Post by Char on Oct 24, 2008 17:33:23 GMT -6
HE BROUGHT US INTO BEING.
JAMES 1:18
I. "OF HIS OWN WILL BEGOT HE US."
A man has bought a farm, and he finds on the farm an old pump. He goes to the pump and begins to pump. And a person comes to him and says; look here, my friend, you do not want to use that water. The water here poisoned the ones that lived here before. He said well I will soon make that right, I will find a remedy. He painted the pump and putty holes and cracks and said, I am sure it is all right.
That is what sinners are up to. They are tying to paint up the old pump when the water is bad.
It was a new well he wanted, when he dug a new well it was all right. Make the fountain good, and the stream will be good.
Instead of painting the pump and making new resolutions, my friend, stop it, and ask God to give you a new heart.
II. THE REGENERATION WORD....WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH.
To come to the excellency of the word, which is the means of our regeneration, the apostle setteth down the other causes thereof also, so that verse 18 there are three causes of our regeneration the most apparent testimony of the goodness of God towards man..the efficient– the instrument-- the final cause.
The good will of God, the gracious favor and free purpose of God, is the first and efficient cause of salvation and regeneration in men.
The instrumental cause and means whereby we are regenerate is the Word of God, which St. James expresseth in this place. In respect of God, the Word and gospel is the Word of truth, because it is God’s Word and gospel, who cannot lie, therefore His Word is, then, is the Word of truth.
As in respect of God, the author thereof, the gospel, may rightly be call the Word of truth, so in respect of Christ, who is the matter, the very subject whereof the gospel entreateth, it is the Word of truth, for it entreateth of Christ, and Christ is truth itself, therefore is the gospel the Word of truth
Moreover, this Word is inspired from the Spirit. In respect that every particular thing in the gospel contained is true, therefore it is also the Word of truth.
If the gospel of Christ be the Word of truth, why do we not believe it.
The final cause of our regeneration is that we should be the first-fruits of His creatures. That is, that out of the whole mass of mankind and kindreds of the earth, we might be select, called and chosen out, to be a peculiar people unto Him, whose portion and lot, whose inheritance and peculiar people the saints are.
The word of God being then so excellent the apostle removeth such things as hinder the attending there unto; and the things which greatly hinder the Word are two.
Bobbling and talking when we should hear with attentive and deep silence.
Anger, when we are taught and reformed by the Word. Thus by the affections and perturbations of our minds, we oftentimes make the word of God fruitless in us, and so to lose, not only the blessed effect it would work in us, but also, in a manner, the credit which it should have among men where-unto we would yield all attentive audience.
III. FIRST FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES.......
According to the Levitieal ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath.
No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment that all had come from God.
God’s purpose for Christians is that they should be consecrated to Him.
Man’s natural tendency is to make himself his own centre, to live for self and by self.
Consecration means self-surrender; and the fortress of self is in the will, and the way of self-surrender is the flowery path of love.
All capacities, opportunities, possessions, are to be yielded up to Him as utterly as Christ has yielded Himself to us.
We are to live for Him and work for Him; and set, as our prime object, conspicuously and constantly before us, and to be reached toward through all the trivialities of daily duty, and the common-places of recurring tasks, the one thing, to glorify God and to please Him. Now, remember, such consecration is salvation. And whosoever is thus consecrated to God is in process of being saved, that consecration is blessedness. Such consecration, which is the root of all blessedness, and the true way of entering into the possession of all possessions, is only possible in the degree in which we subject ourselves to the influence of these mighty acts which God has done in order to secure it. He gave Himself for us that He might purchase for Himself a people for His possession.
God’s purpose for Christians is that they should be specimens and beginnings of a great harvest.
If Christianity has been able to take one man, pick him out of the mud and the mire of sense and self, and turn him into a partially and increasingly consecrated servant of God, it can do that for anybody.
All events, there gleam dimly through such words as FIRST-FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES, the great prospects of a redeemed humanity, of a renewed earth, of a sinless universe, in which God in Christ shall be all in all.
God’s purpose for Christians is that they should help the harvest.
God’s purpose in making us "A kind of ;first-fruit of His creatures", is not merely our consecration and the exhibition of a specimen of His power, and the pledge and prophecy of the harvest, but it is that from us there shall realize the harvest of which our own Christianity is the pledge and prophecy.
What do you get Christ? To feed upon Him? Yes, but to carry the bread to all the hungry as well.
Are your lips to be always closed about Him who have given His-self for you?
Any man and any woman that has Christ in his or her heart can go to another and say, "We have found the Messiah", and that is the best thing to say.
You ought to preach Him.
Preach His love.
JAMES 1:18
I. "OF HIS OWN WILL BEGOT HE US."
A man has bought a farm, and he finds on the farm an old pump. He goes to the pump and begins to pump. And a person comes to him and says; look here, my friend, you do not want to use that water. The water here poisoned the ones that lived here before. He said well I will soon make that right, I will find a remedy. He painted the pump and putty holes and cracks and said, I am sure it is all right.
That is what sinners are up to. They are tying to paint up the old pump when the water is bad.
It was a new well he wanted, when he dug a new well it was all right. Make the fountain good, and the stream will be good.
Instead of painting the pump and making new resolutions, my friend, stop it, and ask God to give you a new heart.
II. THE REGENERATION WORD....WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH.
To come to the excellency of the word, which is the means of our regeneration, the apostle setteth down the other causes thereof also, so that verse 18 there are three causes of our regeneration the most apparent testimony of the goodness of God towards man..the efficient– the instrument-- the final cause.
The good will of God, the gracious favor and free purpose of God, is the first and efficient cause of salvation and regeneration in men.
The instrumental cause and means whereby we are regenerate is the Word of God, which St. James expresseth in this place. In respect of God, the Word and gospel is the Word of truth, because it is God’s Word and gospel, who cannot lie, therefore His Word is, then, is the Word of truth.
As in respect of God, the author thereof, the gospel, may rightly be call the Word of truth, so in respect of Christ, who is the matter, the very subject whereof the gospel entreateth, it is the Word of truth, for it entreateth of Christ, and Christ is truth itself, therefore is the gospel the Word of truth
Moreover, this Word is inspired from the Spirit. In respect that every particular thing in the gospel contained is true, therefore it is also the Word of truth.
If the gospel of Christ be the Word of truth, why do we not believe it.
The final cause of our regeneration is that we should be the first-fruits of His creatures. That is, that out of the whole mass of mankind and kindreds of the earth, we might be select, called and chosen out, to be a peculiar people unto Him, whose portion and lot, whose inheritance and peculiar people the saints are.
The word of God being then so excellent the apostle removeth such things as hinder the attending there unto; and the things which greatly hinder the Word are two.
Bobbling and talking when we should hear with attentive and deep silence.
Anger, when we are taught and reformed by the Word. Thus by the affections and perturbations of our minds, we oftentimes make the word of God fruitless in us, and so to lose, not only the blessed effect it would work in us, but also, in a manner, the credit which it should have among men where-unto we would yield all attentive audience.
III. FIRST FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES.......
According to the Levitieal ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath.
No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment that all had come from God.
God’s purpose for Christians is that they should be consecrated to Him.
Man’s natural tendency is to make himself his own centre, to live for self and by self.
Consecration means self-surrender; and the fortress of self is in the will, and the way of self-surrender is the flowery path of love.
All capacities, opportunities, possessions, are to be yielded up to Him as utterly as Christ has yielded Himself to us.
We are to live for Him and work for Him; and set, as our prime object, conspicuously and constantly before us, and to be reached toward through all the trivialities of daily duty, and the common-places of recurring tasks, the one thing, to glorify God and to please Him. Now, remember, such consecration is salvation. And whosoever is thus consecrated to God is in process of being saved, that consecration is blessedness. Such consecration, which is the root of all blessedness, and the true way of entering into the possession of all possessions, is only possible in the degree in which we subject ourselves to the influence of these mighty acts which God has done in order to secure it. He gave Himself for us that He might purchase for Himself a people for His possession.
God’s purpose for Christians is that they should be specimens and beginnings of a great harvest.
If Christianity has been able to take one man, pick him out of the mud and the mire of sense and self, and turn him into a partially and increasingly consecrated servant of God, it can do that for anybody.
All events, there gleam dimly through such words as FIRST-FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES, the great prospects of a redeemed humanity, of a renewed earth, of a sinless universe, in which God in Christ shall be all in all.
God’s purpose for Christians is that they should help the harvest.
God’s purpose in making us "A kind of ;first-fruit of His creatures", is not merely our consecration and the exhibition of a specimen of His power, and the pledge and prophecy of the harvest, but it is that from us there shall realize the harvest of which our own Christianity is the pledge and prophecy.
What do you get Christ? To feed upon Him? Yes, but to carry the bread to all the hungry as well.
Are your lips to be always closed about Him who have given His-self for you?
Any man and any woman that has Christ in his or her heart can go to another and say, "We have found the Messiah", and that is the best thing to say.
You ought to preach Him.
Preach His love.
