God, the Good Gift Giver

So as we've been going through James chapter 1, it has been primarily dealing with trials suffering and Temptation and in our last time together in my last time that I preached

We looked at the previous three verses and we saw how we are

Enticed by our own lust and driven away from God through the enticement of our sin

And that is a responsibility that we and we alone bear and this morning. We're going to focus on verses 17 through 18

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 the exercise of his will

He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures

Verses 17 through 18 serve as a capstone of sorts to this unit that deals with trials

Temptations and our responses to them the emphasis of this section is on the goodness of God the goodness of God first in a

General way in verse 17 and then verse 18 in a very specific way in an individual manner we will see that God is solely responsible for our

Regeneration and don't miss the contrast We are solely responsible for being dragged down by our own lusts and greed

Into sin we see that in verses 13 and 14 God is solely responsible for our redemption

So let us go to the text verse 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 this first phrase every good thing given and every perfect gift in The Greek and the original language has a bit of a cadence and a rhythm to it

Which would have served to implant this phrase into the minds of his readers?

it's kind of a Theological earworm if you will it would have stuck with them and undoubtedly that was the effect of this

Rhythm and cadence that this phrase has and this first phrase every good thing given denotes the act of giving itself and Also the nature of the one who does the giving specifically the goodness of God Now we hear all the time that God is

Good, even warm fuzzy preachers will say that that God is good We hear this a lot, but don't let that seemingly simple truth

Escape you it is actually a very profound truth You see only

God is good Remember in Mark chapter 10 the rich young ruler ran up to Jesus knelt down before him and he said good teacher

What must I do to inherit eternal life in? Jesus replied to him.

He said why do you call me good? No one is good except whom? God Now Jesus was not correcting him.

Please understand Jesus was Leading him Jesus was not calling into question his own goodness saying that only

God is good and I'm not so why do you call? No, Jesus was leading him He was basically saying to this rich young ruler as we refer to him.

You call me good But why? Do you understand the implication of what you're saying when you say that that I am good because I am

God Jesus was leading him because only God is

Good God's goodness his character is that of absolute and total moral perfection?

He is not only good. He is perfectly good Now the goodness of God is one of God's most misunderstood attributes

Almost everyone has this kind of general knowledge that God is good in some kind of ephemeral sense

And a lot of people the vast majority of people when you ask them One day when you die, where will you go?

Most people will say well, I think I'm going to go to heaven Well, why do you think that? well, because I'm a good person and God is good and yeah,

I may have done a few things wrong, but You know God is a good God and so he's going to let me into heaven

But that is a profound misunderstanding of the goodness of God You see the goodness of God is actually one of his more terrifying attributes

It is comforting to us as believers, but for the unbelievers it should terrify them

Because you see God is good intrinsically good perfectly good by his character and his nature and God is the ultimate good judge and Just like any good judge

God must punish Sin, if he did not punish sin, then he would not be good if we saw a judge who let a

Murderer or a rapist go scot -free Would we say now that's a good judge?

No, of course not That would be a horrible judge right a good judge must punish

Crime God is the ultimate good judge and because he is good. He must punish sin

We have all undoubtedly in the last several weeks probably recoiled as we have seen

Joe Biden pardon some horrific people even People who have done unspeakable things to children

Joe Biden has pardoned them Is that good? No that's horrific if Joe Biden had any sense of goodness he would leave those people under the sentences that they had not commute them or even pardon them a

Good judge must punish Crime God is the ultimate good judge and because he is good dear ones

He must punish sin and so what a lot of people are counting on getting them off the hook one day the goodness of God will be actually the very thing that condemns them

God is good But he is wholly good Every good thing given reflects the goodness of God and then

James says in every perfect gift so not only is the

Giver good, but that which he gives is also good every good gift every physical gift gifts of life gifts of Food enjoying a nice delicious meal or seeing a sunset or taking a walk in the woods

Having health having shelter over our heads Enjoying friendship. These are all

Good physical gifts that God gives not only to the saved but actually also to the unsaved as well

These are what we sometimes refer to as common graces Even lost people can enjoy a good meal or a walk in the woods or a sunset at least to some extent

They can't appreciate it like we do of course But God gives these things to the saved and to the unsaved common graces physical gifts from God are good and not only the physical gifts, but the spiritual gifts and Every God gives not only good physical gifts, but he gives every

Spiritual blessing to us every perfect gift in a spiritual sense every perfect gift

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 says this Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ every spiritual blessing

Sometimes you may hear charismatics Ask you the this question, they'll say oh brother.

Well sister. Have you got the second blessing? Meaning have you gotten the baptism in the

Holy Ghost where you supposedly supposed to speak in tongues? It's not the right understanding of that. But have you got the second blessing?

Well, yeah because Ephesians 1 3 says that I've been given every spiritual blessing So yeah,

I guess I've got the second blessing and the third and the fourth and the twelfth and the five hundred and seventy -six blessing every spiritual blessing has been given to us in the riches of Christ Jesus our

Lord God is the ultimate good Gift giver and he has given us every physical blessing and every spiritual blessing in the

Lord Jesus Christ and these gifts James says Come down from the

Father of lights They come down This verb in the

Greek. It is the present active indicative now I know that just warms your heart and blesses your soul

But what that means is is that these good gifts that come down from God come down?

continually every good gift originates in heaven is designed in heaven and then continually descends in an unbroken in unceasing stream from Heaven God is not only good.

He is Continually good and he is constantly Showering down upon us every good and perfect gift every second of every day

God is showering down upon us his good gifts as an expression of His character in his nature.

There is never a time when God is not giving us Good gifts in these good gifts come down from the father of lights the father of lights

The only place in the scripture where you will find this phrase or this moniker for God the father of lights only here in James chapter 1 and the father of lights these lights undoubtedly refer to the celestial bodies the

Sun the moon the stars and the planets Psalm 19 one says the heavens declare the glory of God the skies declare the works of his

Hands it is this great God who is constantly showering down upon his own all of his good and perfect gifts the father of lights

Now if you were to go outside on a clear night and just look up in the sky

From what I have said our research they say that on a clear night the human eye can see between 1 ,500 and 2 ,000 stars

Just with the naked eye depending on how dark it is You know the stage of the moon and how good your eyesight is

I suppose so with our naked eyes about 1 ,500 to 2 ,000 stars

God is the father of these lights But what the biblical writers could not have known is

That the stars that we see with our naked eyes on a clear night is a tiny tiny fraction of what is truly out there

You see the biblical writers didn't know That in addition to these 1 ,500 to 2 ,000 stars

There are over 100 billion Stars just in our own galaxy

How many galaxies are there? We've counted about 2 trillion and we're just getting started

We have no idea How many galaxies there are we have no idea how many stars there are as best we can tell from what we've been able to count so far there are about 200 billion trillion

Stars in what we have observed in the universe thus far 1 trillion multiplied 200 billion times

Gives a little bit of a new meaning to the father of lights doesn't not

Father in Scripture often denotes God as the Creator Job 38 28 does rain have a father?

Who fathers the drops of dew and so James uses this reference to creation to affirm

God's power? Not only to create but also to sustain his own creation

Psalm 8 verses 4 through 6 the psalmist writes When I see your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have established

What is man that you remember him and the Son of Man that you care for him

Imagine David looking up at the stars on a clear night And under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, he writes this text. He marvels at the beauty of the skies The stars that he can see and then he says what is man?

What is man that you remember him and the Son of Man that you care for him this great God and David had no idea

What truly lies out there in the enormity of our universe indeed

What is man? What is man that God remembers us?

this good God this good giver of Perfect gifts remembers us

And then James says with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow literally in the

Greek this phrase says variation due to a shadow of turning variation

Due to a shadow of turning that now it's not really phraseology with which we are familiar

It doesn't exactly kind of roll off the tongue But these two Greek words variation and turning they often refer to astronomical

Phenomenon in the reference just before the father of lights undoubtedly makes certain that this is exactly what

James had in mind The variation of the lights the orderly movements of the moon the planets in the stars

They move but they move in an orderly fashion. It is not random and James says no shadow of turning no no shadow due to change as The earth and the moon and the stars move in their appointed orbits

We can see the interplay of light and shadows. We can see

Solar and lunar eclipses. We can see the moon in its various stages a full moon a new moon

A Quarter moon half moon. We see this interplay of light and shadows on the heavenly bodies

I've even looked through a telescope once in Colorado Friend of mine has a really big big expensive kind of telescope.

He's a astrophysicist And I could see Jupiter we zoomed in on Jupiter You could see the red spot and I could actually see some of Jupiter's moons.

One of them was moving across the face of Jupiter as it as it faced us and I could see the shadow of this moon on the surface of Jupiter And it slowly would move across the surface of that giant gas planet

But with God you see there is no Shadow of turning at all.

In other words, there is no darkness in God and there is no change with God There is no change

We constantly change We change all the time our likes change as we grow up our preferences change our tastes change

We change all the time physically we change I am NOT physically exactly the same as I was

This morning when I got up right now, I am a little bit different physically than I was when I got up this morning

I ate breakfast and I drank some V8 energy drink and I'm a little bit heavier now than I was when

I first got up this morning I've had skin cells to divide and and slough off and I've probably lost some hairs and you know

I'm a little bit different than I was even when I got up this morning. Not so with God God never changes

He is immutable one of God's Incommunicable attributes in other words, this is one of God's attributes that he and he alone possesses

Malachi 3 verse 6 I the Lord do not change God not only will not change but he cannot change

God cannot change there is no variation or shadow of turning with God There is nothing that can be added to God so that he becomes better That are there's nothing that can be taken away from God so that he somehow becomes worse he does not change

He is omniscient and so there can be no new information brought to his attention

God has no plan B What God decrees? stands

God has no mood swings. He doesn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed as it were in the mornings

He has no mood swings. He does not change Nothing affects him Now as we think of the immutability of God that he does not change

I want to address quickly a couple of areas in which there is confusion dealing with the unchangeableness of God one is with the incarnation

Christology in some, you know Hebrews 13 8 referring to Jesus says that Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever

And some people say well Well, how can that be since Jesus took on a human body?

God the Son has always existed from eternity past always He was not only not created.

He is indeed the creator All things were made through him and by him and for him

Jesus is the creator and so How can we say that Jesus did not change when he became a man in Bethlehem, it seems like a change

It was not a change though. You see Jesus in his deific nature and his godhood has never changed but when

Jesus Came to this earth. He took upon himself a robe of human flesh he

Adam to added to himself a human nature and so Jesus in his

Incarnation is the God man truly God truly man one person with two distinct natures

So his deific nature did not change. He simply took upon his deific nature a human nature

One person two natures and those natures did not intermingle

So his deific nature never changed the other area of confusion deals with the charismatic movement

In charismatics will also go to Hebrews 13 8 Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever and they will say well

Jesus healed people in the New Testament. He gave the power to the

Apostles to heal people in the New Testament and people in the New Testament had the gift of healing and so we should still have the gift of healing in the church today because He's the same yesterday today and forever

Well, that's making a logical fallacy Jesus does not change his character in his nature does not change

But the way in which God interacts with his people certainly has changed over the centuries has it not?

There are a lot of things that God did in the Old Testament that he is not doing today

God parted the Red Sea. Have you ever seen a sea part? No God made a bush

Light up on fire and yet was not consumed. Have you ever seen that you may have seen a bush on fire, but it was consumed

God made an axe head float Have you ever seen a floating axe head God made a donkey talk?

Have you ever seen a talking donkey? I certainly hope not so God does not change but the way in which he interacts with his creation certainly has changed and So to use the logic of charismatics then we might also ask the question well

If Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever and God he does not change then why aren't we still sacrificing animals today?

People in the Old Testament sacrificed animals by the millions He's the same yesterday today and forever.

So should we still be doing it today? No, of course not why because the way in which God has interacted with us his creation has changed and God sent his son

Jesus Christ to be the once -for -all sacrifice putting away to that which went before So in his character in his nature

Jesus does not change in the Unchangeable Ness of Christ should give comfort to us as believers and it should terrify those who are lost we as believers are comforted by the

Unchanging provision the unchanging love and mercy of God We are comforted by the fact that his eye is on the sparrow.

And so it is certainly on us The immutability of God is a comfort to us as believers

However, if you are outside of Christ The unchangeable

Ness of God should terrify you Lost people should be terrified that the same fiery wrath

Which consumed the prophets of Baal? the same wrath that slew

Nadab and Abihu The same wrath of God that rained down fire and brimstone

Upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the same wrath of God That flooded the earth and killed every person on the planet

Except for eight people that same wrath burns against Them and their sins

God does not forget the sins of the wicked

He is unchanging His memory is not short My friend if you are outside of Christ this morning

That sin that you may have committed 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 80 and if you live to be old enough, maybe even 90 years ago

That sin that you committed even 90 years ago Is just as fresh on God's mind right now as if you had committed it 90 seconds ago

Time does not diminish his anger There are no statutes of limitations on sin.

His wrath will be poured out For every sin that has ever been committed against him

Psalm chapter 7 verses 11 through 12 says this God is a righteous judge and a

God who has indignation every day if a man does not repent he will sharpen his sword and He has bent his bow and made it ready

Think of that imagery for a moment If a man does not repent if you do not repent before God the wrath of God's bow is bent back and made ready that is a

Terrifying image is it not Rick Warren the man who many have called

America's pastor? sadly once said and I quote He said this to lost people by the way

God is not angry with you. If God had a refrigerator your picture would be on it

What a horrible thing to say to lost people Dear friends if you have not repented of your sin,

God does not have you on his refrigerator He has you in his crosshairs

God is unchanging His memory does not fade in the contrast between being and becoming the contrast between Being as God is and becoming as we do is the contrast between the

Creator and us has created God is simply being

He has always been is now and he always will be you see

God is Being but we are Becoming we are constantly changing and as Christians We should be changing in the sense that we should be growing in the grace and knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ. God is being we are becoming

The great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said this and I quote God writes with a pen that never blots

Speaks with a tongue that never slips and acts with a hand that never fails

Dear friends knowing these things about God Why would anything evil have an attraction for us as believers?

God is so good in His good gifts Constantly flow down to us

Why when we should be laying up? incorruptible treasures in heaven

Why would we ever be swayed by the Cubic zirconia and the costume jewelry and junk of this world

God is so magnificent Why would we be swayed by something that is evil?

He is so good so kind so gentle so patient so faithful to us

So unchangeable Why would we be swayed by the things of this world? verse 18

James says in the exercise of his will he brought us forth by the word of truth

So that we would be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures The immutability of God in contrast with the mutability the changing of everything else

Sets the stage for what James now deals with here in verse 18 specifically the authorship of our regeneration

The new birth and this touches on one of the great debates within Christianity Who exactly is responsible for the new birth?

us or God Created or creator and this is oversimplified, but for our purposes here

Basically, there are two different camps two different schools of thought one is

Arminianism that is a school of thought named after a guy named Jacob Arminius So you have if you hear that term

Arminians or Arminianism, that's one school of camp The other school of camp is a school of thought is referred to as Calvinism Named after John Calvin now

John Calvin himself would not have called himself a Calvinist He didn't even like that term, but it's a term that kind of stuck.

And so we got a deal with it. So Arminianism or Calvinism now where these two camps agree.

They do have some areas of agreement They both agree. For example on the deity of Christ the sinless life of Christ death on the cross and bodily resurrection they diverge however from that point forward in the

Arminian camp believes that Man's will is completely free to choose or not choose

Christ and God does not put his Anthropomorphic thumb on the scale if you will to influence us one way or the other our wills are completely free

And we can either choose Christ or not choose Christ. In other words, it's up to us

Calvinism However is that school of camp school of theology that believes that our salvation has been secured from eternity past You see we as Christians Were always sheep.

We have always been sheep. We were just lost sheep Until the Good Shepherd called us to himself

So we in the Calvinistic Frame of thought we do not come to Christ on our own.

We do not choose Christ No Because our will is in bondage to sin rather Christ must choose us

He chooses us. He summons us to himself. He makes us alive

And it is into the Calvinistic ring That I and Rob throw our hats

Now a lot of people say well Calvinists are arrogant It's a very arrogant thing to say that God chooses you and not others

No dear ones not at all. You see in the Armenian camp

Armenians have to come to this truth. They have to say well the reason if you're an

Armenian well the reason I'm saved in that why no out there under the bridge is not is because I'm smarter.

I Had the good sense to choose Christ and he didn't I'm smarter than you are

I'm wiser than you are because I chose on my own free will to come to Christ and you did not so it is we who are

Really smarter than others we who are more clever and and I would submit to you that it is That position that is the arrogant position

But in the Calvinistic camp, we understand that salvation is of God from God initiated by God wrought by God and maintained by God Notice what

James says in the exercise of whose will? His will in the exercise of his will

The will of the father of lights. It is the exercise of his will that he chooses us

It is emphatic. In fact this phrase in the exercise of his will he

There is an extra pronoun in the Greek It would be like it be like it's emphatic.

In other words, it would be something like this Well who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Justin he did it It's not just Justin did it

You see the emphasis with the extra pronoun Justin He did it

James is being emphatic here in the exercise of his will he brought us forth

You see dear friend salvation this is God's doing this is not a decision that we make on our own

Our salvation is a direct result of God's good purpose in his eternal decree

No one influenced him to act on our behalf and don't miss the contrast here

Look with me in verses 14 and 15. I preached on these verses the last time

James says but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by whose lust his own lust

Then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin when sin is fully matured It brings forth death

Don't miss the contrast Man's desire brings forth what? death

God's desire brings forth eternal life This word for bring forth a

Pacquiao, it's the same word in verse 18 as in verse 15

Man's desire brings forth death God's desire God's will brings forth salvation and life

Think of a few biblical examples with me for a moment remember when

Early in Jesus ministry in Matthew chapter 4 Jesus was walking along and he saw

Simon and Andrew remember that and he said Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men and they immediate what were they doing at the time?

They were casting there. They were fishermen. They were casting their nets into the sea in this

Rando guy walks up and he looks at him and he says Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men and they drop what they're doing and they follow

Christ Who does that? I mean if you were working on something at your job and your livelihood and some rando guy walks up to you says come follow

Me would you drop what you're doing and just go follow some guy you've never met before Who does that?

This is sovereign grace Remember Saul in Acts chapter 9 Saul of Tarsus Pharisee of Pharisees Was still breathing threats against Christians having them arrested bound men and women alike overseeing their execution if not taking part in them himself and then one day he's walking along the road to Damascus and A light out of nowhere shown and it knocked him to the ground

And he heard this voice Saul Saul Why are you persecuting me and then

Jesus goes on to say Saul is a chosen instrument of mine. I will

I Don't miss that. He is a chosen instrument of mine. I will show him how much he must suffer for my namesake

How's that for an invitation to come to Christ? I'll Show you how much you must suffer and Saul was converted

That's all say a sinner's prayer Did it take 15 stanzas of just as I am and dim lights and you know

Repetitive music and you know, just the right atmosphere to get Saul to come to Christ. No Jesus is a sovereign

Savior Jesus literally knocked him to the ground and Saved him

And then a few chapters later in Acts chapter 16 By this time Saul known as is now known by his

Greek name Paul Saul didn't change his name by the way, he didn't Paul is just the

Greek pronunciation of Saul It's all he didn't really change his name but Paul the Apostle Paul's preaching the gospel and he runs into a woman named

Lydia in Acts chapter 16 and The text says that God opened

Lydia's heart To the things that Paul was saying did

Lydia open her own heart No Why not because she couldn't

Her heart was a heart of stone God opened her heart

To receive the things that Paul was saying and with the conversion of Lydia the gospel literally jumped a continent into the continent of Europe And began to spread

John chapter 1 verses 12 through 13 John is speaking of the children of God and he says children of God are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God as Christians you and I were born again

Not of blood not of the will of the flesh not of our will but of the will of God God is a sovereign

Savior I've heard so many people say Oh Calvinism the doctrine of election.

It kills evangelism. No, no No, it does not it does not kill evangelism rightly understood the doctrine of God's sovereignty and salvation

In fuses our evangelism with confidence with fervor with enthusiasm

Because I know as an evangelist, it's not my job to save anybody. I'm just the delivery boy.

It's God's job to save And when you look at church history

The greatest evangelists that have ever lived I think of Charles Spurgeon.

I think of George Whitfield I think of Jonathan Edwards. These men were devoted Calvinists Tell me again how

Calvinism kills evangelism really Not at all

Here's what is arrogant dear ones Not those who believe in God's sovereign salvation.

Here's what is arrogant to be in a place where you say?

Yes, I Understand that Jesus took the mockings He took the scourging

He took the pulling of his beard he took the nails He took the crown of thorns and he even took the wrath of God but Jesus I Helped I helped you.

I Chose you Jesus of my own freewill. I deserve some credit in this newbirth thing to Jesus Dear friends,

I would submit to you that it is that Is the arrogant position? Dear ones it has been said that the only thing that you and I contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary in the first place rightly understood

Calvinism the doctrine of God's sovereignty in salvation is the most humbling doctrine that there is

Because it strips from us Everything That we think we may have contributed it strips it away from us

All the glory all the credit is stripped from us and it is given to the only one

To whom it belongs God God must do it

Because we cannot The rhetorical question is asked in Jeremiah 13

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or can the leopard change his spots

Of course, the answer is no The Ethiopian cannot change his skin The leopard cannot change his spots

But God can and then James says

He brought us forth by the word of truth The word of truth, what is this word of truth the word of truth is quite simply the gospel

Colossians chapter 1 verse 5 Paul reminds his readers that quote The hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth the gospel

This phrase a word of truth occurs here and three other times in the New Testament so a total of four and in all four cases the word of truth refers to salvation the gospel

The gospel is the instrument through which God brings the dead to life

Through which he calls his lost sheep to himself Paul says in Romans 1 16 for I am

NOT ashamed of the gospel For it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes for the

Jew first and also to the Greek What is the power of God the gospel is that is the power of God?

The power of God is not found in seeker sensitive church services You see these churches that are market driven seeker friendly you've heard that term and their churches look like quite honestly a three -ring circus and they have all the lights and the fog machines and they've got the

Monstrously enormous Christmas pageants and Santa's flying around everywhere and all this kind of nonsense

They say oh, that'll win the lost No, it won't

Only the gospel will win the lost. What is the power of God?

The gospel is the power of God Not a production not signs and wonders the gospel

If You dilute the gospel You dim the light by which men must be saved and then

James says So that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures

First fruits was an agricultural term It referred to the first and usually the best part of the harvest

The first fruits were usually a pretty good indication of what the rest of the harvest would look like And if you recall from our first Sermon in the introductory sermon and it's okay.

If you don't it's been a long time James is the first book of the New Testament to be written the earliest book in the

New Testament written about 50 AD And so James readers would have been some of the very earliest

Christians these early believers were the first fruits or the Earnest if you will of all those who would be brought to saving faith through the word of truth the gospel

These were the first believers You might recall in John chapter 17 as Jesus is praying what we refer to as the high priestly prayer

It's the longest recorded prayer that we have of Christ that he prayed shortly before his crucifixion

In John 17, Jesus said this I do not ask on behalf of these alone referring to his disciples

I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for all those

Who will also believe through their word?

And dear ones you and I are included in that all of those who would believe

In The years coming up in almost 2 ,000 years since then who will believe through their word?

Through their testimony the testimony of the gospel. We are included in that This is the divine purpose of salvation ultimately, so God Jesus Christ the

Good Shepherd can call his lost sheep to himself in that in so doing our Salvation would result to the praise of the glory of his grace a phrase repeated four times in Ephesians chapter 1

God saves us and yes, we are the beneficiaries of his saving work the wrath of God has been removed the

Penalty of our sins has been removed and we benefit from that eternally

But ultimately our salvation the purpose of it Is to the praise of the glory of his grace

So as I conclude dear ones To whom would you rather entrust your eternal destiny to yourself?

When the Bible says that apart from Christ you and I are dead in our trespasses and sins

Ephesians 2 When the Bible says that you and I apart from Christ are evil from our mother's womb

Tom Psalm chapter 51 when the Bible says that our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all things

Jeremiah chapter 17 When the Bible says that apart from Christ, we love the darkness and we hate the light

John chapter 3 When the Bible says that apart from Christ we suppress the truth and unrighteousness

It's not that we don't know the truth is that we suppress it And when the

Bible says that apart from Christ, there is none who seeks after God Romans chapter 3 That paints a pretty bleak picture does it not?

Apart from Christ you and I are dead in trespasses and sins. We are evil from our mother's wombs.

Our hearts are Deceitful above all things desperately wicked. We love the darkness.

We hate the light. We suppress the truth We are not seeking after God and to top it all off the cherry on top

Romans chapter 5 says we are God's enemies. I Don't know about you, but that doesn't sound

Very hopeful. I don't want to trust my salvation when

I am in to myself when I am in that place or Would you rather trust your eternal destiny to a

God who was all -knowing? Who was all -loving? Who was all merciful?

Who was all holy? Who was all just and? righteous

Dear ones it is with him that I want to trust my salvation not myself

Maybe this morning you are carrying the burden of unforgiven sin Maybe you're here this morning and you have committed some heinous sin that is eating away at your conscience

You don't know that you've been forgiven I Want to implore you to come to Christ God sent his son

Jesus Christ to this earth to make a way for you to be forgiven Jesus came to this earth truly

God truly man in Jesus willingly gave his life on the cross His life was not taken.

He gave it and on the cross the sins of his people were imputed to him were counted to him and God treated his own son as though he were a sinner even though he was not

But he took upon himself the due penalty of our sin In the full undiluted fury of the wrath of God was poured out on his son and Christ held that wrath back like a giant dam holding back a lake of Wrath and Christ drank in every last drop of God's wrath on our behalf

Died on the cross three days later bodily raised from the dead proving himself to be who he said he was

God in human flesh And if you will come to Christ empty -handed trusting not in yourself, but trusting in him

Seeking not only a Savior from hell, but seeking a Savior from sin itself.

He will save you You will find Christ to be a kind merciful forgiving loving

Savior Come to him Jesus says the one who comes to me.

I will in no wise cast out. He will save you He'll take out that heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh with new desires new affections

In the fear that you have of death the burden that you feel of your sin that will all be removed taken away

And if you come to Christ There will now therefore be no condemnation for you at all