Go with me, if you would, back
to James chapter 1. James chapter 1, I want to declare
the simple truth this morning. All I want us to do is relax. That's all I want us to do. Just
relax and just rest and enjoy some good news. That's all I
want us to do. Just rest in and enjoy some good
news. This message is going to come
from one verse, one verse of scripture. And this verse is
so easy to understand. So easy. It just perfectly lays
out the gospel of our salvation. Verse 18. James 1, verse 18, it says, Of
His own will begat He us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures. Don't you love how clear God's
word is? Don't you love how clear it is?
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures. I preached from this verse a
few years ago, and I titled that message, Who, What, How, and
Why. And that's what this is. Who,
What, How, and Why. Of His own will. Who? Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
His creature. Now, the reason people go to
church is to find out something about salvation. That ought to
be the reason anyway. That ought to be the reason people
go to church, to find out something about salvation. What motivates
men and women to come hear a man preach from the Bible? You go
to church expecting to hear a man open up the Bible. Isn't that
right? And why would we do that? What would motivate a man or
a woman to go hear somebody open up the Bible and preach from
it? The motivation is deep down we all know we're sinners. Isn't
that right? That's the motivation. We know
that. We know that. Here's the problem
though. Here's the problem. Men and women
go to hear something from God's word. But most preachers don't preach
from God's word. Not at all. And instead of declaring
to people, you know, you think about what is the gospel? We
just heard it, didn't we? And instead of declaring to people
the good news of a finished salvation in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Totally finished. Just be still. Instead of saying,
be still, like Moses did. You just be still and rest. Instead of saying that, these
false preachers, they stand up and they spend their time trying
to get men and women to do something, and it works. They're good at
it. They're good at their job. It
works well. Their lies fool poor sinners. And those poor souls leave saying
things like this, I got saved. Or, I made my decision. People just love that. They love
to call somebody on the phone and tell them, little Johnny
got saved last night. We were there and we asked him,
do you want to make your decision? And he said, sure, why not? And
the preacher said, great, you're saved. Now is that what the declared
truth of God's Word causes a sinner to say? Is that
what the Word of truth clearly set forth. Is that the result
that is produced in a sinner when he hears from God's actual
word? Does he say, I made my decision
to get saved? Is that what he says? I want to ask every one of us
a question. Don't answer it out loud, just answer it in your
heart, including me. I want to ask myself and you
a question. Who decided to save us? And don't wait for me to tell
you the answer. Answer. Who decided to save us? Did we decide? Or did God decide? Well, what does our text say?
Verse 18 says, of His own will. Isn't that what it says? Of His
own will. Well now, I think we ought to
take the next 10 or 15 minutes and let's at least make an argument
for man's free will. How about let's not? How about
let's just not? I don't know why this flesh tries
to convince itself that it has a free will. I don't know why. I really don't. I really don't. It has a free will. It has the
final say in whether or not it's going to be saved, you know.
Why would anybody think that they have the final say on whether
or not they're going to be saved. That man is way out in the ocean,
shipwrecked, the ship is gone, there he is floating, and it's
all going to come down to his decision whether or not he's
going to be saved. Why would anybody believe that? Don't turn, but in John 6, our
Lord said, you cannot come to me. And in John 5, he said, you will
not come to me. Even if you could, you wouldn't. And even if you wanted to, you
couldn't. Right? If it was left up to our will,
no one would be saved. If salvation was left up to our
decision. Come on now, you've got to make
that decision. If it's left up to our decision,
nobody's going to be saved. Nobody. The reason is because,
if you look right here at James 1 verse 13, it says, Let no man
say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death." Spiritual death and eventually physical
death. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, Every
man and woman born into this world is born dead in trespasses
and sins. A dead man can't come and a dead
man won't come. Just can't do it. Do you know
that God could have left us there? You know that. Just think about
that. Just think about that. Have you
ever seen a pile of maggots? What does your heart feel toward
them? Do you know how easy it would
have been for God to leave us dead in trespasses and sins? Do you know how easy it would
have been for Him to have just left us for dead? But do you know what the glorious
news of this word is? Of His own will, He didn't leave
us. He begat us. Because He wanted to. That's what you can substitute
for, of His own will. Because He wanted to. Because of the compassion he
talked about in his word, the compassion he had towards sinners.
Because of all the love and compassion that originated in him, it didn't
originate in the dead sinner. Not at all. Look with me, if
you would, at Romans nine. Romans 9 verse 15 says, For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. What that means is he did it. He did it. He is the one who
did it. Here's the most amazing thing,
though. To me, this is the most amazing thing. He wanted to. That's the most amazing thing.
He wanted to. He could have just been done
with us. He could have just been rid of
us. But that's not what he wanted
to do. Of his own will. Now what does that mean? What
does begat mean? According to the dictionary it
means to bring forth, to give birth to, to generate. To generate, that's what it means.
Look with me at John chapter 1. John chapter 1 verse 3 says, All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. Jesus Christ
made everything. Everything. Jesus Christ generated
everything. Jesus Christ formed man from
the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostril. Jesus Christ did that. He is
the one who gave life, birth, to every man and woman on this
earth, as we are right now. Jesus Christ did this. The Lord
Jesus Christ. But when man sinned against God,
man died. He died. Because of sin, the Apostle Paul
said this body is a body of death. And it does not matter. And this is a shocker. It does not matter how much religion.
A person has, I know some people personally who are so religious
and they never go to church. They're just so religious and
they never go to church. And I know some people who would
not, I mean, they wouldn't go to the hospital if they had to
miss church. It does not matter how much religion a person has. It does not matter how good a
man is. It does not matter how moral
a man is. It does not matter how hard a
man or a woman tries to obey the commandments of God when
it comes to the eternal issue of salvation. A man or a woman
only has one hope. Just one hope. Our Lord told
a man named Nicodemus what it is. OK, this is it. Look with
me at John 3. Verse 1 says, there was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man
was a preacher, religious man, a goody two shoes. Verse 2, the
same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know
that thou art a teacher come from God. For no man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." He knew Jesus
Christ was of God. He acknowledged Him to be of
God. Our Lord is about to tell him,
though, and He's about to tell us that that is not good enough. He's still not saved. Verse 3
says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Generated again. Except a man
be generated again. God generated every man and woman
on this earth. Every single one. And because
of sin, we lost it. We lost life. Spiritual life. And if God leaves us alone, that's
where we're going to stay. Dead. Spiritually dead and eventually
physically dead. The only hope that any of us
have is if God of His own will will come to us and regenerate
us. That's the only hope. We had
it. We lost it, and the only hope
we'll ever have of getting it again is if God will come to
us and regenerate us. Now hold your place and look
with me at 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again. He begat us again unto a lively
hope, a living hope. by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. That's what it took. That's what
it took in order to remove the sin. As long as sin is there, there
can't be any life. The only thing sin can bring
is death. In order to remove that rotting
decay of sin from us, and in order to pay off that debt with
God, in order to put the fresh, sweet dew of life back into us. There was only one thing that
could accomplish it. Of His own will begat He us with the Word
of Truth. He did it with the Word of Truth.
Now go back to John chapter 1. What is the Word of Truth? John 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Verse 14 says, And the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ is the Word of Truth. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, and I'm the life. And he told Nicodemus, we went
to John 3, we're going to go again. He told Nicodemus, number
one, exactly what must happen for a sinner to have any hope
of eternal life. He must be born again. And then
he told Nicodemus exactly what it would take for that to be
accomplished. He said, Nicodemus, there's one
hope. You have one hope. You're a ruler of the Pharisees.
You're a nice guy, but you have one hope. And this is the only
hope that you have. And it doesn't involve you. Of
His own will, there's only one purpose that will save a man.
Now look at it one more time. Go to John 3, this time verse
14. He told Nicodemus, and as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The children of Israel were in
the wilderness murmuring and complaining like we do. And God
sent deadly snakes to bite them. poisonous snakes to bite them. And they started dying. Snakes
everywhere. And they started dying. And they
ran to Moses and they said, help us. And Moses went to God and
said, help us. And God said, Moses, here's what
I want you to do. I want you to make a snake out
of brass. A snake that looks exactly like
the snakes that's biting everybody. And I want you to put that snake
on a pole and lift it up. And then you tell all the people
when they have been bitten, if they will look to the snake on
the pole that has been lifted up, they'll live. How wonderful. How simple. The simplicity of that salvation. Why did God tell Moses to do
that? It was to show us this. Verse
14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. In order to save a soul. In order to regenerate a soul
from the sin that killed it. Christ had to be made the very
sin that killed that soul. The exact same thing. Christ
had to take that sin upon Himself. And He had to hang that sin in
Him on a pole. On a cross. And He had to suffer
the effect of that sin in His own body. He had to die. The
people were dying. He had to die. And the minute
He did that, the exact moment He did that, every soul lived. Every soul that looks to Him.
Every soul that had that sin taken upon Him. Every soul whose
sin was raised up on that pole. Every soul who looks to Him and
says, He is bearing what killed me. He is dealing with that and
God is satisfied. Every single soul lives. Of His
own will begat He us with the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. He arose that
we might arise in Him. He brought faith to us. He caused
us to look to Him. And He did all this because He
loved us. He loved His own. Because of
that love, the scripture says, having loved His own, of His
own will, God the Father gave His only
begotten Son. And He loved Him to the end.
That's amazing, isn't it? I preached a little while. Now
I'd like to tell you something. I've told you this illustration
so many times, I thought, nah, I'm not going to tell them that
again. It's too perfect. I have to. It's too perfect for
this. Brother Walter tells that story about the little boy who
wanted a kite. I could just go on. We can just
stop now, can't we? This little boy in Mexico wanted
a kite. And we were down there 10 years
ago, and I was told the average man, after a long, hard day's
work, earned about $5 a day 10 years ago. Can you imagine trying
to feed a family on $5 a day, clothe a family? Most of them don't have electricity,
so they don't have that. They don't have cell phones.
They don't have cars. They don't have anything. They don't have
anything. I mean, they don't have anything. And this little boy wanted a
kite. He had seen a kite. He saw other little boys who
had kites, and he wanted a kite. And he said, Dad, would you please
buy me a kite? And they were poor. His dad couldn't
buy him a kite. And he said, I tell you what,
we'll make a kite. So they got some small sticks,
and they tied them up into an A-frame. And they had some real
lightweight cloth, and he folded that cloth over, and he sewed
that cloth to that frame. And they put a big tail on it
and attached a string to it. And he said, all right, son,
take off. That little boy started running. He flew. That boy was so excited. There's
his kite. And his dad said, let the string
out. And that kite went higher and higher and higher until all
of a sudden, string broke. And they watched that kite blow
over the trees, way out of sight. And that little boy was crushed. And I guarantee you that father
was crushed more than that little boy. Isabella, when she was young,
young, young, we were on vacation and we were walking down the
sidewalk and somebody pulled up and they had finished some
kind of a party and this person had a bunch of balloons and she
rolled down her window and said, would your little girl like all
these balloons? You know, we don't need them
anymore. Sure. So here's Isabella, tiny. walking down the street with
all these balloons in her hands. Huge amount. I thought, man,
she's going to carry it away. And these other little kids were
looking at all those balloons. And we said, well, honey, why
don't you give one to each of these little kids, you know,
start sharing them. So that was the fun part. She'd take one
and go over to this little kid. And that little kid was so happy.
And the parents were like, Thank you, that's so sweet. And we
just spent, you know, 15 minutes looking for kids to give a balloon
to, and it was just happiness getting spread around. Well,
two balloons left, and this little girl, cute little girl, a lot
younger than her, she doesn't even remember this, it was so
long ago. She wanted a balloon, and Isabella
went up and held one out, and her little hand didn't grab it
quick enough. Went through her hand. And that
little girl started crying, oh, just heartbroken, and her parents
were like, oh, that's okay, and telling Isabella, thank you,
honey, for giving her one. And Isabella looked at that balloon,
and she handed her that last balloon, and the little girl
did it again, her hand didn't grab it. And now both of them
are crying, they're just heart, and it killed me. I thought,
just kill me now. And the reason is because it
was not rebellion. It was sadness. It was sorrow. It was true heartbreak. And I
thought, honey, I'm going to go rent a hot air balloon. Daddy
will fix this. And I didn't. But I guarantee
you this father's heart was more broken than the son's. He's heartbroken. His kite has blown over the trees
and gone, lost it. Made it and lost it. The next day that little boy
went into the village and he's walking down the main street
and he looks over and in a store there's his kite on the shelf
and he sees that kite and he recognizes that kite. He knows
his own. He knows everything about his
own. He made it. And he ran into that store and
he said, Mr., that's my kite. And he said, no, son, that's
my kite. I'm holding it here in bondage.
And he said, but, Mr., my father and I made that kite. He said,
son, I found this kite in the weeds. And it's mine now. And if you
want this kite, it's going to cost you two pesos." So that
little boy ran home for the joy set before him. And he said,
Dad, I found our kite. It's in a store in the village. And the man said, if I want the
kite, it's going to cost me two pesos. So his father reached
into his pocket, pulled out two pesos. That little boy ran back
into the village, put his money on the counter. He said, two
pesos. That man grabbed the kite, handed
it to the little boy, and that little boy hugged that kite,
and he said, you're mine. You're mine. He started walking
out the door and he said, you're twice mine. I made you and I
bought you. Twice mine. That's what James
is saying. That's what Christ did for us.
He could have left us on a shelf in a village in Mexico, but of
his own will, begat he us with the word of truth. He made us
and he bought us. Why would he do that? That we
should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, a first fruits
of his labor, a first fruits of his purchase. Amen. What else can you say to
that? Amen. Thank God. There's not a soul
in glory who is going to say, I'm so glad I made my decision. There's not a soul in glory.
Not a soul in glory is going to say, I'm so glad I decided
to be saved. Every soul is going to say, unto
him that loved us, thank God you were willing Thank God you
didn't leave me there. Thank God. Salvation is by grace. It's by grace. And I desire to be your first
fruit. I want to be just like you. Thank God. Let's all stand
together.