May it please Almighty God to
come and bless us together this evening as we meditate in his
holy word. Let's turn to the general epistle
of James and the first chapter, and we'll read verses 16 and
17. The general epistle of James,
chapter 1, reading verses 16 and 17. Do not err, my beloved
brethren, Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We should be thankful for the
epistle of James which has so many words of good instruction
to us. And as we read it, as we read
it tonight, those words in that first chapter, so many good words
for our encouragement and direction. And so, this 16th verse tells
us, Do not err, my beloved brethren, It's interesting that he addresses
the Church of God in such a very beautiful way. As my beloved
brethren. And then this advice not to err. Again we have the Word of God
which instructs us in so many details. And here we have this
statement. Do not err. It's easy to err. It's easy to turn away. from
God's Word when we don't actually think it suits our situation
and doesn't go along with what we want to hear and yet here
the Apostle says, do not err. We must not turn away from God's
Word. However difficult it may appear
and however hard to follow, yet we're given the Word of God to
instruct us and we should be very thankful for it. So he commences,
do not err my beloved brethren and then James goes on and tells
us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. And this really puts God in a
wonderful light and in a right light, which of course He should
be. It tells us that every good gift
and every perfect gift comes from above. Well, if it's from
God, every gift is good and every gift is perfect. And we should
be thankful to understand and to realize that every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above. It's not of the earth. It comes down from heaven and
it comes down from the father of lights. Again, we know that
God is light. So as he graciously sends these
gifts down to us, what a blessing it is if you and I receive them. as coming from our Father in
heaven. And to realize that this great
and glorious God is light, He is light, He's all light. There's
no darkness with Him at all. And then just moving on quickly,
He says, with whom is no variableness. God doesn't change His mind,
neither shadow of turning. What God has said comes to pass. And that should be a very great
encouragement to us. Because perhaps God has given
us a promise. God has spoken to our heart.
And we may wonder perhaps, well, will it come to pass? Was it
really from God? Well, we can be sure that if
it was from God, it will come to pass. If it was from God,
it will come to pass in the way that he has spoken to us of.
And God is faithful. God does not change. As we mentioned
this morning, I am the Lord, I change not. And therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed. And also in the Hebrews, Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. So you and I wonderfully blessed
with an unchanging God. A God whose decisions remain. Those things which were ordained
back in eternity past. It's good sometimes to just pause
and realize that we are dealing with an eternal God who always
has been and always will be. And that eternal God in eternity
past ordained what should occur, who should be born, what we should
do, what we should think. This is the great God that you
and I are privileged to deal with. And so we have this statement
here. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. That should be an encouragement
to us to realize that we have such a great God who we know.
The psalmist tells us this God is a sun and a shield. He will give grace. and glory. They're linked together. His
grace, unmerited favour, which he besows upon his people, he
doesn't give that grace without bringing his church, his people,
safe home to glory. That should be a good prospect
for us and a good scene to meditate upon if we have the evidence
that our God is a Son and a shield. He's shone upon us, and he shields
us, he's round about us, and because of that, we can have
that confidence that he does give us grace, a free unmerited
favour, and will receive us unto himself in glory. Every good
gift and every perfect gift. And of course, all God's gifts
are good. All God's gifts are good. And how glorious it is to think
that God does indeed give his people gifts. And what a mercy
it is. And a gift of course is something
which is not worked for. It's something which we don't
earn. It's a gift which is given. And what a blessing to think
that God gives Good gifts. He didn't give bad gifts. Every
good gift is given. And the good gifts from God deal
with our eternal soul. They deal also with our natural
life. But principally the great need
is to realise that these gifts deal with our never-dying soul. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, perhaps One of the greatest gifts we can
read of in the Romans, the sixth of Romans, verse 23, which tells
us this, for the wages of sin is death. That's a very solemn
statement because we all come under that condemnation, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We cannot think, I'm sure, of
a greater gift than to receive the gift of eternal life. It's a perfect gift and it's
a good gift. It will never vanish away and
it will last throughout eternity. What a blessing then if you and
I have the evidence that we are those who have received this
good gift and we will have the evidence if we have those words
which God has spoken into our soul, into our hearts, those
spiritual blessings, those words which have brought about that
quickening, that spiritual life, what a mercy it is to walk in
that way and have this great gift. You see, if God gives us
this gift of eternal life, The great favour is that all
our sins would have been washed away, taken away. Without that,
there's no gift of eternal life. We cannot receive such a gift
unless we are freed from the burden of our sin. And as the
Apostle says, the wages of sin is death. And what a mercy if the Holy
Spirit makes us aware of that. So as we travel on through our
life, we realize that the reward, the payment for our sin is death. It's a very serious statement,
isn't it? That's what you and I naturally
receive. because of our sin. That's what
we've earned. We've earned the payment of death
for our sin. The wages of sin is death. And then you see that wonderful
contrast, but the gift of God, you see, we have the comparison.
One is the wages of sin, the payment for sin, which we earned
because of our sinful doings, that's what we earned, the wages
of sin is death. On the other hand, we received
freely this great gift of eternal life and it only came in one
way, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, it's a wonderful
truth and it's good to think and to meditate upon such a truth
so when we have this word every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with
whom is no variableness neither shadow turning we can thank our
god if he has given us the evidence that we are amongst those whom
he has loved with an everlasting love who he has given to understand
our lost condition, that which we've earned, our lost condition,
the payment for that situation is eternal death. Well, what
a wonderful thing to think that every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. Again, it's not something that
you and I can earn. We can't justify anything that
we've done to merit this great and wonderful favour. but it
emanates from God. And to ponder this, God, the
almighty God, the ruler of the universe, has condescended to
give utterly unworthy sinners the gift of eternal life. Oh, what a great benefit, what
a wonderful gift. how blessed it is to think that
we have such a God that bestows this gift. And then to be able
to search our heart, to examine ourselves, our spiritual life,
and to see whether we are the recipients of it and it's a good
thing to do that and we shouldn't just turn away from it and think
well I don't think I've received that we should look into our
hearts carefully examine ourselves to see whether God has made his
goodness to pass before us in the way and if he's turned our
hearts to seek unto him in a time when He may be found, when He's
begun that good work within us. What is that? That's an indication,
a very positive indication, that we are the recipients of this
glorious gift of eternal life. And so, what a mercy and what
a favour if we are amongst those who are the recipients of this. And if we are the recipients
of it, other things will flow. The great gift of the bread and water
of life will also be Granted to us we can think perhaps of
the that case in the in John's gospel of the woman of Samaria
and how She was blessed and shall she Received this wonderful favor
in that lovely account in the fourth chapter We come down to
this in the ninth verse then saith the woman of Samaria Unto
him how is it? that thou, being a Jew, askest
drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria. For the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans. And Jesus answers and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith
to thee, Give me to drink, Thou wouldest have asked of him and
he would have given thee living water. You see, the Saviour himself
refers to this as a gift, the gift of God. And we should recognise
that, that it is God's gift to unworthy sinners. And again,
just to ponder our own case before God and have to confirm that
we're utterly unworthy. unworthy of any blessing, and
yet to believe that through his great and glorious love toward
us, we are the recipients. And so here we have this wonderful
statement, the gift of God. Well, the woman said she had
nothing to draw with, and acknowledged that the Lord was greater than
our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank himself. Jesus answered and said, Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but
the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life. That's a wonderful thought,
isn't it? If God gives you and me this
wonderful blessing of this water of life. We shall never thirst
in a spiritual way because this well of water will be springing
up into everlasting life. It won't just disappear. No,
it will always be there. This water of life. The result
was the woman said, Sir, give me this water. that I thirst
not, neither come hither to draw. So this evening, I wonder whether
you and I have this real desire that almighty God, nonetheless,
will give us this wonderful gift of this living water. So necessary, we all need it.
What a wonderful favour to be a partaker of it. Every good
gift. This is indeed a good gift, isn't
it? Well, that woman received it
and it had a blessed effect upon her. And it's a good thing if
this gift of God has a blessed effect upon us. Because the woman
said, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw. And Jesus said unto her, go,
call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, thou hast
well said, I have no husband. But thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that saidst
thou truly. The woman said, Sir, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. What sight there was! Jesus said
unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father, ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship
for salvation is of the jews but the hour cometh now is when
the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth
for the father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit
and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth. These are the blessed words of
the Saviour to that woman who came to the well of Samaria.
My friends, they have exactly the same application to you and
me today. So what a wonderful blessing
it is to receive this great gift of this living water. What a
mercy, what a blessing. And the woman said, I know that
Messiah cometh, which is called Christ, when he has come, he
will tell us all things, Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto
thee am he. Well, how very humbling for that
woman. How very humbling for you and
me if God in his great sovereign mercy and grace confirms to us
that he does and will give us this great and wonderful gift
of living water. Well it's a great mercy and it's
a great favour. to receive this from Almighty
God. It's nothing that we can work
for or deserve, but how wonderful it is. You know, there's many
statements about this great and wonderful gift, which we should
be very thankful for. And in the Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians,
in the 9th chapter, verse 15, we read this. Thanks be unto
God. for His unspeakable gift. Just think of that. God the Father
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should
not perish but have eternal life. An unspeakable gift. You may
say, why is it unspeakable? Because it's so valuable. this
gift of eternal life that you and I can never value it because
it is something that never stops, never fails it's eternal oh what
a blessing it is to be a partaker of this gift every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and how true that is and
it cometh down from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. This is the great and glorious
light of the Gospel. And how wonderful if that light
is shone into our hearts so that we can thank God for it. One time we were walking in darkness
and had no light. But what a blessing when that
light shone. And there was an amazing change. An amazing change. And all those
who have been blessed with this wonderful change know what it
means. Know what it means. There we were, lost and ruined
in the fall. In darkness, no light. until
that great day when God shone into our hearts and gave us that
gift of eternal life. Oh, my friends, what a blessing
it is, surely, to understand this wonderful favour and this
wonderful blessing. How kind, good and gracious is
our God. when the Apostle Paul wrote to
the Romans he made this statement he said for the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance you may say what does that mean?
well it means this that first of all they were freely given
God gave them to us freely and naturally speaking we would never
come to repentance unless God gave us this wonderful gift and
this wonderful blessing of calling. So to realise the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. God gives us repentance. Repentance
is given, but God comes and we can't say, well, it's because
I repented. Because I did this. No, it's
all of God's mercy. His great and wonderful free
gift that he gives to all his church. And he calls all his
church. What a mercy, what a blessing
that we have such a kind and gracious God. We're not left
to flounder, not left to just wander on aimlessly without any
hope. but God gives us this good hope
through his grace and really it's summed up in those words
in Ephesians the second chapter of Ephesians in the eighth verse
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God a gift to God, not a works, lest any
man should boast. But my friends, we can boast,
can we not, of God's grace? Well, again, each one of us needs
to look into our heart, to examine our spiritual condition before
a holy God and to be able to trace out, there has been a change
once I was blind. Now I see. It's as though the
scales have fallen off. And how true that is, spiritually. When a change occurs, God's change,
when he gives us this one wonderful gift of spiritual life, and that
wonderful gift of spiritual sight, and that wonderful gift of spiritual
hearing, we're a new creature. We're a new creature. All things
are new. All things have changed. We never
understood. And we stand amazed that we didn't
understand. And yet how we rejoice and praise
our God for his wonderful gift and his wonderful mercy toward
us. And so let us be clear here. The apostle says every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above from heaven itself and
it comes down to us God sends it down it comes where we are
it touches our heart it puts us on our feet we go on our way
rejoicing and praising God that our eyes have been opened to behold wondrous
things out of the law of God. That means wondrous things of
God's plan of salvation as a new creature. Oh, we thank God for
his wonderful plan. We thank God for his wonderful
grace. We thank God for his wonderful
mercy. We thank God for his great love
toward us. Oh, there's much thanksgiving
as you and I receive this gift, or these many gifts, really,
from our God, from our Father in Heaven, and to know that that
which God gives is forever, doesn't vanish away, doesn't fade, may
get a bit dim sometimes, but it's still there, and we can
bless God for it, for His work, because you and I can rely upon
it. We can't rely, can we, on the
things of time. We can't rely upon what we're
told, what the media tells us, but we can rely upon the truth
of God. As the Lord Jesus himself said,
thy word, the word of God, thy word is truth when you pray to
his Father. What a wonderful favour that
is and how good for us to remember that. and not pass it over. Yes, this great gift from our
Father in Heaven, the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow turning. We often don't really appreciate
the value of such a statement, because we have a God who doesn't
look at us and think, well, I made a mistake. That person is not
worth any blessing, any favour. My friends, God doesn't change
his mind. He doesn't turn. There's not the least shadow
of turning. Shadow of turning. What a mercy
then for us today to rejoice in what God has done. indeed
bless him for it. The Apostle John spoke about
this favour and the wonderful blessing of light when he wrote
his epistle and he said this then is the message which we
have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. What a glorious light there is
that shines through our God and comes down into our hearts and
shines there and shows to us our utter unworthiness of any
favour and then leads us gloriously to Calvary and at Calvary we
see by faith the glorious Saviour dying that sin atoning death
upon the cross to redeem our souls. Yes, it comes down to
a very personal application, a very necessary application. But what reason there is then
to rejoice in our Saviour's work, the finished work. He didn't
fail, He didn't give up. No, He finished the work. that
his father gave him to do. And what a blessing that is. What a blessing that is. And
we can rely, therefore, upon that finished work. And that
finished work included the shedding of his most precious blood, that
blood which cleanses from all sin. all sin, large sins, small
sins, but we've committed, yes, to God of grace, a God of favour,
a God of blessing. And so can we not truly thank
our God for this and how humbling it is when the
Holy Spirit leads us to see the gifts that are given to us through
the Saviour's death upon that cross at Calvary. Yes, the dying
thief received it when the Lord Jesus said to him, this day thou
shalt be with me in paradise. The gift of eternal life, but
he confessed, we indeed justly, we receive the dear reward to
our sins, but this man hath done nothing amiss. It's good to have
a view like that, to realise that if we were condemned, as
that dying thief was, The Lord is just in so doing. We can never come to a position
and think, well, I don't think I deserve to be cast out. We come under the influence of
the Holy Spirit and realize we do deserve to be cast out. But it's because of His love
and because of His grace that you and I are redeemed. And we
have before us a wonderful, wonderful prospect of eternal life with
the Saviour and the whole household of God in glory forever and ever. These are things, my friends,
which are foundational to our faith and good to rest upon and
good to think upon, to meditate Because here we have that which
the Lord sets before us very clearly in his word. There is
an end. You and I will pass out of time
into eternity. And my friends, the time must
be short. The time is short. How important
it is that you and I are ready. Ready to depart, as the Apostle
says. ready to depart and to be with
Christ, which is far better. That's a good situation, a good
position to be in when the Holy Spirit directs us to view that,
that it is far better to be with Christ than it is to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. They'll pass away and then disappear. They'll be burnt up. But the
things of glory remain forever and ever. Well, that should be
a very comforting and wonderful truth for us to think upon as
we have this statement here tonight. And it tells us, do not err,
my beloved brethren. Do not move away. from the truth
of scripture, do not think there's another way. The way to glory
is laid down very clearly. And to receive this wonderful
gift, every good gift, every good gift, and every perfect
gift is from above. Yes, it comes down from heaven,
as we're told, and cometh down from the Father of lights to
think that God The great almighty God sends down these gifts to
such unworthy sinners. Cometh down from the Father of
lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We
should be very thankful that we have such a God. And the next
verse just goes on. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to
wrath. The wrath of man worketh not
the righteousness of God. Well, I hope tonight we can rejoice
in God's gifts and have the evidence that we are the recipients of
these gifts and therefore have a good hope of eternal life. To be able to testify in answer
to that great question, is it well with our soul? To be able
to humbly say, it is well. Amen.