if you will take your bibles
and turn back with me now to james chapter one my subject this morning is gifts
from above gifts from above and i hope by
now that most of you know what you are by nature and know what
you are by practice What are we by nature and practice? Sinners. Sinners. The Bible's talking
about mercy for the sinners. He's talking to us. We're aware
of it. Job said, man is born unto trouble
as sparks fly upward. Born unto trouble. just as naturally
as sparks fly upward. You go out at night and there's
a fire burning and the evidence of it is the night air just filled
with sparks. You watch them coming up off
that fire and going up into the air. And the evidence of an evil
nature and all the burning lust that it produces is the thoughts
and intents of the heart and the walk it produces in us. Natural. natural for us to sin. It's so natural to us that we
don't even know we sin sometimes while we're sinning. Did you
know there was sacrifices under the law for sins of ignorance?
That's for sins that we don't even know we're sinning. And
that's what a pitiful shape we're in. That rich young ruler being
rejected by the Lord who had every, he had every thing that you could imagine
that a man who wants to come to God and find blessings with
God and present himself before God as a holy man could ever
want. He was rich, he was wise, he was well-known, he was well-respected,
and he came to Christ and Christ sent him away with his head bowed
down. And as he walked away, the disciples looked at each
other and they said, who then can be saved? If this man with
all his potential is sent away in sorrow, who then can be saved? And our Lord, discerning their
thoughts, turned to them and said, with man, it is impossible. He didn't say it wasn't likely.
He said it was impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. If left to himself, he will not
and cannot change. He loves darkness rather than
light because his deeds are evil. He loves darkness rather than
light because darkness is all he's ever known. He loves darkness rather than
light because the whole world lies in wickedness and walks
in darkness. And he seems normal when he compares
himself with them. In order for anything to change
for the better, he must have an intervention of God. This
is where our hope lies. This is where it begins. It begins
with a consciousness. from hearing the gospel and reading
from the Word of God what kind of condition we're in and who
it is we need to come to for help. And in order for anything to
change for the better, there must be an intervention of God.
And since God is God, He'll intervene according to His own sovereign
pleasure, His own design. And this kind
of sums up the message for this morning, gifts from above. Everything concerning the salvation
of the sinner is a gift. Has to be given to him. It's
a gift. Oh, how sinners like to make
it into a work. They want to make it a work.
They want to make it within the realm of possibility for a man
to do something, to recommend himself to God. But there's nothing
in him or about him or even in the world that surrounds him
to help him present himself to God. God must give to him. Did you know in the scripture
it said God gave his only begotten son? He was given of God to save
sinners. Over in 2 Timothy chapter one,
it said, God hath saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, now listen, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. It was a gift. It was a gift. Faith is the gift of God, he
tells us in Ephesians chapter two and verse eight. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Eternal
life is the gift of God. That's what the scripture says.
The Holy Spirit is given to us. He's given to us by the Father. And because salvation is by grace,
it is by necessity the gift of God. You see what I'm saying? Now it's foolishness to start
talking about salvation as a work. It's not a work. Not any part
of it. Not the beginning of it. Not
the middle of it. Not the end of it. It's the gift
of God. I have five things this morning
I want you to see in James chapter 1. Verses 17 through 19. And I pray this will be a help
to you this morning. First of all, I want you to see
that every good and perfect gift is from above. That's where it's
gonna come from, if it comes at all. It's gonna come from
above. All of it. Now I try each time
I preach to emphasize two things. First of all, that man is a helpless,
hopeless creature. Now, he just is. Now, you may
not be aware of it. You may still think of yourself
as having all kinds of abilities and free will and all this kind
of nonsense that men talk about, but you're not. According to
the scripture, we're hopeless, helpless creatures. And we're
in a world condemned of God and being led about by the prince
of the power of the air, the rulers of the darkness of this
world. That's what we're surrounded
by. And being totally depraved, I can expect no help from within. I don't know why I preach to
people all the time and they say, well, I'm just not ready.
Well, you never are going to be ready. If you're expecting
some kind of help from within, it ain't gonna happen. We're
depraved sinners. So you can expect no help from
within. Being deceived, we can expect
no help from without. This world's filled with false
religion. It's filled with it. It's on
every corner. So being deceived, we can expect
no help from without. And being condemned, I can expect
no help from the law. Now what do I mean by that? I
mean I can... Don't you even entertain the
thought of being able to keep God's law and produce a righteousness
by which God will show you favor and accept you. That's not going
to happen. All our righteousnesses What
the scripture said, we are all as an unclean thing and all our
righteousnesses, what's that? Well, that's our professions,
that's our prayers, that's our law keeping, our tithing, our
giving, all of these things that men do. And he said all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before God. So being condemned by the law,
we can expect no help from the law. We're helpless and hopeless,
and that might be an understatement, because that's not the end of
it. We're also actively engaged in
rebellion against the only one who can do us any good. I'm talking
about sinners. Listen to this, he said the carnal
mind is enmity, hostility toward God. It's not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. Now if it's not subject to
the law of God, it's not subject to God. Is that right? He's a rebel. He's a rebel. But I ain't no rebel. I may not
be a member of this church, and I may not do this all the time,
but I ain't no rebel. Oh, yes, you are. Christ said,
he that's not for me is what? Against me. What's that mean? It means he's a rebel. That's exactly what it means.
He might not carry a shotgun around shooting Christians, but
he's a rebel. He's a rebel. So being helpless
and hopeless is one thing, that's the beggar there on the street,
but this beggar is a rebel. I watched a poor man wade up
out of the water this morning down in Houston, it just breaks
your heart to watch these men and women leaving their homes
and their homes are under water and everything they've ever accumulated
is gone and floating away and they're in this filthy, flood
water and sewage and snakes and everything in the world in it
and it's dark and they're wading up out of this water and people
come up to them to talk to them and they don't want to talk.
They don't want to talk. Well, that's the way the rebel
is. He's hopeless and helpless and somebody comes to talk to
him. I don't want to talk to him. That's the only way you're going
to get any help. Because these good and perfect
gifts come from above. They come from above. Everything concerned with the salvation
of the soul must come from above and it must come as an act of
God's free and sovereign grace. It must come as a gift. Now listen
to me. And it must be received as one.
Has to be received as a gift. And if by grace, Paul said, then
it is no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. And even if there was a way open
for a man to come to God by his own will and works, it wouldn't
do him any good. when they were very good because
his will is in bondage to his nature and his nature is in bondage
to sin so it wouldn't do him any good our lord freely invited
anybody thirsty come on who came? all those given to him by the
father that's who came the pharisees were angry they said if thou
be the Christ tell us plainly he said I did But you believe not because you're
not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. We are by nature, the scripture
said, the children of wrath, even as others. And it's not
in the realm of possibility for any man to produce anything good
of himself. God's own testimony is that there
is none that doeth good, No, not one. Salvation and everything
that it entails is the gift of God. It comes from him according
to his purpose and it comes out of his love and his kindness
and by the mercy and free grace of him that sends it. Every good
and perfect gift cometh from above. All right, second. Where's
it come from? We know it comes from above,
but who does it come from? It says
it comes down from the Father of Lights. This verse has to do not with
corn in the field. It has to do with spiritual revelation. it has to do with god's shining
light spiritual light in your cell that's what this person
every good and perfect give that god has to give to his faith
comes by way uh... we won't make it out to be the
issue make it out to be that or the lord bless that man why
because he got a big bank account not necessarily might be a curse
might be a curse this has to do with spiritual
revelation he's the father of lights of lights and certainly
this verse incorporates all light in every sense the light It's
daylight today. You can look out the window and
you can see things. Later on this evening you won't be able
to see anything out there. God gives those natural lights.
He put the sun in heaven. He put the stars in the sky.
He did all those things. God said let there be light and
there was light. And he caused the sun to shine
and so on. He's the author of all natural
light and he's the author of all conscious light. He said
over in Romans 1 verse 19, that which may be known of God is
manifest in them for God has showed it unto them. He gave
them the light of conscience. You do something wrong and something
in you says that's wrong. You know what that is? That's
the light of conscience. That's what that is. And God's
the author of that. But here in particular, he's
talking about spiritual light. He's talking about the revelation
of God. in Christ. He's talking about that saving
light of God and it being the revelation of the Holy Spirit
and coming by way of the person and work of His Son. Turn with
me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. All of these good and perfect
gifts have to do with spiritual light and they come from Him
who is light. That's what John said In him
is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And if a man says, I
saw the light, but he walks in darkness, he's a liar. Now Paul
says here in 2 Corinthians 4, chapter 3, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to them that are lost, in whom The God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. for God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now this light is given of God
to all his elect and it's given to them affectionately, irresistibly,
and continually. They never run out of light.
never run out of light. He's the father of light and
as he is our father, the everlasting father and the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, he gives us this light. And though
this light has a single source, yet here he defines it as lights. He's the father of light, yes
he is, but he's the father of lights. Plural. And it's used in the plural to
describe all the various parts and pieces of it. Well, what
are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about the light
of the revelation of Christ. Just that light. Let's just take
that light, for instance. Look at all these parts and pieces.
He's talking about the divinity of Christ. He's God. He's God our Savior, Jesus Christ. The scripture, he gives us light
as to his divinity and he gives us light as to his humanity.
He had to learn to walk. He had to learn to talk. You know, I still remember raising
our babies and teaching them how to talk and waiting for them
to say their first word. He was taught to talk. yet he was God and knew all things. And then this light has to do
with his character, his authority, and his power, his right to do
with his own what he will, of his incarnation, of his life,
his death, and his resurrection, of his present reign and glory.
And his glorious return, it describes the revelation of all gospel
truth and every aspect of that salvation, including our wisdom
in how to act and react to temptations and trials. These are all gifts, and they
come from above, and they're sent to us by the Father of lights. Listen to this. Christ said that
he was the bread which came down from heaven. He said, that man,
he said, they ate that man and died. But he said, I'm the bread
which comes down. If a man will eat of this bread,
he won't die. He's talking to them in spiritual
terms, and they didn't understand. And he said, I tell you, you've
seen me, and you don't believe. All which the Father has given
to me, they'll come to me. All of them. How are they going
to come to Him? Well, He tells us. He goes on down there in
John 45 and He tells us that, And they shall all be taught
of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned
of the Father cometh unto me. God draws men to Christ by the
gift of gospel light and Holy Spirit revelation. All spiritual
light comes from the Father of Lights. All right, thirdly, he
tells us here that the Father of Lights is immutable. In whom, you see it there? In James chapter one. In whom
there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God is immutable. God does not, will not, and has
never changed. Our Lord said, I'm the same yesterday,
today, and forever. I'm the same. I am the Lord, he said, by the
prophet. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. His holiness, his righteousness,
and justice cannot change. They're not going to change.
He will not lower his standards to spare even his son, nor will
he diminish the capacity of his love, mercy, and grace. He said,
my arm is not shortened, that I cannot say. His capacity to love hadn't changed
one bit. It's as great now as it was in
the beginning. His capacity to have mercy on
sinners has never changed. It's the same. Oh, but you say, I did this and
I did that. Yes, you did. And more. More
than you'll ever know. But that didn't change his love
and mercy and grace one iota. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy and whom I will I'll harden. But here in James
1, he's talking about his immutability in terms of his gifts of light. Now, he's got a particular subject
here he's dealing with. You're ignorant of it and don't
understand it, then you ask of God, who gave it to all men liberally,
Upbraideth not. He'll teach you. He'll tell you.
But don't you ask him. You ask him in faith. You ain't
one of these guys that when it rains like it does in Houston,
all of a sudden he gets religion. And then when the rain dries
up, he loses his religion. Or when he goes in the hospital
sick, got diagnosed with cancer, He makes a profession of faith,
and all of a sudden he gets real interested in religion, loves
God and all that, and he makes a profession of faith. And then
they treat his cancer, and he gets better, and he forgets everything
that he professed. That's a double-minded man. But
you ask in faith. If you're ignorant, it's no shame
to ask God in faith to give you wisdom, and he'll give it to
you. He'll give it to you. That's what James said. He'll
give it to you. I don't care who you are. He'll give it to
you. if you ask him in faith. Here in James chapter one he's
talking about his immutability in terms of the gifts of light.
The father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow
of turning. Now man's limited in his thinking
and in his knowledge and he's subject to time and circumstance
but not God. Not God. He's all-knowing so
that nothing takes him by surprise and he don't have to change.
He's all-wise so that nothing can come to pass that he does
not fully comprehend and therefore he does not change. He's God
and he's all-powerful so that nothing can prevent him from
doing all his pleasure and therefore he will not change. God has no reason to change. All right, fourthly, now we're
talking about the father of lights, and we're talking about his liberal
giving of these lights to men, spiritual understanding, spiritual
wisdom. All spiritual wisdom and light
comes from the father of lights. He directs it, he knows who he's
giving it to, and he gives it, and nothing can prevent it. He's
the father of light, and he never changes, never changes. All right, fourthly, Our great
and unchangeable Father of lights, of His own will begats His children
with the word of truth. Isn't that what that says? There
in James chapter 1? Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. And therefore we're kind of first
fruits of His creatures. We're His creation. Now I'm going
to tell you something. Our immutable father is not going
to change his mind on how his children are to be birthed. He's
unchangeable. He's not just unchangeable in
his character. He's unchangeable in his purpose.
He's unchangeable in his means. He's flat out unchangeable. He's
not going to change. Period. End of story. He's not going to change his
mind on how his children shall be born. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
2. I've got a couple places here
I want you to look at. We're talking about these gifts
of revelation. And it's through the gift of
revelation that God's children are born. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse
13. Now we've already discussed earlier
that first part of that chapter where men received not the love
of the truth that they might be saved and so God sent them
strong to lose and to believe a lie and to be damned for believing
it. But now he inserts a but here,
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, but. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this is how God decreed from
the beginning to save chosen sinners. He's going to call them
out with his gospel. With his gospel. He tells the Corinthians in 1
Corinthians chapter 1, I think it's along about verse 20, you
can read it for yourself over there. He said it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. At that, it pleased God to do
it that way. Well, you say that was then, and this is now. That
was a whole different... He said, I don't change. I don't
change. And then again, in 1 Peter chapter
1 and verse 2, he says, we're elect according to the foreknowledge,
and that word also means foreordination, of God the Father. through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. And in 1 Peter 1, verses 9 through
13, you can read those also, but especially here in 1 Peter
1, 23 through 25, being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. And then down in verse 25, he
said, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. Somebody says, but there's no
gospel preachers around where I am. There wasn't where the
Ethiopian eunuch was either. He was in the middle of a wilderness.
There wasn't a church, there wasn't a city, there wasn't a
house. There was nobody out there. He was out in the middle of the
wilderness riding in a chariot. He'd already went to church.
He went down there and saw the Jews go through all their holy
days and through all their festivals and all of that stuff hoping
to learn something and he didn't learn anything. And he was driving
back in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah and God sent him
a preacher out in the middle of the wilderness. And running
along beside him, he said, do you understand what you're reading?
And he said, how can I except some man proclaim it to me? How can I except some man show
me? That's God's way, and he's not
going to change from it. I don't know why men and women
want him to change from it. What could be greater than that? Here said the sinner, hopeless
and helpless, a rebel, and God in his providence arranges for
him to come into here, what more could you ask? Huh? I don't want anything changed. I tell you, he opened my heart
and my mind and shined that light into it, and I wouldn't have
anything changed for anybody. That's how God saves sinners,
and what he says here in James, these spiritual gifts and things,
they come down from the Father of lights with whom is no wearableness. He's not going to change. And I'll tell you something else,
God doesn't raise up a church everywhere He intends to save
somebody. He didn't build a church out there where He saved a eunuch.
it was a wilderness when a eunuch was riding in it and it was a
wilderness when he left it. God just used the water there
for a minute to baptize him. That was it. Now I get letters
and emails all the time from people who live in gospel wildernesses. And I'm going to tell you something,
the foundation of God's standing sure He knows them who are His. He knows them. He knows them
and He's going to send them light. And he's gonna send it in the
manner that he's decreed from all eternity, and he's not changing
anything. The Holy Ghost asks this in Romans
chapter 10, how you gonna hear without a preacher? And how's
he gonna preach if God don't send him? All right, here's the last thing
I want you to see in our text. This is the result of a true
understanding of how God gives this light. How God saves sinners. How He
increases them in wisdom. How do they grow and mature? This is the result of all of
that. James 1, verse 19. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, Let every man be swift to hear. What's that mean? That means
be ready. Be ready. Look forward to it. Prepare for it. Might be that'll
be the day God'll open your heart. Could be. Let every man be swift to hear
and let every man be slow to speak. Oh, how quick men are to shove
aside the word of God to defend their traditions and ideas and
their way of religion. Oh, so quick. I talked to a local
caller on the phone here the other day. The more I tried to tell him,
the higher the tone of his voice become. And he had no foundation
whatsoever for what he was saying. It just seemed to me, and I'm
convinced, and all of this, there was no foundation. I said, if you really believe
those things, why don't you come on and sit down with me and show
it to me in the word of God. Maybe I believe it. The more I talked to him, the
higher that voice went, the madder he got. You shove it aside. Everything you tell him, just
shove it aside. It's as though that was the only
thing that stood between him and hell, was that old experience
or profession or ideas that he had. I'm going to tell you something. We don't charge a penny for you
to come in here. It don't cost you anything. Just the gas to get here. Won't
charge anything. And after you've heard and looked
at the passages that I've given and you still want to cling to
those things, that's your business. I'm not going to come over to
your house and beg you to come back. If you hear these things and
you want to cling to those old things, that's your business.
But I urge you to do this, at least listen. And that's what
James is saying. Faith cometh by hearing. And
these heavenly gifts, these good and perfect gifts come down from
the Father of Lights. And knowing this, don't you think
maybe we ought to prepare to hear? Prepare ourselves to hear? Get these other things out of
your mind and out of your heart for about an hour so you can
sit down and worship God and listen and hear and consider
the things that He says? and pay attention to what's being
said and ask God to give you some understanding because he's
the only one who can. And even beyond that, ask God
to lay upon my heart and my mind that which your faith craves
and needs. Ask the Lord to do that because
I'll be honest with you, I don't have anything to say if he don't
put it on my heart. I just don't. pray for his direction and his
spirit and his glory to be manifested. And beloved, this ought to be
the character of a true believer. This ought to be what he naturally
wants and desires, is to hear. And that's what I look for more
than anything else. I know people look for this and
that, look for him to say this and that. I look for an appetite
to hear. Because I tell you something,
it don't take the natural man long to get fed up. He don't
like it. I didn't like liver when I was
growing up. I just didn't like it. My mom would talk to me and
she'd tell me, she'd say, honey, I'm going to soak it in milk
and that'll take all that funny taste out of it. It's still liver.
And I didn't like liver. It didn't matter how she cooked
it, or how many times she put it on the table, or how she described
it, I didn't like it. The natural man despises the
gospel of God's true grace. He's got no appetite for it,
and it don't matter if you bread it, or boil it, or put it in
gravy and biscuits, he don't like it. But when God gives a
man a new heart, that's all he wants, his spiritual liver. Huh? He craves it. He looks forward
to it. He wants it. And when it's set
before him, he eats it. And he enjoys it. Oh, may the
Lord teach me how to preach and teach you how to hear.