1, verse 13. It says, Let no man say when he
is tempted, I am 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 The word
enticed means baited, drawn away. Then when lust, that lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. Do not err concerning this truth,
my beloved brethren. Every good, here's the difference
between sin and what God does for a man and what God don't
do for a man. God can't be tempted with evil,
but this is what he says. Every good and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of life,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creature. Since this is what
he says, so you be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath,
listen to what God has to say. Since every good and perfect
gift cometh down from the Father. And that's what I want to talk
about there in verse 17. Every good and perfect gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Message title today
is gift from above Gift from above. Yeah, I don't know anybody
that don't like to receive gifts. I like gifts Like to open gifts
like to receive gifts Well, everybody likes to receive gifts like to
see presents and there's gifts for different occasions you know
gifts for Weddings, gifts for birthdays, gifts for anniversaries. Gifts just to be giving somebody
a gift because you love them and you thank a lot of them.
And you give gifts for different reasons. All the different occasions. But there's a gift that God gives
His people. He gives them the gift of life.
Gives them the gift of eternal life. And there's a reason that
everything that God does for us has to be a gift. And you
know what the reason is? Because of our inability to give
anything to God. Because of our fallen, sinful
state that necessitated everything God does for us has to be given. We're so fallen, so depraved,
so sinful, so estranged from God, that God has to give us
everything that we have. That's why Paul said, what do
you have that you didn't receive? So who makes you different? And
it has to be a gift because of our inability to do anything
spiritual or inability to commend ourselves to God. Because of
our inability and our sinfulness, there's nothing that we can do
to earn anything from God, to merit anything from God, to even
receive a blessing from God. Now people won't, I know preachers
saying all the time and people are telling people that all you
got to do if you'll do this, God will bless you here. And
if you do that, God will bless you there. If you'll pray this
prayer, if you go through this ritual, if you go through this
ceremony, if you'll join this church, then God will bless you.
But the only blessings that God will ever give a man is given
to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every good and every perfect
gift cometh down from the Father of Lights. And every good and
perfect gift is from the Sovereign Throne of God Himself. He says
in Romans 11, 36, For all from Him, to Him, through Him be all
things, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Now whether the
gifts that we receive in nature, in our natural life, in nature,
Now where I've been blessed to live, no matter where I'm at
on our place where we live, I sit down and sit every day and wonder
in amazement at what God lets me enjoy. The sights He lets
me see, I mean the birds singing, we got a mockingbird. He sits
up in the top of that great old big cedar tree there and he goes
through all of his songs. And I hear all these birds and
I sit there and I sit on my front porch or back porch, it don't
make no matter where I'm sitting or where I'm looking. I bless
God every day that He lets me live and see the things that
I see. I'm feeling, I know it and whether
it's in nature if He lets me enjoy and in His providence.
The gifts He gives us in His providence, how He governs and
how He orders our lives by the day. That God orders everything
that happens in our lives. That He governs our lives, protects
our lives, provides for our lives. Every single day we get up in
the morning and oh, if we get up with our right mind, not in
a hospital, able to get out of bed, have any sense and enjoy
a cup of coffee, enjoy our breakfast, that's God's blessed providence
enabling us to do that. And oh my, especially in grace,
if God gives us grace, What gift is the grace of God? The grace
that makes us understand how desperately we need Him. You
take James chapter 1 and look with me over in Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look back over in Ephesians chapter
1. This is what I'm talking about. Everything that we have comes
from the Father above. Every good and perfect gift cometh
from above. cometh from the Father of lights.
These are good gifts, perfect gifts. In Ephesians 1 and verse
3, look what it says. Paul says, Blessed be the Godfather
of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is he blessing for? Who
has blessed us? Benefacted us with all spiritual
blessings. All spiritual blessings. Any
blessing you have, if you're here to hear the gospel, it's
a blessing from God. If you hear the gospel, it's
a blessing from God. If you can understand one verse
of scripture, it's a blessing from God. All spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Now here's some of those spiritual
blessings. According as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world. Election is a spiritual
blessing from God. That we, here's another blessing,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. You know what
it is to sit here right now being holy and without blame before
God Almighty? God can look at us right now,
those of us that are in Christ, look at us right now and say,
holy! No blame! And in love! He predestinated
us to the adoption of children. Now why did He have to adopt
us as children? Because He only had one Son.
Only begotten Son. But He meant to have a family
that know, called them sons, called them daughters, called
them children, called them His beloved, called them His treasure.
And since His Son was there of everything, He said, I want a
family and I'm going to adopt them into my family and they'll
be ours with my son, everything my son has, I'm going to give
them. I'm going to make them legal, I'm going to make them,
I'm going to adopt them and everything I do for them will be based on
because they're in my family. You know, we know lots of folks
that have adopted children, and when you adopt them, they're
legally yours, and they're legally entitled to everything you have.
Ain't that right? That's what God did for us. He
adopted us, and then not only did He adopt us, but bless His
Holy Name, He gave us a child's nature. He gave us a nature like
His Son. holy nature divine nature and
then look what he goes on to say of having predestinated us
to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself why in
the world did he do all this according to the good pleasure
of his will to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption, the payment of our sins through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of Now
that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about these gifts.
These gifts. Now back over in James. All these
spiritual gifts. All these blessings. Come and
flow out to the sinner through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look
back over here with me just a minute. God does every good and perfect
gift cometh down from the sovereign throne of God, cometh down from
the Father of lights. But I know this, we must, we
must and will take full blame for our sin. And if anything's
done good for us, God's got to be the one to do it. That's what
he says in verse 13, let no man say when he's tempted. Let nobody
do charge God with this. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. God's tempted me. God cannot
be tempted with evil, neither tempted any man to sin. He doesn't
tempt a man to sin. He brings a man to righteousness.
But every man is tempted. When he's drawn away of what?
His own lust, his own flesh, his own evil desires. And listen
to what it says, and then he's enticed by that. Then when lust
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it's finished
bringeth forth death. So we're going to take the blame
for what's wrong with us. But we're going to give God all
the glory for everything that's right. Ain't that right? Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name. Be glory for
thy mercy and thy true saint. Now look with me in verse 17.
It says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. That's what I want to talk about
first. Every good and perfect gift is
from above. I tell you what, you know what?
Christ, our blessed Redeemer, Christ our Savior, Christ our
Redeemer, Christ our Master, Christ our Savior, He came down
from above. Now I'm going to show you that.
You know, John 3.16 says, Father, look with me in John 8.23. It
says, you know, our Lord Jesus Christ said, and He's preaching
to Nicodemus, He says this, God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son. Oh listen, and that Son came
from above. In the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth His Son. Where did He send Him from? He
sent Him from glory. Made of a woman, made of under
the law. To redeem us out from under the
law. Our Lord Jesus Christ said in John 6.38, I came down from
heaven. I came down from heaven, not
to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And look what
He said here in John 8.23. Let me get over there myself. Preaching
to you and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. Look at
what he said here. Our master says this. And he
said unto them, you are from beneath. You're of this earth. You're from beneath. I'm from
above. I come down. I come from above. You're from beneath. You're of
this earth. You're fleshly. You're natural. I'm from above. I came from heaven itself. I
came where God dwells. I am God come down. You are of
this world. I'm not of this world. So you
see, God gave us Christ. He came from above. And I tell
you, not only did He come from above, but He sent Him back where
He was before. Ain't that what the scripture
says? He said, no, he told Mary when after the resurrection that,
trust me not, Mary, I'm not yet ascended to my father and your
father, to my God and your God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he
was above before and he said, Father, glorify thou with me
with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Why? Because I finished the work that
you gave me to do. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
from above. And now He's going back to where
He came from. And He's sitting at the right
hand of God with all glory and power and authority vested in
Him. Our blessed Savior came from above. Came down. You know, I believe it's in Psalm
33. I couldn't swear to it. I would not swear to it. But
there it says that God humbles Himself to behold the things
that are in heaven. If he humbles himself to behold
the things that are in heaven, he looks down, he has to humble
himself, come down to look at even things that are in glory.
And he says the angels and the heavens and nothing's pure in
his sight. So you imagine what it was for
the Lord of glory himself to come down here and dwell among
us and live among us Oh, what a gift God gave. What a gift
God gave. Gave His Son. Gave the Son of
His love. gave that one that was in His
bosom, gave that one who was daily the delight of His Father.
And our blessed Savior, our blessed Redeemer came from above. I tell you something else that
came from above. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Our
salvation came from above. And not only does it come from
above, but it's dependent upon God. It cometh down from the
Father of lights. I want you to turn with me to
John's Gospel, Chapter 3. Our salvation comes from above. You know, I know that people,
you know, they want to think it comes from here. It comes
by their free will. It comes by their choice. It
comes by their power. It depends upon, you know, God
does the work and then it depends upon you to keep the work going.
But beloved, our salvation comes from above. It comes from out
of this world. It's a supernatural act of God.
Everything about God's work is supernatural. I mean that's what
people are missing. They're looking for these great
big miracles and call that supernatural. If God does anything for a soul
on this earth, it's a supernatural act. It comes from above. It
comes from a power outside ourselves. It comes from the sword of God
who created the heavens and the earth and upholds them by the
word of His power. He created and said stay! And
that's where it stays. But look what he says, the new
birth is from above, dependent on God. Look what Nicodemus said
there. Our Lord told Nicodemus, a rabbi, a teacher, a real religious
man. Our Lord said in verse John 3,
3, Verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. And you look in the margin, that
again means from above. Man's got to be born from above.
He got to have a supernatural birth. He got to have a birth
that He cannot produce. He got to be born again. He got
to be born again. That first birth, that's not
good enough. That that's born of the flesh
is flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ said. And look what He says down
in verse 7. Marvel not that I said unto you,
you must be born again. And here's why it's dependent
on God. The wind blows where it will. And you hear the sound of the
wind. But you can't tell when it's going to come. And you can't
tell when it's going to leave. And that's the way it is. It's
everyone born of the Spirit. You don't know when the Spirit
of God is going to come and give life. And when He comes, you
don't know when He's going to leave. And that's the way everybody
that's born of the Spirit, you hear it, you feel it, you experience
and you don't know when it's coming and you don't know when
it's going. And that's the way it is in this service today.
We don't know if God's gonna come by here and pierce a heart
and give life or whether He's gonna go on by here and not touch
anybody. That's His pleasure to do that.
God does not owe salvation to men and women. And if a man's
born, that's why I told Nicodemus, Nicodemus said, Oh, you're a
wonderful teacher. Nobody can teach like you do. Nobody can. So you just say all
kinds of wonderful things. And he was so religious, he was
a religious leader of the Jews. And oh, he started coming on.
He said, even nobody do miracles that you do. And our Lord said,
I don't care what you think about me. I'm going to tell you what
you're going to have to do. Quit bragging on me. Quit trying
to endear yourself to me. You got to be born again, Nicodemus.
Being a Pharisee ain't going to do it. Being a ruler ain't
going to do it. Being a Sunday school teacher
ain't going to do it. Knock on somebody's door. Do you know Christ? Well, I teach
Sunday school. Do you know Christ? Well, I go
to church. Do you know Christ? I've been
baptized. Do you know Christ? And that's the only question
you got to answer? And how can you answer who He
is, except you'd be born from above? Huh? Oh, I tell you, you
know how you know you're not born from above? When somebody
asks you if you know Christ, you automatically start talking
about something you've done. Ain't that right? Whenever somebody
asks if you know Christ, then they automatically start thinking
of something they've done, or some experience they've had,
instead of saying, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And look what it goes, and then,
well, let's go back over in our text. The wind blows, oh, the
new birth is from above. Oh, this new birth, this most
wonderful thing. And I know people say, well,
I'm a born-again Christian. There's no such thing as somebody,
a Christian, that's not born again. I don't have to run around
telling people I'm born again. You know, if you're born again, you
know it. And if you tell somebody, they
ain't gonna see the evidence of it. They say, where's that
life at in you? How do you know you're born again?
Where's that life at? How's it expressed? But I tell you, who knows that
a person's been born again? The person themselves and folks
that they're around for a few years. I mean, not just two or
three days. Not just a week or two. I mean,
you know, you be around folks after a while and you get to
see them in that life. You get to see evidence of that
life. A crying out to Christ. A need for Christ. A righteousness
that they need that's not their own. They understand some things
of God. They understand the Spirit of
God. They understand how desperately they need salvation every day
of their lives. They've got it, but they also
know that they need it. And they've got to have it. And
they can do anything in this world to produce that life in
themselves. They can't even muster up a prayer
from their own heart. I'll tell you something else
that comes from above. Every good and perfect gift is from
above. Christ, the new birth, salvation, righteousness that
justifies us comes from above. Now what do I mean by righteousness
that justifies us? If you're going to know God and
have fellowship with God, you've got to have the righteousness
of God. You can't have your own righteousness. You've got to
have a righteousness that justifies you before God. Paul said, If
Abraham our father hath worth to glory, he may glory, but not
before God. For what does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God. And God justified him, cleared
him, declared him a righteous man. And he says, now if a man works,
then God owes him a debt. But for him that does not work,
then is it not reckoned of grace? Huh? So he says, blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. What does it mean to impute righteousness
without works? That means that God says, you're
righteous. When does He do that? In Christ. When you believe Him, trust Him,
look to Him. God is just. Listen to me. God
stays holy and just. And when you believe on His blessed
Son, who bore sin in His own body on the tree, and you believe
Him, you know what God does? He says, you're righteous. You're
clear of all blame, clear of all guilt. You're justified before
me and I'll always count you as holy as I myself am. I'll
never ever charge you with any sin, any fault ever again. Is that not right? And God above,
God alone is the origin, the source and giver of all of our
spiritual blessings. God made Christ unto us. Wisdom? What in the world does that mean?
That means that we don't have any spiritual sense until God
gives it to us. Where does He give it to us at?
Gives it to us in Christ. God made Him unto us righteousness. Oh, Christ is our righteousness,
not any deed we've done Christ did. He made us our sanctification. That means that you're holy.
Holy. And then He said He made him
our redemption. Why did He do that? The next
verse says that no flesh should glory in His presence. Huh? Oh, listen. That's why Paul says,
Brethren, we're always, always bound to thank God for you. Who are we going to thank? For
you? God for you. Why? Because God has from the
beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Where unto he called you by our
gospel. Do you know why he's thanking
God for? Because God did everything that was necessary for him to
be done. Now, no wonder Paul says, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So every good and perfect gift
cometh from above. Now I want you to look else again
over here in this verse 17. It said every good and perfect
gift is from above and listen to what else it says, cometh
down. Comes down. Huh? It comes down. You can't go get
it. It's got to come to you. That's
a good, perfect gift. Cometh. Cometh down. What does that mean? That means
that whatever God purposed for you, purposed for me, in this
business of salvation, God has to come and apply in time. In time, in the hearts of His
people, what He purposed to do for them from the foundation
of the world. If He chose us in Christ for the foundation
of the world, how are we going to know we've been chosen? He's
going to call us. How are you going to call us?
He's going to call us by the gospel. And how are we going to know
He's going to call us? Because He gives us the new birth. And you can't
hear without the birth. Dead men don't hear. Dead men
don't believe. So the first thing God does for
you, He blows that wind on you. And He gives you that life from
above. And then when that life comes from above, and then He
comes and He applies to you. He works in you like Christ worked
out for you on the cross. Philippians 1.6 says this, The good work that God started
in you, He will perform it under the day of Jesus Christ. And
you know He said it's the work that God did. It's God's work. It's God that worketh in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And he says that
good work which God hath performed in you, why is it a good work? Because first of all, it's God's
work. It can't be anything but good. It's God's work. Secondly, it's Christ's work.
That can't be anything but good. And you know it's good, good,
good, good work that He comes and does it for you. Don't you believe that it's a
good thing God did for you to come to you where you are? Huh? Oh, listen, beloved. Salvation.
Salvation's a heart work. It's something God does in the
heart. It's controlled and the Holy Spirit comes and He's the
one that does the work in a man's heart. You know, I'm shut up
to this and you're shut up to this. That we don't have a child. We don't have a child that if
we could change their hearts, we'd do it just that quick. We
don't have a grandchild that we wouldn't change their hearts
just that quick. We don't have a husband that's unconverted,
we wouldn't change their heart that quick. We don't have a wife
if we had the ability and the power to change them just that
quick. But we don't have that power. You just hear my voice. That's the only voice you hear
today. You hear the voice of a man. I can get to your ear. I can get to your hear. And you're
hearing, here's what I say. And it goes into your mind. And
you either understand it or you don't understand it. And if you
understand it, then bless God for that. But I'm telling you,
when it comes to doing that heart work, taking out that stony heart,
that heart that's dead, that heart that can't feel, taking
out that stony heart, that's God's work. That's why you say, why don't
you all ever give altar calls? What good would it do? And I
tell you, I am giving an altar call. Every time I preach, I'm
calling you to Christ, who is our altar. What good would it do for me
to convince you to do something if the gospel, if the Holy Spirit
can't do it? And what I'm telling you is,
that if God, He has to come and do the work. All you can hear
is my voice. But I'll tell you what He does,
and you keep this and look with me over in John 16 with me just
a minute. You know, the Holy Spirit comes
and does this wonderful work. And oh, and that's why it says,
you know, of His own will, there in James 1.18, of His own will
begat He us with the word of truth. Salvation's a hard work. The Holy Spirit comes and does
that work in a soul's heart and makes it real. He makes Christ
real. He makes Christ rich. He makes
Christ alive. He makes Christ vital in a heart
and in a soul. Oh my, if salvation was by the will
of man, how would nobody I love not be saved? But I can't even will them to
do what's right or good. I can't even will my children
to do what's right and good. I can tell them that's the right
thing to do. This is the wrong thing to do.
But I cannot will them to do the right thing. and I tell you something else
I can tell you that this is the way of salvation right here God
has to do this salvation but until God says that to you and
all you hear is my voice until God teaches you that that's what
I'm saying and look what he said here in verse 13 John 16, 13. How be it when He,
a person now, the Holy Spirit's a person. How be it when He,
see how that's capitalized, the Spirit of Truth is come. When He comes, He'll guide you
into all truth. He's never going to tell a lie.
He's never going to lead you to anything to trust Him. He's
not going to lead you to trust your flesh or anything else.
He shall guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself. He won't come here and say, now
you know the evidence of being saved is speaking in tongues.
He won't come and say, you know, the evidence of you having the
Holy Spirit is that you'll dance in the Spirit. It won't come
and say, you know, when Jesus is here, let's give Him a big
hand clap, let's do a lot of hollering for Him. No, no, no,
no. When He has come, He will not speak of Himself. He'll not
talk about all the things that He's done. No, you know who He'll
talk about? But whatsoever He shall hear,
hear in heaven itself, hear from the Father, hear from the Son.
That's what He's going to speak. And He'll come and show you things
to come. And listen to it. He shall glorify
me. How do you know the Holy Spirit
is present? He always glorifies Christ. Always speaks of Christ. He will receive of mine. He'll
receive the things concerning myself. And that's what He'll
teach you. That's what He'll show you. That's what He'll show you. Oh, when He has come, that's
why He says, to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power,
the privilege to become the sons of God, which believe, not by
the will of man, not by flesh, not by blood, But born of God. Not born of this flesh. Not born
of the will of man. Not born of blood. Has to be
born from above. And back over here in our text,
look what it says in verse 18 of James 1. Salvation is by the
will of God. I said you know it's not our
will. It's not of Him that willeth. It's not of him that will it.
Some of y'all remember this. Herman, you'll remember this
when you had meetings years ago at Thomas Springs or some of
these other places you'd go. All this, they called the back
row the sinner's bench. Why'd they call it the sinner's
bench? Because all everybody who hadn't made a profession,
hadn't been on their altars, they'd all sit on the back pew.
Why? Because they'd get out the door
for somebody to come back there and grab them by the arm and
drag them to the altar. Ain't that right? I could come back there and grab
you by the arm, some of you old, it just seems like the Lord's
doing something for you and He's doing something in your heart.
I could come back there and say, oh sweetheart, oh honey, don't
you want, oh brother, don't you want to trust Christ? Oh brother,
wouldn't you like to, would you like to come up here and pray
with me now? I could do that. I could embarrass somebody and
they would just get me to leave them alone and say, yeah, I'm
going to do that. But look what it said here in
verse 18 of James chapter 1. Of His own will began He us with
the word of truth. God's will for man's sake. Ain't
it? It's God's will for man saved.
Paul said it like this to the Ephesians. You were saved after you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. If you heard
the gospel of your salvation, I heard the gospel of my salvation.
I heard the gospel that God worked in me with. And I still hear
that gospel when other men preach it. But have you, you, you heard
the gospel of your salvation? If you did, it came by the word
of truth. By the will of God. And look
over here, 1 Peter is right over to your right. You and James
just turned over in 1 Peter chapter 1. Let me show you some things
here. You know it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. But look what
he said here in 1 Peter 1.18, talking about salvation by the
will of God, that he's using the Word of God, he uses the
Word of Truth, he uses the Gospel. He said in verse 18 of 1 Peter
1, For as much as you know, you were not redeemed, your sins
were not paid for, not redeemed from sin and slavery and corruption,
with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your empty, vain,
useless manner of life passed down from fathers to you. But I tell you what you were
redeemed with, with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. who verily or truly was foreordained,
predestinated, before the foundation of the world, come down from
above, but was manifested, brought down, and lived among us in these
last times for you. Now listen to it, who by Him do believe in God. Do you believe
in God? Our Lord Jesus Christ says, No
man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Do you believe in God?
is by the Lord Jesus Christ that raised him up from the dead and
gave him glory. Now listen to it, that your faith
and hope might be in God. And so in doing that, seeing
you have purified your souls by doing what? Obeying the truth
Through the Spirit unto an unthaned, a true love for the brethren.
See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
And here's why you do this. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed. That's how your children's born,
of corruptible seed. But of incorruptible. And what
is that incorruptible? By the Word of God. And that
Word lives and abides forever. For all flesh is just nothing
but grass. And all the glory of man is the
flower of the grass. A beautiful flower that comes
up. The grass withers. The flower withers away and falls
away. But here's what's going to go
on. The Word of the Lord. It endures forever. And this
is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Has the
gospel worked in you? Has the gospel done a work in
you? Has God's Word done a work in you? It's a seed. It's a seed. Now, everybody raises gardens,
and everybody knows what a seed happens when a seed's dropped.
And you know, some people save seeds from generation to generation,
but you go and you get good seed. And you put that seed in the
ground, and after a while, that seed will spring up, and you'll
have evidence of life. Well, God takes the Word of God,
that incorruptible seed. Our Lord Jesus Christ says the
seed is the Word of God. And He said He takes that incorruptible
seed, and He plants that seed. You know where He plants it at?
He plants it in good ground, ground that He's made good. He
plows up that heart and He puts that seed in that heart. And
you know when that seed, how do you know that seed has germinated
and brought forth life? You obey the truth. What's the
truth? That Jesus Christ, God raised Him from the dead, gave
Him all the glory. And you believe in God by coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you know that that seed
has been put in your heart? The first thing a baby does is
when he's born is he cries. And you know your mothers, if
you ever, you folks that's had grand babies and babies and all
that, they get that baby away from the mother and put her in
that nursery and they just go to scrubbing and moving and twisting and going.
That baby just screaming bloody murder. And God may do you that way.
He may twist and turn you every way in the world, and you'll
scream bloody murder. But I'll tell you one thing will
happen. You'll scream, and you'll cry out. And you know who you're
crying for? For your father. For your father. And when mama,
they bring that baby to mama, and daddy's sitting there, and
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Oh, nothing like it. Oh, they get tears in
their eyes. But I'm telling you, that's what
happens when you hear that gospel and that life's in your heart.
You say, oh, this is the most beautiful, glorious thing I've
ever seen, ever heard, ever experienced in my life. How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me? Can my God His wrath forbear
and me, me the chief of sinners spare? Oh listen, I know this and I'll
tell you something. In every regenerated soul we'll
see three things. We'll see God's will worked in
them. God's will accomplished Him.
We'll see Holy Spirit conviction. The Holy Spirit will convince
you of your sin and Christ to be your only righteousness and
you'll give up yours. And the third thing is, is the
truth. The gospel in power and in the truth. Now, let's go back
over here now to James chapter 1. Let me see if I can get done
with this. Oh, I love this now. Again in
verse 17, every good and perfect gift cometh down from above.
But it does come. It comes. It cometh. And look
who it comes from. Cometh down from the Father of
lights. God is light and there is no
darkness about Him. With whom is no variableness,
neither shadow or curtain. And oh my, what comfort, what
assurance, what a great blessing to our hearts is that God does
not change. There is no variableness or shadow
of turning. God does not vary. He doesn't
turn where there will be a shadow. He doesn't turn. No, no. Perfect light. Everlasting light. There is no shade or an appearance
of change, not in our Father, not in our Lord Jesus Christ.
God said, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, because I don't
never change, you sons of Jacob will not be consumed. Oh, what
changes we go through. How many changes have you been
through today? Get up, your wife aggravated you, you aggravated
her. He was hungry and didn't have
time to eat. Aggravated at you because you couldn't get ready
fast enough. Oh man, we're going to be late
if we don't do this. You know, something happens,
invariably. I'm sure that didn't happen to
anybody here today. But what I'm saying is that we
really go through changes. But God never changes. And if
He treated us through the changes we went through, and then you
know what He says, Jesus Christ the same today, yesterday, and
forever. God's purpose will never change.
He works all things after the counsel of His own will. All
things work together for good. to them that are called according
to His purpose. God's purpose will never change.
You know, since prayer changes things, I'll tell you it does,
it changes us. It don't change God, it'll change us. And I'll
tell you what, and I'll tell you something else that He'll
never change. Not only in His purpose, He'll not change in
His promise. He has gave us exceeding great and precious promises in
the Lord Jesus Christ. All the promises of God in Christ
are yay and amen. God's promise will never change. If He promised, He's able to
perform. Ain't that right? And God's method
of salvation has never changed. The way He saves a sinner has
never changed. He's determined in His will and
in His purpose and in His promise to save sinners one way. And
that's through and because of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to turn with me
to 2 Timothy 1.9. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
said it this way. He says, no man, in John 14.6,
no man, no man, no man, no man comes unto me. comes unto the
Father, but by me. And Peter stood and preached
on the day of Pentecost when he was preaching to people who
looked to law and trusted in law. He said, there's no other
name under heaven. No other name under heaven. No pope, no priest, no rabbi,
no preacher. No Allah, No Buddha, no Confucius, no other
name. Under heaven, given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Got that must in there. Other than Jesus Christ. And look what it said here in
Daniel, I mean, excuse me, 2 Timothy 1.9. Oh, this is what I'm talking
about. God who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose. So you know if you say, that's
what I'm talking about, coming. If you're saved, God saved you
on purpose. and grace. His own purpose and
grace. And listen to this now, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What
does God do? Psalm 135, 5 and 6 says that
God does whatsoever pleases Him in heaven and earth, the sea
and all deep places. Oh, God the Creator, God the
Father of Light, the Preserver of all things is eternally sane
and gives ever good and perfect gifts sovereignly as it pleases
Him. Our Lord Jesus said it this way.
He lifted His eyes to heaven and He said, Father, Thou has given me power. authority over all flesh that
I, I should give eternal life to who? As many as thou hast
given me. Huh? Every good and perfect gift coming
down from the Father of lights and He never changes. If He had
ever changed, Bruce, me and you would have been gone years and
years ago. Huh? We would have been goners, as
I used to say, like a gone Jesse. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing
us to preach the gospel today. Oh, what a privilege, what a
blessing that you've enabled me to speak once again. And oh Father, I pray that you'd be pleased to
open hearts, open minds, open understandings, and do it to
the praise of the glory of your grace, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in His name we bless you. Amen. Amen. Come to the piano
Marlene, we'll sing