The Greatest Giver’s Gift

Did you ever get one of those
gifts? Not quite sure what it is. Maybe
it’s packed a little bit differently, uniquely. And you open it up,
and from the minute you lay your eyes on this gift, which has come to you very unexpectedly,
either the source or the particular gift itself, From the minute
you lay your eyes on it, your assessment is it’s perfect. This
is a perfect gift for me. It’s the right size. It fits. Right color. My style. Well, I want to talk to you this
morning about the greatest gift giver. We began to look at this
particular passage last Lord’s Day. And so if you’re here just
visiting, I’m gonna catch you up just a little bit. And if
you would turn to the book of James, we’ll do that, but in
pretty rapid fashion. Last Lord’s Day, we began to
look at the greatest giver. Obviously, pointing to none other
than God himself. We noted that from the scriptures
we are constantly told to look up. That if we would only look
up, we will see God’s great gifts. We will see God’s great blessings. We saw it in Psalm 19. Look up. David’s admonition to acknowledge
God’s handiwork. The heavens are telling the glory
of God. We saw it in Acts 14 as Paul
preached to the people of Lystra. who were looking to add Paul
to their list of so-called gods. And Paul said, look up. Look
up to see the God who made the heavens and the earth and the
sea and all that is in them. Look up. We saw it in Matthew
chapter 5, the context of which was instruction, practical instruction
on loving our enemies. And Jesus there on that occasion
said, look up. Your Father who is in heaven
causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain
on the righteous and the unrighteous. God is the giver of good gifts. God is the one who gives from
Him and through Him and to Him are all things, says Paul in
Romans 11. God is the one who not only made
creation and gave it to mankind, the seas, and the land, and the
mountains, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the
creatures, and even people. God not only gave us creation,
He gave us food. In fact, He gave us food before
He even made us. He gives us family, and friends,
and children, As James goes on to say in his little epistle,
every good and perfect gift is from above. He gives to all life
and breath and all things, but the greatest of all is that he
gave us his son. He gave us a savior and he sent
his son with full knowledge that Jesus Christ was coming to pay
our penalty. greatest gift that humanity has
ever received if you would go all the way back to James chapter
1 and I want to begin in verse 2 we’ll take a very brief overview
of these passages sometimes I call it a running start this will
be a running skipping start beginning in verse 2 where James admonishes
us to consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter
various trials. It’s been noteworthy that no
fewer than about five or six people have approached me wondering
why on earth I picked this passage, because trial has beset many
of us, even as I’ve begun this book. Consider it all joy, my
brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that
the testing of your faith produces endurance. God has a purpose
in these trials. God wants to grow us and strengthen
us. And let endurance have its perfect
result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing,
fully mature as Christians. But if any of you lacks wisdom,
verse five, let him ask of God. Trials are vexing. Trials are
hard. Trials are even bewildering.
And God says there are times where you just need to ask. You need to implore. You need
to ask for wisdom. If any of you lacks wisdom in
the course of these trials, let him ask of God who gives to all
men generously. He’s a giving God. He gives to
all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given
to him. That’s our God, isn’t it? God
gives us what we need. Jump down, if you would, to verse
12. Blessed is a man who perseveres
under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive
the crown of life. Here again, the giving God is
giving again. Only this time in the consummation
of our life here on earth, which is replete with trials and difficulties,
if we will only persevere by God’s grace, there’s a crown. It’s a crown of life, it’s eternal
life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. But there are gathering clouds.
Trials will do that. Testing will do that many times.
And testing so often brings about a very human response, a shaking
of the fist at none other than God. A pointing of the finger
of accusation at God Almighty Himself. Look at verse 13, let
no one. And we saw that in the expression
there in that verse, it’s pointing to an absolute exclusion. No one is to ever blame their
sin on God. Ever. Let no one say when he
is tempted, I’m being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted
by evil. And he himself does not tempt
anyone. God is a holy God. God is completely
apart from sin. God doesn’t stoop to utilizing
sinful temptations to trip up His beloved creation. But each one is tempted, James
goes on to say, telling us where this sin comes from. Each one
is tempted when he’s carried away and enticed by his own lust.
That’s the context of these verses that we consider in verses 17
and 18. James says, in contrast, not
only is God not the author of sin, not only does God not utilize
sin in order to trip up his creation, God is magnanimous. God is a giver. God is the greatest
giver of all. Look at verse 17. Every good
thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or
shifting shadow. Every good thing, life, breath,
all things as Paul said, but beyond that If it’s good, if
it’s inherently good, it came down from God himself. And if
it’s evil, you can axiomatically say it did not come from God. Every good thing bestowed, every
perfect gift is from above. It’s from God himself. coming
down from the father of lights coming down from the same one
who made creation who made the sun and the moon and the stars
who made all good things as part of his creation we saw not only
the the givers great gifts and James here speaks very generally
every good thing bestowed every perfect gift But then we saw
the greatest giver’s performance and what James essentially does
when he speaks of God as the father of lights is he says look
at his performance. Look at his track record. Look
at his history. God has made everything. Then he points us to the greatest
giver’s nature at the end of verse 17 with whom there is no
variation or shifting shadow. The sun changes. The moon changes. The stars change. Planets change. God doesn’t change. And so the
God that made the world and all things in it does not ever slip
in to sinful tendency. He doesn’t change his plan with
regards to humanity and somehow begin to decide to utilize sin
to trip them up. God is the greatest giver ever. But in verse 18, he talks about the greatest giver’s
greatest gift. Verse 18 says, in the exercise
of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that
we might be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. I’ve received some great gifts
in my days. I’ve received some clunkers too,
and so have you, right? Gifts that you open up and you
think that you opened the wrong box. Right? Whenever anybody gives
me a shirt that isn’t plaid. Kidding. But you’ve received those gifts,
haven’t you? The right size, the right color, it fits your
style. It’s practical. Sometimes it’s according to a
very specific need. You knew that you needed it,
but you didn’t know that anyone else knew. Sometimes we even
receive great impractical gifts. Gifts of special blessings, something
that we’re just designed to enjoy in the moment, and it’s perfect. No gift receipt needed, right?
There are no uncomfortable moments upon opening this gift, no re-gifting
needed? Oh right, I’m the only one that’s
ever done that. You say, who does this? Who gives
good gifts? There are some people that give
great gifts. There are great gift givers. And there’s a secret
about them. There are some things that they
do. What is it about those who almost instinctively seem to
know how to give great gifts? And it isn’t necessarily something
that’s purchased off of a registry. You know, that’s an easy, that’s
kind of a cop out. You go to the registry, you buy
the next thing on the list. It isn’t necessarily the most
expensive gift. Some of the most perfect gifts
I’ve ever received have been, you know, reasonable gifts. It isn’t immediately evident that anyone told them
anything. They just observed. It showed
thought. It showed personal knowledge
of the recipient. And so I began to look at this
this past week and looked at a couple of different sources
for good gift giving. And some of you may wanna write
these down. No, I’m kidding. Plan in advance, right? I mean, isn’t that the thing?
It’s a last minute thing and we’re gonna run and we’re gonna
get what else? A gift card. When all else fails,
get a gift card. The second piece of advice was
pay attention and take notes. A good gift giver observe something
that takes place in June and then gives the gift that fits
that need in December. Take a strategic window shopping
trip, and so you go with the person and see what it is they
take note of. See what other people want. If
you’re buying for a wife, see what other wives have enjoyed. Here’s one. Husbands, remind yourself that
the gift isn’t for you. Don’t buy your wife a new lawnmower. Here’s a very obvious one. Ask. I remember years ago, I had gotten so many books in
my day that were just a waste of money, frankly. And a brother
of mine, a dear brother, came and he asked. And I said, I’m
so thankful that you asked so that we don’t waste money. And
I gave him a list. I said, I’m not asking for all
of these. In fact, I’d be embarrassed if you did. But he began working
off that list and for years fed my commentary pool. We all likely
have received good gifts, great gifts. And maybe even sometimes
we’ve done it ourselves. We observed, we took notes, we
saved up. Perhaps we’ve been on both sides
of that blessed equation as great gift givers, great gift receivers. But God, as we’ve seen, is the
greatest gift giver of all. He gives the greatest gift. And we see it in verse 18. It is what I would call the greatest
giver’s greatest gift. It’s the breath of life. It’s
regeneration. In verse 18, it just says, in
the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word
of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among
his creatures. God’s great gift to sinners was
regeneration. And when he says that he brought
us forth there in verse 18, it’s the language of birth giving. It’s the language of bringing
forth life into the world. Regeneration, rebirth. It’s a
transfer that God makes there from a condition of spiritual
death to spiritual life. As one pastor said, the truth
in this verse is one of unspeakable importance. This is something
that we cannot just casually listen to, but we have to attend
to, we have to ponder, we have to think it through. He says,
it exhibits more clearly and fully than any other passage
what skeptically inclined persons have often questioned. the perfect
harmony between the teaching of James and the other apostles,
respecting the way of salvation. What he says is that there have
been a lot of critics over the years that looked at James because
he says your works need to match your faith, your faith needs
to produce works, and they recoil in horror that James has preached
another gospel that he’s preaching salvation by works. No, he’s
not. No, he’s not. In this verse, he says it’s proof. In fact, most people, he goes
on to say, if they heard this verse, might go looking for it. If they didn’t know exactly where
it could be found, might go looking for it in Paul’s epistle to the
Romans. Or perhaps in his epistle to
the Ephesians. When he uses this very rare word,
now the second time in this short list, he points back to a word
that he used in verse 15. When lust is conceived, it gives
birth to sin. And now James uses the same word
to say that God essentially gives birth, gives life to us. Great gift. It’s the great gift
of salvation. Practically bestowed upon sinners. And that’s why we refer to it
as the great gift. Christ who has paid our sins,
secured our forgiveness. God in his grace drawing us to
himself. Who had planned in his plan of
redemption the salvation of sinners. Provided in his own son But the
great obstacle between people and God is this sin. And that
sin remains until people are brought to life. People don’t
naturally want salvation as good as it is. People don’t want Christ. People don’t want forgiveness.
We don’t understand and appreciate this idea of regeneration. We don’t understand and even
appreciate what James says when he says God brought us forth. We don’t understand that until
we understand the effects of the fall. The fall of mankind
into sin. And so to begin to understand
this idea of regeneration we have to look back. We have to
look back into the garden. where God created humanity, created
them free of sin, free of a sin nature, and gave them a purpose
to glorify Him there in that place called paradise. But we know that they didn’t
continue for very long in a state of paradise, in a state of bliss,
They fell into sin, Genesis 3, a real story about real people
in a real garden with real consequences. It was a real disaster. The cursing
of humanity followed immediately after that, Genesis 3.16 and
following. And the New Testament corroboration
of that is found in Romans 3. There is none righteous, not
even one. began in the garden, but it has
affected every person that ever walked the face of the earth.
So that Paul in Romans 5 could accurately say, just as through
one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin,
death spread to all men because all sinned. So as we have walked
through this before, the four effects of the fall, inherently
sinful, that’s where our sin nature began. That’s where we
inherited a tendency, a proclivity, an exclusivity to sin. Everything
we think about, everything that we do outside of Christ is sinful. But not only are we
inherently sinful, we’re temporally vexed. That’s where the pain
of childbirth, sweat of the brow, all the difficulties that life
brings. And Paul says God sent them in order to have us look
up. Inherently sinful, temporally
vexed, physically dying. Don’t tell me that death is a
natural part of life. God didn’t design it that way.
is a consequence. Physical death and in that sense
we all have a terminal disease inherited from Adam and Eve. We’re sinful. We’re part of the
sinful creation and as such now physical death is part of that
equation. But the worst part of all is
yet to come. Not only inherently sinful, temporally
vexed, physically dying, but spiritually dead. We are disinclined,
we are disassociated, we are disconnected, we are completely
separated from a holy God. We have no way to get back in
touch with Him because, as Paul would go on to say, we are dead
in our trespasses and sins. We are spiritually dead. We can’t
fix it. We don’t even want to fix it.
We don’t even realize that there’s a problem. We are blissfully
ignorant in our natural state. As one pastor said, by nature
we are all destitute of this life, all dead in trespasses
and sins, prone to what is evil, averse to what is in the highest
sense good. By nature we are spiritually
dead. That’s a colossal problem, isn’t
it? I want you just to picture for
a moment, and you’re going to have to use your imagination,
picture the Lord Jesus as if it were a city on a beautiful
hill. Gold, diamonds, sparkling all
over this magnificent edifice on top of this beautiful green
hill. But between you and that beautiful
edifice, there is this horrific impassable, ugly, rocky ravine,
sheer cliffs on either side of the wall. There is no way separating
a would-be visitor from getting to the other side. And to make
things worse, the word be visitor is blind. But the truth is, to
make it perfectly accurate, not only is the would-be visitor
facing an impassable ravine, He’s blind and he’s dead. Not only can he not see the beautiful
city, he doesn’t even know it exists. He doesn’t even know
of his deplorable condition. And so what we need most is life. What we need most is awakening.
Jesus Christ has already paid the sinner’s sin. But we’re completely
oblivious to it. One faithful shepherd said it
this way, we are estranged from God and engaged in rebellion
against him and we love to continue so. I love the way the scriptures
painted that we are at enmity, we are at war with the holy God
in our natural state. They will not submit nor return
to their duty and allegiance. Hence there is a need of a superior
power to subdue their stubborn hearts and sweetly constrain
them to subjection and to inspire them with the love of God and
an implacable detestation of all sin. You know that’s one
of the sure signs of life. Is when a person begins to hate
sin. And for that very purpose, to
awaken dead and sinners, God sent His Holy Spirit. God does
the work throughout all history in awakening dead and sinners
to their sin and to their complete inability to account for, to
pay for their own debt incurred by their own sin, their desperate
need of salvation. And so those if they are saved at all they
are saved by God’s very special very instantaneous work of the
Holy Spirit of regeneration waking them up from spiritual dead. They are reborn to a state of
newness of life as the scriptures will tell it. And once they are
spiritually enlivened, now they see the city, now they see Jesus
Christ. They also see their sin for what
it is, and they hate their sin, because they know their sin is
what put them here. They know their sin is what separated
them from Christ. But seeing Christ, seeing Christ
for the first time as He is, and knowing that He is a loving
Savior who has paid for our sin in full, that we can never repay
Him, but only to place our faith in Him. Peter said it this way,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has caused us to be born again. God did the work. It’s a work
of God. It’s a work of the Holy Spirit
in the heart of every person who ever is saved. It’s precisely
the context of Ephesians 2, which I mentioned a moment ago. but
God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which
He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made
us alive. He made us alive together with
Christ. It’s an instantaneous work that God does in the life
of a sinner where they are reborn from a state of sin and deadness
to a state of newness of life. John chapter 1 in John’s gospel. John mentions this he alludes
to it he’ll go into much more detail as the gospel unfolds
but his first mention of this is just plain bewildering to
the average student of scripture to read these words completely unclear John 112 many
as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not
of blood, not a particular race of people, the Jews, what have
you, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. It isn’t anything
that anybody can desire for anyone else, nor of the will of man. It isn’t anything that we can
wish and hope ourself up to. Who were born not of blood, nor
the will of flesh, nor the will of God, of man, but of God. They were born of God. It’s God that has to do this
instantaneous work in the heart of a sinner. And that work is
the spirits exclusively. Charles Spurgeon said the same
power, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead must
be exerted in raising the dead. The very same omnipotence without
which angels or worms could not have had a being must again step
forth and do as great a work as it did at the first creation
in making us anew in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s regeneration.
It’s life. It’s the implanting of a new
kind of life in the soul that begins to move the soul Christward. where the individual now sees
his sin for what it is and can’t wait to repent of it. And it affects everything in
him. It affects his mind. It affects his heart. It affects
his will, his feelings, his emotions. It affects what he loves. He
now loves Christ and loves good and loves the word and loves
God. And he hates sin. One described
it as a radical and supernatural change of the inner nature. That
describes it well, doesn’t it? In which the soul has made spiritually
alive, it comes to see the truth and gladly accepts it. We can’t
wait to love Christ because we know that He loved us. No wonder Paul in writing to
the Corinthians says that, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, If you’ve
placed your faith in Christ, He is a new creature. The old things have passed away.
Behold, new things have come. It’s a radical change. It’s a
remarkable change. And you say, Pastor, is this an Easter message? I will tell you, absolutely it
is. I want you to turn to a passage
of scripture just briefly we’ve looked at this passage in the
last couple of weeks as a matter of fact on Wednesday night Ephesians
chapter 2 actually start in Ephesians chapter 1 and what Paul is doing
here he’s laying groundwork that then he reiterates on our behalf Paul wants his Church to know
how powerful God is, how wonderful He is, the hope of His calling,
the riches of the glory of His inheritance. But look at verse
19, what is the surpassing greatness of the power toward those who
believe. And then He says a number of
things about Christ, what God did on Christ’s behalf. Look
at verse 20, He raised Him from the dead. At the end of verse
20, he seated him at his right hand. Only God had that authority
to give Christ that place of honor. Look at verse 22. He put all things in subjection
under his feet. All things. Jesus Christ is sovereign
over all. And he gave him his head over
all things to the church. Not only is he sovereign over
all things, he is also our loving head in the church. But then
Paul does a remarkable thing. Flip over to chapter 2. I’ve
already told you about our condition, debt and our trespasses and sins.
But Paul wants us to know the almighty power of God and in
verse 5 he uses the same imagery to speak of us. That he made
us alive. even when we were dead in our
transgressions he made us alive and he raised us up with him and he even seated us we’ll talk
about that one another day but the bottom line here is that
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead physically
in his earthly body we were not Jesus Christ needed to be raised
from the dead physically, but not spiritually Jesus Christ
did not need to be Regenerated in that sense. He wasn’t dead
in his trespasses and sins as were we We on the other hand
We were not raised from the dead not physically speaking But spiritually
speaking, dead in our trespasses and sins, and so Christ’s resurrection
from the dead is what makes possible our spiritual resurrection. And
if you think I’ve just manufactured that argument, Peter said it
like this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to
be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. from the dead. This is the greatest
gift that mankind has ever received. And I want to give you three
spectacular details of this great gift. First of all, the special
occasion for this gift. What motivated God to give this
gift? What motivates you to give gifts? Sometimes there are special occasions,
let’s be honest. Sometimes it’s just out of reciprocation. He gave me a gift, so I have
to give him a gift. Sometimes God blesses us and
all we wanna do is magnanimously pass along the blessing. That’s
what motivates us. We came into a big pool of money
and we just wanna share it by some means. Sometimes we give
gifts out of appeasement, right? We’re in trouble with somebody.
We got sideway with somebody. Sometimes they almost come off
as a bribe. Sometimes, and men we need to
get really good at this, sometimes we use them as an apology. We’ve
done something goofy and we purchase a gift in order to show our apology
and our sincerity and our affection. Sometimes we give them very secretly
as a secret blessing. We just want to bless somebody.
But what motivates God? Especially the gift of salvation
itself. What could ever motivate God
to give salvation? He’s not obligated. It could
never be reciprocation of any. It’s not that he saw something
so spectacular in you. It’s not that he saw some potential
in you. It could never be in any way a bribe
or an apology. owe us any apology. What then? Why did God give this
great gift of regeneration? Look again at verse 18. It’s
so simple. It’s in the exercise of His will. He did it because He wanted to
do it. There was an absolute freedom
in God He wasn’t prompted or he wasn’t compelled from any
external source. It wasn’t that he owed any one
of us nor all of us. It was his deliberate, intentional,
purposive will. The Apostle Paul captured this
in Ephesians 1. The kind intention of his will,
right? In 2 Timothy, when Paul wrote
to this young pastor Timothy, he reminded Timothy that salvation
was according to his own purpose and grace. It was according to
God’s own purpose and grace, not because of anything in us.
And likewise, Peter, which verse we just read, it was according
to his great mercy. God didn’t owe us. God saved
you because he had mercy on you. spontaneous kindness, described
it by one. It was the gift of free grace.
It was out of the good pleasure of God. It was out of God’s magnanimous
heart and not out of any obligation whatsoever. One Puritan said it this way
though, the sinner obstinately keeps his eyes closed, but God
by His action on the will induces men to open their eyes to see
the truth, to feel its force. He regenerates the Holy Spirit,
the immediate agent in regeneration, to whom alike are the beginning
and the growth of spiritual life. God moves because God wanted
to move. And so the first spectacular
detail of this great gift is that there is a special occasion
for this gift and it’s none other than God’s will. God decided. God moved. Secondly, there’s a special delivery
for this gift. Don’t you just love it when you’re
waiting on a package and finally the doorbell rings? And in this
day and age with the porch pirates, the doorbell has to ring. You’re
sitting literally in a chair by the door waiting for the doorbell
to ring for that very purpose. But if there’s a special occasion,
there’s a special delivery, and there’s a means employed here. And you think of all the ways
that we receive gifts. Sometimes they come in the mail.
Sometimes they just show up by way of a hidden surprise. Sometimes
they’re wrapped really exquisitely presented to us. Sometimes it’s
a gift card. Sometimes a gift is inherited. By what means does God give?
By what means does God give this great gift? Look at the passage. In the exercise of His will,
He brought us forth by the Word of Truth. That’s the instrument. That’s the means. It’s the Word
of Truth, the Gospel. That is the great tool that God
uses to spread his word throughout the world so that when he when
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he reminded them of that great
grace when you receive the word of God which you heard from us
you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really
is the word of God which performs its work in you who believe The Apostle John likewise in
his first epistle said it this way. What was from the beginning
what we’ve heard what we’ve seen with our eyes what we’ve looked
at what we’ve touched with our hands concerning the word of
life. The life was manifested and we
have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which
the father manifested to us he shows us in his word shows us
in the scripture. Faith comes by hearing, Paul
says in Romans 10, and hearing by the word of Christ. This is
the divine means. This is the means that God uses.
This is, if you will, the delivery mechanism for the great gift,
the greatest gift ever. Peter, in his opening epistle,
beyond those verses that we’ve already considered, said it this
way, you’ve been born again, Not of a seed which is imperishable,
but that is through the living and enduring word of God. This
is the word which was preached to you. It’s a special gift. It’s an incredible gift. It’s
the greatest gift ever given. It’s the gift of salvation itself.
It’s regeneration to life. But the third spectacular detail
of this great gift follows on these other two, the special
occasion for the gift, God’s will, the special delivery of
the gift, God’s word, and finally, the special use of the gift. I’m sure you’ve gotten those
gifts before. No sooner do you open it, the party quiets. You
glance again at the gift. And you say, what am I going
to do with this? And it makes it into a closet,
or a drawer, or if it comes with a receipt, a return to the store,
or if not, a re-gift. Sometimes though, if the gift
is excellent, it finds a special place, doesn’t it? It finds its
fully intended use. And God’s gift is just like that. Look again at verse 18. In the
exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth. Why? So that we would be a kind
of first fruits among His creatures. The first fruits throughout the
Hebrew Old Testament pointed to those gifts that were to be
brought to the Lord. Leviticus 23 10 you shall bring
in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
Deuteronomy 18 the first fruits of your grain, your new wine,
your new oil, the first shearing of your sheep, the first of all
the produce of the ground. Deuteronomy 26 2. Exodus 22 the
firstborn of your sons you shall give to me the same with your
oxen and your sheep And so it became a principle by which Israel
operated. Proverbs 3, 9, honor the Lord
from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. And
these gifts were used to herald just the beginning of a new season.
They were an announcement to God of the blessing that he had
poured out on them. They were an acknowledgement
of that. Psalm 104, Psalm 65, what God had done. They were
declaring the generous nature of God in the gifts that He had
given to them by returning just that first portion, the first
fruits. And in doing so, it was a recognition
that everything belonged to God. God had given them everything
and they were returning just a portion. It wasn’t tax. It was an acknowledgement that
everything comes from God. Everything is a gift of His grace. And so James here, when he uses
this imagery, he knew who he was talking to. He was talking
to Jews. He’s talking primarily to Jews in Jerusalem in this
new covenant, in this new situation into which they found themselves,
but he uses very old imagery. And he says that God in saving
you, made you as it were a kind of first fruits among all the
creatures that these were the first but they certainly weren’t
going to be the last and the very fact that James
acknowledges that points to even you and I that this was the beginning
of God’s work in creation in saving sinners but it wasn’t
the end If I might close, we’ll take
you to John chapter 3. John chapter 3, where this special
gift, the motivation, the means, even the purpose is seen once
again. It’s the story of a man named
Nicodemus. And as you may recall, we’ve been through this passage.
I should preach the gospel of John sometime. We actually just
finished it a couple of years ago, but I looked, I have this
on record, we weren’t in, we haven’t been in John chapter
3 since, for four years. It was four years ago that we
were in this passage. And as you know, John chapter 3 actually
begins, not surprisingly, in John chapter 2. Go back to verse
23 of John chapter 2. Now when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing
the signs he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, was not
entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men. In other words,
Jesus is having this great ministry, and yet he’s tentative about
it, because he knows what’s in the heart of every person. He
was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. And
He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself
knew what was in man. Now there was a man. What John does there is take
us immediately to a representative, someone just like us, someone
who thinks like us and acts like us. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus
by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from
God as a teacher. And immediately he begins to
try to butter up Jesus. For no one can do these signs
that you do unless God is with them. He’s acknowledging something
stupendous had happened in his midst. And Jesus will have none
of it. Jesus won’t be flattered. Jesus answered and said to him,
truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ used this same illustration
of regeneration, the absolute necessity of regeneration, this
incredible gift that God gives, the greatest ever, motivated
only by God’s will, given and communicated through God’s word,
for the purpose of saving souls, the first fruits of God. Would
you examine your own heart as we ponder this passage in prayer? Our merciful God, we thank you
so much. Those of us who we know you have
already opened our eyes, opened blinded eyes Because we see our
sin. We see our wretched condition.
We see how offensive it is to you. Lord, perhaps that is the first
application for those who do not acknowledge themselves as
sinners. Their sin is so great that it sent Jesus Christ to
the cross. Bloody, cruel. Not just a cross, but a death.
Lord God, we thank you for opening our eyes to sin and having seen
our sin and our wretchedness, we immediately saw Christ and
what he had done, that he had paid it and he had paid it all. There was nothing for us to contribute,
no way to pay back. Jesus Christ had done it all. Father God, we humble ourselves
before you in gratitude for our Savior, for all that he has done
for us. in giving us this, this greatest
gift of all, this gift of salvation by which He opens our eyes and
shows to us Jesus Christ our Savior. We thank you. We humbly thank you. It’s in
Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.