Thank you, Bill. Let's go back
to that passage in James 1 that he read to us, and I have felt led to go to one verse of
scripture here, and that's verse 18. James 1, 18, of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. that we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creatures. My subject is the will, work,
and word of God. The will, the work, and the word
of God. One of many writers that I enjoy
reading from time to time is a man by the name of J.C. Ryle. He was an Anglican pastor. Back in the 1800s, he died in
1900. But he authored many books. Some things that he says that
I don't agree with, but that's true about all human writers. But he has a lot of good things
to say, and I think you would be profited by reading some of
the writings of J.C. Ryle. He's typically called Bishop. J.C. Ryle. I know Brother Mahan
used to mention him frequently because I listened to a lot of
his messages. And so he read Ryle quite extensively also. But in one of his books, he made
mention of this. He said a person may lose their
soul in one of two ways. He said, number one, a person
may lose his soul by living and dying without any religion at
all. He may live and die like a beast,
like an animal, that is, prayerless, godless, graceless, and faithless. And he said, this is a sure way
to hell. And then he said, secondly, he
says a person may lose his own soul by taking up some sort of
a useless religion. He may live and die contenting
himself with a false Christianity, resting on a baseless hope, and
he said, this is the most common way to hell that there is. What is a useless religion? Because Bishop Ryle is right. A sure way to hell is to have
no religion at all. Be prayerless, godless, graceless,
Christless, hopeless, lifeless. You'll sure wind up in hell.
And you may lose your own soul by taking up a useless kind of
religion. So that leads me and led me in
preparation of this message to jot down a few things in answer
to this question, what is a useless religion? And you might be thinking, well
surely, Jim, some religion is better than no religion. But
you're wrong about that. You see, useless religion is
worse, far worse than no religion because a useless religion convinces
lost men and women that all is well with them between a holy
God and themselves when in fact nothing is well. Know this, all useless religion
is summed up in the words false
religion. And all useless religion, all
false religion is really idolatry. And all who have a false religion,
a useless religion, have now got a double darkness. There's
the natural darkness that every man, woman, boy, and girl has
in this world. A natural darkness to spiritual
things. They can't see, they're blind,
can't see, and that's the way we all were until the Lord gave
us sight to see the glories of Christ and the glories of God's
salvation, to see our sinfulness and our need of the Savior. There's that natural darkness
that we have, but a useless religion adds on top of that a layer of
dark religion. And so our Lord Jesus spoke about
a double darkness. And most people that you know,
or at least many people that you know, have a double darkness. They have that natural darkness
with which they're born, alienated from God, having no hope, having
no Christ, having no understanding of who God is or who they are
and how salvation comes to sinners. They had that natural darkness,
but then now they've got a layer of useless religion that adds
a second layer of darkness, and that's religious darkness. And
a double darkness, our Lord Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount,
somebody who has a double darkness, he says, how great is that darkness? And I'm sure you have spoken
to people in your family, friends of yours, acquaintances of yours,
who have, on top of that natural darkness, added a useless religion,
religious darkness, and you just can't penetrate either layer. Only God the Spirit can penetrate
a double darkness. Only God the Spirit can penetrate
that natural darkness. And only God the Spirit can penetrate
that spiritual darkness or that religious darkness that people
have added. You see, in this world, and you
know this as well as I do, there are but two kinds of religion.
There's the religion of truth and the religion of error. The
one is a religion of good use. The other is a religion of no
use, no good. One is a religion of life. The
other is the religion of death. One is the religion of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The other is the religion of
the righteousness of man. One is the religion of salvation
by the work of God. The other is the salvation of
the work of man. Religion by God's will, that's
one. Religion by man's will, that's
the other. Religion by grace, that's good
religion, that's true religion. Religion by man's deeds, that's
a useless religion. There's the religion of the word
of God, and there's the religion by the invention of men. The
religion that is of God is the religion of life. It's the religion of being justified
and made righteous through the righteous obedience of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the religion of the will
of God. It's the religion of the Word
of God. It's the religion of the work
of God. The other is the religion of
the will of man, the religion of the works of man, and the
religion of the word of men. I came across several things
in preparation for this message that I want to share with you.
An old preacher who is now with the Lord made some statements
and I just kind of elaborated on them and added to them. He
said, number one, a useless religion is a religion in which the Lord
Jesus Christ is not the only or the sole object of faith,
the sole object of faith. You see, true religion, God's
religion, the Word of God, will always lead you to the Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His sacrificial death for your
salvation. It will not be determined by
your will, your works, or the word of men. That salvation that
is real, that is useful to you, that is beneficial to you, that
will result in your salvation is a salvation based only upon
the Son of God and His faithfulness to God the Father in performing
the work of redemption that He was sent to accomplish. to trust
anything else or anybody else for your salvation, to trust
your own will, or your own way, or your own works, or the words
of mere men, that's a sure way to go to hell. This author said, secondly, useless
religion is a religion that denies the merits and the worth of our
Lord Jesus, his perfect, precious, atoning sacrifice. To trust your soul to any other
sacrifice is a sure way to hell. Oh, my dear friends, trust your
soul's salvation to Christ. the only savior of sinners and
to his perfect sacrifice. None other can save you. None
other can help you. It was His sacrifice that put
away sins. It was His sacrifice that established
righteousness for His people. We're justified by His death. Trust no other Savior but the
Lord of glory, Christ Jesus the Lord, who is God over all, blessed
forever, and the man who came down here from heaven, the God-man,
who lived a life of perfection and died a sin-atoning death. Trust your soul to no one else
but that Savior revealed in this book. The author said, useless religion,
thirdly, is any religion that teaches sinners to produce a
righteousness for themselves. You see, true religion makes
this declaration. Our Lord Jesus established righteousness
for his people. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he,
God, hath made him, God the Son, Christ, to be sin for us, that
one who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The only righteousness that will
prevail with a holy God is the righteousness of one equal to
God himself. That's the righteousness of Christ. And the righteousness of our
Lord Jesus imputed to every believing sinner will stand up forever
before God. The author went on to say, useless
religion is any religion that makes salvation to be a mere
offer on the part of God. My friend, salvation is not an
offer. It is not an offer. God's not
offering you forgiveness. God's not offering you righteousness. God's not offering you a pardon. Forgiveness, righteousness, and
pardon have been made by the substitutionary death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And it isn't offered to you.
It is revealed to you. It is given to you and God gives
you faith to receive our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not
an offer, it is an accomplishment. Preachers today make God to be
some kind of beggar. He wants to, if you'll just let
him. He's trying to give you a gift,
but you won't accept it. Makes men feel bad for God, feel
sorry for God. Don't you feel sorry for God?
You better fall down and worship God. You better honor God. And he makes no offers of grace. I don't like that. I don't like
that kind of language, offers of grace. He offers nothing. He accomplishes salvation. I
know that's true. He accomplishes that which he
sets out to do. And then this writer said, useless
religion makes salvation conditioned upon the sinner accepting an
invitation from God to be saved. I'll tell you what true religion
is. It's a declaration of how God can be just and justify the
ungodly. That's true religion. That's
a useful religion. That's a religion that saves.
It's a religion that's all of the will of God, all of the work
of God, and all according to the word of God. Useless religion. It will profit
you nothing. And there are millions upon millions
of people across this world who have been duped and deceived
into believing that if they can just have a little religion,
they'll be all right with God. A little religion won't do it. You must have that salvation
which is all of God, which God himself must reveal to the sinner. That salvation which God in his
own book declares is his work, the work of the Father in electing
grace, the work of the Son in redeeming grace, and the work
of the Spirit in his sovereign effectual call of grace, to the
sinners that he arrests by his grace and reveals the Lord Jesus
Christ, having given them the gift of life, spiritual life,
he gives repentance and faith in the Son of God. And I'll tell you this, useless
religion rests on the footing of man's
will, works, and and it'll do you no good. Let me ask you, upon whom does
your hope fully lie? Do you fit in there somewhere
that somehow along the way that it's dependent upon you? If you
think that your Standing before God is dependent upon you in
any way, shape or form. You have a useless religion.
Because nothing you can do will satisfy a holy God. Only a perfect savior satisfied God. and in Him we're accepted. Outside
of Him, there is no hope. There is no hope. That's why
people have to hear about Christ and Him crucified, because He's
the truth. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. You say, Jim, what about all
these people who are trying to come to God, come to Christ through
Mary? That's a useless religion. That's
not going to help you any. What about people who are trying
to come to God through some dead saint? That's a useless religion. That's not going to help you.
You don't need some dead saint. You need a living Savior. That's
who you need. And this living Savior who is
life, he gives life. He gives life to folks like you
and me. According to his will. Useless religion. It is any religion established
upon the traditions of men, the creeds of men, and the inventions
of men. Useless. Useless. I'll tell you what, the church
of our Lord Jesus Christ is built on the rock Christ Jesus. That's
a sure foundation. A wise man built his house upon
the rock. Would you be wise? Oh, that God
would make us wise into salvation through his word. and build all
of our hopes for time and eternity upon that massive rock, Christ
Jesus. Because to build upon anything
else, build upon your decision, that's not gonna stand. Hey,
I made my decision for Jesus. Well, whoopee. That ain't gonna
help you. You better build upon the rock,
Christ Jesus. Well, let's look at James 1,
18, and I'll just give this to you quickly. Here are three points,
the will of God, the work of God, and the word of God. Number one, the will of God,
which leads me to ask this question, whose will reigns supreme in
salvation? That is the issue today. That's
the hot-button issue today. Whose will reigns supreme? Now,
there's no doubt. Stay with me. There's no doubt
but what sinners have a will, a volition, and sinners make
choices. We make choices every day. Some
good, some bad. But when it comes to spiritual
matters, our Lord said, you will not come to me that you might
have life. You'll come to some kind of religion. You'll walk down the front. You'll
raise your hand. You'll even recite the sinner's
prayer. You'll try to turn over a new
leaf. Live a better life. Stop your cussing. Start talking
right. Stop your drunkenness. Your illicit
drug use. You'll do all of those things.
You'll climb up steps on your knees. You'll go to Rome. You'll
make a pilgrimage to various religious edifices. But you won't
come to me, Christ said. You'll go everywhere else. And
people will. We did. I went everywhere else. But I wouldn't go to Christ.
You see, this is where grace makes the difference. Because
man, according to his own will, will go anywhere and everywhere
else for his idea of salvation and a home in heaven, but he
won't go to that one goddess appointed as the only savior
of sinners. He won't go to Christ. He'll
go everywhere else. I'll go to church. I'll go down to the front. I'll
go in the baptismal waters. I'll go to choir practice. But they won't go to Christ.
But that's where life's at. That's where salvation's at in
Christ, the Son of God. You see, when it comes to spiritual
matters, the will of man is depraved. led by an evil heart of unbelief. That's why the scripture says
here, James says, by divine inspiration of his own will begat he us. That's the first thing to which
James calls our attention. Whenever we think about, talk
about, write about, preach about God's salvation, we've got to
start right here with the will of God. It doesn't start with
the will of man. It starts with the divine will.
You see, regeneration, that word means the new birth, being born
again. Regeneration and all of the blessings
that follow regeneration, that comes to us totally by the will
and grace of God. You see, salvation's of the Lord. It's of the Lord in its purpose,
it's of the Lord in its purchase, it's of the Lord in its power,
and it's of the Lord in He gets the praise for everything. That's why Paul says, so then
it's not of him that will it, nor of him that run it, but of
God that showeth the mercy. Who's entitled to the praise
for the salvation of a sinner? See, most people say, really,
they made the difference. Did you make the difference in
your salvation? Let me tell you something, if
you think you did, you got a useless religion. That is no good. The quicker you can pitch it
out the window and be done with it, the better off you'll be.
Anything that is based upon your will is wrong. It's just wrong. We got to start with the will
of God. of his own will, of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. You say, but, but, but
I did believe and I came to Christ willingly. Why was that? Psalm 110 verse three. Thy people shall be willing,
willing to be saved by grace alone, willing to be saved by
Christ alone, willing, willing, when? In the day of God's power. See, here's what useless religion
has done. They've all but removed God from
the equation of salvation. It's just all up to the sinner. Who's entitled to have the praise
and glory of salvation? What's the Bible say? Psalm 115,
1. Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord,
but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. So we read in 1 Corinthians 1,
he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. So I ask you, is salvation by
man's free will or is it by God's free grace? Well, the Bible answers it's
by God's free grace. Free will. is an ugly, ugly thing,
because your free will will damn your soul to hell. Lucifer, there's free willism. Adam and Eve, there's free willism. We will be like gods, really. That's man's will at work. Free willism was the religion
of those men who crucified the Lord of glory. Free will is the
religion of Babylon and false religion. But free grace That represents everything decided,
determined, and done by God Almighty to bestow salvation upon His
people, free grace. It's of the will of God, of God's
own will, of His own will. The second thing is the work
of God. James tells us, In this business of the experience of
salvation, the Lord begets the sinner. It is his work and not
the work of man. Of his own will, begat he us. Let me tell you about useless
religion. Useless religion says, believe
on Jesus and get born again. That's useless religion. Ever listen to that guy out of
Houston, Texas? Joel somebody. I don't need to
say his full name. He closed his program every time
with that. Believe on Jesus and get born
again. Don't want to close the program
unless you have an opportunity. Kenneth Copeland says, make Jesus
Lord of your life. Leaving it up to you. I tell
you what, you better hope and pray God doesn't leave it up
to you, because if He leaves it up to you, you're as good
for hell as if it was already there. See, we need a God who
interferes with our stubborn will, a God who intrudes, a God
who comes to us by the power of His grace, and He quickens
us, He makes us alive, because our problem is we're spiritually
dead. You see, our first birth was our generation and our creation. Our second birth is our regeneration
and a new creation. You see, in both nature and in
grace, God is the creator. God is the creator. No wonder
John tells us in Revelation chapter 20 and verse six, blessed is
he that hath part in the first resurrection over which the second
death hath no power. What is the first resurrection?
Being born of God, born again. The word is regeneration. We're begotten of God. Turn a
page or two over, 1 Peter chapter 1. This is the work of God. You see, faith does not bring
about new life. Faith can't make you alive. Faith
is the result of being alive. Isn't that right, Larry? That's
the way it is, what the Scripture teaches. We have to be made alive,
and the evidence of being made alive is we flee to the Lord
Jesus Christ for salvation. We say, we've got to have Him.
Didn't want Him before, why not? We're spiritually dead. But the
Lord quickened us. We're begotten of God. Look at
1 Peter 1. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith,
unto salvation, ready to be revealed. In the last time. Who has to
make us alive? Who's got to give us life? The
Lord does. The Lord does. You don't give
yourself life. It's the work of God. When we're begotten of God, when
we're birthed into the kingdom of God, we become aware of our
terribly sinful condition, our hopeless and helpless state,
and then we see there's a savior for folks like us. There's a
grace of God for guilty sinners. and we run to Christ Jesus. That's
the result of life, isn't it, Joe? The result of spiritual
life that the Lord gives us. We're begotten of God. We're
born into the kingdom of God. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, she
must be born again, but didn't tell him how to be born again.
Something you gotta do. You can walk every aisle of every
church in the country if you live long enough and go to all
of them. But walking the aisles, you'll
rack up the miles. But you're not going to get any
new life from it. I'm telling you, God's got to
give you life. It's by His will, His own will. His own will. And it's his own
work, too. It's the work of God. And here's
the last thing James says over here in chapter 1. He says, "...of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth." What does
he use? What is the instrument that the
Lord uses in the raising of spiritually dead sinners? The word of truth. The word of truth. fairy tales and religious stories. It's the word of truth. That's
why Paul said, I determined not to do anything among you Corinthians
when I was with you save Jesus Christ whom crucified. Because
that's the message God uses in the quickening of spiritually
dead sinners. He used the word of God. He uses
the gospel of His grace. That's why we keep preaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because it's the message God
has promised to bless. And I know there are a lot of
people, they want to hear about events out in the future sometime
and, you know, all these things about the secret things of God
and the rapture of the church and the tribulation and all those
things. Most of those guys who preach
those things don't know anything about the gospel of grace. I can tell you this, the end's
coming. I can tell you that. And when the end's coming, it
will be the end of the age. You can read 1 Corinthians chapter
15 toward the end about that. The Lord's bringing everything
to the end that he himself has purposed. And before the end
comes, I want God to reveal more fully to me the gospel of His
grace. And show me it's of His will,
it's His work, and show it to me in His Word. Show it to me
in the Word, I'll believe it. Isaiah says, if they speak not
according to the words of this book, it's because there's no
light in them. Well Jim, how come more preachers
don't preach this? They don't have any light. But I'll tell you, there's several
more guys out here preaching the same message I'm preaching
to. It's not like we're the only
ones standing for the truth right here. There are other folks scattered
around that God raises up. Paul said, yea, woe is unto me
if I preach not the gospel. He didn't say woe is unto me
if I don't preach. We got an abundance of preachers.
We're covered over with preachers. Find me somebody that preaches
the truth though. Where in the world are they?
I know they're out there. They're out there. But just because
a man carries a Bible and says I'm a preacher, he may wear a
backward collar, This morning, I woke up early. I turned to sermon audio. Man, they're all kind of preachers
coming out of the United Kingdom. It's all over. And this one guy,
he had a Bible on his pulpit. It was the size of this pulpit,
about this thick. The whole Bible opened up. That
don't impress me. Because most all of them have
some kind of Bible, but they don't preach it. Because a man who preaches the
word of God in its purity and in its clarity, he'll set forth
salvation by the free and sovereign grace of God through the merits,
the substitutionary death and bloody sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the message I listen for. And if he doesn't honor my savior,
he can say a thousand good things, but his whole sermon is useless
if he doesn't honor Christ. Anywhere you go in the word of
God, if man's preaching the gospel, anywhere we go in the word of
God, he'll set forth Christ, like I did from the book of Zechariah
this morning. I tell you what, a preacher of
the gospel, he can preach the gospel out of the Old Testament
as easy as he can out of the New Testament. I love preaching
the gospel out of the Old Testament, because the Old Testament is
revealed in the New Testament, and the New Testament is hidden
in the Old Testament. But it's just one Bible about
one Savior, and about one God who saves people by His will,
His work, and His word. Well, let's sing the closing
song. What do you say?