James chapter one and reading from verse 16. 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. 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, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Amen, may the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

As I have thought on these verses this week, I've been drawn again and again to the little phrase right at the end of our reading, which says, able to save your soul. able to save your soul. Here is James, an apostle of Christ, telling his readers about the way of salvation and pointing them to his Lord and Master, who is able to save your soul. What an important message that is. When we think of the vastness of this world, when we think of the eternity that lies beyond time, what an important message that is for men and women to hear. Here is one who is able to save your soul. He is able to do for you in mercy and grace, by his own suffering and death, what you can never do for yourself.

And here are we, 2,000 years after James wrote these words, bearing the same message, pointing to the same Lord and telling the world, if they would but listen, He is able to save your soul. You have a soul. You have a soul, a unique, a precious soul. But a soul that is by nature full of sin, alienated from God, and condemned to everlasting loss and separation. This is the reality. This is the message that the gospel clearly teaches.

And the Lord Jesus Christ, with respect to this soul of yours, the Lord Jesus asked in Matthew chapter 16, what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? That is such a serious question and one that we should all give attention to. It's impossible for you to save yourself and yet you need to be saved. Paul speaks in Romans chapter two verse nine of tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. And we all deserve this tribulation and anguish on account of our nature, on account of our sin, and we are powerless to resist the justice of God's broken law. It demands condemnation.

And yet, says James, he is able to save your soul. There is a way of escape. Our great and merciful God, our blessed and loving Saviour is able to save your soul. He is gracious to save sinners like you and me and has already done all that is required by way of redemption and cleansing and pardon and reconciliation to bring us to God and save our souls. There is no one else in heaven or earth of whom it can be said, he is able to save your soul. He is able because he has satisfied every demand of holiness and justice in himself. He is able because he loved us so much that he came into this world, took our flesh, took our sin and its punishment and suffered for it in his own soul.

And today, in these verses that we have before us, James is going to tell us how your soul and Christ's salvation are brought together and joined together under the preaching of the gospel. So may your heart and mine be filled with a sense first of need and of gratitude and wonder and joy that one was found worthy, willing and able to save your soul and mine and to fit us for glory and everlasting life.

I would like you to note with me how James begins his lesson today. He directs us, he says, do not err, my beloved brethren. Do not err. Don't get this wrong. Don't make a mistake upon a matter so important. as the matter of your salvation, your eternal salvation. Do not err upon this matter.

Those who have any doubt concerning James' commitment to free sovereign grace ought to note James' words right here. He is telling us, don't err on this matter. And then he goes on to say, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Salvation is of the Lord. It was Jonah that said that, wasn't it? So Jonah in the Old Testament and James in the New Testament are in perfect agreement. Jonah said salvation is of the Lord. James says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

James is speaking of grace and he is speaking about Christ. Christ is that good gift. Christ is that perfect gift given by God to men and women to secure for them what they never were capable of delivering for themselves, the salvation of their souls. And the whole gospel is bound up in these few verses that we have read together today.

The blessed apostle James has previously spoken to us about eternal life. Remember, previously we spoke about the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. The crown of life is eternal life. It's the greatest, it's the best, it's the most wonderful. It's the crown, it's the top that can be conceived, that can be considered and thought about concerning life. It is the life that God gives to his people, the crown of life.

And here James explains how this gift of life is obtained and delivered, how it is obtained and conveyed to those who love and are called to serve the Lord Jesus. Eternal life is God's free gift to his people and his Son. And James would have the church know that Jesus Christ and eternal life and 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 is a fine statement of sovereign grace. Our Saviour is given to us by Jehovah God, out of love for His elect. The Father gave His only begotten Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ is first in preeminence amongst all God's gifts, all God's magnanimity, all God's generosity.

Christ is first in preeminence amongst all God's gifts. All divine grace and goodness is in Jesus Christ. And I think it's worth stressing this point. When we speak about God's grace and mercy, when we speak about God's love and patience and provision and all the gifts of his goodness, we ought always to think of them as being in Christ.

There's no grace outside of Christ. The psalmist says in Psalm 68 verse 19, So that the benefits that come to us, the benefits that are loaded upon us, They come from the God of our salvation. There's no benefits, there's no grace, there's no blessings, there's no mercy, there's no goodness, there's no love outside of Christ.

That is why Christ is constantly presented in Scripture as the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me and no gifts of grace come from the Father to men except by the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And there may be forbearance for the world for a time, But judgment is coming. There is no doubt about that. God's grace and love is in Christ alone. And rejecting Christ is refusing the goodness of God.

Our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, is from above. And he has come down from heaven as God's perfect gift. Our salvation is, as James and Jonah have told us, in its entirety from the Lord, a free gift from God, a gift from above. It was not conceived by man any more than it can be accomplished by man. It's supernatural.

The father of lights is creator and sustainer of all natural light, but more importantly, he's the giver of spiritual light. And where the father would give love and light and life He first gives Christ and all who love Christ have all the blessings of God in him.

But let's move on because James is also teaching us here about the fact that there is no variableness or shadow of turning with God. James is teaching us about God's immutability. God's immutability. What is that? If something is mutable, it changes. Science and biology talks about mutation. And science fiction, it majors in mutants. But our God is immutable. He doesn't change. There is no variableness with him. There is no shadow of turning. God doesn't change his mind. God doesn't regret what he has done or repent of what he has done. In our great Jehovah God, there is no change. Jesus Christ, says the book of Hebrews, the same yesterday and today and forever. And he who said, I am the Lord, I change not, inspires James here in this little epistle at the end of the New Testament to remind us there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning with the Lord. His gifts and calling are without repentance.

God in his three persons is faithful to his word. He is trustworthy. He is dependable. And if he gives grace in Christ, if he gives the Lord Jesus Christ and gives life in Christ, this is firm and fixed. It is a certainty for every believer. Having been given the good gift of Jesus Christ and eternal life and salvation by him, every sinner who comes to Christ in faith can do so with confidence, hope and assurance. The gift of God once bestowed will never be withdrawn, no matter what the devil whispers in your ear, no matter how inadequate and insufficient you might feel on a particular day at a particular time in a particular situation. It is God who is faithful. It is not our faithfulness that maintains our standing in the presence of Almighty God. It is his own faithfulness towards the people of his choice, the people of his love, the people for whom Christ is given and life is granted.

And then James, in these verses once again, gives us a nice example of these gifts from God that are immutably given. It's a demonstration, if you like, to prove his point, to support his theology, an example of God's grace and goodness, and he uses The word begat. Now we don't use that word very often. It kind of has become just a Bible word in our authorised version, but begat or begotten. It means to bear or to bring forth. And the word is used to speak about children who are born, children who are begotten by their parents. And it's also used in the sense, having been used in that physical sense of children being born or begotten by their parents, it's used in the spiritual sense, metaphorically, if you like, of the new birth or being born again. And that's what James is talking about here. We call this regeneration or quickening or the new birth. and regeneration is a work of God the Holy Spirit. It occurs when he imparts spiritual light and life to the darkened soul of a sinner. When the Holy Spirit comes with the gift of new life in Christ, that is what we call being born again, that is what we call regeneration, or as James calls it here, begotten. He has begat us. But that's what he's talking about. And this is the new creation. And it is the origin of spiritual knowledge by which every other grace, every other good gift from God is experienced and known.

So it is by that regeneration that we come to begin to understand God's ways and God's working, and we begin to grow in grace and a knowledge of the truth. And again, I hope you notice with respect to that begottenness, James is emphasizing the primacy of God in this creative work. Regeneration, the new birth, begatting, getting is accomplished by, James says, God's own will. God's own will. It is neither man's will nor man's activity that brings it about any more than it was your will or your ability that created you in your mother's womb. You had nothing to do with being born into this world. and you have nothing to do about being begotten again to newness of life in Christ. It is a gift of God in which we are entirely ignorant and passive until it is dispensed and delivered to us by God the Holy Spirit.

Don't let anyone tell you James didn't believe in sovereign grace. Paul has another way of saying it. That is true. Paul tells us that regeneration and salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. But both men are entirely agreed. James says in his doctrine, do not err. And then he gives us this example of regeneration in the soul of a sinner. He is telling us emphatically salvation is a sovereign act bestowed at God's own will.

And yet there is something else here in what James is saying to us. If we were climbing a hill, then we've gotten to the top and we're heading down. Or if we're going on a journey, we've got as far as we're going and we're turning for home. And this is what James is now about to speak to us. He's speaking about the means by which this work of regeneration, this work of God's grace, the goodness of God, the perfect gifts of God are dispensed and distributed to us. And he goes on to speak about the preaching of the gospel.

This regeneration, this new birth is a gift imparted by means, by means. Now, James is showing us here the importance of preaching and the ministry of the word in salvation, the salvation of sinners. And I want you just to pause for a moment with me with respect to that word means. Means is an important idea in theology. It describes the method that God uses to accomplish his will. Now God could do his will immediately, that is without means, without anything in between. He could accomplish his will immediately without using any mediator or means in between. But that's not how God has chosen to act. In this world, God has chosen to act by means. The source and origin of regeneration and our salvation. Is God the Holy Spirit? Is God's will and God the Holy Spirit? But the means is by gospel preaching. And the Holy Spirit implants spiritual new life makes a new creation and bestows the gift of faith, and yet he also applies the preached word savingly to the dead soul of the sinner. It is the spirit and the word preached coming together that bring about the conversion of the sinner to Christ. Regeneration takes place before conversion, and it is as the word is applied by the Holy Spirit to the regenerated soul that conversion takes place. The power of God is essential, but the means is also important. And for this reason, James is stressing this, for this reason, we must never devalue the preaching of the gospel in the Christian church. and in our fellowship.

Gospel preaching is God's principle means of dispensing and communicating his gifts and his grace to his people. Do we seek salvation? Do we desire everlasting life? Would we see God? Do we wish to grow in our Christian life and experience? then we must hear the Word that is able to save our souls. We must hear the Word of Christ. We must hear the Gospel of God. And those who say you don't need to go to church to experience and enjoy spiritual fellowship with God, They are denying the means God has instituted and employed.

What we are doing today is important. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, that is, under the preaching of the gospel of Christ, is where the Lord Jesus has promised to meet his people. But I want you to know as well, merely going to church is of no use if we have not faith to receive the word preached. So we need to have that faith. Or, this is important too, If that which is delivered at that place where we go is not gospel preaching, then that is of no use either.

Let me be clear about this. If you are not hearing the gospel of free and sovereign grace preached from your pulpit, that is not a gospel church. and you are not hearing the truth. In fact, you have no justification for attending such a place. Regeneration and spiritual growth is effected by the Holy Spirit and brought to light through the preaching of the gospel and belief in the word of truth. Faith in Christ with every other good gift from above comes by hearing the gospel preached and believing it in our heart by faith.

James is teaching us the importance of the gospel. Preaching and hearing the gospel of Christ is the divinely appointed means by which souls are begotten of God and born again. Paul calls it the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. And the gospel gathers the chosen people of God like first fruits gathered at a harvest. And it is highly valued in Christ's church by the beloved brethren. We are or at least we ought to be, swift to hear, eager to listen, and personally resolved to apply the gospel message as the Holy Spirit opens it to us and opens to us in it the will of the Father and the loveliness of the Savior.

And James has one more thing to say to us. Let us be circumspect when we hear the gospel preached. We ought to be slow to speak against what we hear from the Lord's messenger without first giving careful consideration to the message. Wrath or anger against God's word should have no place in our thinking. And pride is futile. Meekness and obedience is what secures blessing. We are to be patient to receive admonitions that come to us by God's word. because God has appointed the gospel as the means of both blessing and regulating his church. And he gives workmen amongst us to rightly divide the word of truth. There's power and there's life in this gospel. The book of Hebrews tells us the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirits and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Now if you're a believer, if you're a child of God and there is something going on in your life that ought not to be there, If you have grown cold, if you have fallen into sin, if you are subject to temptation and you're not ridding yourself, you're not engaging in order to endeavour to withstand the wiles of the devil, if you're not calling upon Christ to help you in those situations, then you should expect the gospel to deal with you like a two-edged sword. Piercing even to the dividing asunder quick and powerful and sharp and that won't be an easy experience It won't be a gentle wooing It might smart it might hurt

If we are listening to a preacher and find ourselves becoming critical We need to ask some serious questions Like is this man preaching the truth? If he is not, then why are we there listening and getting angry and upset? We need to be under a gospel ministry where the message will do our soul some good.

However, if God gives us a preacher and that man is faithful to the gospel, there will be times when his message hurts, chides and cuts, as well as times when it comforts, consoles and nourishes. And we must be aware of this difference and not become angry at the messenger, the means, for faithfully bringing to us a message that makes us uncomfortable. The practice among some professing Christians of leaving a congregation because they don't like something the preacher has said reveals more about their immaturity than it does about the Lord's servant. Does not that man have to wrestle with God's Word for himself like the rest of us? He ought to be more prayed for before he is criticised and certainly before he is forsaken.

This preaching ministry upon which we are engaged is serious and it is spiritual. And we are dealing with deeper matters than might first appear. And maturity and restraint under the probing point of God's sword will pay dividends for our spiritual well-being.

And here's the final point. It's not the mere reading or indeed hearing of the word that saves a sinner or deepens our spiritual understanding. It is the engrafted word. That's a lovely picture that James sets for us here. Think about grafting a branch into a stalk, into a stem, into a root. That word is put in to the heart. The root has to be open. The heart, the understanding has to be opened and the truth inserted, the word inserted. The word is planted in the soul by the Holy Spirit. And when the gospel is effectually fixed in a man's heart by the power of God, it will become fruitful.

This word, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is able to save souls. because it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ. It is the message of the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith. May the Lord grant us all spiritual ears to hear and spiritual wisdom to receive the engrafted word. Amen.