Transcript

Well, let’s go over to the New Testament book of James. Would you do that? James 1. James is the pastor of a local church and he has a lot of practical admonition and wisdom and not that I planned to bring this out but studying this text anew, I discovered he’s very clear and strong on sovereign grace, even though he deals with subjects like works and how works are a verification, not a foundation but a verification of our true regeneration and justification. He deals with some of those weighty concepts and then we come to James 1 beginning in verse 17 and we’ll go down through verse 21 and probably just get half of it this evening.

James 1, beginning in verse 17 and going through 21. He says,

17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 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. 19 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

Now starting back up in verse 12, he begins talking about trials and how we’re tempted in trials and because of our fallenness and our proneness to selfishness, self-serving rebellion, we are vulnerable to lust, we commit sin, and we can never look to God and say, “Well, you put me in this spot or you caused this rebellion or you caused this lust to arrive and you, you caused this ah, transgression and the sin.” He says we can never do that. That’s not possible. God doesn’t tempt anyone. That’s not God’s problem, the problem is in you and that’s why he picks up in verse 17 with everything that comes from God is good.

So I want to talk about “The Goodness of God.” That’s what I’ll title these couple of expositions we’ll do here. The goodness of God. And I., the absolute goodness of God. The absolute goodness of God. Notice how he words it again in verse 17, ” Every good thing and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” So in other words, anytime we see something that’s not good, anytime we see something that’s less than perfect or righteous, it didn’t come from God, it came from man. It came from within our own hearts.

You know, in Jesus’ day when one of the great teachings of the Pharisees was that if you’re exposed to these particular items, might, maybe a dead body or an unclean meat, if you were exposed to it, it made you dirty and spiritually and ceremonially unclean, or if you’re close to a person that had a certain disease, you could become unclean, and particularly when it came to, to meats, they were really strong on it. Can’t eat, can’t eat these meats or can’t eat these foods. They weren’t cleansed. They’re unclean before God. And Jesus made it very clear, he said, “There’s one thing you guys don’t understand, it’s not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, it’s what comes out of his mouth that makes him unclean. Anything you take in can’t really defile you before God, it’s only because your heart is already fallen, your heart is already sinful, you are born,” let me put it closer or, or more to the original day, “you were conceived in sin. You inherited from your forefathers a, a nature to rebel against God and that’s why this sinful stuff comes out of you. That’s what makes you unclean, not the stuff you put on but what’s already in there makes you unclean.” And that’s basically what James is saying here. God didn’t put something on you and cause you to sin or to cause the evil that’s in the world, man did that out of man’s own sin.

So, A. under our first main point, the first main point is God’s absolute goodness, now A. is God never changes, and the point is in verse 17, how does he word it there? “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” In other words, God is good and there’s something God can’t do, he can’t become bad. He can’t change that. The immutability of God, he just doesn’t change. All these good things and all these perfect things come from him.

Now man left to himself, man apart from God just continually devolves, he continually, ah, digresses, and, and falls into more and more and more corruption. Do you realize it just wasn’t many years ago when, ah, those in our culture, ah, who wanted to promote, ah, immoralities said things like this, “Well, God just made some people to have attraction to the same sex. Some men just are attracted to other men, some women are just attracted to other women and all we want is for you just to recognize that and, and, and, and, and really they, they might have said, “we just want you to allow us to have a marriage like other folks have,” but actually what they said was, “No, we want you to celebrate and embrace these things.” But you notice it wasn’t too long before that wasn’t enough, then all of a sudden some others came up and they took their lust further and said, “Well, you know, we can’t really figure out which way we want to go, we have desires for men sometimes and then we have desires for women sometimes so we’re bisexual.” And then, um, then you have the gender issue and you have all the other things, and the last time I checked now we’ve got LGBTQ+ and this, the alphabet’s not gonna end there, folks. When you take a people and separate themselves from the objective standard of God, then man will continually fall into corruption. He will continually fall into wickedness. The dominoes just keep falling. He’ll just keep going further down the funnel.

Old Vance Havner years ago, a Baptist preacher said, “I used to say society’s going to the dogs but I can’t say that anymore out of respect for dogs.” Um, the things that ah, so, so, I haven’t heard much about all we want is, is to be married like other people. You don’t hear that much anymore, do you? Now they’re just saying, “All we want is every single bizarre perverse thing that might come across a fallen man’s heart, we want to be allowed to do that. We don’t anybody anywhere to question that or call that sin or wrong.” And so my point is, James is saying here, “The perfect and good things come from God but this kind of stuff comes from man. Man can come up with this all on his own and you can never pin that on God.”

Ah, we have these, what, three states now that basically, at least as it works out in reality, that basically have made infanticide legal. Ah, if a child is, is born, ah, through a botched abortion, ah, there’s provisions to allow the newborn baby to die. Ah, I think they have a, a statement like you can walk away and just let it be exposed and, and perish. Ah, folks, where does this stuff end? Where does it end? I’m gonna tell you where it ends, it’s not going to end unless God intervenes. It’s not going to end unless, because that’s what man does. When he decides, “Okay, we want no moral standards, we want no objective truth from which to moor ourselves and to guide ourselves, we’ll decide for ourselves what’s right and wrong, we’ll decide for ourselves what’s good and bad.” He continually degenerates.

That’s what man does. God doesn’t do that, every good and perfect thing comes from God, and he uses these, ah, metaphors of light here. He is coming down from heaven, the Father of lights, and I think the point is that contrast with what man comes up with, man comes up with dark stuff, dark stuff. I’ve told you this before but it always comes to my mind, I don’t know why, but we had a fella one time that, ah, got converted and joined our church and he was a former bouncer in one of these clubs, and at that time, they closed the club at 2 o’clock in the morning on, on the weekends, and he said, he said, “Pastor, you wouldn’t believe when,” when they would go at 2 o’clock in the morning, 2 o’clock to close the club they’d turn all the lights on, he said, “those people scatter like roaches. It’s like we, we like the darkness.”

Well, God’s not dark. He’s the Father of lights and he can’t change. He’s always holy. He’s always perfect. He’s always good. The absolute goodness of God. He’s the unchangeable Lord of lights and by the way, that’s why our message never changes and that’s why our, our methods never change because we serve an unchanging God. If, if, if the truth changes whether it’s the message or the methods, now there’s some methods that may change but I’m talking about the primary chief methods on which a church is to function and be built, if those things can change, then God is a varying shadow but this text says there’s no variation in him. He’s always truth and he’s always light. He is never dim and he never dims to even the slightest shade of gray. There’s no variation in him. There’s no shifting shadow, James says here. He has immutability. He’s infinitely perfect and infinite perfection cannot change because if he changed, that would imply that he was before was imperfection.

As someone said, has it ever occurred to you that nothing’s ever occurred to God? God, nothing’s ever just God said, “Oh, I hadn’t thought about that,” as if there was something he lacked or something he was deficient in. That’s impossible. God has never had this thought, quote, “I’ve had better days.” God’s never had that thought. God’s never had this thought, quote, “I’ve had finer moments.” No, he’s always perfect. He’s always God.

There’s no shifting, there’s no shadow, there’s no change. He’s the perfect Father of lights, holy and perfect all the time. He cannot be more faithful than he is. He’s just perfectly faithful. He cannot be loving than he is. He’s perfectly loving. He cannot be more good than he is, he’s perfectly good. He cannot be more holy than he is, he’s perfectly holy. He cannot be just more than he is because he’s perfectly just. No wonder when he’s talking, or Jesus was talking and he said, “Before Abraham was, I am. I just always have been this way. I didn’t become something. I wasn’t on course to be something. I always have been what I am.” The absolute goodness of God. Malachi 3:6 tells us, “I am the Lord, I change not.” Psalm 102:27 reminds us, “But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end.”

So he’s absolutely good, he’s always good. So A. was God never changes, now B. under God’s absolute goodness is God is always good. The text says here in verse 17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift” comes from him. A, a couple of thoughts here. Notice, think with me for just a moment about how God is good or how God’s goodness is bestowed to his creatures. Have you ever just stopped and thought about that? He imparts happiness to his creatures and he didn’t have to do that. Have you ever heard a singing bird? We’re at that time of the year where if you like to hang out in the woods like I do, you notice there’s a lot more bird singing than there was just a few weeks ago. I don’t know about you but those birds that I hear singing are happy birds. I just don’t think they just sing, they’re happy about singing, they’re happy about the sun, they’re happy about the worm they’re gonna eat, whatever it is. God imparts happiness to his creatures.

Now I’m not a big cat person, some of you are. We’re praying for you. No, there, they can be sweet and cute and cuddly in their own way. That’s what I’ve got Pam for but you, you know, she’s sweet and cute and she’s cuddly, but nevertheless, ah, have you ever seen a cat when a cat, what’s a cat do? She just purrs and purrs and purrs. That means that cat’s happy. Who made that cat happy? God did. Folks, that’s the goodness of God.

And now I’m a dog guy, I, I haven’t had a dog in a good while. My dog, he, he, he did something and his stomach got twisted and he, he died. If that ever happens to an animal like large-chested animals that can happen to them, and boy, I’ve missed him. He was my buddy. I’d go bush-hog or whatever and he’d just follow me around everywhere I went and he was about 120 pound German shepherd and he just made me feel safe and comfortable. I really enjoyed my dog and, ah, a dog wags his tail when he’s happy. He lets you know he’s happy. Do you know why? Because God has imparted goodness to his creatures and we could go and on and on and on. These things aren’t just this way, God did these things. How good he is to his creatures. He gives them satisfaction and he even gives them pleasure in the fears, the spheres rather in which they have their being. Their eyes wait on God and he gives them their provision in due season.

The Bible speaks of not only his goodness to his creatures as far as creatures here on earth, the Bible speaks of his goodness to the angels. In the books of Isaiah and the books of Revelation, if you’ll study the angels, you’ll find out the angels are happy. The angels have joy. The angels are in the constant love of God. His love is continually exercised to them. They are filled with great great joy and great satisfaction and immense happiness because they, they bask in the presence of the perfect and holy God. Remember in Isaiah, the, the angels are seen in Isaiah’s vision and they cry out around the Lord, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” Goodness that he shows to them.

He extends multitudes of blessings to them and it makes their existence a perpetual joy. He’s ever displaying his goodness and manifesting his love and then in a common way, what I mean, what, what God bestows in goodness to both his elect and his non-elect, to those who are saved and unsaved, generally his goodness to man. He’s even showed much much greater goodness to man who he’s made in his own image. Think about the constitution of our bodies, how God put our bodies together. All five sense are inlets for great pleasure and great enjoyment. Think about how you can enjoy food. Some of you are hungry right now and you think about, “What would I enjoy eating?” That’s a gift from God. You enjoy a sunset. You enjoy the beauty of a flower. You enjoy music. Who made you that way? God made you that way. He’s a God of goodness to men.

Ecclesiastes 11:7 says, “The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.” What he means is there’s a, a, a, a joy in that. There’s a, a happiness in that. I’m telling you that we have had, I just I think I heard it on the news, ah, ah, driving in awhile ago that Nashville, TN has set 139 year record for the wettest month. It’s, it’s been the wettest month in 139 years. Well, we can’t be far behind. I mean, it’s just been so much clouds and so much rain and we need the rain and it can be a blessing, but the sun comes out today and you wake up in the morning and it’s like, “Wow, that’s good right there.” God made us that way. God gave us that happiness but we need to remind ourselves as J. M. Pendleton does in his little “Systematic Theology,” that God didn’t have to do this. Some of you think, “Well, that’s just the way it ought to be.” Well, no, not if God didn’t want it to be that way. God chose in his goodness to do these things for us.

Pendleton said this, “God might have made the senses the medium of only pain and disgust. He might have rendered every object of sight as repulsive and as loathsome as the serpent, and every object of taste as bitter as wormwood, and every object of smell as offensive as a putrefying carcass, and every object of touch as painful as the piercing of a thorn, and every sound as doleful as the wail of sorrow. God’s goodness is seen in the formation of our bodies with the few, view rather to physical enjoyment.” Think about that. How many things? Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of things God made so that either in seeing them or touching them or hearing them or smelling them or tasting, whatever it is that make us happy. They give us pleasure.

Uh, you know, I’ve got five grandkids now and even, even outside of my own grandkids, children and babies just give me great pleasure. They’re just such, they’re just, they just do. I mean, you just, you just, you just wanna say, “Hi.” I mean, you just smile and it just lifts your spirits and just kids are good stuff as long as you’re raising them and I get to play with them every now and then. I mean, yeah, I know there’s difficulties and trials in parenthood, I understand that, but what a gift babies are. What a gift they are. Can it not be the most heinous and brazen sin when mommas want to kill their own children? It’s so foreign to the great great goodness and gift that children are to us. Oh, we could go on and on.

Think about the constitution not only of our bodies in his goodness to man, but the constitution of our minds, the powers of the mind. The powers of the mind that God gives us are sources of much happiness and much of enjoyment. As we learn and gain knowledge, it makes us glad. I just, ah, I can’t tell you the great great joys I have in studying the Scripture as I study and meditate and write and read and pray, and God’ll give me understanding and insights into what his word is saying and there is no joy on earth that compares to that joy. God gives us that happiness but he had to give us a mind, of course in this case when you’re getting joy out of the Scriptures, it requires the Spirit’s illumination, but without your mind you couldn’t understand it. The possession of intellect raises us above the beast. This is one of the reasons why the Bible says we’re made in the image of God. We are rational beings and this brings us much pleasure and shows the great great goodness of God. Now any pain that we might experience with our bodies or with our minds, is a result of man’s sin and the corruption man’s sin has brought. It is not a reflection on God. God is full of absolute goodness.

Now, II. We’ll not spend long here but he’s, James wants to say something about God’s redemptive goodness. There is his absolute goodness that in the broadest sense he is so good to his creatures, he’s good to angels, he’s good to mankind in general, but now let’s narrow it down a little bit to God’s elect, to those who believe on Jesus. Look at verse 18. So this good God, verse 18, “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.” So we are those whom originally, ah, ah, Romans 5:8 talks about while we were, ah, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, while we were in the bondage to hell and while we were unfit for heaven. Let me say that again, while we were in bondage to hell and at the same time unfit for heaven, God loved us. He didn’t say, “I’ll love you if you’ll believe on My Son.” That’s not what the Bible teaches. He didn’t say, “I’ll love you if you’ll do the rituals of the church: baptism, Lord’s Supper and take the sacraments with the priest or whoever it may be.” He didn’t say, “I’ll love you if you’ll walk down a Baptist aisle and take the preacher’s hand at the front.” That’s okay to do that, certainly, but that’s not what he said. He said, “While you were yet a sinner, while you had done nothing and while you could do nothing to earn My approval, I loved you.” Now we all just stop right there and praise God for an hour. That’s the goodness of God. That is the goodness of God, while we were in bondage to hell and unfit for heaven, he loved us.

1 John 4:10 reminds us, ” In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” You know, when I was a lost man and really early into my Christian pilgrimage, I hadn’t learned a lot and I was full of still many carnal and foolish ideas, I used to wonder why a good God could allow so many bad things to happen to good people. Have you ever run into that? Why would a good God allow so many bad things to happen to good people? And then I started gaining some wisdom. I began to see man the way God sees man and that’s the only true way to see man, how God, the Triune holy God who is beyond sin looks at man, and then I began to switch that thing right side up. You see, I was upside down to start with and then I began to switch it right side up and I thought, “How could such a good God do so many good things for so many bad people?” Because that’s what we are, we’re all bad in the eyes of a holy God.

Now subpoint A under God’s redemptive goodness, redemption was planned in the heart of God. Redemption was planned in the heart of God. It was God’s deliberate purpose to save us. How does he say it there in verse 18, “In the exercise of His will.” Wow. Here you are going your own way, here you are doing your own thing, here you are serving and worshiping yourself only. You might add on a little religion, you might become a good Catholic or a good Baptist or a good Presbyterian or whatever it might be, but that’d be you putting it on and you doing it for your own glory and for your own self- satisfaction to feel good that you’ve done something spiritual. When you were doing your own thing, your own way, and cared not for God’s will and cared not for God’s glory and cared not for God’s purposes, he exercised his will toward you in goodness to save you. The choice to offer salvation was the exercise of his will. The method to provide salvation through the death of his Son, that was the exercise of his will. The securing of our individual salvation through the preaching of the Gospel and the ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring the new birth, that was the exercise of his will. It was all his initiative and it was all of his power and all by his plan. It was the exercise of his will, the goodness of God, his redemptive goodness.

Now let’s go to subpoint A not only under his redemptive goodness do we see that redemption was planned in the heart of God, redemption is the work of God. He says it here in verse 18, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth.” He did something. He acted on us. He brought us forth by the word of truth. We see this same truth in John 3, the old familiar story of Nicodemus talking to Jesus and not being understanding what Jesus was saying, and Jesus basically says, “Well, it’s of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit blows like the wind. You don’t know where it’s going and you don’t know where it’s coming from, and so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” God is behind these things.

Ephesians 2:1-9, oh, what a description of how God takes the initiative and God brings us forth. He brings us forth out of our darkness. He brings us forth out of our sin and he does it by the word of truth. Ah, one way to say that is by the word marked by the truth. What is the word or even broader, what is the message that is marked by truth? That is, it is fully and authentically the truth? It’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s the only true word that can save men’s souls.

Colossians 1:5 and then Ephesians 1:13. “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.” The word of truth, the Gospel. Now Ephesians 1:13, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

Now if you want to, turn over to Isaiah 55 with me. Would you do that? Isaiah 55 and, ah, I think I used this text not long ago but I love the power of the picture in this text. Um, let me back up. If you’re in Isaiah 55, if you go, if you go back up to, um, verse 7, he talks about “the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.” Now here, here’s what the prophet is saying, he’s saying, “You’re sinners, you don’t deserve God’s goodness, but if you will turn, then God will have compassion on you and He will abundantly pardon you, and He’s just not gonna fail in doing it.”

So he continues on and says, ah, in verse 8, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,” here’s the point: you would not have compassion but God would. You wouldn’t pardon someone who sinned against you the way you’ve sinned against God, but God would because his thoughts are not your thoughts. “‘Nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD, as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” What ways is he talking about? What thoughts is he talking about? He’s talking about his ways of compassion, his thoughts of pardon. They’re higher than ours. Aren’t you glad for that? Aren’t you glad God doesn’t have compassion the way you have compassion? Aren’t you glad God doesn’t pardon the way you generally pardon? I don’t know about you, sometimes I have to grab ahold of myself, memorize Scripture and repent to have the pardoning and compassionate heart I ought to have but God has no problem with it whatsoever. It’s just, he has just naturally this great great high, higher than the heavens compassion and pardon for those who are his. That’s wonderful good news. I don’t know about you, some of you need to look at your souls and see the sin in there so you’ll appreciate this. Do you understand what depth of compassion and pardon it took to reach you? That’s the goodness of God, his redemptive goodness.

Now here’s, I haven’t even gotten to my verses yet. Alright, look at verse 10 and 11. Here’s my verses. Don’t lose the flow of the context, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” He said, “You’ve never seen a time when God brought His nutrients down on the earth in the form of water that it didn’t cause things to grow.” It’s always been that way. It always works that way.

He said, “So,” verse 11, “So will My word,” what word’s he talking about? My word of compassion. My word of pardon to you. “My word which goes forth from My mouth will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” I desire to show compassion and pardon. I, I desire that it succeed and you sinners who are unworthy of anything, but nevertheless I’m choosing to show compassion and pardon to you. I will fulfill that promise. God’s goodness, God’s redemptive goodness will not fail. My, my, my, my, do you know what that is? That’s good news for a sinner. That’s good news for a sinner.

Are you listening to me, child of God? Not that you would try it, it grieves your heart to, to even, ah, ah, entertain the thought, you can’t out-sin the compassion of God. You cannot out-sin the pardon of God and that makes us want to not sin. That makes us want to not disobey him. That’s what our Church of Christ friends never have figured out about us, have they? They say, “Man, if you teach that once saved always, if you teach that salvation by grace through faith, oh, people’ll just go out and live any way they want to.” No, no, no, not if God’s Spirit lives in them. They’ll treasure this great compassion God’s had on them. They’ll treasure this wonderful pardon God’s given them and they’ll want to serve their God.

Are you listening to me? And I know, this is a pretty good crowd, this didn’t quite maybe our average Sunday night crowd. We’ve been through a lot this past week and then all the floods and things, but we might be down a little bit tonight but I’d rather preach to 15 that come because they are pardoned than to preach to 15,000 that come because they’re trying to get pardoned by being there. I want us to come because we’re, we’re overwhelmed at this goodness. Oh, we’re overwhelmed with this goodness.

C under God’s redemptive goodness. We talked about redemption was planned in the heart of God, it was the exercise of his will, he planned to do it. We talked about redemption being the work of God, he brought us forth. Now thirdly, redemption is for his glory. Have you ever heard that from this pulpit, it’s all about his glory? Is that new for you? I, I don’t try to just bring it up, it’s just always there. I mean, it’s just the text is just full of it. You have to be programmed not to see it to not see it.

But go back to James again, go back to James 1 again and look at the third part of verse 18. No, let’s just read all of it and we’ll be done after this. ” In the exercise of His will,” that’s the Father’s plan, he willed to do it, that’s the way he planned to do it, through his Son Jesus Christ, “He brought us forth,” that speaks of the new birth, “by the word of truth,” now here’s the part, “that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures,” or among his creation. A kind of first fruits. Now, now James was a Jewish man who was converted to Jesus Christ and he’s pastoring a group of converted Jews. They knew exactly what he meant when he said God saves you that you’ll be a kind of first fruit. They knew exactly what that meant. As a matter of fact, in Numbers 18:12, I don’t want, we won’t look it up tonight, you just have to trust me on this, Numbers 18:12 where, where, where, ah, God has given the Jews the law, when they, when their harvest came in God said, “Alright, I want you to bring the first of your harvest to Me,” and that meant they brought it to the Levitical priests who served in the temple. You’re to put it in the storehouse. Bring the first, and then he said, “Not only the first, you bring the first and the best of what you’ve got to Me.” I mean, and, and, the, the, the, the, to a man in this age, in this day, when you lived your whole year waiting for the harvest, I mean, if the harvest doesn’t come through you can’t feed your livestock, if the harvest doesn’t come, come through you can’t feed your family. Everything depended on it and when it came in, God said, “Alright, before you touch any of it, you bring the first to Me and the first, don’t, if you’ve got 40 acres that comes in, you don’t take the poorest of the 40 acres and bring that produce to Me. No, you bring the first and the best of the first to Me.” These Jews knew exactly what James meant when he said, “We’re the first fruits.”

Here’s what God’s saying: in the exercise of God’s will, he brought us forth, he gave, he brought us into the family of God so that we might be the best of anything he’s ever done. We are the trophies of grace. Now it’s wonderful and glorious that God made the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars, but none of this, none of the rest of what God’s made in creation compares to the work he does when he makes a Christian and that little silly song, “He’s still working on me,” does count because right now we don’t look like much, we don’t feel like we’ve accomplished much and we really haven’t, everything we’ve accomplished he gets the credit for it anyway, but he’s not done yet. He is making us to be the highest of the high. This act of love and devotion toward us by God is, is that work where he regenerates us, he brings us forth and he makes us the finest of all his creation.

Let me close with this thought. In that coming day, that glorification day, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will look on the fruit of their wisdom and their work. What will they be looking on? They’ll be looking on the church. You. Us. And there God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will stand looking at us and we will stand before them as one individual glorified saint, yet not, not exclusively but stand as part of a whole, as the redeemed of all the ages are individually glorified but yet they’re glorified as one, as one body, one bride, one building, one church, and with the deepest satisfaction, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will gaze on their finished work and say, “This is the pinnacle of anything We’ve ever done. Look at this church. Look at them.”

The Father authored the plan, the Son performed the plan, the Spirit applies the results to our lives. Regeneration happened in our hearts, then we stand as justified before God, and then we grow in sanctification, and then one day glorification, and I’m gonna add another one, I don’t think you’ll find this in any systematic theology ever written but I’m gonna add another one. Are you ready? Let’s go over it again, justification, regeneration evidenced by repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, justification, then sanctification is gradual, then in the, that future date glorification, and then there’s one more, unification. That’s, that’s one of the great miraculous works of God – now listen to me – that finally every born again, true, child of God will be in perfect union with all the other born again, genuine saints of God. That’s a miracle. That’s a miracle.

It, it’s gonna be interesting to see on that day, is it not, how God’s got his elect ones all over. He’s gonna bring them all together on that day. Now, now we’re supposed to function in local congregations until that day and on that day all one great, glorified, unified body. That’s God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit gaze on us in our glorified and unified state, they’re going to be filled with the deepest joy and the deepest satisfaction as we, the church, are their first fruits. We are the highest and the greatest of all of God’s doing and all of God’s works.

That’s what James is saying here. In the exercise of his will he brought us forth that we might be a first fruits, the highest and the best of everything God’s done. You are the work of God if you’re a Christian and you are the pinnacle of his work. I don’t know about you, that motivates me to say, “Sign me up to get in on working with God in this great great work.”