In James chapter 1, verse 16,
James continues with these words. 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 firstfruits 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. 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 firstfruits of his creatures. The faith of Christ And our faith
in Christ is so central, is so intrinsic to the message of the
gospel that James has it at the forefront of his mind in every
word that he writes in this epistle. The reality of faith, of living
by faith, of walking by faith, of overcoming by faith, runs
as it were as a golden cord through every word that James writes. When he speaks of our temptations
and our trials, faith in Christ is the answer. It's Christ who
keeps us. It's Christ who saves us. It's
Christ who leads us. It's Christ who watches over
us. It's Christ who will deliver
us. James' constant exhortation is to look unto Christ. Walk
by faith and not walk in a presumption of faith or with a mere claim
to faith. Don't just say that you have
faith. Don't just claim to live by faith. Believe. Believe in Christ. Trust in the Saviour. Look unto
Jesus. Look unto Jesus, the author and
the finisher of faith. Do not err, my beloved brethren,
James exhorts. Do not err. How do we err when
we look to our own goodness, our own will, our own righteousness for any merit before God? when we in any way think that
something about us or something that we do will cause God to
favor us, to bless us, to be pleased with us. When we in any
way, shape or form turn from salvation by grace and grace
alone, through faith and faith alone, when we turn from faith
in Christ alone to trust in our will. When temptations come,
when trials come, Should we turn from looking unto Christ alone
to our own strength, our own will, our own understanding to
overcome, then we err. Salvation is by grace alone. It is by the will of God, not
our will. It's through the righteousness
of God, not our righteousness, not our works. It's through God
sending His Son in the place of wretched dead sinners who
would do nothing but die, who would do nothing but turn from
God, who were at enmity with God, who were lost, who in exercise
of their will ran from God, rebelled against God. In such a world
of darkness and sin, God sent His Son. to be a ransom for sinners,
to redeem sinners, to deliver them from their sins. He sent
His Son, He came from heaven's glory into the darkness of this
world and sent forth His light in the person of His Son and
sent His Son to the place of execution at Golgotha. where he was nailed to a tree
in the place of sinners, where he bore their sins, where he
suffered the outpouring of God's wrath against that sin, to wash
them clean, to bring in the righteousness of God, to deliver them from
their captivity. This is the will of God to save
his people from their sins. And it's this and this alone
that makes any believe and any to differ from another. Do not err, my brethren. Do not
err, my beloved brethren. Every good and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. God looked upon his people in
mercy and in grace. He pitied them and he sent forth
salvation. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
4, 7, For whom maketh thee to differ from another? And what
hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Salvation
is a gift. It begins as a gift. It's always
a gift. Our life as believers is by grace
and grace alone from start to finish. Do not err my beloved
brethren. How do we err? when we blame
God for our trials. 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. Then when
lust hath conceived it, bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. Well, yeah. when in temptation
we blame God. Why has thou brought this upon
me? Why am I thus? Well yeah, when we turn from
trusting God alone in the midst of our trials, when we feel he
has abandoned us, when we turn to our own strength or our own
will to overcome our problems. In short, when we turn from grace
to anything of self. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Oh, how subtle this is. How subtly
we can turn. We may claim to believe in grace. We may say that salvation is
by grace alone. We may say that we have been
saved by grace alone. We profess it. But when we feel like we can
overcome our daily troubles, our trials, by our own will or
our own strength, when we feel we can save ourselves from this
matter or this trouble, then we show where our trust and our
will lays. Then we show that we trust ourselves
and not God. It's so easy to believe that
God is our Saviour, but then in the day-to-day trials that
come our way, we turn to our own strength again, as though
God isn't there. He was there at the beginning,
He was there when He delivered us from our sins, He was there
in the past when He led us to the tree and pointed us to His
Son, and we saw in His Son our sins washed away. But now, years
later, this trial comes upon us, and we live and we act as
though God's not there, as though we're on our own, as though He's
just pointed us in a pathway and said, do your best. So we
struggle through and we do our best as though he's not there.
How slow we are to fall upon our knees before him, how slow
we are to say, Lord, I'm nothing, I'm lost, I'm helpless, help
me, save me at this hour, lead me, give me thy wisdom, give
me thy grace. We err when we turn from faith. and to sight, when our judgment
is by that which we see, not by that which is revealed in
the gospel, which only faith sees. 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. Every gift we receive comes down
from God. Salvation is a gift. It's not earned. It's not merited. It's not produced by something
we do by our own will. It's a gift. And it comes from above. We may turn. We may blow hot
and cold. We may be strong one day and
weak another day. Our faith may seem strong one
day and it's gone from us another day. We vary. But God doesn't. He's constant. 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, not
a slight, not in a moment, not a bit. He's constant. He's constant in grace. He's
constant in mercy. God doesn't change, there's no
variableness in him, there's no shadow of turning. We vary,
we turn, but he doesn't. His grace towards his people
is constant, it's abounding. It came forth from eternity,
it flows in love throughout all time, from the beginning of the
world to the end. It extends into eternity. From before the foundation of
the earth, He set His love upon His people, He chose them in
Christ. They were chosen, elected under
salvation. He purposed to save them and
throughout the ages and the generations he watched as they came forth
into the world, as they turned their backs upon their maker,
as they were plunged into sin, as they ran away in their rebellion
and their enmity against their God. And he sent his son, into the
darkness of a rebellious world to bring about his purpose, to
bring about his will in salvation, to deliver them, to deliver his
people from their sins. He never wavered from his purpose. Throughout all time, all events,
all circumstances, all history, led up to the coming of Christ. When Christ was born, all the
events of history, all the circumstances of his birth, were according
to the eternal will and purpose of God. Christ grew. Christ went out to minister,
to preach the gospel of the kingdom. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. He was rejected by all, yet he
continued. His face was set like a flint
towards Jerusalem. He headed towards the cross. He headed towards the death that
he must die. There was no turning, there was
no variableness. He was not turned, he was not
put off by the rejection of men, by the reception he received
in this evil world. Even his own, even his disciples
who were with him and heard him so long, weren't there for him
at the end. They slept when he suffered,
when he was in torment in Gethsemane. They deserted him at the cross. Yet his love for them was constant.
His love for them never diminished. His grace continued to flow forth. He went to the cross and he did
all that he must do in order to save his people from their
sins. He was plunged into the abyss in the darkness. The wrath of God poured out upon
him as he bore his people's sins. He was forsaken by all. And he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh, what he suffered. Yet he
never turned. He never turned. God gave in his son the greatest
gift. His son came to give himself
as a ransom for sinners. He gave himself for those he
loved. He gave the greatest gift of
salvation, of righteousness, of everlasting life. He brought
the light of God's truth in the gospel into the darkness of this
world every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the father of lights he is the father of lights
all light All truth comes down from Him. Outside of Him and His Word,
there is but darkness, but death, only sin, only lies. All truth, all light comes down
from the Father of Lights. All truth, all light. is found in Christ and Christ
alone. Has God brought you to this light? Has he shone something of this
light into your heart? Or are you yet blind, stumbling
about in the darkness? James goes on, off his own will,
begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creatures. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Did you ever seek God? Have we ever sought God by nature? Where has our will taken us? It sought our own things, our
own way, our own glory. If ever we come to consider religion,
our own will seeks salvation by its own choice, for its own
glory. and it rejects the revelation
of the God who is sovereign in salvation. We will happily bow
down to an idol. There are many who will speak
of a Jesus who does their bidding. There are many who will speak
of making a decision for their Jesus. who stand pleading for
them to receive him. They have no trouble with a Jesus
that is there to be accepted or rejected by their own will.
But when we hear the word of truth that sent from the Father
of lights, that comes down from a sovereign
God and declares that salvation Because by God's will alone,
then we reject. But salvation comes as a gift
from above, sent to those to whom God will send it. Of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. We believe we
live because God chooses to beget us by his word of truth, of his
own will. It is all of God, entirely of
God, all of grace, and it comes by his word through the truth. as it is revealed unto that faith
which he gives unto us to believe and receive it. Except we hear
and believe the word of truth, we lie in darkness. Except God
comes unto us in the midst of time with his gospel and speaks
unto us and makes us to hear, we will go forever stumbling
about in the darkness. We may be left in religion, We
may have profession, we may say we believe this, we're convicted
of this but we're left in darkness to the true and the living God,
we don't know him. We have a profession, we have
a presumption, we may speak of a Jesus, we may speak of what
he's done, but our understanding is carnal. It's our conception. It's a Jesus that does our bidding. We're blind to the truth and
the reality of the God who is the father of lights. But there
comes a time for the child of God, for the believer when God
comes unto him and awakens him and opens his eyes to see that
all he thought he knew before was darkness, was error. And he reveals unto him Christ
as he truly is, as the King of kings, as the Lord of lords,
as the creator of heaven and earth, as the God who of his
own will bring sinners unto life. When we hear this gospel, when
we hear this word of truth, when we're given faith to hear it
and believe it, then the scales of our blindness fall from our
eyes. Then we see ourselves as we truly
are as wretched blind sinners. Then we see God as He is. The
Father of Lights. Then we hear. Faith hears. Faith hears the Gospel. Faith
hears the Word of Truth. There's no salvation without
this Word. We must hear it. We must hear
Christ. We must hear His voice in the
Gospel. not just the words, we can't
just read and presume upon things, we must hear his voice, it must
come unto us in power. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, we need God to come with that word and bring
us by his spirit unto life. He quickens us, He begets us,
He causes us to be born again. Ye must be born again Christ
says. And when He comes in the power
of His gospel to His people they believe because He quickens them
unto life. Paul writes in Ephesians in chapter
1 that we read earlier constantly of the will of God. If you read
through Ephesians 1 repeatedly he speaks of the will of God
and his predestination of his people. It was God's will to
choose a people, to send his son to die for that people, to
redeem that people and to bring them unto life by his word. In
verse 13 Paul writes, in whom in Christ ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. And what brings us to hear the
word of truth, what brings us to hear the gospel of salvation,
what brings us to trust in Christ, the will of God does. He looks
at us through all eternity and he says, you're mine. And in
time you're brought under the gospel to hear it, to hear Christ
speak unto you through it and to speak unto you in particular
and say, I loved you and gave myself for you. As he come unto you, and said
that in the gospel. Can you describe that gospel
as the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation? In Colossians
Paul also writes, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,
and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it
is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in
you, since the days ye heard of it, and knew the grace of
God in truth. Paul rejoices that the Colossians
had heard the word of the truth of the gospel and God through
that word had quickened them unto life and given them faith. So that they would know the grace
of God in truth. They didn't just profess it,
they hadn't just heard of it, they knew it, they knew the reality
of it. They had a living faith. And Paul heard of their faith
in Christ Jesus and the love which they had to all the saints.
It evidenced their faith. This wasn't a professional faith.
It was seen. It was lively. They loved the
truth. They loved their Brethren. They
loved their Lord. They lived by faith. And it's
the word of the truth of the Gospel that brought this to them. We must hear the Gospel. and we must hear that Gospel
as it comes forth from the Father of Lights like a shining light
in the darkness when He magnifies His Son and points us towards
Him and says, hear my Son in whom I am well pleased behold
the Lamb of God which is offered for you Look unto Him. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Salvation is by grace, by the will of God, by election. We are chosen by God in grace
unto salvation. He has a people in this world
whom he will bring this gospel to. If you're brought to hear
this gospel, what a joy that is. God singles out those whom
he will preach to. He comes here and there. He brings
the sound of the truth to a town, to a place. There are many he
may go by. We read in the Acts of the Apostles,
we read in the time of Christ, they went to this place, but
they didn't go to that place. He will send it where he chooses. The spirit bloweth where it listeth. God will come with his gospel
to those places and to those people. whom he has chosen to
save. If you're hearing this, hear.
He may never come back. You may never hear it again.
He may come in the darkness in which you dwell, shining forth
the light, presenting Christ before you, and you may see for
a moment, but he may wander past, he may head off another way,
you may never hear again. Listen. Is he speaking to you? Behold the Lamb of God. Salvation is by grace, by the
will of God, through his gospel, not of works lest we should boast,
not of the will of man, for who ever is willing Paul makes clear
in Romans 3 that there is none that willeth. There's none that's
righteous. There's none that sought after
God. No one does by nature. There are many religious but
there's none that seeks after the true and the living God.
We go our own way and if we wish to climb to heaven we go our
own way to heaven. We have no time for God. When Christ came into the world,
John says, he was the light shining in the darkness. The light shineth
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Are you
in the darkness? Are these just words that wash
over your head? Well if they do there's a reason. The darkness can't comprehend
the truth. It's just words, it's just opinions. None of us can. John goes on, there was a man
sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness
to bear witness of the light that all men through him might
believe. He was not that light but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which light if every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew
him not. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. There are those whom God comes
unto in the darkness who receive Him, because by His will They
are born, they are quickened again. Which were born not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. But of God. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. First fruits of his creatures.
We see that in Ephesians 1 that we read earlier, that the predestination
of God's people is to make them fruitful. They're a fruitful
people. Faith brings forth a reality. It's not mere words. There's
a reality to it as James will go on to show us in his epistle. There's a reality of truth about
it. We're fruitful. In Revelation,
John saw this vision. Revelation 14, And I looked,
and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with Him an hundred
forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in
their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven,
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder,
and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. and
they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before
the four beasts and the elders and no man could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed
from the earth. These are they which were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And
in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before
the throne of God. These He chose to save when He
quickened them from the dead. when they were crucified with
Christ, when their sins were blotted out, He lifted them up
from the grave in His Son, and they came forth with Christ the
first fruit, they came forth, wed to Him, one with Him, as
first fruits, living fruits, one with Christ, quickened from
the dead, but now alive forevermore. They have everlasting life. They
have a living faith that weds them to their Saviour. They live
and walk by faith. Their constant gaze is towards
Christ. They cannot live without Him. He is their life. They are as
trees, as branches upon his tree. They are in his vine. They bring
forth fruit because he gives them fruit. He is their life,
he is the sap that flows through them. They cannot look elsewhere
for salvation. They cannot look elsewhere for
direction in their life. If they turn in their trials
and temptations to anyone or anything else, if they turn to
themselves, to their own will, to their own strength, they will
wither on the vine. There's only death in self. But
in Christ, He's that which makes them lively. They live in Him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rough,
for the rough of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, therefore be swift to hear. Slow to speak
and slow to rough, for the rough of man work if not the righteousness
of God. How sure we are of ourselves.
How men love to speak and declare their own opinion, their own
thoughts. But it's all darkness outside
of Christ. Oh, how we should listen for
his word. James' exhortation here to be
swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath is because
only the word of truth that comes down to us from God can bring
life. Our speech and our anger, our
wrath in response to the truth can only bring death, but life
comes by the word of truth from God. Where does our speech get
us? Where do our thoughts, our opinions
get us? Where does our natural speech,
thought, opinions, wisdom lead us? Simply to oppose the truth. To close our ears to it. To reject
the gospel. Indeed, left to ourselves. We put the Son of God to death.
That's where our speech gets us. That's where our wrath gets
us. To crucify the very one who can
save us. And we did crucify the very one
who can save us. Every time we have rejected his
word, Every time we've dismissed the gospel, every time we've
ridiculed it in our hearts, every time in our hearts we've said
there is no God, every time we've turned our back upon God, we've
nailed a nail in Christ, we've nailed him to the tree, we've
said in our hearts away with this man, he will not reign over
us, we will not have him to reign over us. crucify him, crucify
him. We've slammed the nails in his
hands to put him to death. That's where our speech and our
wrath has got us. We crucify the Lord of glory
but through that death, because he died, God manifested the righteousness
of God. We exercised the wrath of man
in our rebellion towards him, but God manifested his righteousness. What we meant for evil, he used
for good. We exercise our will in rejecting
Christ and his salvation, but God, through his will, sent his
Son. the greatest gift down from above
for sinners such as you and I. The Father of Light sent forth
His Son into the darkness to be offered up as a sacrifice
for sin. He sent forth His Son to take
away sin, to blot out transgressions, and to manifest the righteousness
of God. And his son, in perfect faith,
did just that. When Christ, by faith, went to
the cross, when Christ, by faith, suffered in death, when Christ,
by faith, hung in the hours of darkness upon the tree, As he suffered, as he endured,
he brought forth the righteousness of God through faith. He hung bearing his people's
sins and God judged them in righteousness. He hung looking, trusting his
God and his Saviour. He looked unto God the Father. He trusted his God even though
God condemned him because of the sins that he bore. Yet his
faith never failed. He trusted. He looked unto God
in perfect love. And he looked unto his people
in perfect love. His faith worked by love. And in so doing, he manifested
the righteousness of God. God judged his people's sins
in his own Son. He took them all away. And he
made his people to be the righteousness of God in Christ, having taken
every sin away. He made them righteous. that was and that is the will
of God. Revelation 1 Paul says that Jesus
Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. That was and that
is the will of God. The will of God and our Father
was to send Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world. God's will is to save his people
from their sins, to manifest his righteousness, to show forth
his glory, to preach his gospel unto the ends of the earth throughout
all time, that every one for whom Christ died should hear
and believe, that they should all be begotten by the word of
truth of his own will, begatius, by the word of truth. Has he
come unto you with that word of truth? Have you heard? Do you believe? Do not err my
beloved. This is the gospel. Grace, free and sovereign grace
from God alone, by his will alone and nothing else is. Have you heard?