that somebody could compete in. It takes years of trial to even make the Olympics. Grueling work, training, sacrifice. And there is no higher honor in the entire athletic world to be crowned an Olympic champion. And the Christian life is similar to athletics in a number of ways. It involves training. It involves sacrifice. It involves teamwork. It involves discipline. The Bible calls us to run the race with endurance and to run so that we may obtain the prize. Paul encourages Timothy to compete according to the rules like an athlete. But there's also a few key differences between athletics and the Christian life as well. For one, you're not competing against other people. Christianity is not a comparison game. God is not judging you against your fellow competitors. No, faithful Christianity is not just about being better than the person next to you. We're all called to the same righteous standards of our holy God. Now that's also gonna look different for each person in the sense that we're all gonna have different callings, we're gonna have different circumstances, we're gonna have different battles that we're called to fight. So not every Christian is gonna need to be a missionary or an evangelist or a pastor or a Bible study leader. Some are just gonna be called to be faithful employees and family members and parents and church members. Another difference between the Christian life and athletics is that you're never going to retire from the Christian life. Lifelong endurance is needed. No matter how old or frail or beat up you get along the way, you're never going to get sidelined from the Christian faith. And usually, the old, frail veterans in the church are the most valuable players. Finally, athletic champions are temporary. And frankly, they're forgotten. athletic championships ultimately have no lasting impact. I remember hearing the testimony of a lacrosse player that I knew in Baltimore. When he was 19, in his freshman year of college, he won an NCAA championship and then went on two weeks later to win a world championship with Team USA. Now that's pretty impressive, right? Well, after a couple of weeks, he said that everyone forgot and moved on. And in that, he quickly realized that his trophies and his medals didn't really mean anything, that nobody really cared. It was in that temporary worldly athletic success that showed him his need for something eternal, something everlasting, something that is never forgotten, something that never fades away. And that's when he gave his life to Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. James 1.12 tells us that the reward for remaining steadfast under trial, the reward for Christian endurance, is not just some temporary and forgettable accolade. No, it's the crown of life. It's eternal life. Remain steadfast under trial is because God has promised Eternal life. Most of us are going through some sort of trial or hardship right now. I found Elizabeth Elliott's definition of suffering to be really helpful recently. She defines suffering as

getting what you don't want or wanting what you don't have.

It's a pretty broad definition, but I do think it helps us categorize everything from minor annoyance and inconvenience to immense trials, it's all really a form of suffering. Now my guess is that when we're facing trials, whether it's big or it's small, we're gonna be faced with this question. Is it worth it? Is it worth it to keep following Jesus through trial? Is it worth it to be lacking or to be persecuted or to be in pain? worth it to endure these trials and remain steadfast in my faith and obedience to the Lord?" And God's answer is yes. Absolutely yes, it is worth it. Because at the end of this trial, At the end of the next trial, at the end of the next trial, and of every form of suffering and hardship you struggle and face in this world and in this life, at the end is the greatest accomplishment, the greatest achievement, and the highest honor that one could possibly obtain. Greater than any podium finish, greater than any financial payout, greater than any fame could ever provide. The reward we see here is eternal life. In eternal life, there is eternal blessing. You're eternally in perfect union with the glorious, loving, sovereign God of the universe. With eternal life comes the internal inheritance that God has promised to his children. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Eternal reaping a harvest with no sowing or plowing. Eternally sitting at the table and resting. Eternal happiness. Eternal joy. Eternal pleasure. Eternal peace. And eternal rest. So as Elizabeth Eliot says,

your suffering is never for nothing.

Your steadfastness is never in vain. You will be rewarded for your work in the Lord. And that reward is worth it. So persevere, fight on. One other difference between athletics and the Christian life. Athletics rewards the successful, but God rewards those who love him.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

God is not just holding out the crown of life for a select few super-religious people. No, he promises it to all those who love him. If you look back at 1 Samuel 16, 7, we read that

the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

This is what the Lord told Samuel when he anointed a young, humble King David. King David was enshrined in scripture as the man after God's own heart. And yet, David was far from perfect. He was guilty of many sins, and he didn't always face trials with perfect steadfastness and perfect happiness. Just read the Psalms and you'll see how much dread and agony King David experienced. But ultimately, David was remembered for his love for God, for his heart for the Lord. And Christian, that's what God sees in you as well. He sees your heart. He sees your desire to obey him and your desire to follow after him. He sees your love for his glory and his honor and his praise even when no one else does. And even when you're having a hard time seeing it in yourself. You may not be progressing in holiness like you're hoping. You may not be seeing fruit in evangelism. You may be struggling to pay the bills. You may be getting looked over for promotions. You may be overwhelmed. You may be getting bullied. You may have lost the one thing that you wanted most in this life. Your life may have turned out way different or even way worse than you ever imagined. God is not judging you for how successfully you overcome those trials. He's calling you to love him in the midst of those trials. He's calling you to give your heart to him. And that's how we endure. God sees your heart. So remain steadfast in your love for him as you endure trials. It's absolutely worth it. In our next few verses, we read about something else that the Lord sees in our heart. As Keith mentioned last week, James uses the same Greek word for what translate here is both as trials and temptations. And James provides us here with some really important categories that we are bound to get confused about if we are not employing godly wisdom. Let's look at verses 13 to 15.

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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

James tells us here that while trials come from God and are ordained by God and end with God, temptation to sin does not. We cannot attribute sin and temptation to the sovereign plans and purposes of God. Instead, James tells us that we are the ones who are responsible for temptation and sin and death. Verse 13 starts by telling us what isn't happening in trials. God is not tempting us to sin. Yes, God may have brought about the trial, and we may be tempted to handle this trial in a sinful way, but we cannot draw the logical conclusion between God-ordained trials and Him intending for us to sin. Trials are not tryouts. God is not like a drill sergeant who wants you to quit or a bad boss who's trying to get you fired. We can't say that God is taking us through a test to see if we have enough righteousness or faith to receive the crown of life. Lifelong trials, they're not lifelong tryouts for eternal life. God doesn't intend for his people to fail. He's not trying to weed out the weak. Verse 13 tells us that God has no intention for you to sin in trials because God himself is sinless. Sin is completely foreign to God. God hates sin. Sin is the very antithesis of God's nature. The heart of God loves what is pure and righteous and true and good and noble and lovely. And James follows this logic to reveal to us that if we're being tempted by sin, we're not being tempted by God. No, we can only be tempted by something that is acquainted with sin, something that is attracted to sin, something that knows sin, And that is certainly not God. Instead, James reveals that the temptation to sin comes from our own desires. That we are the ones who are attracted to sin. That we are the ones who are acquainted with sin. And we are the ones who know sin. Verse 14 tells us that the temptation to sin starts at the very core of who we are. Our desires. Our hearts. Here, James makes a clear distinction between God and man. God is not tempted by evil. Man desires evil. God's heart is good. Man's heart is wicked. In our sinful desires, there's something that we're going to have to confront for the entirety of our lives. I read a story once about Howard Hendricks, a longtime professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. He was once walking with a student and the student asked him,

prof, when will I ever be free from my battle with lust?

After a moment of silence, Hendricks responded,

I don't know, young man. I haven't gotten there yet.

Now he was in his 80s when he said that. We may have victory over sin, but there will always be a battle. There's no religious ritual or sacraments or sanctification strategy that totally rids our hearts and sinful desires here in this life. Everyone, from the starkest atheist to the newest believer to the veteran saint to the elders in the church, Everyone is going to be tempted to sin by their own desires. Sin, it runs deep in our DNA, and it's an inherited death sentence that we all receive from our parents. It's original to us, and it totally depraves us. In Genesis 3, when we read that our first parents introduced sin into the world, They didn't just introduce the option to sin or the category of sin. No, they plagued everyone with a desire for sin. Just three chapters later, we read in Genesis 6 that God caused a flood to wipe out almost all of mankind, not simply because of the wickedness of man, not because even it was great. but also because

every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And then we see in Genesis 9, as soon as the flood subsides, that new beginnings don't fix our heart problem. Noah, his first act after the flood, was just to get blackout drunk. Shows us that sin and temptation is not ultimately an issue of our environment. It's not a result of our surroundings, or our culture, or the crowd we run with, or with anything external to us. Sin is a heart issue. Even for the Christian, this old sinful heart still remains at war within us. In Romans 7, we're told that we still have a body of death and that sin still dwells in our members. The church in Galatia is warned to not gratify the desires of the flesh that still exist in them. And James here warns us about the danger of engaging with temptation, the very temptation that our hearts conjure up inside us. Now let's clarify. Temptation is not sin. Just because the bait is in the water and just because the hook is shiny doesn't mean that you're on the line. But how we respond to temptation, that matters. James says something that needs to happen for temptation to become sin. He says that sin needs to be conceived. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. So we sin when we flirt with our desires. We sin when we engage with our desires. We sin when we get intimate with our desires. In Bible terms, when we become one flesh with our desires. There's only one way for something to give birth. And if you don't know what that is, ask your parents. Sin is never an accident. We only sin when we intimately engage with temptation. We are the biological parents of our sin. So when we sin, we can't say, I have no idea how that happened, or I'm not that kind of person. We can't say that's not me. We read here that when you sin, you conceived it, you caused it to happen, and you did something about it. When we engage with the temptation to sin, no matter how alluring or enticing it may be, whether we have a committed relationship with it, or it's just a one-night stand. James tells us that we are digging our own graves, that we create and nurture our own death. This personification of sin here, it's not an exaggeration. It's a wise illustration to warn us of the danger of feeding our own wicked desires. Death only exists in the world because of sin. It's not natural. Death is a consequence. Death, in our verse, tells us that it is the fully grown result of sin. On the one hand, we see the wisdom of this statement in the world around us. We see this in the drug addict who kills their ambitions and their future. We see it in the liar who kills all their relationships because they cannot be trusted. We see it in the adulterer who kills their marriage. Or the murderer who literally brings forth death to other human beings. But we're also given an invisible spiritual and eternal reality here as well, that death is God's glorious, righteous judgment and punishment for sin. Death is the consequence for our disobedience to God's good rule and commandments. So God's sovereign goodness, it does not just involve using our trials for good and glory. No, it also involves his good and right judgment on sin and evil rebellion against his holy and good and sovereign authority. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruited tree, they would surely die. And God is not a liar. His word is truth. So when we entertain our sinful desires, When we entertain these desires in our heart, we're ultimately entertaining God's righteous judgment to punish us with death and hell and in eternal separation for his goodness and glory. So if you find yourself tempted by sin, if you find yourself enticed by sin or desiring sin, don't give in. It is absolutely not worth it. Enduring trials? Worth it. Your sinful desires? Not worth it. Battle it. Cut off access. Get others involved. Confess it. Ask for help. Do whatever it takes. But don't give in. And with that, Take a look at your heart. Strive to figure out what it is that you really desire. In most cases, a temptation to sin is ultimately a misplaced desire. There's usually something deeper going on under the surface. So ask yourself, what do I really want? What is it that I am truly desiring? Your temptation to cheat? It might just be a misplaced desire for success and wealth. Your temptation to lust might really be a misplaced desire for acceptance. Your anger might really be a misplaced desire for control. Your desire to put that person in their place for insulting you? may be a misplaced desire for respect. The desires that drive you to sin, those deep, deep, deep desires, some of them might not actually be sinful desires in themselves. They might just be innate to who we are and how God created us. You may just be looking to satisfy them in the wrong place. You may be looking to an idol instead of the one true God. And ultimately, God in his goodness satisfies all our heart's deepest desires. And he does it in himself. In Christ, you are far more accepted, you are far more successful, you are far more powerful and far more pleased than you could possibly be in this world. In Christ, you have a crown of life. You have eternal security and you have the Holy Spirit who overcomes the power of sin in you. So as we're thinking about all this, remember Psalm 37.4.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Well, in our final few verses this morning, we see another layer of God's goodness. We see that God's goodness isn't just experienced in eternity. It's not just experienced at the end in his eternal justice or his eternal reward. We also see that we experience his goodness right here and right now. Read along with me, verses 16 to 18.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 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. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Here James continues to sharpen and clarify our view of God's goodness. So we've seen how God's sovereign goodness is at work in our trials, we've seen how it is at work in our sin, how his righteous goodness is at work in our sin, and here we see how God's gracious goodness is at work in our salvation. So our final point for this morning, see God's grace as you experience goodness. It really is amazing to think about what this part of the passage says in light of everything that we just saw. That even in our sin, even in our rebellion, even in our destructiveness, that God still does good for us. He doesn't have to. We don't deserve it. But he does. James makes it clear that we cannot take credit for the good things in our lives. And part of the reason for this is because we can't do perfectly good in our sin. We read in Isaiah 64.6 that even our righteous deeds have become like polluted garments, like filthy rags, that even the good stuff in us is ultimately stained by sin. And in view of everything that we just talked about in verses 13 to 15, James clarifies that the good things are gifts. The good things and the perfect things are from God. They come down from above, from the Father of Lights. He gives gifts with good intentions. He doesn't give with some sort of quid pro quo or with some sort of resentfulness in his heart. And the gifts that he gives They're genuinely good. They're perfect. There is nothing wrong with them or bad about them. That's what James seems to be saying when he distinguishes between good gifts and perfect gifts, that they're well-intentioned gifts and the gifts themselves are good. God is good. Always has been. Always will be. All the time. And all the time, Love that. He doesn't change, right? He's not like the sun that rises and sets. He's not like the moon that waxes and wanes. He's not like the seasons that warm up or cool down. No, he is always warm, always full, and always present. And yet, he may not always feel that way to us. Sometimes he may feel distant, he may feel dark, he may feel cold, especially when we're experiencing trials and temptations. It's so easy to assume that God is only on our side when things are going our way, or that he's only doing good for us when we get what we want, or that the only good gifts are the ones that are on our wish list, right? But James helps us see here that we shouldn't measure God's posture toward us by our feelings, or by our perception, or by our wants. When that happens, we deceive ourselves. Instead, we're called to measure the goodness of God by who he is and what he has done. There's two ways that we see God's gracious goodness at work in these verses. First, we see God's gracious goodness in creation. God, the father of lights, is the God of creation. He fathered the lights. He is the God who brought forth the sun and the moon and everything that exists. And when God created the world, he created it the only way that he knows how. Good. reading Genesis 1, that everything God created was good. From the sun and the moon to the mountains and the seas to the birds and the bees. Even the ticks, even the mosquitoes, even those pesky little gnats that fly around your head when it's warm out. Remember that as it starts to get hot outside and they start to spring up and come out? They're good. God said they were. He created everything good not because he needed something good to happen. Not because eternity past was bleak and boring and God needed some sort of pick-me-up. No, he created a good world because he simply wanted, he simply desired a good world. It was his will. And the God who doesn't change is still expressing his goodness in creation today. And that's really easy to see here in Charlottesville. You just take a moment just to look outside. Appreciate everybody that actually did that, all like 10 of you. In Charlottesville, here where we live, just all around us, we have the mountains, the forests, the farmlands, the creeks and the rivers, all the beautiful trees that are starting to blossom outside. God didn't have to incorporate beauty into this world. He did it because he is good and because he gives good gifts.

He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

And just as it was his will to create a good world, James tells us that it was God's will that brought us forth, the beloved brothers and sisters, the new people of God's new creation. So we're next and secondly called to see God's gracious goodness in our salvation. Verse 18,

of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Salvation is God's greatest gift. And there is so much that we could talk about with this, but James dials in on what may be the greatest aspect about this greatest gift, that it was God's will. that God wanted to bring us forth and make us his. In our sin, God is perfectly good to condemn us to hell. God is a good judge when he upholds his good laws. And when God declares us guilty and responsible for sin and death, he is absolutely right. What's worse, when we sin, we sin against God. We violate him. We vandalize his good creation and we destroy his handiwork. So all sin is personal to God. And in judgment, we're brought forth. And that is the word of truth that is proclaimed over us. But God desired something different for his people. And when God desires something, as we've seen, He is not going to resist it. He is going to make it happen, and He is going to see it through. So while we earn death for our sin, God gifts His people with salvation simply because He is good. That's what makes grace the grace of God. That's what makes it so remarkable, that he doesn't give us what we deserve, and he actually gives us the very thing that we don't deserve. And he does it in a way that completely upholds his good justice as well, which is just mind-blowing to think about. He doesn't just pardon sinners. No, he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live the good life and then to die as the punishment for sin. Jesus satisfied the wrath of God and then rose from the grave to win the war on sin and death. And all this, this tremendous act of sacrifice and substitute and salvation happened because God wanted it to happen. We didn't ultimately earn it, we didn't choose it for ourselves, and we certainly didn't desire it. But God did. And with that great gift, he also sent his Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit to come to people who desire sin and death and give them life. He made them a new creation. He caused them to be born again, and he gave them a new heart that desires God in all his goodness. These are the people that James is speaking to here. These are the us, the beloved brothers and sisters. That is the gift that they've been given. And in 60 AD, these were the firstfruits of God's new creation. The first generation of Christians who God saved by his grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And the God who has no variation, he didn't just stop with the firstfruits. No, he gives that same gift of grace today. Christian, he has given that same gracious gift to you And to me and every single person that we get to call brother and sister, amen. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, please know that this gift is being offered to you as well. If you would place your faith in Jesus for your salvation, If you would come to God and ask Him for a new heart and for a new life, if you would turn away from your sin and your deadly desires and turn toward Christ, you will be saved. Saved from your sin, saved from death, and saved for the eternal crown of life that God has promised to all those who love him, even you. If you'd like to explore that more, please talk to me or talk to the person that you came with here. Talk to them after the service. I would love to have that conversation with you. Brothers and sisters, my fellow Christians, don't be deceived. God's will is for your salvation and that desire is not going to change. God desires your good and he is working out all things for your good. So if you do nothing else today, if you take nothing else away from this sermon or from our time together this morning, I ask that you just do this one thing. Thank God. Thank God for the gift of grace that he has given you. Thank God that he doesn't let you follow your desires to death. Thank him for intervening and for convicting you of your sin. Thank him for how many ways that he has provided good things to you, for your home, for your food, for your job, for your families, for your friends, for your church, for the sunshine. Thank him for the church. Thank Him for the brothers and sisters. Thank Him for the family that He has saved you into. And thank Him for the shepherds who watch over your soul. And finally, thank Him for your trials. It's gonna be hard to do, but thank Him for testing you and refining you and for promising the crown of life to you. because

he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So thank God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, What a gift of grace that you have given us. There is truly nothing else that we could possibly need or desire, and yet you give us even more. You give us abundant life, and you give us an abundance of good things. We thank you for all of it. We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, and we thank you for the Holy Spirit who indwells in us. And we ask that you would help us to endure trials. We ask that you would help us to flee temptation. And we ask that you would help us run toward the prize of life from this day forward until you call us home. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.